Hosea 11:3

I taught Ephraim also to go,.... All the tribes of Israel and Ephraim, or the ten tribes with the rest; these the Lord instructed in the way of his commandments, and taught them to walk therein; he

I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.

I taught Ephraim also to go; as a mother or nurse doth help the child, and with tenderest care doth guide and form its steps, and by long-continued patience waits on it; such like was the tenderness of God toward Israel in his childhood. Taking them by their arms; supporting and bearing them up, as nurses bear up the child in their hands, taking them up by the arms, giving strength for motion, till the child should grow to strength. But they knew not that I healed them; unthankful, sottish, and heedless ones, neither would see nor acknowledge me in it, but within few months’ time ascribe their deliverance to a golden calf, ; thus foolishly they requite the love of their God.

Hosea 11:3 I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.Ver. 3. I taught Ephraim also to go] A child he was, Hosea 11:1, and like a child I dealt with him, teaching him how to set his feet, pedare, to foot it, as nurses do their little ones: he keepeth the feet of his saints, 1 Samuel 2:9; he guideth their feet in the way of peace, Luke 1:79. See for this, Deuteronomy 1:31; Deuteronomy 32:11 Numbers 11:12. So great is the goodness of God to his people, that he dealeth with us as with his little children, nos sublevando, submonendo, docendo, ducendo, regendo, tegendo, convocando, condonando, portando, confortando, &c., we are supported, admonished, taught, lead, guided, protected, assembled, forgiven, carried, comforted, saith a learned interpreter truly, and trimly (Tarnovius). He speaketh unto us as unto children, Hebrews 12:5 paterne diligit, amice dirigit, he loveth us as a father, he directs us as a friend, guiding us with his eye, leading us in his hand, setting us between his knees, as some interpret that text, Deuteronomy 33:3, setting us upon his knees, as a father doth his darling, and rejoicing over us with joy, yea, joying over us with singing, Zephaniah 3:17. His affections are more than fatherly; and his expressions are according. "We are like infants" (saith Mr Baine), "newly born in a manner. They are kept by the loving parents from fire and water; they are fed, laid to sleep, made ready, and unready, and shifted in their scapes, but they know not who doth all this for them. So doth our heavenly Father by us in Christ." But (he knows) little understanding have we of him. After this, he teacheth us to go, taking us by the arms.] to help our feeble knees. And taking us up in his own arms, when we come to a foul or rough place, helping us over the quagmires of crosses, and the difficulties of duties. And whereas we fall seven times a day, and in many things fail all; he taketh us up after that we have caught a knock, and cherisheth us in his bosom, &c. Montanus and Junius carry the sense another way, as if the words were not a description of God’ s love to the people, but of their unthankfulness to God; rendering the words thus: When, as I inform Ephraim, he taketh them in his arms, that is, he setteth up idols, and after the manner of impudent and shameless strumpets, he taketh the puppets in his arms, and embraceth them before my face. But I like the former sense better. But they knew not that I healed them] Not only held them, that they might not fall, but healed them when they had fallen. Daring they would be sometimes to stand upon their own legs, to prevail by their own strength, 1 Samuel 2:9, to say with her in the poet, Consilii satis est in me mihi, &c. (Arachno apud Ovid. Metam.).

(3) Read, Yet it was I who guided Ephraim’s steps, taking him by his arms. There is a beautiful parallel to this in Deuteronomy 32:10-11. Knew not . . .—This obtuseness to the source of all mercies—the refusal to recognise the true origin in Divine revelation of those ideas which, though they bless and beautify life, are not recognised as such revelation, but are treated as “the voice of nature,” or “development of humanity,” or “dictum of human reason “—is one of the commonest and most deadly sins of modern Christendom. The unwillingness to recognise the Divine Hand in “creation,” “literature,” “history” takes the opposed forms of Pantheism and Pyrrhonism. To each of these the prophet’s words apply.

Verse 3. I taught Ephraim also to go] An allusion to a mother or nurse teaching a child to walk, directing it how to lift and lay its feet, and supporting it in the meantime by the arms, that it may use its feet with the greater ease. This is a passage truly pathetic.

3. I taught Ephraim also to go] Rather, Whereas I taught Ephraim to go. A figure for the special providence watching over Ephraim. Not Judah, but Ephraim, is spoken of, for the kingdom of Israel embraced the fairer part of the territory, and was far stronger than that of Judah. taking them by their arms] Rather, if we accept the Massoretic reading, ‘he took them up in his arms.’ There are however grave philological objections to this rendering, and we should probably, with most of the versions, correct the reading, and translate, I took them up in my arms. There is a beautiful climax in this part of the figure; not only did Jehovah train Israel to walk, but when he was tired, Jehovah carried him in his arms, comp. Isaiah 63:9; Deuteronomy 1:31, (Deuteronomy 32:11), and comp. a parallel passage in the Rig-Veda (x. 69, 10, Max Müller), ‘Thou barest him as a father bears his son in his lap.’ they knew not] i.e. they recognized not (as Hosea 1:3). that I healed them] The same figure as in Hosea 5:13, Hosea 6:1, Hosea 7:1. Comp. Exodus 15:26, ‘for I am Jehovah thy healer.’

I taught Ephraim also to go - Literally, “and I set Ephraim on his feet;” i.

2. Jehovah’s love was met with bitter ingratitude. As they called — R.V., “The more the prophets called.” The prophets is not in the Hebrew, but the Revisers were correct in supplying it as the subject (compare Hosea 11:7).