Volume I Part 12 (2/2)
Menahem reigned ten years at Samaria. Under him, the catastrophe was already preparing which brought the kingdom to utter destruction. He became tributary to the a.s.syrian king Pul, vers. 19-21. He was succeeded by his son Pekahiah, in the fiftieth year of Uzziah. After a reign of two months, he was slain by Pekah, the son of Remaliah, who held the government for twenty years (ver. 27), and, by his alliance with the kings of Syria against his brethren the people of Judah (comp.
Is. vii.), hastened on the destruction of Israel. The a.s.syrians, under Tiglathpileser, called to his a.s.sistance by Ahaz, even at that time carried away into captivity part of its citizens,--the tribes who lived on the other side of the Jordan. In the fourth year of Ahaz, Pekah was slain by Hoshea, who, after an interregnum of eight years, began to reign in the twelfth year of Ahaz, xvii. 1. He became tributary to Shalmaneser; and the end of his government of nine years was also the end of the kingdom of the ten tribes. His having sought for an alliance with Egypt drew down, upon himself and his people, the vengeance of the king of a.s.syria.
We have already proved that the historical references in the prophecies of Hosea extend to the time when the last king of Israel attempted to secure himself against a.s.shur, by the alliance with Egypt. It is very probable that the book was written at [Pg 181] that time. At the time when the sword of the Lord was just being raised to inflict upon Israel the death-blow, Hosea wrote down the sum and substance of what he had prophesied during a long series of years, beginning in the last times of Jeroboam, when, to a superficial view, the people were in the enjoyment of the fullest prosperity. When at the threshold of their final fulfilment, he condensed and wrote down his prophecies, just as, in the _annus fatalis_, the fourth year of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah, according to chap. xxv., gave a survey of what he had prophesied over Judah during twenty-three years.
In the prophecies of Hosea, as in those of Amos, the _threatening_ character prevails. The number of the elect in Israel was small, and the judgment was at hand. In Jeremiah and Ezekiel, too, the prophecies, previous to the destruction, are mainly minatory. It was only after the wrath of G.o.d had been manifested in deeds, that the stream of promise brake forth without hindrance. Hosea, nevertheless, does not belie his name, by which he had been dedicated to the helping and saving G.o.d, and which he had received, _non sine numine_. (????, properly the Inf. Abs.
of ???, is, in substance, equivalent to Joshua, _i.e._, the Lord is help.) Zeal for the Lord fills and animates him, not only in the energy of his threatenings, but also in the intensity and strength of his conviction of the pardoning mercy and healing love of the Lord, which will, in the end, prevail. In this respect, Hosea is closely connected with the Song of Solomon--that link in the chain of Holy Scripture into which he had, in the first instance, to fit. There are in Hosea undeniable references to the Song of Solomon. (Compare my Comment. on the Song of Solomon, on chap. i. 4, ii. 3.) It is certainly not by accident that the brighter views appear with special clearness at the beginning, in chap. i. 3 (compare ii. 1-3, 16-25 [i. 10, ii. 1, 14-23], iii. 5), and at the close, xiv. 2-10 (1-9), where the fundamental thought is expressed in ver. 4 (3): ”For in Thee the fatherless findeth mercy.” But even in the darker middle portions, they sometimes suddenly break through; compare v. 15, vi. 3, where the subject is: ”He teareth and He healeth us; He smiteth and He bindeth up;” vi. 11, where, after the threatening against Israel, we suddenly find the words: ”Nevertheless, O Judah! He grants thee a harvest, when I (_i.e._, the Lord) return to the prison of My people.” (Judah is [Pg 182] here mentioned as the main portion of the people, in whom mercy is bestowed upon the whole, and in whose salvation the other tribes also share.) Compare also xi. 8-11, where we have this thought: After wrath, mercy; the Covenant-people can never, like the world, be altogether borne down by destructive judgments; xiii. 14, where the strong conviction of the absolutely imperishable nature of the Congregation of the Lord finds utterance in the words, ”I will ransom them from the hand of h.e.l.l; I will redeem them from death: O death! where is thy plague? O h.e.l.l!
where is thy pestilence? repentance is hid from Mine eyes.” _Simson_ is perplexed ”by the sudden transition of the discourse, in this pa.s.sage, from threatening to promise,--and this without even any particle to indicate the mutual relation of the sentences and thoughts.” But the same phenomenon occurs also in vi. 11 (compare Micah ii. 12, 13), where, likewise, several expositors are perplexed by the suddenness and abruptness of the transition. It is explained from the circ.u.mstance, that behind even the darkest clouds of wrath which have gathered over the Congregation of the Lord, there is, nevertheless, concealed the sun of mercy. In the prophets, it sometimes breaks through suddenly and abruptly; but in this they are at one with history, in which the deepest darkness of the night is oftentimes suddenly illuminated by the s.h.i.+ning of the Lord: ”And at midnight there was a cry made: Behold, the bridegroom cometh.”
The sum and substance of Hosea's prophetic announcement is the following:--Israel falls, through a.s.shur: Judah, the main tribe, shall be preserved from destruction in this catastrophe. (The prophet's tender care for Judah is strikingly brought out in his exhortation to Israel, in iv. 15, that they should desist from their compromises in religion, and that, if they chose to commit sin, they should rather desert the Lord altogether, lest by their hypocrisy Judah also should be seduced and infected.) But at a later period, Judah too is to fall under the divine judgment (ii. 2 [i. 11], where it is supposed that Judah shall also be carried away into captivity; v. 5: ”Israel and Ephraim fall by their iniquity, Judah also falleth with them;” v. 12: ”I am unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness;”
compare also xii. 1, 3), although the immediate instruments of the judgment upon Judah are not mentioned [Pg 183] by Hosea. But the judgments which the two houses of Israel draw upon themselves by their works (ii. 2 [i. 11], iii. 5, indicate that even Judah will, at some future time, rebel against the house of David) shall be followed by the deliverance to be accomplished by grace. Judah and Israel shall, in the future, be again gathered together under one head, ii. 2 (i. 11); a glorious king out of David's house not only restores what was lost, but also raises the Congregation of the Lord to a decree of glory never before conceived of, iii. 5: ”Afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their G.o.d, and David their King, and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.”
The peculiarity of the Messianic prophecies of Hosea, as compared with those of the time of David and Solomon, consists in the connection of the promise with threatenings of judgments, and in the Messiah's appearing as the light of those who walk in the deepest darkness of the divine judgments. It was necessary that this progress should have been made in the Messianic announcements, before the breaking in of the divine judgments; for, otherwise, the hope of the Messiah would have been extinguished by them, because it was but too natural to consider the former as, _in fact_, an annihilation of these dreamy hopes. But now there was offered to the elect a staff on which they might support themselves, and walk with confidence through the dark valley of the shadow of death.
The Book of Hosea may be divided into two parts, according to the two princ.i.p.al periods of the prophet's ministry,--under Jeroboam, when the external condition was as yet prosperous, and the bodily eye did not as yet perceive anything of the storms of divine wrath which were gathering,--and under the following kings, down to Hosea, when the punishment had already begun, and was hastening, by rapid strides, towards its consummation.--Another difference, although a subordinate one, is this:--that the first part, which comprehends the first three chapters, contains prophecies connected with a symbol, while the second part contains direct prophecies which have no such connection. A similar division occurs in Amos also,--with this difference, that there, the symbolical prophecies form the conclusion. The first part may be considered as a kind of outline, which all the subsequent prophecies served to fill up; just [Pg 184] as may the 6th chapter in Isaiah, and the first and second in Ezekiel. We shall give a complete exposition of this section, as it will afford us a vivid view of the whole position of Hosea, and as it is just there that the Messianic announcement meets us in its most developed form.
Footnote 1: _Ewald_, _Thenius_, and others, will not grant that such an interregnum took place. As numbers were originally expressed by letters, in which an interchange might easily happen, we cannot deny the possibility of such an error having occurred in 2 Kings xiv. 23. It is quite possible that the duration of Jeroboam's reign was there originally stated at fifty-two or fifty-three, instead of forty-one years. But strong reasons would be required for rendering such a supposition admissible,--the more so, as the interchange would not have been limited to one letter, as _Thenius_ supposes, but must have extended to both. But no such reasons exist. The silence of the Books of Kings upon the subject of this interregnum cannot be urged as a reason, since these books are so exceedingly short as regards the history of the last times of the kingdom of Israel. Sacred historiography has no interest in the details of this process of decay, which began with the death of Jeroboam,--which also is represented by Amos as if it were the day of Israel's death (Amos vii. 11: ”Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall be led away captive out of their own land”), although bare existence is still, for some time, spared. By the rejection of this interregnum, Hosea's ministry would be shortened by twelve years; but this gain--if such it be--can be purchased only at the expense of a most improbable extension of the duration of Jeroboam's reign. _Simson_, S. 201, has defended the interregnum.
THE SECTION CHAP. I.-III.
The question which here above all engages our attention, and requires to be answered, is this: Whether that which is reported in these chapters did, or did not, actually and outwardly take place. The history of the inquiries connected with this question is found most fully in _Marckius's_ ”_Diatribe de uxore fornicationum_,” Leyden, 1696, reprinted in the Commentary on the Minor Prophets by the same author. The various views may be divided into three cla.s.ses.
1. It is maintained by very many interpreters, that all the events here narrated took place actually and outwardly. This opinion was advanced with the greatest confidence by _Theodoret_, _Cyril_ of Alexandria, and _Augustine_ from among the Fathers of the Church; by most interpreters belonging to the Lutheran and Reformed Churches (_e.g. Manger_); most recently, by _Stuck_, _Hofmann_ (_Weissag u. Erf._ S. 206), and, to a certain extent, by _Ewald_ also, who supposes ”a free representation of an event actually experienced by the prophet.”
2. Others consider it as a parabolical representation. Thus does Calvin, who expressly opposes the supposition not only of an external, but also of an internal event. He explains it thus: ”When the prophet began to teach, he commenced thus: The Lord has placed me here as on a stage, that I might tell you, I have taken a wife,” etc. Entirely similar was the opinion of the Chaldee Paraphrast, by whom the words, ”Go,” etc., are thus paraphrased: ”Go and prophesy against the inhabitants of the adulterous city.” Of a like purport is the view held, from among recent interpreters, by _Rosenmuller_, _Hitzig_ (”that which the prophet describes as actual, is only a fiction”), _Simson_ and others. The strange opinion of Luther, which, out of too great respect, was adopted by a few later theologians (_Osiander_, [Pg 185]
_Gerhard_, _Tarnovius_), is only a modification of this. It is to the effect, that the prophet had only ascribed to his own chaste wife the name and works of an adulteress, and, hence, had performed with her, before the people, a kind of play. (Compare, against this view, _Buddeus_, _de peccatis typicis_ in the _Misc. s. t._ i. p. 262.) The same opinion is expressed by _Umbreit_: ”His own wife is implicated in the general guilt, and hence she is a representative of the whole people.” In opposition to this view, compare _Simson's_ Commentary.
3. Others suppose that the prophet narrates events which took place _actually_, indeed, but _not outwardly_. This opinion was, considering the time at which it was advanced, very ably defended by _Jerome_ in _Epist. ad Pammachium_, and in his commentary on chap. i. 8. According to _Rufinus_, all those in Palestine and Egypt who respected the authority of _Origen_, a.s.serted that the marriage took place only in spirit. The difficulties attaching to the first view were made especially obvious by the ridicule of the Manicheans (_Faustus_ and _Secundinus_ in _Augustine_, t. vi. p. 575) on this narrative. The most accomplished Jewish scholars (_Maimonides_ in the _More Nebuch._ p. ii.
c. 46, _Abenezra_, _Kimchi_) support this opinion. Some new arguments in defence of it have been adduced by _Marckius_.
Of these three views:--actually and outwardly; neither outwardly nor actually; actually, but not outwardly,--the second must be at once rejected. Those who hold it supply, ”G.o.d has commanded me to tell you.”
But there is not the slightest intimation of such an ellipsis; and those interpreters have no better right to supply it in this, than in any other narrative. There is before us action, and nothing but action, without any intimation whatsoever that it is merely an invention.
But the following arguments are decisive in favour of the third, and against the first view.
1. The defenders of an outward transaction rely, in support of their view, upon the supposition, that their interpretation is most obvious and natural;--that they are thus, as it were, in the _possession_ of the ground, and in a position from which they can be driven only by the most cogent reasons;--that if the transaction had been internal, it would have been necessary for the prophet to have expressly marked it as such. But precisely the reverse of all this is the case. The most obvious supposition [Pg 186] is, that the symbolical action took place in vision. If _certain_ actions of the prophets, especially seeing, hearing, and their speaking to the Lord, etc., must be conceived of as having taken place inwardly, unless there be distinct indications of the opposite, why not the remainder also? For the former presupposes that the world in which the prophets move, is altogether different from the ordinary one; that it is not the outward, but the spiritual world.
It is certainly not a matter of chance, that the _seeing_ in the case of the prophets must be understood spiritually; and if there be a reason for this, the same reason ent.i.tles us to a.s.sert that the walking, etc., also took place inwardly only. By what right could we make any difference between the actions of others, described by the prophet, and his own? Vision and symbolical action are not opposed to each other; the former is only the _genus_ comprehending the latter as a _species_. By this we do not at all mean to a.s.sert, that _all_ the symbolical actions of the prophets took place in inward vision only. An inward transaction always lay at the foundation; but sometimes, and when it was appropriate, they embodied it in an outward representation also (1 Kings xx. 35 seq., xxii. 11; Jer. xix. xxviii.; and a similar remarkable instance from modern times, in _Croesi Hist. Quakeriana_, p.
13). For this very reason, however, this argument cannot be altogether decisive by itself; but it furnishes, at least, a presumptive proof, and that by no means unimportant. If regularly and naturally the transaction be internal only, then the opposite requires to be proved in this case. If this had been admitted, no attempt would have been made elsewhere also, _e.g._, Is. xx., by false and forced interpretations to explain away the supposition of a merely internal transaction.
2. No one will certainly venture to a.s.sert that a merely internal transaction would have missed its aim, since there exists a mult.i.tude of symbolical actions, in regard to which it is undeniable, and universally admitted, that they took place internally only. For the inward action, being narrated and committed to writing, retained the advantage of vividness and impressiveness over the naked representation of the same truth. Sometimes, in the case of actions concentrated into a single moment, this advantage may be still further increased by the inward transaction being represented outwardly also. But, here, just the [Pg 187] opposite would take place. We have here before us a symbolical transaction which, if it had been performed outwardly, would have continued for several years. The separation of the single events would have prevented its being taken in at a single view, and have thus deprived it of its impressiveness. But, what is still more important, the natural _substratum_ would have occupied the attention so much more than the _idea_, that the latter would have been thereby altogether overlooked. The domestic affairs of the prophet would have become the subject of a large amount of _t.i.ttle-tattle_, and the idea would have been remembered only to give greater point to the ridicule.
3. The command of G.o.d, when considered as referring to an outward transaction, cannot be, by any means, justified. This is most glaringly obvious, if we understand this command, as several do, to mean that the prophet should beget children with an unchaste woman, and without legitimate marriage. Every one will sympathize with the indignation expressed by _Buddeus_ (l. c. p. 206) against _Thomas Aquinas_, who, following this view, maintains that the law of G.o.d had been, in this special case, repealed by His command. G.o.d Himself cannot set us free from His commands; they are an expression of His nature, an image of His holiness. To ascribe arbitrariness to G.o.d in this respect, would be to annihilate the idea of G.o.d, and the idea of the Law at the same time. This view, it is true, is so decidedly erroneous as to require no further refutation; but even the opinion of _Buddeus_ and others presents insurmountable difficulties. They suppose that the prophet had married a woman who was formerly unchaste. In opposition to this, Calvin very strikingly remarks: ”It seems not to be consistent with reason, that G.o.d should spontaneously have rendered His prophet contemptible; for how could he ever have appeared in public after such ignominy had been inflicted upon him? If he had married such a wife, as here described, he ought rather to have hidden himself all his lifetime than have a.s.sumed the prophetic office.” In Lev. xxi. 7 the law forbids the priests to take a wife that is a wh.o.r.e, or profane. That which, according to the letter, referred to the priests only, is applicable, in its spirit, to the prophets also,--yea, to them in a higher degree, as will be seen immediately, when the ordinance is reduced to its _idea_. The latter is easily inferred from the reason stated, [Pg 188]
viz., that the priests should be holy to their G.o.d. The servants of G.o.d must represent His holiness; they are, therefore, not allowed, by so close a contact with sin, to defile or desecrate themselves either inwardly or outwardly. Although the inward pollution may be prevented in individual cases by a specially effective a.s.sistance of divine grace, yet there always remains the outward pollution.
It is inconceivable that, at the very commencement of his ministry, G.o.d should have commanded to the prophet anything, the inevitable effect of which was to mar its successful execution. Several--and especially _Manger_--who felt the difficulties of this interpretation, subst.i.tuted for it another, by which, as they imagined, all objections were removed. The prophet, they say, married a person who had formerly been chaste, and fell only after her marriage. This view is no doubt the correct one, as is obvious from the relation of the figure to the reality. According to ver. 2, it is to be expressed figuratively that the people went a-whoring from Jehovah. The spiritual adultery presupposes that the spiritual marriage had already been concluded.
Hence, the wife can be called a whoring wife, only on account of the wh.o.r.edom which she practised after her marriage. This is confirmed by chap. iii. 1, where the more limited expression ”to commit adultery” is subst.i.tuted for ”to wh.o.r.e,” which has a wider sense, and comprehends adultery also. The former unchast.i.ty of the wife would be without any meaning, yea, would be in direct contradiction to the real state of the case. For before the marriage concluded at Sinai, Israel was devoted to the Lord in faithful love; comp. Jer. ii. 2: ”I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, thy walking after Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.” Compare also Ezek. xvi., where Israel, before her marriage, appears as a _virgo intacta_. But how correct soever this view may be--and every other view perverts the whole position--it is, nevertheless, erroneous to suppose that thereby all difficulties are removed. All which has been urged against the former view, may be urged here also. It might have been better for the prophet to have married one who was previously unchaste, in the hope that her subsequent better life might wipe out her former shame, than one previously chaste, who _was required_ to become unchaste, and to remain so for a long time, because, [Pg 189] otherwise, the symbolical action would have lost all its significance. The objection brought forward, that whatever is unbecoming as an outward action, is so likewise though it were only an internal action, can scarcely be meant to be in earnest. For, in this case, every one knew that the prophet was a mere type; and, with regard to his wife, this circ.u.mstance was so obvious, that mockery certainly gave way to shame and confusion. But a marriage outwardly entered into is never purely typical. It has always its significance apart from the typical import, and must be justifiable, independently of its typical character. Ridicule would, in this case, have been not only too obvious, but to a certain extent also well founded.
4. If the action had taken place only outwardly, it would have been impossible to explain the abrupt transition from the symbolical action to the mere figure, and again to the entirely naked representation as we find it here, and _vice versa_. In the first chapter, the symbolical action is pretty well maintained; but in the prophecy ii. 1-3 (i.
10-ii. 1), which belongs to the same section, it is almost entirely lost sight of. As the corporeal adultery, and rejection in consequence of it, were to be the type of the spiritual adultery and rejection, so the receiving again of the wife, rejected on account of her faithlessness, but now reformed, was to typify the Lord's granting mercy to the people. But of this, not a trace is found. And yet, we are not at liberty to say that the ground of it lies in a difference betwixt the type and the thing typified,--in the circ.u.mstance that the wife of the prophet did not reform. If there existed such a difference, the type could not have been chosen at all. The contrary appears also from ii. 9 (7).--In the whole second section, ii. 4-25 (ii. 2-23), regard is indeed had to the symbolical action; but in a manner so free, that it dwindles away to a mere figure, from behind which the thing itself is continually coming into view. In chap. iii. the symbolical action again acquires greater prominence. These phenomena can be accounted for, only if the transaction be viewed as an inward one. In the case of an outward transaction, the transition from the symbolical action to the figure, and from the figure to the thing itself, would not have been so easy. The substratum of the idea is, in that case, far more material, and the idea itself too closely bound to it.
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