Hosea Chapter 12
From The Open Bible Project
12:1 Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt.
- (a) That is, flatters himself with vain confidence.
- (b) Meaning presents to get friendship.
12:2 Yahweh also has a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his deeds he will repay him.
- (c) Which in those points was similar to Ephraim, but not in idolatry.
12:3 In the womb he took his brother by the heel; and in his manhood he contended with God.
- (d) Seeing that God in this way preferred Jacob their father, Judah’s ingratitude was the more to be abhorred.
12:4 Indeed, he struggled with the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication to him. He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with us,
- (e) Read (Genesis 32:24-32).
- (f) God found Jacob as he lay sleeping in Bethel (Genesis 28:12), and spoke with him there in such a way that the fruit of that speech appertained to the whole body of the people, of which we are.
12:5 even Yahweh, the God of Armies; Yahweh is his name of renown!
12:6 Therefore turn to your God. Keep kindness and justice, and wait continually for your God.
12:7 A merchant has dishonest scales in his hand. He loves to defraud.
- (g) As for Ephraim, he is more like the wicked Canaanites than godly Abraham or Jacob.
12:8 Ephraim said, "Surely I have become rich, I have found myself wealth. In all my wealth they won't find in me any iniquity that is sin."
- (h) Thus way the wicked measure God’s favour by outward prosperity, and like hypocrites cannot endure that any should reprove their doings.
12:9 "But I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt. I will yet again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast.
- (i) Seeing you will not acknowledge my benefits, I will bring you again to dwell in tents, as in the feast of the Tabernacles, which you now condemn.
12:10 I have also spoken to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions; and by the ministry of the prophets I have used parables.
12:11 If Gilead is wicked, surely they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls. Indeed, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the field.
- (k) The people thought that no man dare have spoken against Gilead, that holy place, and yet the Prophet says that all their religion was but vanity.
12:12 Jacob fled into the country of Aram, and Israel served to get a wife, and for a wife he tended flocks and herds.
- (l) If you boast of your riches and nobility, you seem to reproach your father, who was a poor fugitive and servant.
12:13 By a prophet Yahweh brought Israel up out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved.
- (m) Meaning Moses, by which appears that whatever they have, it comes from God’s free goodness.
12:14 Ephraim has bitterly provoked anger. Therefore his blood will be left on him, and his [8] Lord [See Hosea Footnotes 8] will repay his contempt.
