The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
Ver. 1. The word of the Lord] Not "cunningly devised fables," 2 Peter 1:16, or human testimonies, that can make but a human faith; but the "word of the ever living God," 1 Thessalonians 2:13, the "Scripture that cannot be broken," John 10:35, the very heart and soul of God (cor et anima Dei), as Gregory calls it.
That came unto Hosea] The Lord is said to come to Laban, Abimelech, Balaam, &c. But he never concredited his word to any such profane wretches, as he did to the holy prophets which have "been since the world began"; of whom it is said, as here, "The word of the Lord came to Hosea." His name signifieth a Saviour, Matthew 1:21 : a fit name for a minister, whose work is to "save himself and them that hear him," 1 Timothy 4:16. To save them if he can, Obadiah 1:21; to deliver their souls from going into the pit, Job 33:24; to pull them, if possible, out of the fire, Judges 1:23; to "give them the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sin," Luke 1:77 : to give it, I say, not by infusion (for that he cannot do), but by instruction; and that he must endeavour to do, as this prophet did: than whom few ministers ever ran so long a race without cessation, or cespitation, so constantly, so courageously, so unweariably. For he continued prophesying sixty-five years at least, saith Pareus; seventy, saith Oecolampadius; it is very probable fourscore years, saith Mr Burroughes. The Hebrews say ninety years, quibus multa dixit quae non scripsit, wherein he uttered much more than he wrote. This we may easily believe: for we have but the short notes or heads of his sermons and larger discourses, which he seems also to have set down for the use of the Church in his extreme old age, whereof they carry a smatch in the shortness of his speech, applied, as much as might be, to the measure of his breath. Hence Jerome fitly called him, Commaticum et quasi per sententias loquentem, concise and sententious. Amputatas loquitur sententias et verba ante expectatum cadentia, as one saith of Sallust; Multo est verbis quam sensu restrictior atque concisior, as another saith of Livy: he speaketh much in few; and seems to have more sentences than sayings. The more often you read him the more you may get by him: et nunquam tamen dimittat te sine siti; and yet the more you get the more you covet (Lips. de Thucyd.). Obscure he is (as delivering things briefly), and such as will not be easily acquainted with you but upon further suit: hence that Epiphonema a in the perclose of his prophecy, "Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them?" But this must waken and not weaken our more diligent search, not being content with the first ore that offereth itself to our view, but digging deeper and deeper, till we become owner of the whole treasure, which will sufficiently pay for the pains. Wherefore "search the Scripture," "follow on to know the Lord"; get all the dimensions of knowledge, which (now in the great abundance of the means we have) doth even bow down to us, as trees do that are laden with fruit, so that a child may gather from them.
The son of Beeri] That is, of a well that hath pure and clear water in it, and that never faileth; living water, as the Scripture calleth it, and not mixed with mud. Ministers should be children of Beeri, of a well digged by the direction of the lawgiver, Numbers 21:17, whence people should draw waters with joy, the pure waters of life, the unadulterated milk of God's word; not troubled, brackish, and sourish doctrines, such as the Popish clergy (called therefore "the sea," Rev 12:12) do set abroach which rather bring barrenness to their hearers and gnaw their entrails, than quench their thirst or cause fruit. These and all false teachers make God's flock drink that which they have fouled with their feet, Ezekiel 34:19, yea, impoisoned with their hands: as the malicious Jews once cast bags of poison into many wells here, to do mischief, and were therefore banished the country. False doctrine is like a filthy pond, wherein fish die soon and frogs live long: it is like the Dead Sea, or the great falling star, called Wormwood, Revelation 8:10,11, which made "the third part of the waters become wormwood," so that "many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter" by that son of perdition, who was himself the "gall of bitterness, and bond of perdition." Who this Beeri was it appears not in Scripture. It seems he was a man famous in those days among the Israelites (and is here named honoris gratia, for honour's sake to the prophet), as Alexander and Rufus, the sons of Simon the Cyrenian, were men famously known in the Church of the New Testament; and are therefore but named only by Mark. Mar 15:21 The Jews have a tradition, that whensoever a prophet's father is named, that father was likewise a prophet as well as the son. And Beeri might be binominis, and have some other name of more note: like as Pethuel, the father of the prophet Joel, is thought by some to have been Samuel, and to have been called Pethuel, that is, a persuader of God, because what he asked of God he obtained.
In the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, &c.] A young prophet he must needs be (especially if he prophesied fourscore years. See the note above). Haply he began as early as did Samuel, Jeremiah, Timothy, Origen, or Cornelius Mus; of whom Sixtus Senensis testifieth, that he was an admirable preacher at twelve years old.
Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah] The throne of Judah had some interchanges of good princes: Israel none at all. The same justice therefore that made Israel a scourge to Judah, made Assyria a scorpion to Israel; as is here set forth under the type of Hosea's two last children, Loruhamah and Loammi; whereof in their place, Meanwhile this prophet went through variety of conditions under so many different kings' reigns (as did likewise Athanasius and Latimer), Jeroboam's (especially), the second of that name, and here only named, when six other kings of Israel (in whose time Hosea prophesied) are not once mentioned, but lie wrapt up in the sheet of shame, because wicked idolaters, such as God took no delight in, and hath therefore written them in the earth.
And in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash] Not the son of Nebat, that ringleader of the ten tribes' revolt from the house of David; but another, little better, and yet very prosperous aud victorious, 2 Kings 14:25; 2 Kings 14:28. He reigned also forty-one years, and did great exploits: yet is Hosea sent to contest with him, to declaim against his sin and wickedness, and to proclaim heavy judgments against him and his people. This the prophet did for a long while together with all fidelity and fortitude; when the king was triumphing over his enemies, and the people were not only drunk, but even mad again, by reason of their extraordinary prosperity (non tantum temulenti erant sed etiam prorsus insani), as Calvin expresseth it. Now that so young a prophet should so sharply contend with so fierce a people, in the ruff of their pride and jollity; that he should so rouse and ripple up these drunkards of Ephraim with their crown of pride, Isaiah 28:1; this shows him to have been of a heroic spirit. Jonah, his contemporary, flinched when sent against Nineveh. "Micah the Morasthite" (another of Hosea's contemporaries) "prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Zion shall be ploughed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest. Yet did not Hezekiah, king of Judah, and all Judah, put him at all to death," &c., Jeremiah 26:18,19. He and Hosea, though they prevailed little with the people they preached to, yet they were better dealt with than the prophet Isaiah (their contemporary too), of whom Jerome tells us, out of the Rabbis, that he was sawn asunder, because he said he had seen the Lord: and, secondly, because he called the great ones of Judah, princes of Sodom, and rulers of Gomorrah, Isaiah 1:10 .
a An exclamatory sentence or striking reflection, which sums up or concludes a discourse or a passage in the discourse. ŒD