Hosea

held it for twenty years according to the present reading in 1 Kings xv. 27 ; but there is some error in the number, and probably we ought to read "two instead of "twenty," as he was conquered by the Assyrians and put to death B.C. 734, which was the second year of his reign. This man, in order to strengthen his position, formed a close alliance with Rezin of Damascus, and the two kings turned their arms against Judah, in the hope of overthrowing the dynasty of David. Jotham, the King of Judah, in his extremity, called in the aid of the Assyrians, who devastated the territory of Damascus, took Samaria, put Pekah to death, and appointed Hoshea king in his place, exacting from him a large yearly tribute. The discontinuance of the tribute, which was effected by the secret machinations of Egypt, under promises of support which were never fulfilled, led to another inroad of the Assyrians under Shalmaneser IV., the successor of Tiglath-Pileser. Hoshea was carried into captivity; and, after a siege of three years, Samaria fell into the hands of Sargon, who had seized the Assyrian crown on the death of Shalmaneser, B.C. 722. Many of the people were deported into foreign countries, their places being partially filled by the introduction of heathen settlers, while much of the land became wholly depopulated. Thus ended the kingdom of Israel, brought to this miserable issue because its rulers and its people had done evil before the Lord continually.

The moral condition of the people, as we conclude from the historical books and from intimations in Hosea's own pages, was exceedingly corrupt; that of Judah indeed was notoriously bad (as we see later from the denunciations of Micah, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah), but it never fell into such a depth of degradation as its northern sister. The very priests, instead of instructing the people in the duties of pure religion, taught the very opposite, encouraging a worship which led to gross excesses, welcoming the spread of any impiety which occasioned them material advantage (ch. iv. 8; v. 1), and even waylaying and murdering those who were passing on their way to Jerusalem (ch. vi. 9). The kings and rulers set an example of drunkenness and debauchery, and delighted in the contemplation of the general iniquity (ch. vii. 3-5). These calamitous results were the natural issue of corrupt worship. The Israelites, indeed, worshipped Jehovah, and observed certain imitations of the Mosaic ritual and festivals; but they used these forms without entering into their spirit and meaning; they confounded Jehovah with the local Baalim, they employed unlawful symbols in their worship, and "the calf of Samaria" (ch. viii. 5) destroyed all the spirituality of their religion, bringing about that gross declension in morals of which we have abundant proof. This formal Jehovah-Baal worship led, as Professor Cheyne has well remarked (Introduction,' p. 25), to distrust of God, and to reliance on foreign aid as a source of strength. The Assyrians always referred their military successes to the favour of the gods whom they adored; they made a point of depreciating and insulting the deities of conquered nations. This spirit the Israelites had imbibed. They distrusted their own national Divinity; they doubted his power to protect them, and, as Hosea complains

(ch. viii. 9, 10), "hired lovers among the nations"-appealed either to Assyria or Egypt for that assistance which they ought to have asked from the Lord. To these consequences the schism inaugurated by Jeroboam the son of Nebat had inevitably led. And, though this separation was now of long standing, and had been accepted for ages as an accomplished fact, for which no remedy was likely to be forthcoming, Hosea cannot view it unmoved; it is a sin in his eyes, and calls for punishment. He looks forward indeed vaguely to a healing of the schism; but he has no formal revelation to announce on this subject, and speaks rather as his longings lead him, than as directed to foretell a future union of the nation under one head (ch. i. 11; iii. 5). The success and prosperity of Israel, and her temporary immunity from foreign invasion, had never led to a reformation or improvement of religion; the notion of a national repentance and a general purification of worship did not occur to rulers or people as feasible or desirable; and when trouble befell them, instead of seeing therein the punishment of their sin and a motive for conversion, they were only alienated further from Jehovah, and more bent on departing from the national devotion to the one God. They would not see that the wrath of God was ready to fall upon them, and that their only hope lay in averting his judgment by reversing the policy of many years and turning with their whole hearts unto him whom they had virtually rejected.

Such was the condition of Israel when the Spirit of the Lord moved Hosea to utter his warnings, rebukes, and prophecies. We may trace the varying fortunes of Israel in his different addresses. Prosperity, declension, ruin, are severally depicted in his pages. In the two great divisions of the work, the first part (ch. i.-iii.) plainly was written during the lifetime of Jeroboam, and the rest of the book falls into the later years of anarchy and immorality; the former declaring how the way for the judgments of God was being prepared by the laxity, idolatry, and luxury that prevailed, the latter containing threats, denunciations, and exhortations, intermingled with some happy promises to comfort the pious amid the announcements of the punishment whose arrival they had already begun to feel. The book is rather a summary of Hosea's teaching during his long ministry, than an orderly collection of his addresses. It seems to have been gathered into a volume in the beginning of Hezekiah's reign, and committed to writing in order to impress its leading thoughts on his contemporaries. Whether the prophet removed to Judæa in the latter part on his life, and there wrote the substance of his prophecies, is uncertain. It seems probable, at any rate, that the collection soon found its way into the southern kingdom, and was there preserved among the records of the prophets when Ephraim was overtaken by ruin. The analysis of the latter division, which is the chief portion of the work, is very difficult, and many commentators have given up the task as hopeless, while others have divided and subdivided in a way and on a plan of which we may be quite sure the author knew nothing.

The book commences with a symbolical action.

To show the unfaith

fulness of Israel and the wonderful long-suffering of God, the prophet is made to perform a public act which would demonstrate the two truths in the most plain and emphatic manner. He is bidden to take as wife one Gomer, an unchaste woman, or one of such a character that she would be likely to prove unfaithful, and to have children whose legitimacy might well be questioned. From this union are born three children, whose names are significative of the fate of the people. He then announces the chastisements which God is about to inflict, which will bring a recognition of sinfulness and a return to the Lord, who will, in consequence, make with them a new covenant of peace and righteousness (ch. i., ii.); and by another symbolical action, wherein the adulteress is separated from all intercourse, are shown the infidelity of Israel and her coming captivity (ch. iii.). This first part gives the key-note to the whole book, the rest of which is only an expansion and elaboration of the facts and threats previously announced. The corruption and idolatry of Israel are sternly condemned, the destruction of the kingdom is foretold, and the pious are briefly comforted with the hope of eventual restoration (ch. iv.-xiv.). The three stages of the connection with Gomer represent the feeling of God for the unfaithful Israel: there is first the hatred of the sin, and its stern denunciation; there is next the punishment of it in degradation and misery; and lastly there is pity for the repentant and assurance of ultimate pardon.

As there is no logical connection between the several portions of this section of Hosea's prophecy, it is impossible to draw out a regular argument for it. We can give only a summary of the contents of these" scattered leaves of a sibyl's book," as Bishop Lowth calls them. The prophet begins by denouncing the universal immorality of these "children of Israel," and their idolatry promoted by the priests, which led infallibly to moral outrages. Judah is warned not to participate in her sister's sin (ch. iv.). He turns to the priests themselves, who are only a snare and a cause of ruin instead of being wholesome guides, and upbraids them and all the chiefs who thought to escape punishment by invoking foreign aid, but who by this means only rendered it more inevitable (ch. v.). In view of the chastisement threatened, he calls on the people to repent and to turn to the Lord, who punishes in love (ch. vi. 3). He dilates on God's long-suffering and the various ways in which he has tried to lead them to better things. But in vain; all ranks and classes are corrupt; the very leaders are the chief offenders, and Judah follows in their train. They had learned heathen morals, they fly to heathen aid, they seek not protection from the Lord: therefore "woe unto them!" (ch. vi. 4—vii. 16). They have rejected the covenant, set up princes for themselves, and worshipped Jehovah under unlawful symbols; and retribution shall come upon them by foreign invasion, the ruin of their cities, and captivity (ch. viii.—ix. 9). In order to show that the vengeance is richly deserved, the prophet recounts the blessings which God has poured upon them and the ill return which they have made, and announces the overthrow of the centres of idolatry and cruel

treatment at the hands of enemies (ch. ix. 10-x. 15). He returns to the contrast between God's dealings and the people's ingratitude, which merited the severest punishment; but even here God's love and pity protest against his justice: "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? My heart is turned within me, my compassions are kindled together." They must indeed pay the penalty of their sin, but, when they have profited by this stern lesson, in due time they shall be forgiven and restored (ch. xi. 1-11). And once more Hosea rebukes the degenerate nation, and sadly shows how it is ripe for judgment. He sets before them the example of their father Jacob, and laments that they have fallen away from his obedience and piety into Canaanitish ways which shall bring destruction upon them (ch. xi. 12-xii.). Their obstinate persistence in idolatry, notwithstanding the forbearance and goodness of God toward them, will prove their ruin. But there is hope of salvation (ch. xiii.). Only let Israel return unto the Lord with humility and entire faith, confessing her guilt and casting away her trust in false gods, and God will receive her and bless her largely. "Who is wise," concludes the prophet, "and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but transgressors shall fall therein " (ch. xiv. 9).

To the question-Does the book contain prophecies of the Messiah? we must return a qualified answer. Hosea seems barely to mention Messiah himself, but he has many allusions to the Messianic epoch, both in its human and its Divine idea. The restoration of Israel is conceived as a return to the promised land after due chastisement and probation, and a return to God's favour under a second David (ch. iii. 5). This restoration is presented under various figures. It is the remarriage of an adulterous wife after a course of severe discipline; it is Israel's resurrection from the dead after she has been fast bound in the chains of judicial death; it is a banished son's recall from weary exile. And this restoration is accompanied with blessings material and spiritual, peace and fertility in the land, an outpouring of God's Spirit upon the people. The writers of the New Testament regarded Hosea's prophecy as containing much that was distinctly Messianic. Our blessed Lord himself twice cites ch. vi. 6: "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice," as containing the true genius of his religion (see Matt. ix. 13; xii. 7). The terrors of the last day are expressed in Hosea's language: "They shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us (see Luke xxiii. 30; Rev. vi. 16). Looking on Israel as a type of Christ, St. Matthew quotes Hosea's saying, "I called my son out of Egypt" (ch. xi. 1), and applies it to the Incarnation, the flight into Egypt, and the return to the Holy Land (Matt. ii. 15). For a proof of the calling of the Gentiles in gospel days, St. Paul (Rom. ix. 25, etc.) refers to ch. i. 10; ii. 23. When St. Paul speaks of Christ "rising again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. xv. 4), some think that he is alluding to Hosea's prophecy (ch. vi. 2), "After two days will he