--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 87 of 769 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/87/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 87. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/87/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 2 of 2. ## 87. Hosea · 8 of 16 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/87/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/87/#p-N [¶0] With avarice and ambition grasping-fast [¶1] Grasping at air! For what hath earth beside? [¶2] We want but little; nor That Little long. ### Verse 10 [¶4] The pride of Israel - The same words as at [Hos 5:6] (note), where see the note. ### Verse 11 [¶6] Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart - A bird that has little understanding; that is easily snared and taken; that is careless about its own young, and seems to live without any kind of thought. It has been made, by those who, like itself, are without heart, the symbol of conjugal affection. Nothing worse could have been chosen, for the dove and its mate are continually quarrelling. [¶7] They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria - They strive to make these their allies and friends; but in this they showed that they were without heart, had not a sound understanding; for these were rival nations, and Israel could not attach itself to the one without incurring the jealousy and displeasure of the other. Thus, like the silly dove, they were constantly falling into snares; sometimes of the Egyptians, at others of the Assyrians. By the former they were betrayed; by the latter, ruined. ### Verse 12 [¶9] When they shall go - To those nations for help: - [¶10] I will spread my net upon them - I will cause them to be taken by those in whom they trusted. [¶11] I will bring them down - They shall no sooner set off to seek this foreign help, than my net shall bring them down to the earth. The allusion to the dove, and to the mode of taking the fowls of heaven, is still carried on. [¶12] As their congregation hath heard - As in their solemn assemblies they before have heard; in the reading of my law, and the denunciation of my wrath against idolaters. [¶13] Bishop Newcome translates: "I will chastise them when they hearken to their assembly." That is, when they take the counsel of their elders to go down to Egypt for help, and trust in the arm of the Assyrians for succor. ### Verse 13 [¶15] Wo unto them! - They shall have wo, because they have fled from me. They shall have destruction, because they have transgressed against me. [¶16] Though I have redeemed them - Out of Egypt; and given them the fullest proof of my love and power. [¶17] Yet they have spoken lies against me - They have represented me as rigorous and cruel; and my service as painful and unprofitable. ### Verse 14 [¶19] They have not cried unto me with their heart - They say they have sought me, but could not find me; that they have cried unto me, but I did not answer. I know they have cried, yea, howled; but could I hear them when all was forced and hypocritical, not one sigh coming from their heart? [¶20] They assemble themselves for corn and wine - In dearth and famine they call and howl: but they assemble themselves, not to seek Me, but to invoke their false gods for corn and wine. ### Verse 15 [¶22] Though I have bound and strengthened their arms - Whether I dealt with them in judgment or mercy, it was all one; in all circumstances they rebelled against me. ### Verse 16 [¶24] They return, but not to the Most High - They go to their idols. [¶25] They are like a deceitful bow - Which, when it is reflexed, in order to be strung, suddenly springs back into its quiescent curve; for the eastern bows stand in their quiescent state in a curve; and in order to be strung must be beaded back in the opposite direction. This bending of the bow requires both strength and skill; and if not properly done, it will fly back, and regain its former position; and in this recoil endanger the archer - may even break an arm. I have been in this danger myself in bending the Asiatic bow. For want of this knowledge not one commentator has hit the meaning of the passage. [¶26] Shall fall by the sword - Their tongue has been enraged against Me; the sword shall be enraged against them. They have mocked me, ([Hos 7:5]), and their fall is now a subject of derision in the land of Egypt. What they have sown, that do they now reap. ### Introduction [¶28] This chapter begins with threatening some hostile invasion in short and broken sentences, full of rapidity, and expressive of sudden danger and alarm: "The trumpet to thy mouth; he cometh as an eagle," [Hos 8:1]. And why? For their hypocrisy, [Hos 8:2]; iniquity, [Hos 8:3]; treason (see [2Kgs 15:13], [2Kgs 15:17]) and idolatry, [Hos 8:4]; particularly the worshipping of the calves of Dan and Bethel, [Hos 8:5], [Hos 8:6]. The folly and unprofitableness of pursuing evil courses is then set forth in brief but very emphatic terms. The labor of the wicked is vain, like sowing of the wind; and the fruit of it destructive as the whirlwind. Like corn blighted in the bud, their toil shall have no recompense; or if it should have a little, their enemies shell devour it, [Hos 8:7]. They themselves, too, shall suffer the same fate, and shall be treated by the nations of Assyria and Egypt as the vile sherds of a broken vessel, [Hos 8:8], [Hos 8:9]. Their incorrigible idolatry is again declared to be the cause of their approaching captivity under the king of Assyria. And as they delighted in idolatrous altars, there they shall have these in abundance, [Hos 8:10-14]. The last words contain a prediction of the destruction of the fenced cities of Judah, because the people trusted in these for deliverance, and not in the Lord their God. ### Verse 1 [¶30] Set the trumpet to thy mouth - Sound another alarm. Let them know that an enemy is fast approaching. [¶31] As an eagle against the house of the Lord - of this be a prophecy against Judah, as some have supposed, then by the eagle Nebuchadnezzar is meant, who is often compared to this king of birds. See [Eze 17:3]; [Jer 48:40]; [Jer 49:22]; [Dan 7:4]. [¶32] But if the prophecy be against Israel, which is the most likely, then Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, is intended, who, for his rapidity, avarice, rapacity, and strength, is fitly compared to this royal bird. He is represented here as hovering over the house of God, as the eagle does over the prey which he has just espied, and on which he is immediately to pounce. ### Verse 2 [¶34] Israel shalt cry - The rapidity of the eagle's flight is well imitated in the rapidity of the sentences in this place. [¶35] My God, we know thee - The same sentiment, from the same sort of persons, under the same feelings, as that in the Gospel of St. Matthew, [Mat 7:29] : "Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? Then will I profess unto them, I never Knew You." ### Verse 4 [¶37] They have set up kings, but not by me - Properly speaking, not one of the kings of Israel, from the defection of the ten tribes from the house of David, was the anointed or the Lord. [¶38] I knew it not - It had not my approbation. In this sense the word know is frequently understood. [¶39] That they may be cut off - That is, They shall be cut off in consequence of their idolatry. ### Verse 5 [¶41] Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off - Bishop Newcome translates: "Remove far from thee thy calf, O Samaria!" Abandon thy idolatry; for my anger is kindled against thee. [¶42] How long will it be ere they attain to innocency? - How long will ye continue your guilty practices? When shall it be said that ye are from these vices? The calf or ox, which was the object of the idolatrous worship of the Israelites, was a supreme deity in Egypt; and it was there they learned this idolatry. A white ox was worshipped under the name of Apis, at Memphis; and another ox under the name of Mnevis, was worshipped at On, or Heliopolis. To Osiris the males of this genus were consecrated, and the females to Isis. It is a most ancient superstition, and still prevails in the East. The cow is a most sacred animal among the Hindoos. ### Verse 6 [¶44] The workman made it; therefore it is not God - As God signifies the supreme eternal Good, the Creator and Upholder of all things, therefore the workman cannot make Him who made all things. This is an overwhelming argument against all idols. Nothing need be added. The workman has made them; therefore they are not God.