Hosea 7:10

Hos 7:10 And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all this.

Ver. 10. And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face] Sept. the ignominy, or impudence of Israel: q.d. They think to brave it out in a stout and stomachful way. Low they are, but not lowly; humbled, but not humble. God thrust him downward, as it were with a thump on the back; but he stood stouting it out with him; and so discovered a great deal of arrogance and folly. Plectimur, may such say, nec tamen flectimur; Corripimur sed non corrigimur (Salvian.). We have been stricken, but not sick; beaten, but not sensible, &c.; the drunkards’ ditty, Pro 23:35. When for all this, for all that God can do to tame them, and turn them again, they will on in their wicked ways, and not "accept the punishment of their iniquities"; not confess and forsake their sins, that they have mercy; not seek him, that is, come unto him by faith, Heb 11:6, and subject themselves unto him by true obedience, 2Ch 7:14, this is such a piece of pride as testifieth to men’s faces, that they deserve to be destroyed; this is wickedness with a witness; this is fastus adeo enormis atque notorius, saith Pareus, such horrible and notorious insolence, as is not to be endured. God complains of Israel for this with a sigh, Ah sinful nation, &c., and resolves upon revenge, Hos 7:12. {See Trapp on "Hos 5:5"} of turning to God. See Zec 1:3, and of seeking God, see Hos 5:15.

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_7:10

They do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek Him for this.

Our sin

I. The duty of seeking God. In the Scriptures this stands for the whole of religion. Religion is thus substantially expressed for two reasons--because it is with God that we have principally to do. Our principal dependence is upon Him; our principal expectations are from Him; our principal connections are with Him. And because, before we can have anything to do with Him, we must find Him. Morally and spiritually considered, we are away from God, and God is away from us. We have left Him criminally, and He has left us penalty. Our first concern, therefore, is to find God, and for this purpose we are to seek after Him. See four purposes for which we are to seek God, and which enter essentially into genuine religion.

1. We are to seek to know Him. Here genuine religion begins.

2. We must seek to enjoy Him, and in order to this we must be reconciled. Till His anger is turned away from us, He cannot comfort us.

3. We are to seek to serve Him. He is our Master to obey and to wait upon.

4. We must seek to resemble Him. It is the essence of religion, to be like Him whom we worship. You cannot resemble His natural perfections; you can His moral perfections.

II. The neglect of this duty. They do not seek the Lord their God. Are there no exceptions? Yes, God always has His remnant. But the language of Scripture is awful upon this subject. Its language implies generality, if it does not imply universality. Glance at five classes of delinquents.

1. Infidels. Who deny, at least, the moral providence and government of God, and also a future state.

2. The profligate. These hide not their sin as Sodom, but publish it like unto Gomorrah.

3. The careless. Who are indifferent to everything of a religious nature.

4. Formalists. Who have a name that they live, but are dead.

5. Partial seekers. Whose goodness is like the morning cloud. Not always insincere at the time. Their religion is dependent upon external excitements. This is enough to refute the lies you find in all our churchyards, where every tombstone and every headstone tells you that all the parish has gone to heaven, or is going there.

III. The aggravation of this neglect. They seek not the Lord their God for all this. All what? How various and numerous are the means which God is providing, and which He perpetually employs as the prevention of sin and the excitements to holiness; or to induce men to seek the Lord their God. What are they? Profusion of benefits in nature, providence, and grace. The Scriptures, which men have in their own hand, and in their own tongue. Sending His ministers, so that men can hear the words of eternal life. The power of conscience. The various addresses, reproofs, admonitions, encouragements, derived from their various connections, father, mother, etc. Afflictions. Public calamities. The Jews were threatened with four very sore judgments.

1. From wild and noisome beasts.

2. From war.

3. From famine.

4. Pestilence.

Here we recently have awfully resembled them. The sermon was preached on the day of national humiliation on account of the cholera. But repentance is never produced by unmixed terror. Terror may drive, but goodness alone leads to repentance. You are not to yield entirely to the seducements of croaking and brooding. Close with a reflection, turning on the goodness of God and depravity of man. The goodness of God, who sees all sins, and yet forbears. The depravity of man, in that the beneficiaries are constantly neglecting and opposing their kind Benefactor. How the goodness of God and the depravity of man have been displayed in our country. Apply to individuals. Individualise you in your gratitude, your penitence, your danger, and your hope. (William Jay.)

Will not be humbled

1. God expects we should turn upon affliction.

2. Afflictions, if not sanctified, will never turn the heart.

3. It is a great aggravation of mens sins not to turn under afflictions.

4. Though afflictions may work repentance, yet such repentance is seldom true; it will not often sustain the trial.

5. True repentance is rather a seeking of Gods face than our own case from afflictions. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)

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

Hos_7:10. Pride is observed to defeat its own ends, by bringing the man who seeks esteem and reverence into contempt [Bolingbroke].

“Pride hath no other glass

To show itself, but pride; for supple knees

Feed arrogance, and are the proud man’s fees,” Shakspeare.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Repetition of Hos 5:5.

not return to . . . Lord . . . for all this--notwithstanding all their calamities (Isa 9:13).

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 10. The pride of Israel] The same words as at Ho 5:6, where see the note. See Clarke on Ho 5:6.

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

The Prophet now confirms his previous doctrine, and speaks generally, that the pride of Israel shall bear testimony to him to his face, or shall humble him to his face. The word ענה, one, means, in Hebrew, “to testify,” and often, also, “to humble,” or “to afflict,” as it was stated in the fifth chapter; and the words of the Prophet are now the same, and both senses are appropriate. I do not, however, make much of this, for the design of the Prophet is clear; what he means is, that God had so openly chastised the Israelites, that they must have perceived his hand, except they were blind indeed, and that, being at the same time warned, they ought to have suppliantly humbled themselves. Whether then we read, “to testify” or “to humble,” the sense will be the same, and the design of the Prophet will appear to be the same. “The pride, then, of Israel will humble him to his face,” or, “the pride of Israel will testify to his face:” for the Prophet means, that however fiercely the Israelites might rise up against God, and be uncourteous to his Prophets and however perversely they might reject all teaching, and also excuse their own sins, yet all this would avail them nothing, since they were so cast down by their pride, that the Lord regarded them as convicted as much so as if their crime had been proved by many witnesses, and their mask now taken away; in short, there was no longer any doubt: this is what the Prophet means.

The pride, then, of Israel testifies, or, humbles him to his face; that is, though Israel had appeared hitherto inflexible against all admonitions, against all punishments, they were yet held as convicted; and, at the same time, they return not, he says, to their God, and seek him not for all these things We now perceive what I have said, that the previous complaint respecting the diabolical perverseness which so reigned in the people is here confirmed, so that their salvation was now past hope. And he says that they returned not to Jehovah their God; for they were running constantly after their idols, as we have before seen; yea, they were possessed with that inordinate zeal of which the Prophet speaks in the beginning of the chapter; but they returned not to Jehovah; they were wholly taken up with the multitude of their deities, and at the same time had no regard for God.

And when he says, their God, he conveys a strong reprobation; for God had manifested himself to them; yea, he had made himself plainly known to them by his law. That they then did not return to him, was not simply through ignorance or error; but through a diabolical madness, as if they wished of their own accord and deliberately to perish. God then calls himself here the God of Israel, not for honour’s sake, but that he might the more expose their ingratitude, and enhance their perfidiousness, because they had fallen away from him, and would not seek him.

What he means, when he says, For all these things, is, that every kind of remedy had been tried, and hence that their disease was wholly incurable. When we can do nothing in one way, we often try another. Now God had not tried in one way only to bring Israel back to himself, but he had tried all remedies. When no good followed, what was to be said, but the people were lost, and past all hope? This then is what the Prophet means here. It now follows —

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) See Note on Hos_5:5.

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

10. And the pride of Israel …] Repeated from Hos_5:5, just as Hos_12:9 a is repeated in Hos_13:4 a. It is not the prophet who speaks condemning a bad quality in his people, but Jehovah, Israel’s true Pride, and the source of Israel’s prosperity, who utters a solemn word of warning translated into act. How much more suitable this explanation is in such a context than either of the alternatives mentioned on Hos_5:5.

for all this] i.e. in spite of all this chastisement, comp. Isa_9:12; Isa_9:17; Isa_9:21.

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.

And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face,.... See Gill on Hos 5:5; notwithstanding their weak and declining state, they were proud and haughty; entertained a high conceit of themselves, and of their good and safe condition; and behaved insolently towards God, and were not humbled before him for their sins. Their pride was notorious, which they themselves could not deny; they were self-convicted, and self-condemned:

and they do not return to the Lord their God; by acknowledgment of their sins, repentance for them, and reformation from them; and by attendance on his worship, from which they had revolted; so the Targum,

"they return not to the worship of the Lord their God:''

nor seek him for all this; though they are in this wasting, declining, condition, and just upon the brink of ruin, yet they seek not the face and favour of the Lord; they do not ask help of him, or implore his mercy; and though they have been so long in these circumstances, and have been gradually consuming for many years, yet in all this time they have made no application to the Lord, that he would be favourable, and raise their sinking state, and restore them to their former glory.

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

And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face - His pride convicted him. All the afflictions of God humbled him not; yea, they but brought out his pride, which “kept him from acknowledging and repenting of the sins which had brought those evils upon him, and from “turning to God and seeking to Him” for remedy” . People complain of their “fortune” or “fate” or “stars,” and go on the more obstinately, to build up what God destroys, to prop up by human means or human aid what, by God’s providence, is failing; they venture more desperately, in order to recover past losses, until the crash at last becomes hopeless and final.

Nor seek Him for all this - God had exhausted all the treasures of His severity, as, before, of His love. He Himself marvels at His incorrigible and contumacious servant, as He says in Isaiah, “Why should ye be stricken anymore? Ye will revolt more and more” Isa 1:5. How is this? It follows, because they have “no heart.”

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

Humbled. Hebrew, "answer," chap. v. 5. Pride is visible on his face, though he be so much reduced. (Calmet) --- For all these sins Israel shall be severely punished. (Worthington)

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 pride of Israel testifieth to his face: see Hos 5:5. Their proud contempt of God and his threats, of the prophets and their warnings, is notorious.

They do not return to the Lord; they persist in sin without repentance, run away from God rather than return to him. Of this phrase,

return, see Hos 6:1.

Their God; who was theirs of old, who still would be theirs on fair terms, of whom they talk and boast.

Nor seek him; see this phrase Hos 5:15; they pray not, repent not, nor rely on God.

For all this; though so greatly, continually, and severely punished, though almost eaten up.

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

And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this (amid all this). If with Keil and others

(1) we understand "the pride of Israel" to mean Jehovah the glory of Israel, and take the verb in the sense of "testify," the meaning will be that Jehovah bore witness to the face of Israel by the weakening and wasting of their kingdom, as portrayed in the preceding verse. We prefer

(2) to understand "the pride of Israel" in the souse of "the haughtiness" of Israel, and the verb in the sense of "being humbled," as at Hos_5:5. The real meaning, then, is expressed in the following rendering: And the haughtiness of Israel shall be humbled to his face. This humiliation is the effect of the wasting mentioned in the preceding verse; while the evidence of their humiliation is specified in the succeeding verse by their resorting to Egypt and repairing to Assyria from a consciousness of their helplessness. This rendering is countenanced by the LXX, both here and at Hos_5:5; while Rashi says, "The verb hg has the meaning of "humiliation." For all this. This emphasizes the obstinate blindness and perverseness of Ephraim, when, amid all the calamities and miseries of the kingdom both within and without, they turned not to Jehovah to solicit help and deliverance, but concluded treaties or made alliances with foreign nations in hope of being lifted up out of their national impotence. On this Aben Ezra makes the judicious remark: "They turned not to Jehovah as paupers who have nothing more to give foreign nations that they may help them.

They return not unto the Lord.

The life of man is a journey, and the sinner has taken the wrong road the road which leads to destruction.

I THE IMPORTANCE AND NECESSITY OF RETURNING UNTO THE LORD. The further the sinner proceeds the nearer he approaches final ruin, and the harder it is for him to reverse his steps.

II THE METHOD OF RETURNING UNTO THE LORD. The sinner must change his view of God and his view of himself. He must repent of sin and believe the gospel

III THE ENCOURAGEMENT TO RETURN UNTO THE LORD. There are the express directions, and the faithful promises of Heaven.

IV THE RESULTS OF RETURNING UNTO THE LORD, To return to God is to return to holiness and happiness, to peace and hope. Truly to return to him is to remain forever in his favor and his fellowship. T.

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

"And the pride of Israel beareth witness to his face, and they are not converted to Jehovah their God, and for all this they seek Him not." The first clause is repeated from Hos 5:5. The testimony which the pride of Israel, i.e., Jehovah, bore to its face, consisted in the weakening and wasting away of the kingdom as described in Hos 7:9. But with all this, they do not turn to the Lord who could save them, but seek help from their natural foes.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

General Information:

Yahweh is speaking.

The pride of Israel testifies against him

This describes "pride" as a person who testifies against the people of Israel in court. This means their prideful attitude and behavior show that they are guilty of no longer obeying Yahweh. (See: Personification)

nor have they sought him

Israel's lack of interest in Yahweh is spoken of as if he was lost and they were not trying to find him. AT: "nor have they tried to get him to pay attention to them" (See: Metaphor)

in spite of all this

Here "this" refers God allowing foreigners to defeat them and make them weak.

Ephraim is like a dove, gullible and without sense

Doves were thought to be foolish birds. (See: Simile)

Egypt ... Assyria

These were powerful nations that Israel could ask for help.

translationWords

proud

Israel

testimony

turn

Yahweh

God

seek

Ephraim

dove

Egypt

Assyria

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

And the pride of Israel was humbled before Him Heb. וְעָנָה. And the glory of Israel was humbled and they saw; an expression of humility, and this is not a future tense but a past tense. Comp. (Isa. 6: 3) “And one called (וְקָרָא) to the other.” I heard that one called to the other. Also (Gen. 37:3) “and he made (וְעָשָׂה) for him a woolen shirt.” This too is a past tense. They have already been diminished and humbled, and, despite this, they did not return to the Lord.

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.