Hosea 14:8

Ephraim [shall say], what have I to do any more with idols?.... This is to be understood, not of apostate Ephraim, as in the times of the prophet, who was so wedded and glued to the idols, that there

Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do anymore with idols?

Ephraim; not the whole body of Ephraim, but converted Ephraim, those who, ,2, were sensible of sin, confessed it, and sued for pardon. What have I to do any more with idols? i.e. I have no more to do with them, nor ever will; they have been, first my sin, and next my sorrows, and my sorrows have been multiplied by hasting after other gods; I will no more do so: and with detestation against idols doth Ephraim speak, as the question implieth. I have heard him, and observed him: some refer these words to Ephraim, owning what he had found and observed in God; what grace and mercy in pardon, deliverance from miseries, and comfortable revival of his state. Others refer it to God, and make it a gracious promise from God of hearing prayers, and taking especial care of converted Ephraim; either way suits the words and matter, and I leave it to your choice. I am like a green fir tree: these words also, as the former, are either Israel’ s giving praise to God, who had on Israel’ s return changed his dead, withered state into a flourishing, lovely, and beautiful state: others say it is God’ s promise to be to Ephraim as such a tree is to a weary traveller, who may with delight and safety sit under the shadow of it; a tree, say some, that grows with very thick boughs, that rain or heat pierceth not, and whose smell drives away wild beasts; so there is safety and refreshment under the protection of the Lord, under his shadow. From me is thy fruit found: this also is differently interpreted: Israel confesseth that the fruit of God’ s grace is seen from what Israel now is and doth: others say, God promiseth the fruits of comfort Israel enjoys, and still shall enjoy, from God, and his grace toward Israel. I determine neither, but sure I am such is the correspondence of God’ s grace to the converted, that they cannot more readily acknowledge what God hath done for them, nor more readily engage to do what God adviseth and requireth, than God is ready to encourage them by gracious, and rich, and suitable promises.

Hosea 14:8 Ephraim [shall say], What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard [him], and observed him: I [am] like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.Ver. 8. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do, &c.] Heb. Ephraim, what have I to do, &c. This some make to be the speech of God to Ephraim; as if Ephraim here were the vocative case and God were brought in abhorring the notion of parting stakes with idols, of sharing his glory with another. But because this God never did (for what communion hath light with darkness, Christ with Belial?) and because the Chaldee Paraphrast, and from him the best interpreters, supply "shall say," I take this latter to be the better translation. Here, then, God promiseth, first, what Ephraim shall do, or rather, what he by his grace will cause him to do; he shall utterly abominate and abandon his idols, whereunto his heart had been joined, or glued, Hosea 4:17; secondly, what he will thereupon do for Ephraim; what special favour he will show him, and what a gracious compensation he will make him: "I have heard him, and observed him," &c. Ephraim, now grown penitent, shall say (see the like ellipsis supplied, Isaiah 5:9), with utmost indignation and aversion, with greatest heat of anger and height of hatred, shall he utter it. See the like 2 Samuel 16:10 2 Kings 3:13 Matthew 8:29. What have I to do any more with idols] Or sorrows, or bugs, those Balaam’ s blocks, those images and monuments of idolatry, those images of jealousy, that provoke to jealousy, Ezekiel 8:3, those dunghill deities, that can produce no good, hear no prayers, work no deliverance, bring nothing but evil and auguish to us. What, then, should we rather do, than pollute those images that we had perfumed, cast them away with detestation, as a menstruous cloth, and say unto them, Get ye hence? Isaiah 30:22. Then will God soon say, I have heard him thus bemoaning and befooling himself, Jeremiah 31:18. God hath a quick ear in such a case; he hath also an eye open to the supplications of his servants, in all that they call upon him for, as Solomon telleth us, 1 Kings 8:52. I have observed him] Or fixed mine eyes upon him, with a most vigilant care and critical inspection. It would be wide with God’ s Ephraims, and they would want many things, if he should not see as well as hear, if he should not seriously and solicitously consider and care for them, above all that they ask or think, Ephesians 3:20, and without any monitor, aid and accommodate them. He is many times better to them than their prayers; for what reason? "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, as well as his ears are open to their cry," Psalms 34:15. The Vulgate Latin rendereth it, Dirigam eum, I will direct him, as a tutor and guardian doth his pupil, his orphan, see Hosea 14:8.

(8) It would be better to adopt the slightly different reading indicated by the rendering of the LXX., and translate, As for Ephraim, what has he to do with, &c. Here again, as in Hosea 13:15, the Hebrew for “thy fruit” contains a play on the name Ephraim. I (says Jehovah) am to thee an evergreen tree of life and protection, and from me is thy fruit found.

Verse 8. What have I to do any more with idols?] The conversion of Ephraim is now as complete as it was sincere. God hears and observes this. I am like a green fir tree.] Perhaps these words should be joined to the preceding, as Newcome has done, and be a part of God's speech to Ephraim. "I have heard him; and I have seen him as a flourishing fir tree." He is become strong and vigorous; and from his present appearance of healthiness, his future increase and prosperity may be safely anticipated. From me is thy fruit found.] All thy goodness springs from the principle of grace which I have planted in thy soul; for as the earth cannot bring forth fruit without the blessing of God, sending the dews and rains, with the genial rays of the sun, so neither can the soul of man, even of the most pious, bear fruit, without a continual influence from the Most High. Without the former, neither grass could grow for cattle, nor corn for the service of man; without the latter, no seeds of righteousness could take root, no stalk of promise could grow, no fruit of grace could be produced. And the unclean spirit, which was cast out, would soon return; and, finding his former house empty, swept, and garnished, would re-enter with seven demons of greater power and worse influence; and the latter end of that man would be worse than the first. Reader, ever consider that all thy good must be derived from God; and all that good must be preserved in thee by his continued influence of light, love, and power upon thy soul.

8. Ephraim (shall say), What have I to do any more with idols] So the Targum and the Syriac. The objection is that the ellipsis is unique, and hence Archbishop Seeker proposed to follow the Septuagint (reading lo for li), and render, Ephraim—what hath he to do, &c. Prof. Robertson Smith is dissatisfied with this, but his objection simply is that the third member of the verse is unsuitable in the mouth of Jehovah, the evergreen tree being ‘in Semitic symbolism the image of receptivity, of divinely nourished life, not of quickening power’ (The Prophets of Israel, p. 411). But why should the whole verse be given to the same speaker, especially if we reject the idea that the prefixed Ephraim indicates Israel as the speaker? It is surely very difficult to assign the fourth member to Israel, as if it meant that Ephraim or Israel bore fruit to Jehovah. On the whole, it seems best to adopt the Septuagint reading, and to assign all but the third member of the verse to Jehovah. There is a special force in the restoration of the name Ephraim, if we look at the closing words of the verse. [Pusey and before him the Lutheran divine Manger assign the four lines of which the verse consists alternately to Ephraim and Jehovah.] I have heard him and observed him] Rather, I respond and look on him. The pronoun is emphatically expressed—‘I on my part.’ ‘Respond’ reminds us of Hos 2:15; Hosea 2:21-22. The idea is that Jehovah’s treatment of Israel corresponds to Israel’s treatment of him (comp. Psalms 18:25-26). ‘To look upon’ anyone is to be favourable to him (Psalms 84:9; Psalms 119:132); the opposite is ‘to hide the face from’ (Psalms 22:24; Psalms 27:9). I am like a green fir tree] The precise kind of tree meant by b’rôsh is uncertain; but Hosea, as a N. Israelite, is evidently thinking of the splendid forests of Lebanon. Most have supposed a reference to the sherbin-tree, a small kind of cypress resembling the cedar; Tristram prefers the Aleppo pine, a tree quite as characteristic of Lower Lebanon as the cedar. Certainly it is very alien to the spirit of the prophets to compare Jehovah to a tree (comp. Hosea 4:13; Isaiah 1:29). Keil refers to the ‘tree of life’; but even this is never identified with Jehovah (though Sept. identifies it with Israel, Isaiah 65:22). Is not this short clause a naïve self-gratulation on the part of Israel? Here, as in the previous clause, the personal pronoun is expressed. From me is thy fruit found] Israel cannot be the speaker here (see above). The clause contains a warning for Israel in his prosperity not to forget the Giver. Probably there is a play upon the name Ephraim ‘fruitfulness’ (as in Hosea 13:15).

Ephraim shall say, what have I to do anymore with idols? - So Isaiah fortells, “The idols He shall utterly abolish” Isaiah 2:18.

8. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do — So Targum and Peshitto. R.V. margin reproduces the Hebrew more accurately, “O Ephraim, what have I to do.” The question is spoken by Jehovah, not by Ephraim (Israel).