Hosea 1:1

The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea,.... Whose name is the same with Joshua and Jesus, and signifies a saviour; he was in some things a type of Christ the Saviour, and prophesied of him, and

The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

HOSEA CHAPTER 1 The times in which Hosea prophesied, Hosea 1:1. To show the idolatrous whoredoms of the land, he marrieth a wife of whoredom, and hath by her Jezreel, Hosea 1:2-5, Lo-ruhamah, Hosea 1:6,7, and Lo-ammi, Hosea 1:8,9. The restoration of Judah and Israel under one head, Hosea 1:10,11. The word, or the command, and the thing commanded; or the prediction expressed in the very words God suggested by his Spirit to the prophet, and the things too which are now foretold; for holy men of God spake as they were moved, &c., 2 Peter 1:21, and the things that were shortly to come to pass were revealed also, in the words of Rev 1:1. Hosea shows the things, and speaks them in words which God hath suggested to him. The Lord; the Eternal, as the French, Jehovah, Heb., which expresseth the eternity and infinite being of our God, together with his sovereignty and absolute authority over all. This is expressly added, to give warning to the prophet, to command audience, attention, reverence, and submission in the hearers, and to intimate to them the certainty of execution if they repent not, and the certainty of performance of promise if they believe; for it is Jehovah who changeth not that speakest both. Came to Hosea; or was with him; as it came to him, so it did abide with him, made a deep impression upon his mind. Prophets were too backward, rather than overforward, to publish sad tidings to sinning people. Moses was unwilling to go to Pharaoh; Jeremiah pent up the word till it grew like fire in his bowels, too hot, and he could have no ease till he gave it vent. It is not unlikely the prophet Hosea intimates by this expression some such effect the word of God had on him; he was full of the prophetic Spirit, its motions were ever with him, and stirring within him. Hosea; a name that carrieth most comfortable news in the letter and signification of it, being the same with Joshua or Jesus; and his word or message from God to the good was comfortable, it was assurance both of preservation and salvation, as will appear in process of his prophecy. The son of Beeri: though some would have this Beeri to be the same with Beerah, 1 Chronicles 5:6, it hath no probability, the names being different; beside that Beerah was carried captive by Tilgath-pilneser, and it is probable his family was carried away with him; or if Hosea had escaped his father's mishap, he would have given us at least some ground to believe by his words that he resented the unhappiness of his family in that respect; but we know the name of the prophet's father, we know not his tribe or country, or of what quality he was, where he lived, or when be died. In the days, i.e. during the reign, in the times; it is a Scripture expression of times.

Hosea 1:1 The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.Ver. 1. The word of the Lord] Not "cunningly devised fables," 2 Peter 1:16, or human testimonies, that can make but a human faith; but the "word of the ever living God," 1 Thessalonians 2:13, the "Scripture that cannot be broken," John 10:35, the very heart and soul of God ( cor et anima Dei), as Gregory calls it. That came unto Hosea] The Lord is said to come to Laban, Abimelech, Balaam, &c. But he never concredited his word to any such profane wretches, as he did to the holy prophets which have "been since the world began"; of whom it is said, as here, "The word of the Lord came to Hosea." His name signifieth a Saviour, Matthew 1:21 : a fit name for a minister, whose work is to "save himself and them that hear him," 1 Timothy 4:16. To save them if he can, Obadiah 1:21; to deliver their souls from going into the pit, Job 33:24; to pull them, if possible, out of the fire, Judges 1:23; to "give them the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sin," Luke 1:77 : to give it, I say, not by infusion (for that he cannot do), but by instruction; and that he must endeavour to do, as this prophet did: than whom few ministers ever ran so long a race without cessation, or cespitation, so constantly, so courageously, so unweariably. For he continued prophesying sixty-five years at least, saith Pareus; seventy, saith Oecolampadius; it is very probable fourscore years, saith Mr Burroughes. The Hebrews say ninety years, quibus multa dixit quae non scripsit, wherein he uttered much more than he wrote. This we may easily believe: for we have but the short notes or heads of his sermons and larger discourses, which he seems also to have set down for the use of the Church in his extreme old age, whereof they carry a smatch in the shortness of his speech, applied, as much as might be, to the measure of his breath. Hence Jerome fitly called him, Commaticum et quasi per sententias loquentem, concise and sententious. Amputatas loquitur sententias et verba ante expectatum cadentia, as one saith of Sallust; Multo est verbis quam sensu restrictior atque concisior, as another saith of Livy: he speaketh much in few; and seems to have more sentences than sayings. The more often you read him the more you may get by him: et nunquam tamen dimittat te sine siti; and yet the more you get the more you covet (Lips. de Thucyd.). Obscure he is (as delivering things briefly), and such as will not be easily acquainted with you but upon further suit: hence that Epiphonema in the perclose of his prophecy, "Who is wise, and he shall understand these things?

(1) In the days of Uzziah.—On the historical questions involved in this verse, see Introduction.

THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET HOSEA Chronological Notes relative to the commencement of Hosea's prophesying, upon the supposition that this event took place in the last year of the reign of Jeroboam II., king of Israel -Year of the world, according to the Usherian account, 3219. -Year of the Julian period, 3929. -Year since the Flood, 1563. -Year from the vocation of Abram, 1136. -Year from the foundation of Solomon's temple, 227. -Year before the First Olympiad, 9. -Year before the building of Rome, 32. -Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 785. -Cycle of the Sun, 9. -Cycle of the Moon, 15. -Second year of Coenus, the second king of Macedon; which was the thirtieth from the foundation of the monarchy. -Thirteenth year of Agamestor, perpetual archon of the Athenians. -Thirteenth year of Ardysus, king of Lydia. -Twelfth year of Amulius Sylvius, king of the Albans. -Twenty-fifth year of Charilaus, king of the Lacedaemonians. -Forty-first year of Jeroboam II., king of Israel. -Twenty-sixth year of Uzziah, king of Judah. CHAPTER I Under the figure of a wife proving false to her marriage vows, and bearing children that would follow her example, the prophet represents the shameful idolatry of the ten tribes, which provoked God to cast them off. The whole passage is information by action instead of words. This names of the children are all emblematical. The first is intended to put Israel in mind of their unrepented guilt, and the acts of cruelty committed in their palace of Jezreel, (1Kg 21:1.) The second and third, signifying not finding mercy, and not my people, denote that, in consequence of their guilt, they were to be rejected of God, 1-9. God promises, however, to repair the loss to his Church by calling in the Gentiles, 10; and by uniting all the children of God under one head, the Messiah, in the latter days, 11. NOTES ON CHAP. I Verse 1. Hosea, the son of Beeri] See the preceding account of this prophet. In the days of Uzziah, c.] If we suppose, says Bp. Newcome, that Hosea prophesied during the course of sixty-six years, and place him from the year 790 before Christ to the year 724, he will have exercised his office eight years in the reign of Jeroboam the second, thirty-three years in the reign of Uzziah, the whole reigns of Jotham and Ahaz, and three years in the reign of Hezekiah but will not have survived the taking of Samaria. But see the preceding account of this prophet. I think the first verse to be a title to this book added by the compiler of his prophecies, and that it relates more to facts which took place in those reigns, and had been predicted by Hosea, who would only be said to have prophesied under an those kings, by his predictions, which were consecutively fulfilled under them. By those, though dead, he continued to speak.

1. On the heading, see Introduction.

The word of the Lord, that came unto Hosea - Hosea, at the very beginning of his prophecy, declares that all this, which he delivered, came, not from his own mind but from God.

1, 2a. Title — intended as a heading for the whole book. On its probable original form, its accord with internal evidence, etc., see pp. 15ff.