Verse 5
Therefore shalt thou fall in the day - In the most open and public manner, without snare or ambush.
And the prophet also shall fall - in the night - The false prophet, when employed in taking prognostications from stars, meteors, etc.
And I will destroy thy mother - The metropolis or mother city. Jerusalem or Samaria is meant.
Verse 6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge - They have not the knowledge of God, nor of sacred things, nor of their own interest, nor of the danger to which they are exposed. They walk on blindly, and perish.
Because thou hast rejected knowledge - So they might have become wise, had they not rejected the means of improvement.
Thou shalt be no priest to me - If this be the true reading, there must be reference to some particular priest, well known, to whom these words are personally addressed; unless by priest the whole priesthood is meant, and then it may apply to the priests of Jeroboam's calves.
Verse 7
Will I change their glory into shame - As the idolaters at Dan and Bethel have changed my glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass, ([Rom 1:23]), so will I change their glory into shame or ignominy. In the day of my wrath, their calf-gods shall not deliver them.
Verse 8
They eat up the sin of my people - חטאת chattath, the sin-offering, though it be offered contrary to the law; for their hearts are set on iniquity, they wish to do whatever is contrary to God.
Verse 9
Like people, like priest - "The priest a wanderer from the narrow way; The silly sheep, no wonder that they stray."
I will punish them - Both priest and people; both equally bad.
Verse 10
They shall eat, and not have enough - Whatever means they may use to satisfy or gratify themselves shall be ineffectual.
Verse 11
Whoredom and wine - These debaucheries go generally together.
Take away the heart - Darken the understanding, deprave the judgment, pervert the will, debase all the passions, etc.
Verse 12
At their stocks - They consult their wooden gods.
And their staff declareth - They use divination by rods; see the note on Ezekiel 21 (note), where this sort of divination (rabdomancy) is explained.
Verse 13
Under oaks - אלון allon, from אלל alal, he was strong. Hence, the oak, in Latin, is called robur; which word means also, strength, the oak being the strongest of all the trees of the forest.
The shadow thereof is good - Their "daughters committed whoredom, and their spouses committed adultery."
1. Their deities were worshipped by prostitution.
2. They drank much in their idol worship, [Hos 4:11], and thus their passions became inflamed.
3. The thick groves were favorable to the whoredoms and adulteries mentioned here. In imitation of these, some nations have their public gardens.
Verse 14
I will not punish - Why should you be stricken any more; ye will revolt more and more. When God, in judgment, removes his judgments, the case of that people is desperate. While there is hope, there is correction.
Themselves are separated - There is a reference here to certain debaucheries which should not be described. The state of the people at this time must have been abominable beyond all precedent; animal, sensual, bestial, diabolical: women consecrating themselves to serve their idols by public prostitution; boys dismembered like the Galli or priests of Cybele, men and women acting unnaturally; and all conjoining to act diabolically.
Verse 15
Let not Judah offend - Israel was totally dissolute; Judah was not so. Here she is exhorted to maintain her integrity. If the former will go to what was once Beth-el, the house of God, now Beth-aven, the house of iniquity, because Jeroboam has set up his calves there, let not Judah imitate them. Gilgal was the place where the covenant of circumcision was renewed when the people passed over Jordan; but was rendered infamous by the worship of idols, after Jeroboam had set up his idolatry.
Verse 16
Israel slideth back - They are untractable, like an unbroken heifer or steer, that pulls back, rather than draw in the yoke.
Will feed them as a lamb in a large place - A species of irony. Ye shall go to Assyria, and be scattered among the nations; ye may sport yourselves in the extensive empire, wither ye shall be carried captives.
Verse 17
Ephraim - The ten tribes.
Is joined to idols - Is become incorporated with false gods.
Let him alone - They are irreclaimable, leave them to the consequences of their vicious conduct.
Verse 18
Their drink is sour - Or rather, he is gone after their wine. The enticements of idolatry have carried them away.
Her rulers with shame do love - Rather, have loved shame; they glory in their abominations.
Give ye - Perhaps it would be better to read, Her rulers have committed, etc. They have loved gifts. What a shame! These were their rulers, literally, their shields. Justice and judgment were perverted.