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and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.</div>XII.</span><p>(1) <span class= "bld">East wind.</span>—Comp. <a href="/isaiah/27-8.htm" title="In measure, when it shoots forth, you will debate with it: he stays his rough wind in the day of the east wind.">Isaiah 27:8</a> and <a href="/job/27-21.htm" title="The east wind carries him away, and he departs: and as a storm hurles him out of his place.">Job 27:21</a>. On the latter passage Wetzstein remarks:—“This wind is more frequent in winter and early spring, when, if it continues long, the tender vegetation is parched up, and a year of famine follows. Both man and beast feel sickly while it prevails.” Hence, that which is unpleasant and revolting in life is compared by Orientals to the east wind. The idea expressed by the east wind here is the same as in <a href="/job/15-2.htm" title="Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?">Job 15:2</a>, combining the notions of destructiveness and emptiness. The covenant with Assyria refers to the events of the reign of Hoshea. Covenants with Assyria, and presents to Egypt were to Hosea curses in disguise. (See Note on <a href="/hosea/7-11.htm" title="Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.">Hosea 7:11</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/hosea/12-2.htm">Hosea 12:2</a></div><div class="verse">The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Jacob</span> refers to the northern kingdom.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/hosea/12-3.htm">Hosea 12:3</a></div><div class="verse">He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God:</div>(3, 4) <span class= "bld">Had power.—</span>Should be, <span class= "ital">strove.</span> Prayers and tears were the weapons used in the memorable struggle for pardon, reconciliation, peace in the self-conquest as well as the God-conquest which was achieved. “At Bethel He (Jehovah) found him (Jacob)” not once only, but on repeated occasions (<a href="/genesis/28-11.htm" title="And he lighted on a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.">Genesis 28:11</a>; <a href="/genesis/35-1.htm" title="And God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar to God, that appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.">Genesis 35:1</a>),and in the subsequent history of the children of Israel.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/hosea/12-5.htm">Hosea 12:5</a></div><div class="verse">Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD <i>is</i> his memorial.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Lord God of hosts.—</span>See Cheyne’s <span class= "ital">Isaiah,</span> vol. 1, pp. 11, 12, and Nowack’s commentary on this passage. Probably the hosts were the stars which were conceived of as celestial spirits standing upon or above Jehovah’s throne in Micaiah’s vision, on the right hand and on the left (<a href="/1_kings/22-19.htm" title="And he said, Hear you therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.">1Kings 22:19</a>). These are to be identified, in all probability, with the sons of God (<a href="/genesis/6-2.htm" title="That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.">Genesis 6:2</a>), described in <a href="/job/1-6.htm" title="Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.">Job 1:6</a> as presenting themselves in council before Jehovah. In <a href="/psalms/103-21.htm" title="Bless you the LORD, all you his hosts; you ministers of his, that do his pleasure.">Psalm 103:21</a> they are described as God’s ministers; also in <a href="/psalms/104-4.htm" title="Who makes his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:">Psalm 104:4</a>, quoted in <a href="/hebrews/1-7.htm" title="And of the angels he said, Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.">Hebrews 1:7</a>.<p><span class= "bld">His memorial—</span><span class= "ital">i.e.</span>, his name. (See Notes on <a href="/exodus/3-15.htm" title="And God said moreover to Moses, Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, the LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial to all generations.">Exodus 3:15</a>; <a href="/exodus/6-3.htm" title="And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.">Exodus 6:3</a>.) Jehovah—<span class= "ital">i.e.</span>, the self-existent One who nevertheless came into personal relations with Israel.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/hosea/12-6.htm">Hosea 12:6</a></div><div class="verse">Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">Therefore</span> . . .—More correctly, <span class= "ital">But do thou return to thy God.</span> There is an implied contrast between the patriarch and his degenerate descendants in the days of Hosea.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/hosea/12-7.htm">Hosea 12:7</a></div><div class="verse"><i>He is</i> a merchant, the balances of deceit <i>are</i> in his hand: he loveth to oppress.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">He is</span> <span class= "bld">a merchant.—</span>The vivid and fierce light of the prophet’s words is obscured in the English version. The rendering “he is a merchant” originates from the fact that Canaan (rendered “merchant”) is often used predominantly of Phœnicia, and Canaanites of Phœnicians, the great trading race (<a href="/isaiah/23-11.htm" title="He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the LORD has given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof.">Isaiah 23:11</a>; Job 40:30). Translate: <span class= "ital">As for Canaan, in his hand are false balances. He loves cheating.</span> The descendants of Canaan (the son of Ham, the abhorred son of Noah) became in their whole career a curse and a bye-word in every religious and ethical sense. The princes of Tyre, the merchandise of Phœnicia, were, perhaps, then in the prophet’s mind. (Comp. Ezekiel 27)<p>Moreover, the prophet hints that Ephraim had imbibed Phœnicia’s love of gain and habits of unscrupulous trade. The literature of this period contains frequent references to these tendencies in Israel (<a href="/amos/2-6.htm" title="Thus said the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;">Amos 2:6</a>; <a href="/amos/8-5.htm" title="Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?">Amos 8:5</a>; <a href="/micah/6-10.htm" title="Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?">Micah 6:10</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/hosea/12-8.htm">Hosea 12:8</a></div><div class="verse">And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: <i>in</i> all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that <i>were</i> sin.</div>(8) Translate, <span class= "ital">And Ephraim saith, Surely I have become wealthy; I have gotten me substance</span> (<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> by legitimate means, not robbery): <span class= "ital">all my earnings bring me not guilt as would be sin</span> (<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> requiring expiation). Such a coarse pursuit of wealth, and such glorying in the innocence of the entire process by which it has been obtained, has its parallel in the moral position of the Laodicean Church, rebuked by our Lord (Revelation 3).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/hosea/12-9.htm">Hosea 12:9</a></div><div class="verse">And I <i>that am</i> the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">Tabernacles.—</span>The prophet here speaks of Israel’s moral restoration under the form of a return to “the old ideal of simple agricultural life, in which every good gift is received directly from Jehovah’s hand.” To the true theocratic spirit the condition here spoken of is one of real blessedness, but to the worldly, grasping Canaan or Ephraim it would come as a threat of expulsion, desolation, and despair. (Comp. <a href="/hosea/2-14.htm" title="Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her.">Hosea 2:14</a>; <a href="/hosea/3-3.htm" title="And I said to her, You shall abide for me many days; you shall not play the harlot, and you shall not be for another man: so will I also be for you.">Hosea 3:3</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/hosea/12-11.htm">Hosea 12:11</a></div><div class="verse"><i>Is there</i> iniquity <i>in</i> Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars <i>are</i> as heaps in the furrows of the fields.</div>(11) Translate, <span class= "ital">If Gilead be worthless, surely they have become nought. In Gilgal they sacrificed bullocks; their altars also are like heaps upon the field’s furrows,</span> referring to a past event, the desolating invasion of Gilead by Tiglath-pileser, in 734 B.C. To this military expedition we have undoubted references in the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser II. But unfortunately they are in a very mutilated condition. From one passage we learn:—“The city Gil [ead] and [A] bel [Maacha] which is on this side the land Beth Omri (Samaria) the distant . . . I joined in its whole extent to the territory of Assyria.” The biblical passage, <a href="/2_kings/15-29.htm" title="In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.">2Kings 15:29</a>, supplements this account by stating that Napntali and Galilee also fell victims to the victorious arms of the invader. From the verse before us we infer that Gilgal, on the western bank of the Jordan near Jericho (see Note on 4:15), likewise felt the heavy hand of the conqueror, or perhaps the inhabitants fled in panic and the local shrines became deserted ruins. From this time forth we hear no more of Gilgal as a religious centre. Nowack, however, follows Ewald in regarding the passage as prophetic of a coming calamity. (See <span class= "ital">Introduction.</span>) In the word for “heaps” (<span class= "ital">gallîm</span>) there is a play on the name <span class= "ital">Gilgal.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/hosea/12-12.htm">Hosea 12:12</a></div><div class="verse">And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept <i>sheep</i>.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">Jacob . . . Israel.</span>—Resuming the retrospect over early patriarchal history, begun in <a href="/hosea/12-4.htm" title="Yes, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication to him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us;">Hosea 12:4</a>. Notwithstanding the loneliness and humble position of the patriarch, God took care of him, and he won the mighty name of Israel, and gave it to his descendants.<p><span class= "bld">Country.</span>—More accurately, <span class= "ital">plain.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/hosea/12-13.htm">Hosea 12:13</a></div><div class="verse">And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">A prophet.</span>—Moses is here referred to, and there is, perhaps, a hint that the Lord would yet again save Israel from worse than Egyptian bondage by the words and warnings of a prophet.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/hosea/12-14.htm">Hosea 12:14</a></div><div class="verse">Ephraim provoked <i>him</i> to anger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him.</div>(14) But the rift in the clouds closes again, and another severe rebuke follows. “Jacob” and “Israel” give place to the proud tribal name of Ephraim. This portion of the whole house of Israel incurs the charge. Read, <span class= "ital">Ephraim hath provoked bitter feeling.</span> The bloodguiltinese of Moloch sacrifices and other iniquity God will not remove. (Comp. <a href="/genesis/27-43.htm" title="Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; arise, flee you to Laban my brother to Haran;">Genesis 27:43</a>; <a href="/context/genesis/27-28.htm" title="Therefore God give you of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine:">Genesis 27:28-29</a>, for the foundation of these references.)<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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