Hos. 7 Israel reproved for manifold sins, Hos. 7:1–10. God’s wrath against them for their hypocrisy, Hos. 7:11–16.

When: whether this chapter be a new sermon, or a continuation of that begun Hos. 6:0, we need not inquire, nor are there any particulars by which we can guess at the time when this healing work was attempted; but, so soon as it was endeavoured; indefinitely it is spoken, and so to be interpreted.

They who are thus greatly wicked, notorious sinners, consider not in their hearts, do not remember, nor will they once seriously ponder this, that I remember all their wickedness; that I see all they do, and remember all I see; and that with more than an idle, unactive looking on, or retaining in…

They, either the subjects in general, or rather the courtiers in particular who were about the king, make the king glad with their wickedness: the kings of Israel, every one of them from first to last, were addicted to vicious practices, and their minds were vitiated, deeply tainted with all kind…

They are all adulterers, both spiritually and carnally, and this latter adultery is that which here is charged on the courtiers and people of Israel. As an oven heated by the baker: this vice is grown raging hot among them, as you see the fire in an oven, when the baker, having called up those that…

In the day of our king: whether this day were any occasional day that the king of Israel took to feast his nobles, as Ahasuerus did his; or whether the anniversary of his birth or coronation, both which were usually celebrated among most nations, the birthday especially; so Pharaoh, Gen.

For; surely. They; those luxurious and drinking princes, Hos. 7:5. Have made ready their heart like an oven; do keep close some fire of ambition, revenge, or covetousness, like as a baker keeps a hot fire within his oven.

This verse is a key to the former, and helps us to understand the true sense thereof. They: see Hos. 7:6. All; in a larger and more vulgar sense, the most, or almost all of them, few excepted. As an oven: see Hos. 7:6.

Ephraim; the kingdom of Israel. Hath mixed himself among the people, by leagues and commerce, by imitation of their manners, and by either entertaining their gods, and sacrificing to them, or at least worshipping idols as the nations about them did, directly contrary to the express law of God,…

Strangers; foreigners, whose aid Ephraim sought, as 2 Kings 15:19–20, when Menahem bought the friendship of Pul king of Assyria for one thousand talents of silver, and impoverished the land thereby. Have devoured; eat up, lived upon, as men live on bread they eat.

The pride of Israel testifieth to his face: see Hos. 5:5. Their proud contempt of God and his threats, of the prophets and their warnings, is notorious. They do not return to the Lord; they persist in sin without repentance, run away from God rather than return to him.

Ephraim: see Hos. 7:1, Hos. 7:8. Is like a silly dove; a deceived dove, seduced by false prophets and idolatrous priests, whose weak arguments are soon believed, and whose unseasonable advice is too soon followed: Ephraim is now become like the dove in weakness and fear, as well as in imprudence…

When they shall go, whensoever they shall send their ambassadors to seek aid of Egypt or Assyria, I will spread my net upon them; as fowlers spread the net, watch the birds, and cast it over them to catch them, so will God do to Ephraim.

Woe unto them! it is the voice both of menace and lamentation, the prophet doth at once foretell and bewail their miseries. They have fled from me; as if it were not enough that they did at first leave my government, temple, and worship, they have gone further from me, they have hastened herein,…

And they, immersed in these troubles. taken in the net, have not cried unto me; either they cried to their idols, not to God, see Hos. 7:7; or else their tongues made noise, their hearts were silent, and that is, in God’s account, no cry at all.

Though I; but as for me, or, And I. Bound; or chastised, as the word will bear; or instructed; either notion will well suit the place. When I had chastised them for their sins, as in Jehoahaz’s time, I strengthened them in Jehoash’s time, and in Jeroboam’s time, and made them stronger than their…

They return; they sometimes have given some signs of returning, as when Jehu destroyed Baal, or Hoshea gave liberty to Israel to go up to Jerusalem (if it be true which some affirm of him); and if I were sure Hoshea did this, I should think the prophet aimed at it; in this they return, but not to…