Hosea 4:19

Hos 4:19 The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Ver. 19. The wind hath bound her up in her wings] The evil spirit (saith Jerome) hurries them towards hell, which is the just hire of the least sin; how much more of these afore mentioned abominations! Take it rather to be spoken of the suddenness, swiftness, and unresistableness of God’s judgments, set forth by mighty winds rending the rocks, and tearing up the mountains by the roots, Job 38:9. How then shall wicked men (compared to chaff or "dust of the mountains") stand before the tempest of God’s wrath, the thunder of his power? Well they may applaud and stroke themselves for a time; but the wind shall bind them up in her wings; God shall blow them to destruction, Job 4:9 : his executioners have the "wings of a stork," large and long, and "wind in those wings," to note their ready obedience, Zec 5:9. And although, Eze 1:26, God be represented as sitting upon a throne to show his slowness to punish, yet that "throne hath wings and hands under those wings," to show his swiftness and readiness to do seasonable execution upon his enemies.

And they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices] Wherein they trusted, but now see themselves disappointed, their idols not able to help them. Then shall they cast their idols of silver and of gold, which they have made each for himself to worship, "to the moles and to the bats, to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks," Isa 2:20-21; see also Isa 30:22. If they be not thus ashamed of their former fopperies, they are the more to be pitied, Illum ego periisse dice cui periit pudor. He is an undone man that shames not, does not hesitate for his evil practices, that blusheth not, bleedeth not before God for them, lying down in his shame, Jer 3:25, as fully ashamed of his former hopes, Psa 119:116, which now he seeth how far they have abused him.

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.

Hos_4:19

The wind hath bound her up in her wings.

Retributive justice

The simple meaning is that Israel shall be borne away from her land, suddenly and violently, as by the winds of heaven. There is retributive justice in the universe.

I. Its emblem. The wind. It is like wind--

1. In its agitation. Wind is a disturbance or agitation of the atmosphere, The average condition of the air is silence and serenity. The normal condition of Divine government is quiet. It has no tempest where there is no wickedness.

2. In its violence. Power is in the wind. Cambyses being once in the wilderness with the soldiers, a strong and violent wind broke forth and buried thousands of them in the sand. Who can stand before retributive justice when it comes forth in its power?

II. Its effect. Ashamed because of the sacrifices.

1. The shame of disappointment. All plans broken, all purposes thwarted, all hopes destroyed.

2. The shame of exposure. The wicked always live in masquerade, they always appear to be what they are not. Retributive justice takes off the mask.

3. The shame of remorse. This is the most burning shame of all. It sends its fires down into the very centre of mans being, and sets all the moral nerves aflame. Let the wicked take warning. Let not the present stillness of their atmosphere deceive them. Their sins are generating a heat that must, sooner or later, so disturb the elements about them as to bring on ruin. (Homilist.)

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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 4:19. The wind hath bound her up in her wings — Or rather, binds, or, is binding her up, the present tense being put to denote instant futurity. The passage is strongly figurative, to signify that they should be suddenly taken away out of their country, and carried with irresistible force, and incredible speed, into a distant land. It is not unusual, in other writers, to attribute wings to the winds, to express their swiftness; and when any thing is said to be bound up in the wings of the wind, the expression must signify its being taken far away with great celerity. “An admirable image this,”

says Bishop Horsley, “of the condition of a people, torn by a conqueror from their native land, scattered in exile to the four quarters of the world, and living thenceforward without any settled residence of their own, liable to be moved about at the will of arbitrary masters, like a thing tied to the wings of the wind, obliged to go with the wind which ever way it set, but never suffered for a moment to lie still. The image is striking now; but must have been more striking when a bird with expanded wings, or a huge pair of wings, without head or body, was the hieroglyphic of the element of the air, or rather of the general mundane atmosphere, one of the most irresistible of physical agents.” And they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices — They shall be confounded to find, by experience, that all their sacrifices to idols have profited them nothing, but brought severe calamities upon them.

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

To carry them suddenly away.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Israel shall be swept away from her land (Hos 4:16) suddenly and violently as if by "the wings of the wind" (Psa 18:10; Psa 104:3; Jer 4:11-12).

ashamed . . . of their sacrifices--disappointed to their shame in their hope of help through their sacrifices to idols.

Next: Hosea Chapter 5

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 19. The wind hath bound her] A parching wind has blasted them in their wings - coasts, borders; or they are carried away into captivity, as with the most rapid blight. These two last verses are very obscure.

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

If this rendering be approved, The wind hath bound her in its wings, the meaning is, that a sudden storm would sweep away the people, and thus would they be made ashamed of their sacrifices. So the past tense is to be taken for the future. We may indeed read the words in the past tense, as though the Prophet was speaking of what had already taken place. The wind, then, has already swept away the people; by which he intimates, that they seemed to have struck long and deep roots in their superstitions, but that the Lord had already given them up to the wind, that it might hold them tied in its wings. And wings, we know, is elsewhere ascribed to the wind, Psalm 104:3. And thus the verse will be throughout a denunciation of vengeance.

The other similitude or metaphor is the most appropriate, and harmonizes better with the subject; for were not men to support their minds with vain confidence, they could never with so much audacity despise God’s word. Hence they are said to tie the wind in their wings; being unmindful of their own condition, they attempt as by means of the wind to fly; but when they proudly raise up themselves, they have no support but the wind. Let us now proceed —

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.

19. The wind hath bound her up in her wings] A figure for the suddenness and violence with which the enemy should carry Israel away into exile (comp. Isa_57:13), The perfect is that of prophetic certitude.

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.

The wind hath bound her up in her wings,.... That is, the wind in its wings hath bound up Ephraim, Israel, or the ten tribes, compared to a heifer; meaning, that the wind of God's wrath and vengeance, or the enemy, the Assyrian, should come like a whirlwind, and carry them swiftly, suddenly, and irresistibly, out of their own land, into a foreign country: the past tense for the future, as is common in prophecy, because of the certainty of it; so Jarchi and Joseph Kimchi: but Aben Ezra, David Kimchi, Abarbinel, and Abendana, render it "she", that is, Israel, "hath bound up the wind in her wings" (b); meaning that they had laboured in vain in their idolatrous worship; and it was all one as if a than should attempt to gather the wind, and bind it up in the skirts of his garment, and when he opens them there is nothing to be found: and to this sense is the Targum,

"the works of their great men are not right, as it is impossible to bind the wind in a wing;''

referring to the sins of their rulers, as before: or rather the sense is, the wind shall get into the loose skirts of the garments of, he Israelites, which shall be as a sail to it, as Schmidt observes, and shall carry them into distant lands; which falls in with the first sense of the words, and is best:

and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices: they of the ten tribes, the people of Israel; or their shields, their rulers, as Aben Ezra, shall be filled with shame, being disappointed of the help they expected from their idols, to whom they offered sacrifices; and the more, inasmuch as they will find that these idolatrous sacrifices are the cause of their ruin and destruction. The Targum is,

"because of the altars of their idols;''

and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, "because of their altars".

(b) "ligavit illa ventum in alis suis", Munster, Calvin, Tigurine version.

Next: Hosea Chapter 5

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

The wind hath bound her up in her wings - When God brought Israel out of Egypt, He “bare them on eagle’s wings, and brought them unto Himself” Exo 19:4; Deu 32:11. Now they had abandoned God, and God abandoned them as chaff to the wind. The certainty of Israel’s doom is denoted by its being spoken of in the past. It was certain in the divine judgment. Sudden, resistless, irreversible are God’s judgments, when they come. As if “imprisoned in the viewless winds,” and “borne with resistless violence,” as it were on the wings of the whirlwind, Israel should be hurried by the mighty wrath of God into captivity in a distant land, bound up so that none should escape, but, when arrived there, dispersed here and there, as the chaff before the wind.

And they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices - They had sacrificed to the calves, to Baal, or to the sun, moon, stars, hoping aid from them rather than from God. When then they should see, in deed, that from those their sacrifices no good came to them, but evil only, they should be healthfully ashamed. So, in fact, in her captivity, did Israel learn to be ashamed of her idols; and so does GOd by healthful disappointment, make us ashamed of seeking out of Him, the good things, which He alone hath, and hath in store for them who love Him.

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

Wings. They shall be quickly removed hence. (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).

The whirlwind of wrath from God hath already seized this old adulteress, and carried some of her children away already, 2Ki 15:19,29. Execution of judgment is already begun, and therefore, O Judah, keep distance from Ephraim.

They shall be ashamed; greatly confounded and disappointed of their hopes: as thou, O Judah, wouldst prevent this shame, flee the society of these idolaters.

Because of their sacrifices; what they made their confidence shall be their shame, their own idols cannot help them. but their idolatry shall surely undo them. Their idols which they worshipped and depended on shall be their shame and confusion, for thy God, O Judah, hath cursed such people. Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols, Psa 97:7. If Israel do, yet, O Judah, do not thou so.

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

Retributive justice.

"The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices." The simple meaning of this is, Israel shall be borne away from her land, suddenly and violently, as by the winds of heaven. There is retributive justice in the universe. Men are slow to discern it, and it often moves so silently and secretly as to elude the dim vision of the wicked. Still it is in existence, and it works like the thunderstorm; it may sleep silently in the heavens for some time, but break into tempest and fury it must, sooner or later. The verse leads us to notice two things in relation to this retributive justice.

I ITS EMBLEM. It is here compared to the "wind." Why is it like "wind?

1. In its agitatior. Wind is a disturbance or an agitation of the atmosphere. The average condition of the air is silence and serenity. The normal condition of Divine government is quiet, it has no tempest where there is not wickedness. The growing heat of sin so disturbs it that it often breaks into an all-devastating fury, it is like "wind.

2. In its violent. There is often a mighty power in the wind. It sometimes rends the mountains and breaks in pieces the rocks." It has overturned the "mountains by the roots;" it has "broken the cedars, even the cedars of Lebanon, and shaken the wilderness." Cambyses being once in the wilderness with the soldiers, a strong and violent wind broke and buried thousands of them in the sand. Who can stand before retributive justice when it comes forth in its power? "The wind hath bound her up in her wings." Avenging justice binds its victim up, and carries it away whether it be an individual, a nation, or a world as tempests carry off the chaff.

II ITS EFFECT. And they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices." Shame moral shame, the primary element in the soul"s hell ever comes to the victim of retributive justice.

1. There is the shame of disappointment. All plans broken, all purposes thwarted, all hopes destroyed. "Let me not be ashamed of my hope," said David.

2. There is the shame of exposure. The wicked always live in masquerade; they always appear to be what they are not; they are necessarily hypocrites. Retributive justice takes off the mask and lays bare their hearts in all their revolting foulness.

3. There is the shame of remorse. This is the most burning shame of all. It sends its fires down into the very center of man"s being, and sets all the moral nerves aflame.

CONCLUSION. Take warning, ye wicked sons of men; let not the present stillness of your atmosphere deceive you; your sins are generating a heat that must sooner or later so disturb the elements about you, as to bring on you ruin and fill you with "shame and confusion of face." A year has ended. Let the good man pause, And think, for he can think, of all its crime And toil and suffering. Nature has her laws That will not brook infringement; in all time, All circumstances, all states, in every clime, She holds aloft the same avenging sword; And, sitting on her boundless throne sublime, The vials of her wrath, with justice stored, Shall, in her own good hour, on all that"s ill be poured. (James Gates Percival.) D.T.

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

The wind - The whirlwind of wrath from God hath seized this old adulteress, and carried some of her children away already. They shall be ashamed - What they made their confidence, shall be their shame.

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

The wind has bound her up in its wings The wind has attached itself to its wings, like a bird, which the wind does not permit to alight until it bears it off into the distance. So will the enemies come upon them and drive them into exile.

and they shall be ashamed of their altars Heb. מִזְבְּחוֹתָם, of the altars of their deities (lit. their abominations), to which they do not turn. Now, just as חֵטְא, sin, can be stated in the feminine as חֲטָאָה, so can one say, instead of זֶבח, זִבְחָה, which denotes the places where they would sacrifice. And so did Jonathan render: of the altars of their abominations. Addendum according to Abarbanel: I found a Midrash Tanhuma, where it is an expression of tying, like a man who threatens a person who provokes him, “[I swear] by your life that I will tie it to you at your end.” So does this verse threaten Israel: “My zeal and My fury are tied up to avenge Myself at the end, and they will be ashamed of their deeds.”

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.