Ephraim feedeth on wind: it is a proverbial speech, denoting; the self-flattery of Ephraim, his supporting himself with hopes as unfit to sustain him, as the wind is to feed the body and nourish it; in his religious pretensions he did, hypocrite like, compass God with lies, and now in his civil…

The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah; though Judah, compared with Ephraim, be faithful, yet when considered in his ways and doings he is found faulty in many things, and God hath just matter of complaint against Judah in point of manners; in public worship Judah was faithful, kept to God and…

He, Jacob, took his brother, Esau, by the heel in the womb: the matter of fact you have Gen. 25:26; the design of mentioning it in this place is to mind them of that goodness which God showed to them in their father Jacob, who was by a miracle foretold to be superior to Esau, that he and his should…

He; your famous progenitor of whom you boast. Had power; behaved himself as a prince with God, Gen. 32:28. Over; with: the angel was willing to be conquered, or Jacob could not have gotten the victory. The angel; called God, Hos. 12:3, Hos. 12:5, is Jehovah, Lord of hosts.

Even, or and, he that appeared and spake, who promised the blessing, and commanded the reformation at Beth-el, was the Lord, Jehovah, the eternal and unchangeable God, who still promiseth with like commands.

Therefore; no more vainly boast of Jacob; but, as he, do you approve yourselves to God. Turn thou to thy God; repent, leave idols, and all sins. He worshipped God alone, do you so; he cast idols out of his family, do you so too, be Jacob’s children herein.

He is a merchant; Ephraim, of whom here, is so far from being Jacob, or as Jacob, that you may call and account him a Canaanite, a subtle merchant. The balances of deceit are in his hand; what he cannot gain by fair trading, he will by downright cheating; he is covetous, and very unjust.

Ephraim said; this covetous, oppressive merchant reckoned with himself, or discoursed with himself, upon the whole of his trading. Yet I am become rich; whatever is said by some, or thought by others, yet I get what I aim at: either it is good and lawful, and prospered to me by the blessing of God…

And, or but, I the Lord thy God, who forbade thy frauds and gave thee wealth, and am forgotten in both, thou fearest not mine anger and sinnest; thou forgettest that I give thee power to get wealth, and takest glory to thyself; but wouldst thou, as thou shouldst, remember, thou wouldst know that I…

I have also spoken by the prophets; Heb. and, i.e. since I would have continued Ephraim’s peaceful state, I have spoken to them by my prophets, who have warned them of their danger, reproved them for their sins, entreated them to repent and do their duty; so I would have established them, my…

Is there iniquity in Gilead? in this concise interrogatory the prophet warns the refractory, ungodly Israelites by an example of God’s wrath on them. About A.M.

Jacob, the patriarch, fled into the country of Syria, for fear of Esau. And Israel, though honoured with that great name, served, stooped to the condition which is next door to slave, for a wife; a wife was his wages. And for a wife he kept sheep of Laban.

By a prophet, by Moses, the Lord brought Israel, your forefathers, out of Egypt; where they had been bondmen two hundred and fifteen years, or near upon it, old slaves, or vassals for some descents. By a prophet was he preserved in the wilderness: see Exodus 2:0; Exodus 3:0, &c.

Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly: after all the means used from time to time to reclaim idolatrous sinning Israel, yet still they provoked God to indignation by their idolatries, perjuries, oppressions, murders, and all manner of sins which use to be rife among idolaters; these things…