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Selected Verse: Hosea 2:8 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ho 2:8 |
King James |
For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
she did not know that I--not the idols, as she thought: the "lovers" alluded to in Hos 2:5.
which they prepared for Baal--that is, of which they made images of Baal, or at least the plate covering of them (Hos 8:4). Baal was the Phœnician sun-god: answering to the female Astarte, the moon-goddess. The name of the idol is found in the Phœnician Hannibal, Hasdrubal. Israel borrowed it from the Tyrians. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
For she did not know - The prophet having, in summary Hos 2:5-7, related her fall, her chastisement, and her recovery, begins anew, enlarging both on the impending inflictions, and the future mercy. She "did not know," because she would not; she "would not retain God in her knowledge" Rom 1:28. "Knowledge," in Holy Scripture, is not of the understanding, but of the heart and the will.
That I gave her corn ... - The I is emphatic (אנכי( ci). "She did not know, that it was I who gave her." God gave them the "corn, and wine, and oil," first, because He gave them the land itself. They held it of Him as their Lord. As He says, "The land is Mine, and ye are strangers and sojourners with Me" Lev 25:23. He gave them also in the course of His ordinary providence, wherein He also gave them "the gold and silver," which they gained by trading. Silver He had so multiplied to her in the days of Solomon, that it was in "Jerusalem as stones, nothing accounted of" Kg1 10:27, Kg1 10:21, and gold, through the favor which He gave him Kg1 9:14; Kg1 10:10, Kg1 10:14, was in abundance above measure.
Which they prepared for Baal - Rather, as in the English Margin, "which they made into Baal" (see Hos 8:4; Eze 16:17-19). "Of that gold and silver, which God had so multiplied, Israel, revolting from the house of David and Solomon, made, first the calves of gold, and then Baal." Of God's own gifts they made their gods. They took God's gifts as from their gods, and made them into gods to them. "Baal," Lord, the same as Bel, was an object of idolatry among the Phoenicians and Tyrians. Its worship was brought into Israel by Jezebel, daughter of a king of Sidon. Jehu destroyed it for a time, because its adherents were adherents of the house of Ahab. The worship was partly cruel, like that of Moloch, partly abominable. It had this aggravation beyond that of the calves, that Jezebel aimed at the extirpation of the worship of God, setting up a rival temple, with its 450 prophets and 400 of the kindred idolatry of Ashtaroth, and slaying all the prophets of God.
It seems to us strange folly. They attributed to gods, who represented the functions of nature, the power to give what God alone gives. How is it different, when people now say, "nature does this, or that," or speak of "the operations of nature," or the laws of "nature," and ignore God who appoints those laws, and "worketh hitherto" Joh 5:17 "those operations?" They attributed to planets (as have astrologers at all times) influence over the affairs of people, and worshiped a god, Baal-Gad, or Jupiter, who presided over them. Wherein do those otherwise, who displace God's providence by fortune or fate or destiny, and say "fortune willed," "fortune denied him," "it was his fate, his destiny," and, even when God most signally interposes, shrink from naming Him, as if to speak of God's providence were something superstitious? What is this, but to ascribe to Baal, under a new name, the works and gifts of God? And more widely yet. Since "men have as many strange gods as they have sins," what do they, who seek pleasure or gain or greatness or praise in forbidden ways or from forbidden sources, than make their pleasure or gain or ambition their god, and offer their time and understanding and ingenuity and intellect, yea, their whole lives and their whole selves, their souls and bodies, all the gifts of God, in sacrifice to the idol which they have made? Nay, since whosoever believes of God otherwise than He has revealed Himself, does, in fact, believe in another god, not in the One True God, what else does all heresy, but form to itself an idol out of God's choicest gift of nature, man's own mind, and worship, not indeed the works of man's own hands, but the creature of his own understanding? |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Did not know - Did not consider. They - The body of the Jews. Prepared - Dedicated to the service of the idol. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
For she did not know that I gave her corn - How often are the gifts of God's immediate bounty attributed to fortuitous causes - to any cause but the right one!
Which they prepared for Baal - And how often are the gifts of God's bounty perverted into means of dishonoring him! God gives us wisdom, strength, and property; and we use them to sin against him with the greater skill, power, and effect! Were the goods those of the enemy, in whose service they are employed, the crime would be the less. But the crime is deeply engrained, when God's property is made the instrument to dishonor himself. |
4 They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.
5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
17 But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
18 And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.
19 My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD.
4 They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.
14 Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold,
10 And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.
14 And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold.
21 And all king Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver: it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.
27 And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycomore trees that are in the vale, for abundance.
23 The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.