Homilist Hosea 10:4 They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springs up as hemlock in the furrows of the field. I. SOCIAL SINS. 1. Vain speech. "They utter empty speeches." Not only are words of falsehood, blasphemy, and unchastity sinful, but empty words. How much idle language is there current in society! 2. False swearing. In judicial courts, in homes, in shops, in fields. 3. Unrighteous treaties. There is no harm in making covenants. Making a bad covenant is implied. The primal reference is to certain treaties Israel had formed with foreign nations. Untruthful as well as unrighteous bargains, are being struck every hour. II. RESULTS OF SOCIAL SINS. "Judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field." Out of these social sins certain results appear. How do they come? 1. They come as a growth. Every sin is a seed from which a pestiferous plant must spring. 2. They come as a poison. Hemlock, or poppy, or darnel; poisonous productions. 3. They come in abundance. Very prolific is sin. See its plants growing in the ridges and furrows of life; in sick chambers, hospitals, workhouses, in prisons, in battlefields. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field. |
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