Hosea 12:14

Hos 12:14 Ephraim provoked [him] to anger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him.

Ver. 14. Ephraim hath provoked him to anger, most bitterly] Heb. with bitterness, or unto bitter displeasure, or with bitter things, that is, sins that embitter God’s Spirit and put thunderbolts into his hands. Excusserunt ex suavissimo pectore meo suavitatem. As a bee stings not till provoked, so neither doth God punish till there be no remedy, 2Ch 36:16. If Ephraim will provoke him to anger (which he will not dare to do to his landlord), if he will put it to the trial, whether God can be angry, as those did (εδοκιμασαν), Heb 3:9, he shall know the power of his wrath, Psa 90:11, he shall feel, to his sorrow, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that he hath forsaken the Lord, and that his fear is not in them, Jer 2:19. There will be bitterness in the end. Principium dulce est, sed finis amoris amarus. Amor amaror. Lust is a lie, as Amnon proved. "Her end is bitter as wormwood, though her lips drop as an honeycomb," saith Solomon of sinful pleasure, Pro 5:3. It is like Jonathan’s honey, or Esau’s pottage, or Judas’ thirty pence, which he would gladly have been rid of, but could not. Those that provoke God shall one day hear, "Do ye provoke me to anger? Are ye stronger than I?" they shall be taught to meddle with their match, and not to contend with him that is mightier than they, Ecc 6:10; they shall cry out in the bitterness of their souls, as Lam 3:15, "He hath filled me with bitternesses, he hath made me drunk with wormwood." And God shall reply, as Jer 4:18, "Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; and this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter."

Therefore shall he leave his blood upon him] God shall bring upon him deserved destruction; he shall bring him into the fire, and leave him there, Eze 22:20; the guilt of his sin shall remain upon his soul, and then punishment cannot be far off. See Eze 24:7-8; cf. Eze 18:13 Jos 2:19. Or, the enemy shall leave him all bloody.

And his reproach shall his Lord return unto him] His Lord, not the Assyrian, as some sense it, but his liege lord (whom he hath reproached, by changing his glory into the similitude of a calf, and other corruptible things), shall cry quittance with him, as Hos 12:2, cast utter contempt upon him, according to 1Sa 2:30, and make him know that he is his Lord.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ephraim provoked - the Lord most bitterly Literally, “with bitternesses,” i. e., with most heinous sins, such as are most grievously displeasing to God, and were a most bitter requital of all His goodness. “Wherefore He shall leave” (or, “cast”) “his blood” (literally, “bloods”) “upon him.” The plural “bloods” expresses the manifoldness of the bloodshed . It is not used in Holy Scripture of mere guilt. Ephraim had shed blood profusely, so that it ran like water in the land (see the notes above at Hos 4:2; Hos 5:2). He had sinned with a high hand against God, in destroying man made in the image of God. Amid that bloodshed, had been the blood not of the innocent only, but of those whom God sent to rebuke them for their idolatry, their rapine, their bloodshed. “Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord” 1Ki 18:4, as far as in her lay, with a complete excision. Ephraim thought his sins past; they were out of his sight; he thought that they were out of God’s also; but they were laid up with God; and God, the prophet says, would cast them down upon him, so that they would crush him.

And his reproach shall his Lord return unto him - For the blood which he had shed, should his own blood be shed, for the reproaches which he had in divers ways cast against God or brought upon Him, he should inherit reproach. Those who rebel against God, bring reproach on Him by their sins, reproach Him by their excuses for their sins reproach Him in those whom He sends to recall them from their sins, reproach Him for chastening them for their sins. All who sin against the knowledge of God, bring reproach upon Him by acting sinfully against that knowledge. So Nathan says to David, “Thou hast given much occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme” 2Sa 12:14. The reproachful words of the enemies of God are but the echo of the opprobrious deeds of His unfaithful servants. The reproach is therefore, in an special manner, “their reproach” who caused it. All Israel’s idolatries had this aggravation.

Their worship of the calves or of Baal or of any other gods of the nations, was a triumph of the false gods over God. Then, all sin must find some plea for itself, by impugning the wisdom or goodness of God who forbad it. Jeroboam, and Ephraim by adhering to Jeroboam’s sin reproached God, as though the going up to Jerusalem was a hard service. “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” : “It was an open injury and reproach to God, to attribute to dead lifeless things those great and wonderful things done by Him for them.” All the reproach, which they, in these ways, brought, or cast upon God, he says, “his Lord shall return” or “restore” to them. Their’s it was; He would give it back to them, as He says, “Them that honor Me, I will honor; and they that despise Me, shall be lightly esteemed” 1Sa 2:30.

Truly shame and reproach have been for centuries the portion of God’s unfaithful people. To those who are lost, He gives back their reproach, in that they “rise to reproaches Dan 12:2 and everlasting abhorrence . It is an aggravation of this misery, that He who shall “give back to him” his reproach, had been “his God.” Since “his God” was against him, who could be for him? “For whither should we go for refuge, save to Him? If we find wrath with Him, with whom should we find ruth?” Ephraim did not, the sinner will not, allow God to be “his God” in worship and service and love: but whether he willed or no, God would remain his Lord. He was, and might still have been their Lord for good; they would not have Him so, and so they should find Him still their Lord, as an Avenger, returning their own evil to them.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Hos_12:14

Therefore shall He leave his blood upon him.

The blood-figure: sin and guilt left upon the sinner

That is, he shall bring his sin upon his own head. Those that be wilful in sin, their blood be upon their own heads that is the meaning. Never stand excusing any more, you have warning enough. If you will go on in your way, the blood be upon your own head, you will undo yourselves, and there is no help. Mark the phrase, Therefore shall He leave his blood upon him. When God brings the guilt and punishment of sin on a mans own head, and there leaves it, that is sad indeed. It is happiness when it may be said of God, He has made the sin and the guilt to pass away from the sinner. But on the other side, when God leaves the sin, with its attendant guilt, upon the sinner, there is woe indeed. The Lord many times brings His saints unto the fire of afflictions, but He will not leave them there; but when He brings the wicked into the fire, there He leaves them. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)

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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hos 12:14. Ephraim provoked him to anger, &c. — Notwithstanding all God’s favours showed to these people and their ancestors, they provoked him by their idolatries and other sins in a most outrageous manner. The word תמורים, translated, most bitterly, some render, with his bitterness; that is, by his wicked or impious deeds; and Schindler renders it, by his heaps, that is, his altars. Therefore shall he have his blood upon him — The Chaldee paraphrase renders it, His blood shall return upon him. Ephraim’s wickedness, and in particular the innocent blood he has shed, shall bring down punishment or destruction upon him. And his reproach shall his Lord return unto him — The reproach which Ephraim hath cast upon the prophets, upon the worshippers of God, and on God himself, in preferring idols before him, shall God, who is Lord of all, recompense upon him, in making him a reproach and by-word among the heathen. Instead of his Lord, Bp. Horsley reads, his Master, that is, says he, “his conqueror, who shall hold him in servitude, and be the instrument of God’s just vengeance to him.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

provoked him--that is, God.

leave his blood upon him--not take away the guilt and penalty of the innocent blood shed by Ephraim in general, and to Moloch in particular.

his reproach shall his Lord return unto him--Ephraim's dishonor to God in worshipping idols, God will repay to him. That God is "his Lord" by right redemption and special revelation to Ephraim only aggravates his guilt, instead of giving him hope of escape. God does not give up His claim to them as His, however they set aside His dominion.

Next: Hosea Chapter 13

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 14. Therefore shall he leave his blood upon him] He will not remove his guilt. These are similar to our Lord's words, Joh 3:36; Joh 9:41: "He that believeth not on the Son of God, shall not see life, for the wrath of God ABIDETH ON HIM" - shall not be removed by any remission, as he rejects the only way in which he can be saved. Because ye say, We see; therefore, YOUR SIN REMAINETH, i.e., it still stands charged against you. Your miseries and destruction are of your own procuring; your perdition is of yourselves. God is as merciful as he is just.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Prophet says first, that Ephraim had provoked God by his high places Some, however, take the word תמרורים, tamerurim, for bitternesses. Then it is, “Israel or Ephraim have provoked God to bitterness.” But since this word in other places as in the thirty-first of Jeremiah, is taken for high places and as it clearly appears that the Prophet here inveighs avowedly against Israel and their vicious worship, I doubt not but that he points out these high places in which the Israelites appointed their false and impious modes of worship. Ephraim then have provoked him with their high places: Ephraim having in so many ways immersed themselves in their superstitions, provoked God in their high places.

Then his blood shall remain on him. As the word נתש, nuthesh, signifies “to pour out,” and signifies also to “remain,” some render it, “His blood shall remain;” others “Shall be poured upon him.” But this makes but a little difference as to what is meant; for the Prophet intends to show, that Ephraim would have to suffer the punishment of their impiety; as though he said, “They shall not at last escape from the hand of God, they shall receive the wages of their iniquities.”

And his reproach shall his Lord return unto him Here he calls God himself the Lord of Israel, though Israel had shaken off the yoke, and alienated themselves from the service of God. They cannot, he says, escape the authority of God, though they have spurned his law; though they have become wanton in their superstitions, they shall yet know that they remain under the hand and power of God, they shall know that they effect nothing by this their petulance; though they thus wander after their abominations, yet the Lord will not lose his right, which he had obtained for himself by redeeming Israel. Their Lord then shall render to them their own reproach, of which they are worthy.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(14) But the rift in the clouds closes again, and another severe rebuke follows. “Jacob” and “Israel” give place to the proud tribal name of Ephraim. This portion of the whole house of Israel incurs the charge. Read, Ephraim hath provoked bitter feeling. The bloodguiltinese of Moloch sacrifices and other iniquity God will not remove. (Comp. Gen_27:43; Gen_27:28-29, for the foundation of these references.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. This verse would be less abrupt if it immediately followed Hos_12:11, of which it might be taken to furnish a fuller justification.

provoked] Rather, hath provoked.

therefore shall he leave his blood] Rather, and his bloodshed will he cast; i.e. Jehovah will bring sudden retribution upon him for his bloodguiltiness (comp. Hos_1:4, Hos_4:2).

his reproach] i.e., the insult to Jehovah in Israel’s idolatry (comp. Isa_65:7).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly,.... The Vulgate Latin version supplies it, me; that is, God, as Kimchi; or his Lord, as it may be supplied from the last clause of the verse; the sense is the same either way: it was God that Ephraim or the ten tribes provoked to stir up his wrath and vengeance against them; notwithstanding all the favours that they and their ancestors had received from him, they provoked him in a most bitter manner, to bitter anger, vehement wrath and fury: or, "with bitternesses" (n); with their sins, which are in their own nature bitter, displeasing to God; and in their effects bring bitterness and death on those that commit them; meaning particularly their idolatry, and all belonging to it; their idols, high places, altars, &c. The word here used is rendered "high heaps" (o), Jer 31:21; and is here by Kimchi interpreted of altars, with which, and their sacrifices on them, they provoked the Lord to anger:

therefore shall he leave his blood upon him; the blood of innocent persons, prophets, and other good men shed by him; the sin of it shall be charged upon him, and he shall bear the punishment of it. So the Targum,

"the fault of innocent blood which he shed shall return upon him:''

or "his own blood shall be poured out upon him" (p); in just retaliation for the blood of others shed by him, and for all the blood sired by him in idolatrous sacrifices, and other bloody sins; or his own blood being shed by the enemy shall remain upon him unrevenged; God will not punish those that shed it:

and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him: that is, as he has reproached the prophets of the Lord for reproving him for his idolatry, and reproached fire Lord himself, by revolting from him, and neglecting his worship, and preferring the worship of idols to him; so, as a just recompence, he shall be delivered up into the hands of the enemy, and become a reproach, a taunt, and a proverb, in all places into which he shall be brought. God is called "his Lord", though he had rebelled against him, and shook off his yoke, and would not obey him; yet, whether he will or not, he is his Lord, and will show himself to be so by his sovereignty and authority over him, and by the judgments exercised on him. Some understand this of the Assyrian king, become his lord, by taking and carrying him captive, the instrument in God's hand of bringing him to reproach; but the former sense seems best.

(n) "amaritudinibus", Pagninus, Vatablus, Piscator, Schmidt. (o) And is so understood by R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 64. 1. (p) , Sept. so Syr. & Ar. "ideo sanguis ejus super eum diffundetur, sive effundetur", Zanchius.

Next: Hosea Chapter 13

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Him. He shall suffer for his crimes. (Menochius) --- He can blame only himself. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly: after all the means used from time to time to reclaim idolatrous sinning Israel, yet still they provoked God to indignation by their idolatries, perjuries, oppressions, murders, and all manner of sins which use to be rife among idolaters; these things were bitterness unto God.

Therefore, seeing he will incorrigibly persist as he hath begun, and end in sin and misery,

shall he leave his blood upon him; he shall bear the guilt and punishment of all his blood, his murders of the innocent, of those that testified against him, and, as one who hath murdered himself, shall bear his own guilt too.

His reproach, which Ephraim hath east upon the prophets and pious worshippers of God, all the reproach Ephraim hath cast on God, preferring idols before him,

shall his Lord return unto him; either God, who is Lord of all, or the Assyrian king and his princes, lording it over captive Ephraim; God shall by these return the shame on Ephraim which he cast on God, his worship, temple, and prophets.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

14. Surely Jehovah was justified in expecting gratitude; but he was disappointed.

Ephraim — Israel (13).

Provoked… to anger — By its lack of gratitude and open rebellion. The anger of Jehovah is one phase of his holiness, which manifests itself in intense love for everything that is pure and good and in intense hatred for everything that is impure and bad.

Blood — Bloodguiltiness (G.-K., 124n).

Shall he leave — R.V., “shall… be left.” The Hebrew verb is even stronger, “shall be thrust upon him.”

Under no consideration will it be removed, and being left upon the criminal it will surely bring punishment.

His reproach — Or, insult; the dishonor heaped upon Jehovah by the sin and rebellion of Ephraim (Isa_65:7).

Unto him — Ephraim “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ephraim provoked him to auger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him. Instead of humble thankfulness and due devotedness, Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly. Therefore his blood-guiltiness and consequent punishment are left upon him; his sin and its consequences are not taken away. The dishonor done to God by Ephraim"s idolatry and sins shall bring back a sure recompense and severe retribution.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

His blood - He shall bear the punishment of all his blood; his murders of the innocent, and his own guilt too. His reproach - Which Ephraim hath cast upon the prophets, the worshippers of God, and on God; preferring idols before him. His Lord - God who is Lord of all.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

And, through a prophet, the Lord brought up etc. And, insofar as you disgrace the prophets and mock their words, is it not so that through a prophet God brought us etc.?

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.