Hosea
Hosea [1]
We do not expect to find in a prophetic writing the same frequency of reference to the law as to the history; for it is of the essence of prophecy to appeal to history and to interpret it. Of course, the moral and social aspects of the law are as much the province of the prophet as of the priest; but the ceremonial part of the law, which was under the care of the priests, though it was designed to be the expression of the same ideas that lay at the foundation of prophecy, is mainly touched upon by the prophets when, as was too frequently the case, it ceased to express those ideas and became an offense. The words of the prophets on this subject, when fairly interpreted, are not opposed to law in any of its authorized forms, but only to its abuses; and there are expressions and allusions in Hosea, although he spoke to the Northern Kingdom, where from the time of the schism there had been a wide departure from the authorized law, which recognize its ancient existence and its Divine sanction. The much-debated passage in Hos ( Hosea 8:12 ), "Though I write for him my law in ten thousand precepts" (the Revised Version (British and American) or the Revised Version margin "I wrote for him the ten thousand things of my law"), on any understanding of the words or with any reasonable emendation of the text (for which see the comm.), points to written law, and that of considerable compass, and seems hardly consistent with the supposition that in the prophet's time the whole of the written law was confined to a few chapters in Ex, the so-called Book of the Covenant. And the very next verse ( Hosea 8:13 ), "As for the sacrifices of mine offerings, they sacrifice flesh and eat it; but Yahweh accepteth them not," is at once an acknowledgment of the Divine institution of sacrifice, and an illustration of the kind of opposition the prophets entertained to sacrificial service as it was practiced. So when it is said, "I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feasts, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies" ( Hosea 2:11; compare Hosea 9:5 ), the reference, as the context shows, is to a deprivation of what were national distinctive privileges; and the allusions to transgressions and trespasses against the law ( Hosea 8:1; compare Deuteronomy 17:2 ) point in the same direction. We have a plain reference to the Feast of Tabernacles ( Hosea 12:9 ): "I will yet again make thee to dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast" (compare Leviticus 23:39-43 ); and there are phrases which are either in the express language of the law-books or evident allusions to them, as "Thy people are as they that strive with the priest" ( Hosea 4:4; compare Deuteronomy 17:12 ); "The princes of Judah are like them that remove the landmark" ( Hosea 5:10; compare Deuteronomy 19:14 ); "Their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners" ( Hosea 9:4; compare Deuteronomy 26:14 ); "They (the priests) feed on the sin of my people" ( Hosea 4:8; compare Leviticus 6:25 f; Copyright Statementthese Files Are Public Domain And Were Generously Provided By The Folks At Wordsearch Software. Bibliography Informationorr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. Entry For 'Hosea'. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Https://Www.Studylight.Org/Encyclopedias/Eng/Isb/H/Hosea.Html. 1915.
