4 For many days remain do the sons of Israel without a king, and there is no prince, and there is no sacrifice, and there is no standing pillar, and there is no ephod and teraphim.
As to the man Micah, he hath a house of gods, and he maketh an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrateth the hand of one of his sons, and he is to him for a priest;
And Laban hath gone to shear his flock, and Rachel stealeth the teraphim which her father hath;
And he hath strengthened a covenant with many -- one week, and `in' the midst of the week he causeth sacrifice and present to cease, and by the wing of abominations he is making desolate, even till the consummation, and that which is determined is poured on the desolate one.'
and he goeth out before Asa, and saith to him, `Hear, me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; Jehovah `is' with you -- in your being with Him, and if ye seek Him, He is found of you, and if ye forsake Him, He forsaketh you;
and Gideon maketh it into an ephod, and setteth it up in his city, in Ophrah, and all Israel go a-whoring after it there, and it is to Gideon and to his house for a snare.
`And these `are' the garments which they make: a breastplate, and an ephod, and an upper robe, and an embroidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle; yea, they have made holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and for his sons, for his being priest to Me.
`An empty vine `is' Israel, Fruit he maketh like to himself, According to the abundance of his fruit, He hath multiplied for the altars, According to the goodness of his land, They have made goodly standing-pillars. Their heart hath been divided, now they are guilty, He doth break down their altars, He doth destroy their standing-pillars. For now they say: We have no king, Because we have not feared Jehovah, And the king -- what doth he for us?
And I have caused to cease all her joy, Her festival, her new moon, and her sabbath, Even all her appointed times,
I give to thee a king in Mine anger, And I take away in My wrath.
And I have cut off the cities of thy land, And I have thrown down all thy fortresses, And have cut off sorcerers out of thy hand, And observers of clouds thou hast none. And I have cut off thy graven images, And thy standing-pillars out of thy midst, And thou dost not bow thyself any more To the work of thy hands. And I have plucked up thy shrines out of thy midst, And I have destroyed thine enemies.
And it hath come to pass, in that day, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, I cut off the names of the idols from the land, And they are not remembered any more, And also the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness I cause to pass away from the land.
And having gone forth, Jesus departed from the temple, and his disciples came near to show him the buildings of the temple, and Jesus said to them, `Do ye not see all these? verily I say to you, There may not be left here a stone upon a stone, that shall not be thrown down.'
and they cried out, `Take away, take away, crucify him;' Pilate saith to them, `Your king shall I crucify?' the chief priests answered, `We have no king except Caesar.'
they set up also false witnesses, saying, `This one doth not cease to speak evil sayings against this holy place and the law, for we have heard him saying, That this Jesus the Nazarean shall overthrow this place, and shall change the customs that Moses delivered to us;'
And David is dancing with all strength before Jehovah, and David is girded with a linen ephod,
and doth put on him the coat, and doth gird him with the girdle, and doth clothe him with the upper robe, and doth put on him the ephod, and doth gird him with the girdle of the ephod, and doth bind `it' to him with it,
yea, the five men, those going to traverse the land, go up -- they have come in thither -- they have taken the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image -- and the priest is standing at the opening of the gate, and the six hundred men who are girded with weapons of war -- yea, these have entered the house of Micah, and take the graven image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image; and the priest saith unto them, `What are ye doing?' and they say to him, `Keep silent, lay thy hand on thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us for a father and for a priest: is it better thy being a priest to the house of one man, or thy being priest to a tribe and to a family in Israel?' And the heart of the priest is glad, and he taketh the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and goeth into the midst of the people, and they turn and go, and put the infants, and the cattle, and the baggage, before them. They have been far off from the house of Micah -- and the men who `are' in the houses which `are' near the house of Micah have been called together, and overtake the sons of Dan, and call unto the sons of Dan, and they turn round their faces, and say to Micah, `What -- to thee that thou hast been called together?' And he saith, `My gods which I made ye have taken, and the priest, and ye go; and what to me more? and what `is' this ye say unto me, What -- to thee!'
And Samuel is ministering `in' the presence of Jehovah, a youth girt `with' an ephod of linen;
and Ahiah, son of Ahitub, brother of I-Chabod, son of Phinehas son of Eli priest of Jehovah in Shiloh, bearing an ephod; and the people knew not that Jonathan hath gone.
And the priest saith, `The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou didst smite in the valley of Elah, lo, it is wrapt in a garment behind the ephod, if it thou dost take to thyself, take; for there is none other save it in this `place'.' And David saith, `There is none like it -- give it to me.'
And the king saith to Doeg, `Turn round thou, and come against the priests;' and Doeg the Edomite turneth round, and cometh himself against the priests, and putteth to death in that day eighty and five men bearing a linen ephod,
And it cometh to pass, in the fleeing of Abiathar son of Ahimelech unto David, to Keilah, an ephod came down in his hand.
The sceptre turneth not aside from Judah, And a lawgiver from between his feet, Till his Seed come; And his `is' the obedience of peoples.
And also, those having familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah, and in Jerusalem, hath Josiah put away, in order to establish the words of the law that are written on the book that Hilkiah the priest hath found in the house of Jehovah.
In that day there is an altar to Jehovah In the midst of the land of Egypt, And a standing pillar near its border to Jehovah, And it hath been for a sign and for a testimony, To Jehovah of Hosts in the land of Egypt, For they cry unto Jehovah from the face of oppressors, And He sendeth to them a saviour, Even a great one, and hath delivered them.
And I have given them for a trembling To all kingdoms of the earth, Because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah, For that which he did in Jerusalem. For who hath pity on thee, O Jerusalem? And who doth bemoan for thee? And who turneth aside to ask of thy welfare?
And that which is going up on your mind, It is not at all -- in that ye are saying: We will be as the nations, as the families of the lands, To serve wood and stone.
And unto the prince of the host it exerteth itself, and by it taken away hath been the continual `sacrifice', and thrown down the base of his sanctuary. And the host is given up, with the continual `sacrifice', through transgression, and it throweth down truth to the earth, and it hath worked, and prospered. `And I hear a certain holy one speaking, and a certain holy one saith to the wonderful numberer who is speaking: Till when `is' the vision of the continual `sacrifice', and of the transgression, an astonishment, to make both sanctuary and host a treading down?
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Hosea 3
Commentary on Hosea 3 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 3
God is still by the prophet inculcating the same thing upon this careless people, and much in the same manner as before, by a type or sign, that of the dealings of a husband with an adulterous wife. In this chapter we have,
Hsa 3:1-5
Some think that this chapter refers to Judah, the two tribes, as the adulteress the prophet married (ch. 1:3) represented the ten tribes; for this was not to be divorced, as the ten tribes were, but to be left desolate for a long time, and then to return, as the two tribes did. But these are called the children of Israel, which was the ten tribes, and therefore it is more probable that of them this parable, as well as that before, is to be understood. Go, and repeat it, says God to the prophet; Go yet again. Note, For the conviction and reduction of sinners it is necessary that precept be upon precept, and line upon line. If they will not believe one sign, try another, Ex. 4:8, 9. Now,