Hosea 13:6

According to their pasture, so were they filled,.... When they came into the land of Canaan, which was a land flowing with milk and honey, they were like a flock of sheep brought from short commons

According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me. According to their pasture, so were they filled.

According to their pasture, so were they filled; when they were come into Canaan, that land of springs, brooks, and rivers, that land of wheat, barley, vines, olives, and figs, as ; when they had abundance of all things for delight, as well as for necessary sustenance; when I had, like a good, careful, and wise shepherd, brought them into this rich pasture; they, like hungry beasts, ate to excess, ran into luxury and riot; epicure like, gorged themselves with sweet wines and delicious fare. They were filled: either this is a reduplication of the charge to confirm it, I say, they thus luxuriously lived; or else it is elliptical, and to be made out thus, And so soon as they were filled; and thus it will be parallel to that, Jeshurun waxed fat, . Their heart was exalted; grew proud, entertained high thoughts of their progenitors’ worth, their nobleness by descent, their worthiness and righteousness above other people; they thought of God as of man, that he proportioned his blessings to what excellency was found in those he did good to. Therefore have they forgotten me; so they have forgotten me, who found them in slavery, poverty, reproach, and tears in Egypt, out of which I saved them; and they have most scandalously made them gods, Worshipped them, and with sacrilegious unthankfulness given the praise of all I did for them to dumb idols, though I warned them of it beforehand, ,12 8:13,14.

Hosea 13:6 According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.Ver. 6. According to their pasture so were they filled] Saturity bred security; fulness, forgetfulness. This was a foul fault, and is much complained of, Deuteronomy 32:13-14 Psalms 78:10-11. God had brought them out of a place of great drought into large and fat pastures, a land flowing with milk and honey, where he filled their "hearts with food and gladness," Acts 14:17, where he fed them among the lilies, daily and daintily. But they, as if God had hired them to be wicked, basely abused his bounty to luxury, and having fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness, grew proud as Sodom, and out of measure sinful, Ezekiel 16:49; forgetting God and his will, themselves and their duties, and running out into all excess of riot, though they had been fairly warned and commanded to the contrary, Deuteronomy 8:10, &c. Their heart grew fat as grease, and became as a foul stomach, which the more you fill it the more you spill it; or like fed horses, they grew fierce and filthy, Jeremiah 5:7-8, there was no hoe with them, οποσονανθρεψηςμαλλονβλαψης (Hippoc.). See Ezekiel 34:16; Ezekiel 34:18; Ezekiel 34:20. While they were in the wilderness God knew them, yea, he knew their souls in adversity: they both knew God, and were known of him. But now, God neither knew them so much, nor they him; they lived not upon him now, as once in the wilderness; but being "filled, yea, filled," Galatians 3:1-2, (you have the word here twice together), to note how they fell upon those allowed delights, and even glutted themselves, gorged themselves; they flew upon them, as those in Saul’ s time did upon the spoil of the Philistines; they fed without fear, as those Pseudo-Christians in Jude, Judges 1:12; they gormandized, as those flesh mongers before the flood, more like beasts than men, as the Greek word signifieth, τρωγοντες, Luke 17:27. And hereupon their hearts were exalted] Prosperity and plenty will easily blow up such a blab as pride, in the best hearts, if care be not taken to the contrary; as Agur knew, and therefore prayed, Give me a mediocrity, "lest I be full and deny," and proudly ask, "Who is the Lord?" Proverbs 30:9; and as Solomon felt, whose wealth did him more harm than his wisdom did him good, Ecclesiastes 2:1-26; and as Hezekiah experimented to his cost, Isaiah 39:1-8. Indeed of Jehoshaphat it is noted, 2 Chronicles 17:3, that he walked in the first ways of David his father (for the truth is, David’ s first ways were his best ways; neither was he ever so good and tender as when he was hunted as a partridge in the mountains); and of Vespasian it is reported that he was made the better man by being made emperor ( Vespasianus unus accepto imperio melior rectus); but he was a rare bird and had scarce his fellow again.

(6) According to their pasture.—Rather, As they pastured. (Comp. the language of Deu 8:7-18; Deuteronomy 31:20; Deuteronomy 32:15.) The gifts of Divine love concealing the giver.

Verse 6. According to their pasture] They had a rich pasture, and were amply supplied with every good. They became exalted in their heart, forgat their God, and became a prey to their enemies. "He that exalteth himself shall be abased."

6. According to their pasture, &c.] Rather, When they fed, they waxed full. The idea of the verse is that Israel’s apostasy sprang from his enjoying God’s gifts without thinking of the Giver, comp. Hosea 2:8, Hosea 4:7, Hosea 10:1. The expressions were probably prophetic commonplaces; comp. Deuteronomy 8:11-15; Deuteronomy 31:20; Deuteronomy 32:15; Deuteronomy 32:18.

According to their pasture, so were they filled - o: “He implies that their way of being ‘filled’ was neither good nor praiseworthy, in that he says, ‘they were filled according to their pastures.’

6. Jehovah’s care for Israel and the resulting prosperity failed to inspire gratitude; on the contrary, it made the people proud and arrogant and caused them to forget God.