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Selected Verse: Hosea 8:12 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ho 8:12 |
King James |
I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing. |
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] |
great things of . . . law-- (Deu 4:6, Deu 4:8; Psa 19:8; Psa 119:18, Psa 119:72; Psa 147:19-20). MAURER not so well translates, "the many things of My law."
my law--as opposed to their inventions. This reference of Hosea to the Pentateuch alone is against the theory that some earlier written prophecies have not come down to us.
strange thing--as if a thing with which they had nothing to do. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
I have written to him the great things of My law - Literally, "I write." Their sin then had no excuse of ignorance. God had written their duties for them in the ten commandments with His own hand; He had written them of old and "manifoldly" , often repeated and in divers manners. He wrote those manifold things "to them" (or "for them") by Moses, not for that time only, but that they might be continually before their eyes, as if He were still writing. He had written to them since, in their histories, in the Psalms. His words were still sounding in their ears through the teaching of the prophets. God did not only give His law or revelation once for all, and so leave it. By His providence and by His ministers He continually renewed the knowledge of it, so that those who ignored it, should have no excuse. This ever-renewed agency of God He expresses by the word, "I write," what in substance was long ago written. What God then wrote, were "the great things of His law" (as the converted Jews, on the day of Pentecost speak of "the great" or "wonderful things of God" ) or "the manifold things of His law," as the Apostle speaks of "the manifold wisdom of God" Eph 3:10, and says, that "God at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets" Heb 1:1.
They were counted as a strange thing by them - These "great," or "manifold things of God's law," which ought to have been continually before their eyes, in their mind and in their mouth Deu 6:7-9, they, although God had written them for them, "counted as a strange thing," a thing quite foreign and alien to them, with which they had no concern. Perhaps this was their excuse to themselves, that it Was "foreign" to "them." As Christians say now, that one is not to take God's law so precisely; that the Gospel is not so strict as the law; that people, before the grace of the Gospel, had to be stricter than with it; that "the liberty of the Gospel" is freedom, not from sin, but from duty; that such and such things belonged to the early Christians, while they were surrounded by pagan, or to the first times of the Gospel, or to the days when it was persecuted; that riches were dangerous, when people could scarcely have them, not now, when every one has them; that "vice lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness" ; that the world was perilous, when it was the Christian's open foe, not now, when it would be friends with us, and have us friends with it; that, "love not the world" was a precept for times when the world hated us, not now, when it is all around us, and steals our hearts, So Jeroboam and Israel too doubtless said, that those prohibitions of idolatry were necessary, when the pagan were still in the land, or while their forefathers were just fresh out of Egypt; that it was, after all, God, who, was worshiped under the calves; that state-policy required it; that Jeroboam was appointed by God, and must needs carry out that appointment, as he best could. With these or the like excuses, he must doubtless have excused himself, as though God's law were good, but "foreign" to "them." God counts such excuses, not as a plea, but as a sin. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Written - By Moses first, by other prophets afterwards. But they were counted - Israel looks on them, as nothing to them. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| I have written to him the great things of my law - I have as it were inscribed my laws to them, and they have treated them as matters in which they had no interest. |
19 He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.
20 He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD.
72 The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.
18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
8 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
8 And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?
6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,