They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.
I. SOCIAL SINS. There are three sins referred to in this verse.
1. Vain speech. "They have spoken words." This means, according to Henderson, Elzas, and others, "They utter empty speeches." Not only are words of falsehood, blasphemy, and unchastity sinful, but empty words. For every "idle word" we shall have to give an account. How much idle language is there current in society! The chat of gossip, the formalities of etiquette, the vapid compliments of society, as well as those airy words of wit and humor which sometimes delude, sometimes pain, and sometimes please.
2. False swearing. False speech is bad enough, for it misrepresents facts, and often does serious mischief; but when backed by an oath its heinousness is intensified and blackened. How much false swearing there is in society! Not merely in judicial courts, but in homes, in shops, in fields, in general society.
3. Unrighteous treaties. "Making a covenant." The word "bad" is implied here, for there is no harm in making covenants. Making a bad covenant. The primal reference, perhaps, is to certain treaties Israel had formed with foreign nations. How much wicked contracting there is going on in society every day in commerce, in politics, as well as in private life. Untruthful as well as unrighteous bargains are being struck every hour in all circles. In truth, the sins here charged to Israel are not uncommon in England this day - empty speech, false swearing, and making unrighteous treaties.
II. RESULTS OF SOCIAL SINS. "Thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field." It matters not to the sense of the passage whether you read "poppy" for "hemlock," or "ridges" for "furrows;" the idea is the same - viz. that out of the social sins certain results appear. How do they come?
1. They come as a growth. They "spring up" or blossom. Sins bring with them their own punishment - no positive infliction is required; every sin is a seed from which a pestiferous plant must spring.
2. They come as a poison. "Hemlock;" some read "poppy," and some "darnel," but all agree in the poisonousness of its production. In any case it is a "hemlock," a small decoction of which destroyed a Socrates. "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."
3. They come in abundance. "That springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field." Very prolific is sin. See its plants growing in the ridges and furrows of life; in sick-chambers, in hospitals, in workhouses, in prisons, in battlefields also! How thickly the hemlock grows! - D.T.
The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth-aven.
Doctrine —
I. Idolatry is matter of ignominy to any place or interest that owns it; for it turns Beth-el into Beth-aven.
2. It proves the vanity of idols that their worshippers cannot trust in them, but must be solicitous and anxious about them in straits; for so were they about the calves of Beth-aven. This solicitude differs far from the fear of God's people about His worship and ordinances in times of danger, which does not flow from their diffidence in God, but from the sense of their guilt.
3. Anything that men place their confidence in beside God will prove matter of fear and terror. For so did the calves prove to Samaria in the time of their siege.
4. Albeit corrupt worship and religion may seem strange at first to them who have been bred up in the truth, yet in process of time, and being attended with success, it may take with them who are not well rooted.
5. Such as are eminently employed in and great gainers by corrupt worship have a sad day abiding them, therefore it is added in special that mourning is abiding the priests.
6. The glory of idolatry and of a false religion (being but borrowed, and having nothing to commend it but novelty and success) will at last vanish and depart. God will bring about this by judgments, when no other means will effectuate it. "The glory thereof is departed from it." This will be the lot of all false ways; whereas truth, however men loathe it for awhile, will still at last be found to be lovely, and to have a native unstained beauty.
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People
Hosea,
Jacob,
Jareb,
ShalmanPlaces
Assyria,
Aven,
Beth-arbel,
Beth-aven,
Bethel,
Gibeah,
Gilgal,
SamariaTopics
Ashamed, Asshur, Assyria, Carried, Contentious, Counsel, Disgraced, Ephraim, E'phraim, Idol, Idols, Image, Itself, Jareb, Present, Receive, Seized, Shame, Shamed, Tribute, Warlike, Wooden, YeaOutline
1. Israel is reproved and threatened for their impiety and idolatry, 12. and exhorted to repentance.Dictionary of Bible Themes
Hosea 10:6 5577 taxation
5836 disgrace
8771 idolatry, objections
Hosea 10:5-6
4552 wood
5594 tribute
7324 calf worship
Hosea 10:5-8
7233 Israel, northern kingdom
Library
'Fruit which is Death'
'Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images. 2. Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: He shall break down their altars, He shall spoil their images. 3. For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the Lord; what then should a king do to us? 4. They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureA Divided Heart
I intend, however, to take the text this morning specially with reference to our individual condition. We shall look at the separate individual heart of each man. If divisions in the great main body--if separation among the distinct classes of that body should each promote disasters, how much more disastrous must be a division in that better kingdom--the heart of man. If there be civil tumult in the town of Mansoul, even when no enemy attacks its walls, it will be in a sufficiently dangerous position. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859
How to Promote a Revival.
Text.--Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.--Hosea x. 12. THE Jews were a nation of farmers, and it is therefore a common thing in the Scriptures to refer for illustrations to their occupation, and to the scenes with which farmers and shepherds are familiar. The prophet Hosea addresses them as a nation of backsliders, and reproves them for their idolatry, and threatens them with the judgments of God. I have showed you in my first …
Charles Grandison Finney—Lectures on Revivals of Religion
The Books of the Old Testament as a Whole. 1 the Province of Particular Introduction is to Consider the Books of the Bible Separately...
CHAPTER XVIII. THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AS A WHOLE. 1. The province of Particular Introduction is to consider the books of the Bible separately, in respect to their authorship, date, contents, and the place which each of them holds in the system of divine truth. Here it is above all things important that we begin with the idea of the unity of divine revelation--that all the parts of the Bible constitute a gloriously perfect whole, of which God and not man is the author. No amount of study devoted …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible
Arbel. Shezor. Tarnegola the Upper.
"Arbel a city of Galilee."--There is mention of it in Hosea 10:14. But there are authors which do very differently interpret that place, viz. the Chaldee paraphrast, R. Solomon, Kimchi: consult them. It was between Zippor and Tiberias. Hence Nittai the Arbelite, who was president with Josua Ben Perahiah. The valley of Arbel is mentioned by the Talmudists. So also "The Arbelite Bushel." "Near Zephath in Upper Galilee was a town named Shezor, whence was R. Simeon Shezori: there he was buried. There …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica
Letter Xli to Thomas of St. Omer, after He had Broken his Promise of Adopting a Change of Life.
To Thomas of St. Omer, After He Had Broken His Promise of Adopting a Change of Life. He urges him to leave his studies and enter religion, and sets before him the miserable end of Thomas of Beverley. To his dearly beloved son, Thomas, Brother Bernard, called Abbot of Clairvaux, that he may walk in the fear of the Lord. 1. You do well in acknowledging the debt of your promise, and in not denying your guilt in deferring its performance. But I beg you not to think simply of what you promised, but to …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux
Of Love to God
I proceed to the second general branch of the text. The persons interested in this privilege. They are lovers of God. "All things work together for good, to them that love God." Despisers and haters of God have no lot or part in this privilege. It is children's bread, it belongs only to them that love God. Because love is the very heart and spirit of religion, I shall the more fully treat upon this; and for the further discussion of it, let us notice these five things concerning love to God. 1. The …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial
The Prophet Hosea.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS. That the kingdom of Israel was the object of the prophet's ministry is so evident, that upon this point all are, and cannot but be, agreed. But there is a difference of opinion as to whether the prophet was a fellow-countryman of those to whom he preached, or was called by God out of the kingdom of Judah. The latter has been asserted with great confidence by Maurer, among others, in his Observ. in Hos., in the Commentat. Theol. ii. i. p. 293. But the arguments …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament
The Worst Things Work for Good to the Godly
DO not mistake me, I do not say that of their own nature the worst things are good, for they are a fruit of the curse; but though they are naturally evil, yet the wise overruling hand of God disposing and sanctifying them, they are morally good. As the elements, though of contrary qualities, yet God has so tempered them, that they all work in a harmonious manner for the good of the universe. Or as in a watch, the wheels seem to move contrary one to another, but all carry on the motions of the watch: …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial
How Christ is the Way in General, "I am the Way. "
We come now to speak more particularly to the words; and, first, Of his being a way. Our design being to point at the way of use-making of Christ in all our necessities, straits, and difficulties which are in our way to heaven; and particularly to point out the way how believers should make use of Christ in all their particular exigencies; and so live by faith in him, walk in him, grow up in him, advance and march forward toward glory in him. It will not be amiss to speak of this fulness of Christ …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life
The Barren Fig-Tree;
OR, THE DOOM AND DOWNFALL OF THE FRUITLESS PROFESSOR: SHOWING, THAT THE DAY OF GRACE MAY BE PAST WITH HIM LONG BEFORE HIS LIFE IS ENDED; THE SIGNS ALSO BY WHICH SUCH MISERABLE MORTALS MAY BE KNOWN. BY JOHN BUNYAN 'Who being dead, yet speaketh.'--Hebrews 11:4 London: Printed for J. Robinson, at the Golden Lion, in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1688. This Title has a broad Black Border. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. This solemn, searching, awful treatise, was published by Bunyan in 1682; but does not appear …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3
Directions to Awakened Sinners.
Acts ix. 6. Acts ix. 6. And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do. THESE are the words of Saul, who also is called Paul, (Acts xiii. 9,) when he was stricken to the ground as he was going to Damascus; and any one who had looked upon him in his present circumstances and knew nothing more of him than that view, in comparison with his past life, could have given, would have imagined him one of the most miserable creatures that ever lived upon earth, and would have expected …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration
"There is Therefore Now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who Walk not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit. "
Rom. viii. 1.--"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." There are three things which concur to make man miserable,--sin, condemnation, and affliction. Every one may observe that "man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward," that his days here are few and evil. He possesses "months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed" for him. Job v. 6, 7, vii. 3. He "is of few days and full of trouble," Job xiv. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning
Hosea
The book of Hosea divides naturally into two parts: i.-iii. and iv.-xiv., the former relatively clear and connected, the latter unusually disjointed and obscure. The difference is so unmistakable that i.-iii. have usually been assigned to the period before the death of Jeroboam II, and iv.-xiv. to the anarchic period which succeeded. Certainly Hosea's prophetic career began before the end of Jeroboam's reign, as he predicts the fall of the reigning dynasty, i. 4, which practically ended with Jeroboam's …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament
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