Hosea 6:10

10, 11. Jehovah is still the speaker. From his heavenly ‘place’ he points indignantly (as Hos_6:7) to the abominations practised ‘there’, i.e. in the whole land of Israel, for even Judah has not escaped the infection. The structure of the verses becomes more symmetrical, if we attach the concluding words of Hos_6:10 to Hos_6:11, and turn Hos_6:11 thus, altering one vowel-point, Israel is defiled; for thee also, Judah, a harvest is appointed. The Septuagint partly favours this, rendering ἐμιάνθη Ἰσραὴλ καὶ Ἰούδα. The concluding words of Hos_6:11 should rather be attached to Hos_6:1 of chap. 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.

Hos 6:10 I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there [is] the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.

Ver. 10. I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel] Now a very den of thieves, as Hos 6:9, a pantheon of all sorts of idols, a chamber of imagery, an Egyptian temple, gay and goodly without, but within an ox or calf, with "women weeping for Tammuz," Eze 8:12; Eze 8:14, that is, for Osiris, king of Egypt, whose image (under the shape of an ox) his wife, Isis, had advanced to be idolatrously there adored. This kind of abomination Jeroboam had learned in Egypt (whither he fled from Solomon, his master), and brought into the house of Israel. And whereas those idolaters said, "The Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth," Eze 8:12; "I have seen it," saith God, and been sore troubled at it, and even frightened; so as a man is quando horripilatur, when his hairs stand on end; as when the devil appeareth to him like a hairy satyr. See Lev 17:7. {See Trapp on "Lev 17:7"} Certain it is that God hateth sin (but especially idolatry, that abominable thing, as he calleth it, Jer 44:4) worse than he hateth the devil himself; for he hateth the devil for sin’s sake, and not sin for the devil’s sake. Idolatry must needs be so much the more odious to him, because therein the devil sets up himself in the place of God; and requires men (as once he did Christ himself) to fall down and worship him. See Deu 32:17 1Co 10:20 Rev 9:20. So he dealeth by the poor Indians of this day, compelling them to worship him with bodily worship, and tormenting them, if they do not, worse (if worse may be) than the cruel Spaniards; who suppose they show the wretches favour, when they do not, for their pleasure, whip them with cords, and day by day drop their naked bodies with burning bacon. The Hebrew word here used hath some letters more than ordinary in it, to increase the signification, and to show what a very horrible thing idolatry is ( שׁעריריה). {Hebrew Text Note} It is spurca pollutio, as Jer 23:14, and worse. See Jer 2:11-12; Jer 18:13, and know that God doth not use to aggravate things beyond truth, as men do, witness Nebuchadnezzar, Dan 3:14, "Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?" Or is it of set purpose? Num de industria? so Buxtorf rendereth it. Is it for the nonce, to provoke me? Or Nunquid desolatio? so Arias Montanus; as if he should say, What! you to oppose the command of a king? If this be suffered, what desolation must needs follow! But this is not God’s way; he lays no more words upon a thing than the matter amounteth to. If he call idolatry filth, fornication, abomination, a horrible thing, such as a man would start or stand aghast at, we may be sure it is so. The Septuagint here render it φρικωδη, things to be trembled at, or shrieked at. In Barbary it is death for the Xeriff’s wife, when she seeth a man, though but through a casement, not suddenly to shriek out. God is a jealous God, and allows not his to look toward an idol. If they do he will soon see it, and visit for it. "I have seen," &c.

There is the whoredom of Ephraim] Thus God looketh upon it as filthiness and nastiness which the people beheld as fineness and neatness. And the same do all (that have the mind of God, and senses exercised to discern between good and evil) judge of all the Popish pomp and palterment, wherewith they bewitch the deluded common people, as the serpent Scytale doth the fleeing passenger, whom when she cannot overtake, yet with her beautiful colours she doth so astonish and amaze him, that he hath no power to pass away till stung to death.

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 6:10-11. I have seen a horrible thing — Such an apostacy from God as cannot be mentioned without horror. There is the whoredom of Ephraim — Or rather, there, namely, in the house of Israel, BY the whoredom of Ephraim, that is, by the idolatry of Jeroboam, who was of that tribe, and first began the worship of the golden calves; Israel is defiled — The whole ten tribes are corrupted: for they soon all followed the example of Jeroboam in this idolatrous worship. Also, O Judah, he — That is, Ephraim; hath set a harvest for thee — For Ephraim, or Israel, had corrupted Judah by leading them into idolatry, and into the vices connected therewith, in consequence of which they were made ripe for destruction: for that the harvest is often a type of judgment is evident, among many other passages that might be adduced, from those quoted in the margin. When I returned the captivity of my people — Or rather, the Hebrew being in the future tense, when I shall turn, &c., (so the Vulgate,) or, more literally, and as the Seventy render it, in my turning the captivity of my people. According to this interpretation, the phrase of turning the captivity of God’s people is not to be taken in the sense in which the same phrase is generally understood in the Scriptures, namely, for bringing them out of captivity; punishment, and not a blessing, being supposed to be predicted: but the sense of the expression will be, When I shall return to make captives of my people; or, as Archbishop Newcome proposes rendering it, When I lead away the captivity of my people; that is, after I have again caused the Israelites to be carried into captivity. Tiglath-pileser first carried a part of them into captivity; then Shalmaneser carried away the remainder; and after this came Sennacherib, who wasted Judea, and laid siege to Jerusalem. Some eminent commentators, however, are of opinion, that not a judgment, but a blessing, is predicted to be conferred on Judah in this passage. They therefore translate the verse thus: But for thee, O Judah, a harvest is prepared; then when I shall bring back the captivity of my people: see Houbigant and Horsley. Mr. S. Clark’s note on the verse takes in both interpretations, thus: “And as Israel has been drawn to idolatry by Jeroboam, (Hos 6:10,) so hast thou, Judah, too: and therefore God has prepared a harvest of sorrow and sufferings for thee too, by sending thee into captivity; which yet afterward shall be turned into a harvest of joy, when thou shalt be returned out of captivity again.”

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

Hos_6:10-11 sum up the accusation. Wherever the eye of Jehovah falls, he sees a horrible thing… whoredom — The former signifies abominations and crimes of every kind (Jer_18:13); the second, the one outstanding sin, spiritual and literal whoredom.

Israel is defiled — Compare Hos_5:3. In Hos_6:11 the prophet turns to Judah. This verse and Hos_7:1 a, are thought by some to be a later addition; so that Hos_7:1 b, “uncovered is the iniquity of Ephraim,” would be the continuation of Hos_6:10. The omitted words might, indeed, be left out without affecting seriously the thought of the prophet, but that is not sufficient reason for rejecting them. LXX. differs from the Hebrew, and in some respects is to be preferred. Following LXX. part of Hos_6:11 should probably be connected with Hos_7:1, chapter vi, closing, “Also, O Judah, there is a harvest appointed to thee.”

Harvest — Figure of judgment (Joe_3:13; Jer_51:33). Judah, as corrupt as Israel, must share the latter’s fate. 11b, in the same construction as the opening words of Hos_7:1, should be taken with the latter and rendered, “When I would turn the fortune of my people, when I would heal Israel.”

Returned [“bring back”] the captivity — The Hebrew phrase which is frequently thus rendered in the Old Testament is literally turn a turning. In some cases the turning involved is the restoration from exile; in others a more general idea is expressed, a turning in the fortunes of the people, of calamity into prosperity; and this latter meaning is suitable in every place where the phrase occurs (Amo_9:14; Zep_2:7, etc.). So here, “When I would turn the fortunes of my people.”

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

6:10 something horrible: The prophet uses this rare word (also in Jer 18:13) to describe the depth of Israel’s sin in breaking God’s covenant and betraying his trust.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

horrible thing-- (Jer 5:30; Jer 18:13; Jer 23:14).

whoredom--idolatry.

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 10. I have seen a horrible thing] That is, the idolatry that prevailed in Israel to such a degree that the whole land was defiled.

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

Here God declares that he is the fit judge to take cognizance of the vices of Israel; and this he does, that he might cut off the handle of vain excuses, which hypocrites often adduce when they are reproved. Who indeed can at this day persuade the Papists that all their worship is a filthy abomination, a mere profanation? We see how furiously they rise up as soon as any one by a whisper dares to touch their superstitions. Whence this? Because they wish their own will to stand for reason. Why? Good intention, they say, is the judge; as if this good intention were, forsooth, the queen, who ought to rule in heaven and earth, and God were now excluded from all his rights. This fury and this madness, even at this day, possess the Papists; and no wonder, for Satan dementates men, when he leads them to corrupt and degenerated forms of worship, and all hypocrites have been thus inebriated from the beginning. This then is the reason why the Prophet now says in the person of God, I have seen, or do see, infamy in the kingdom of Israel. God does here by one word lay prostrate whatever men may set up for themselves, and shows that there remains no more defense for what he declares he does not approve, however much men may value and applaud it. “What! you think this to be my worship; and in your imagination, this is most holy religion, this is the way of salvation, this is extraordinary sanctity; but I on the contrary declare, that it is profanation, that it is turpitude, that it is infamy. Go now,” he says, “pass elsewhere your fopperies, with me they are of no value.”

We now understand the meaning of the Prophet, when he says, In the house of Israel have I seen infamy: and by the house of Israel the Prophet means the whole kingdom of the ten tribes. How so? “Because there is the fornication of Ephraim”; that is, there idolatry reigns, which Jeroboam introduced, and which the other kings of Israel followed.

Thus we see that the Prophet spared neither the king, nor his counselors, nor the princes of the kingdom; and he did not spare before the priests. And this magnanimity becomes all God’s servants, so that they cast down every height that rises up against the word of the Lord; as it was said to Ezekiel,

Chide mountains and reprove hills,’ (Ezekiel 6:2, 36:1.)

An example of this the Prophet sets before us, when he compares priests to robbers, and then compares royal temples to a brothel. Jeroboam had built a temple in which he thought that God would be in the best manner worshipped; but this, says the Prophet, is a brothel, this is filthy fornication.

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.

(10) House of Israel.—This phrase means Ephraim and Judah subsequently discriminated. The “horrible thing” refers to polluting idolatry. This peculiar word occurs again in Jeremiah. According to the punctuation of the Hebrew the reciter hesitates before pronouncing the “horrible thing” which grated through his teeth.

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

I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel,.... Idolatry, the calves set up at Dan and Bethel, which God saw with abhorrence and detestation; or the prophet saw it, and it made his hair stand on end as it were, as the word (g) signifies, that such wickedness should be committed by a professing people:

there is the whoredom of Ephraim; in the house of Israel is the whoredom of Jeroboam, who was of the tribe of Ephraim, and caused Israel to sin, to go a whoring after idols; or the whoredom of the tribe of Ephraim, which belonged to the house of Israel, and even of all the ten tribes; both corporeal and spiritual whoredom, or idolatry, are here meant:

Israel is defiled; with whoredom of both kinds; it had spread itself all over the ten tribes; they were all infected with it, and polluted by it; see Hos 5:3.

(g) a "pilus".

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

I have seen a horrible thing - Literally, “what would make one shudder.” God had seen it; therefore man could not deny it. In the sight of God, and amid the sense of His presence, all excuses fail.

In the house of Israel - o: “For what more horrible, more amazing than that this happened, not in any ordinary nation but “in the house of Israel,” in the people of God, in the portion of the Lord, as Moses said, “the Lord’s portion is His people, Jacob is the lot of His inheritance?” In another nation, idolatry was error. In Israel, which had the knowledge of the one true God and had received the law, it was horror.” “There is the whoredom of Ephraim,” widespread, over the whole land, wherever the house of Ephraim was, through the whole kingdom of the ten tribes, “there” was its spiritual adultery and defilement.

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

I have seen: it may be understood of the prophet speaking what he had seen; or of God, who seeth now, and hath seen,

an horrible thing, a very horrible thing, as some observe from the word, in the house of Israel, the ten tribes.

The whoredom, idolatry,

of Ephraim; which was brought in by an Ephraimite, by Jeroboam the First, two hundred years ago, and it is there still.

Israel is defiled; it hath overspread all Israel, none free, but all defiled greatly with it.

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

I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled. The house of Israel comprises

(1) the ten tribes of the northern kingdom, according to some; it seems more correct

(2) to understand it of the whole nation, including both the northern and southern kingdoms, in which case the remainder of the verse relates to the northern kingdom of the ten tribes, and the succeeding verse to the southern kingdom of the two tribes. Further, Israel is not synonymous with the parallel Ephraim, as Keil thinks; the latter is the principal tribe which led the way in Israel"s apostasy. The "horrible thing" comprehends every sort of crime and abomination; while the" whoredom," literal or spiritual, is specified as an example thereof. (For the explanation of "there," see on ver. 7)

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

The whoredom - Idolatry. Of Ephraim - Which was brought in by an Ephraimite, by Jeroboam, two hundred years ago, and is there still. Israel is defiled - It hath overspread all Israel.

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

General Information:

Yahweh is speaking.

Ephraim's prostitution

Here "prostitution" refers to Ephraim's worship of false gods. (See: Metonymy)

Israel has become unclean

Israel has become unacceptable to God because of her actions.

For you also, Judah, a harvest has been appointed

This can be stated in active form. AT: "I have set a time of harvest for you also, Judah" (See: Active or Passive)

harvest

Here "harvest" represents God's final judgment on Israel and Judah. (See: Metaphor)

fortunes

prosperity and security

translationWords

house

Israel

Ephraim

prostitute

clean

Judah

harvest

appoint

restore

people group

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

a horrible thing Heb. שַׁעֲרוּרִיָה. Jonathan renders this as an expression of change, for they changed their way, and so: (Jer. 5:20) “an appalling and horrible thing (שֲעֲרוּרָה).”

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.