Hosea 11:8-9 How shall I give you up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver you, Israel? how shall I make you as Admah? how shall I set you as Zeboim?… 1. God's mercy interposing on the behalf of sinners doth produce not only good wishes but real effects to them. 2. God's mercy towards His sinful people, doth not see it fit to keep off all effects of His displeasure, or leave them altogether unpunished. 3. When a sinful people are under saddest temporal judgments, yet so long as they are in the land of the living, they are bound to reckon that their condition might have been worse if all God's just displeasure were let out. 4. The Lord's moderating of deserved judgments, if it were but to preserve a people from being utterly consumed, is a great proof of God's mercy, and ought to be acknowledged as such. 5. It is the great mercy and advantage of the Lord's sinful people that they have to do with God, not with man, in their miscarriages. (George Hutcheson.) Parallel Verses KJV: How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. |
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