Hosea 7:6

Hos 7:6 For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.

Ver. 6. For they have made ready their hearts like an oven] As an oven red-hot is ready to bake whatsoever is cast into it, so are wicked men’s hearts, heated from hell, prepared for any evil purpose or practice that the devil shall suggest ( ad male cogitandum, Pagnin., ad pessima facinora, Tigur.); but especially to lie in wait for blood, and to hunt every man his brother with a net, Mic 7:2. David complains of some that lay in wait for his soul, Psa 59:8, that Satanically hated him, Psa 38:20; Psa 7:13; Psa 109:4; Psa 109:6; Psa 109:20; Psa 109:29; that sought his soul to destroy it; not his life only, but his soul too; as that monster of Milan did, that made his adversary first forswear Christ in hope of life, and then, stabbing him to the heart, said, Now go thy ways soul and body to the devil; and as the Papists dealt by John Huss and Jerome of Prague, to whom they denied a confessor, which he required, after the manner of those times, to fit him for heaven; and for John Huss, after they had burnt him, how despitefully did they beat his heart (which was left untouched by the fire) with their staves! Besides that the bishops, when they put the triple crown of paper (painted with ugly devils on it) on his head, they said, Now we commit thy soul to the devil. Did not these men’s hearts burn like an oven with hellish rage and cruelty?

Their baker sleepeth all the night] Concoquens illa, scilicet corda, so Vatabius. He that concocteth or worketh their hearts, that is, the devil, as some interpret it, or evil concupiscence, as others; tota nocte protrahitur furor eorum, so the Chaldee; their rage is deferred, or drawn out to the length all night long, till in the morning, i.e. at a convenient season, it break out and bestir itself. A metaphor from a baker, who casting fire into the oven with good store of lasting fuel, lets it burn all night and sleeps securely; as knowing that he shall find it thoroughly hot in the morning. Those scorners in the former verse, by being overly familiar with their drunken king, came not only to fight him for his base behaviours, but also to conspire against him, and to plot his death; wherein their heart is the oven, ambition the fire, treason the flame of that fire, Satan, that old manslayer, the baker; who, though he make as if he slept all night, yet by the morning he hath set his agents, the traitors, to work (either by secret treacheries or open seditions) to do as in the next verse, and as is to be seen, 2Ki 15:10; 2Ki 15:14; 2Ki 15:25; 2Ki 15:30.

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.

7:6 A simile aptly compares the plots and political intrigue during this turbulent time to a red-hot oven that breaks out to ignite the entire land.

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

they have made ready--rather, "they make their heart approach," namely their king, in going to drink with him.

like an oven--following out the image in Hos 7:4. As it conceals the lighted fire all night while the baker sleeps but in the morning burns as a flaming fire, so they brood mischief in their hearts while conscience is lulled asleep, and their wicked designs wait only for a fair occasion to break forth [HORSLEY]. Their heart is the oven, their baker the ringleader of the plot. In Hos 7:7 their plots appear, namely, the intestine disturbances and murders of one king after another, after Jeroboam II.

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

Here the Prophet says, that the Israelites did secretly, and by hidden means, prepare their hearts for deeds of evil; and he takes up nearly the same similitude as he did a little while before, though for a different purpose; for he says that they had prepared their hearts secretly, as the baker puts fire in the night in his oven, and then rests, and in the morning the oven is well heated, having attained heat sufficient to bake the bread. The oven becomes hot in the morning, though the baker sleeps. How so? Because an abundance of fuel had been put together, so that it is heated by the morning. Hence nocturnal rest does not prevent the fire from making hot the oven, when it has a sufficient quantity of fuel, when the baker has so filled his oven, that the fire cannot be extinguished, nor be gradually smothered. When the baker has thus set in order an heap of wood, he then securely rests, for the fire can continue until the morning. We now then see the design of the Prophet.

They have prepared, he says, their hearts insidiously; that is, though they have not at first made evident their wickedness, they have yet previously prepared their hearts, as the oven is lighted up, or as the furnace is heated before the bread is prepared; nay, there is no need of much bustle, — there is no need of much noise when the baker lights up his oven, for he prepares the wood, and then he goes to rest; and, in the meantime, while he sleeps all the night, the fire is burning. So also they, though all do not perceive their wickedness, they have yet, in the meantime, heated their hearts like an oven; that is, evil deeds have, by degrees and during a long period of time, been conceived by them, before they came forth into open acts of wickedness.

We hence see that the similitude of an oven is set forth here by the Prophet in a sense different from what it had been before; and this ought to be noticed, because interpreters heedlessly pass over this wholly, as if the Prophet meant in both places the same thing. But the meaning, as it is evident, is far different. For he intended only, in the first instance, to reprove the mad lust with which they were burning; but he now speaks of their plots and concealed frauds; that is, that the Israelites before openly showed themselves to be ungodly and wicked, but that they were now wicked before God. How so? Because they were now like an oven lighted up in the night; for as the baker, having closed the door of his house, puts in fire, while none perceive that the furnace or the oven is being heated; so also the people fed and nourished their wickedness before God; and afterwards, in course of time, it broke forth openly, whenever an opportunity was offered.

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.

(6) Render, Yea, they draw nigh together. Like an oven in their heart with their wiles. Their baker sleepeth all the night, &c. The metaphor of Hos_7:4 is resumed. The baker, having left his dough to become leavened and his fire to smoulder, can afford to sleep. The baker may mean the evil passion which has been raging. Indeed, Wünsche and Schmoller, by a slight change of punctuation, obtain the rendering “their anger,” instead of “their baker,” which is supported by the Targum and Syriac version. After the murderous plots and carousal, the conspiracy ripens with the day; then will come the outburst of violence.

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

6. For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait] Better, with Ewald, ‘Yea, almost like the oven have they made their heart in their intrigue’, if there were only sufficient justification for the rendering. This view of the verse makes it a climax to Hos_7:5. Better still, by self-evident corrections of the text, For their inward part is like an oven, their heart burneth in them (the reason for the strong expression ‘scorners’).

their baker] Better, to follow the vocalizing of Targum and Peshito, and render, their anger, viz. against the destined victims of their intrigue.

sleepeth all the night] Rather, still retaining the consonants of the text, smoketh all the night (for the phrase, comp Deu_29:20). The night is mentioned as the time when evil devices are matured.

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.

For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait,.... The prince, people, and scorners before mentioned, being heated with wine, and their lust enraged, they were ready for any wickedness; for the commission of adultery, lying in wait for their neighbours' wives to debauch them; or for rebellion and treason against their king, and even the murder of him, made drunk by them, whom they now despised, and waited for an opportunity to dispatch him:

their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire; as a baker having put wood into his oven, and kindled it, leaves it, and sleeps all night, and in the morning it is all burning, and in a flame, and his oven is thoroughly heated, and fit for his purpose; so the evil concupiscence in these men's hearts, made hot like an oven, rests all night, devising mischief on their beds, either against the chastity of their neighbours' wives, or against the lives of others, they bear an ill will to, particularly against their judges and their kings, as Hos 7:7; seems to intimate; and in the morning this lust of uncleanness or revenge is all in a flame, and ready to execute the wicked designs contrived; see Mic 2:1. Some by "their baker" understand Satan; others, their king asleep and secure; others Shallum, the head of the conspiracy against Zachariah.

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

For they have made ready their heart like an oven - He gives the reason old their bursting out into open mischief; it was ever stored up within. They “made ready,” (literally, “brought near”) “their heart.” Their heart was ever brought near to sin, even while the occasion was removed at a distance from it. “The “oven” is their heart; the fuel, their corrupt affections, and inclinations, and evil concupiscence, with which it is filled; “their baker,” their own evil will and imagination, which stirs up whatever is evil in them.” The prophet then pictures how, while they seem for a while to rest from sin, it is but “while they lie in wait;” still, all the while, they made and kept their hearts ready, full of fire for sin and passion; any breathing-time from actual sin was no real rest; the heart was still all on fire; “in the morning,” right early, as soon as the occasion came, it burst forth.

The same truth is seen where the tempter is without. Such, whether Satan or his agents, having lodged the evil thought or desire in the soul, often feign themselves asleep, as it were, “letting the fire and the fuel which they had inserted, work together,” that so the fire pent-in might kindle more thoroughly and fatally, and, the heart being filled and penetrated with it, might burst out of itself, as soon as the occasion should come.

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

Them. Jeroboam seduces the subjects of the house of David, by indulging the passions of the great and small. He may then sleep; the poison gains ground. (Calmet) --- But soon his own family will feel the direful effects of his policy. (Haydock)

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).

For; surely.

They; those luxurious and drinking princes, Hos 7:5.

Have made ready their heart like an oven; do keep close some fire of ambition, revenge, or covetousness, like as a baker keeps a hot fire within his oven.

Whiles they lie in wait, either against the life or estate of some of their fellow subjects, or it may be, as appears Hos 7:7, against the life which they seemed in their cups to pray for.

Their baker sleepeth all the night; he who should watch and prevent mischief is swallowed up in the day with feasting and drunkenness, and sleeps in security all the night, never suspecting the projects of conspirators.

In the morning it burneth as a flaming fire; but when he awakes too late, he seeth all in flames, and past quenching. Sedition and rebellion is among these a sin as hateful to God as dangerous to the public, yet frequently acted by the usurpers of those dissolute times.

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

For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire. Their heart is the oven, as the comparison here teaches us; the fire by which it is inflamed is the fire of sinful passion, and the fuel that feeds the flame is the murderous machination on which they are at present so intent; the baker is either the original contrivers and prompters of their wickedness, or their own wicked spirit, or the evil one himself at the head of all. But, though there is a temporary suspension, there is no real cessation of their evil purpose; they are only biding their time, lying in wait; the baker sleeps, but it is only whilst the dough is leavening. Soon as the suitable time has come, soon as the occasion has arrived, and all circumstances in readiness, in the morning the baker rouses from his nocturnal slumber, stirs up the fire, and sets the oven ablaze Now that the dough is sufficiently leavened, and the oven thoroughly heated, the bread is put in the meditated assassination is accomplishedit burneth as a flaming fire. This is the second and last stage of the proceeding, the last scene of the last act of the tragic drama,

This verse, Wunsche thinks, is probably the most difficult in the whole book.

1. The translation of the first clause in the Authorized Version is susceptible of a more literal and improved rendering.

(1) "For they bring near as an oven their heart, whilst they lie in wait;" that is, they approach the king with loyalty on their lips, but hatred in their heart. Their heart (which is the fact) is heated with evil passion, as an oven (which is the figure) is heated for baking purposes; while they are secretly set for wickedness.

(2) Wunsche, after enumerating a great variety of renderings and expositions, with none of which he is satisfied, gives the following: "For they press close together; like an oven is their heart in their artifice (cunning)." The meaning, according to the same author, is that all, scoffers and king alike, press near each other, being of one heart and disposition; cunning makes them one single society.

(3) Keil translates more simply as follows: "For they have brought their heart into their ambush, as into the oven." In this rendering he combines the explanation of Ewald and Hitzig.

2. In the second clause which Keil translates in the same sense as

(1) the Authorized Version, Wunsche

(2) changes the common reading into equivalent to their anger, and translates accordingly, "All night their anger sleeps, in the morning it burns like flaming fire." That the reading here is somewhat doubtful may be inferred from the fact that the LXX has Efraim : while the Chaldee and Syrian rugzehon, their fury; still, as it is only a conjectural emendation, we prefer abiding by the ordinary reading and rendering, at least in this instance. The following explanation of the whole verse by Aben Ezra gives a consistent sense: "By are meant their evil purposes, which they devise all night long. And their heart is like an oven, only with the difference that there the baker sleeps the whole night, and only in the morning kindles the oven; but their heart does not sleep at all, but devises evil the whole night." It is curious how Rashi and Kimchi, while giving in the main the same explanation with Aben Ezra, differ from him about the meaning of the sleeping. The former has the following brief comment: "Their baker lights the oven. After they have prepared their heart and thought out the consummation of their wickedness, how they could carry the same into effect, then their baker sleeps, that is, they sleep till morning; at the break of day, however, they burn like fire, until they have brought their wickedness fully to an end." Kimchi goes into the matter a little more fully, as is usual with him; he comments as follows: "The heart is the instrument of the thought, and the power that works therein is the baker by way of figure. And as the baker lights the oven at night, and in the morning finds that the pieces of wood have burnt out, and he baketh therein the bread, which is the chief end of the work of heating; and lo, the baker sleeps in the night after he has put the pieces of wood into the oven, because he has nothing more to do till the morning. Just so the baker in this figurative sense, which is the power of thought he sleeps in the night; as if he said he lies there and rests, because the project comes not forth into execution until the morning; and the prophet calls him who thinks sleeping, because that there is no effort of the body in thought, In the morning he burneth, as if he said that they are in flame in the morning to execute the evil which they have devised at night."

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

They - Those luxurious and drinking princes. Like an oven - Hot with ambition, revenge, or covetousness. Lie in wait - Against the life or estate of some of their subjects. As the baker, having kindled a fire in his oven, goes to bed and sleeps all night, and in the morning finds his oven well heated and ready for his purpose; so these when they have laid some wicked plot, tho' they may seem to sleep for a while, yet the fire is glowing within, and flames out as soon as ever there is opportunity for it.

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

General Information:

The court officials' plotting is described. Their anger is what motivates them to kill their king.

For with hearts like an oven

This means like a fire burns in an oven, these people have strong evil desires within them. The people's desires are represented by their "hearts." (See: Simile and Metonymy)

Their anger smolders

The word "smolders" means something is burning slowly without a flame. AT: "Their anger grows slowly and quietly" (See: Metaphor)

it burns high like a flaming fire

The intensity of their anger is spoken of as if it was a very hot fire. AT: "it gets very intense" (See: Simile)

They all are as hot as an oven

This compares their anger to the heat that comes from an oven. (See: Simile)

they devour those who rule over them

This seems to mean that the court officials kill their kings. (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

heart

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

For they have made ready their heart like an oven with their ambush They prepared and readied their heart with their ambush, like an oven which they prepare and heat in order to bake.

all night their baker sleeps Their baker, who heats the oven after they have prepared their heart and have thought of the execution of the evil, how they would do it.

their baker sleeps i.e., until morning they sleep, and in the morning they burn like fire until they consummate their evil.

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.