The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, [departing] from the LORD.
Ver. 2. The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea] Heb. in Hosea: to note, that the Lord was both in his mind and mouth, in his spirit and speech. God spake in him before he spake out to the people. His prophecy must therefore needs be divine and deep. That is the best discourse that is digged out of a man's own breast, that comes a corde ad cor, from the heart to the heart. And blessed are the people (saith one) that have such ministers, that shall speak nothing to them but what hath been first spoken by God in them: saying, with David and Paul, "We believe, therefore have we spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak," 2 Corinthians 4:13; we have experimented what we deliver; we believe and are sure, that God is in us of a truth, and that we preach cum gratia et privilegio, with grace and prvilege.
The beginning] Hence some gather that Hosea was the first prophet: Hoseas videtur tempore et maiestate aliis prior, saith Oecolampadius. Certain it is he began before Isaiah (because he prophesied in the days of Jeroboam, who was before Uzziah); whether before Amos or not is not so certain. Eusebius tells us there was no Greek history extant before Hosea's time. a Well, therefore, might that ancient priest of Egypt say to Solon, You Grecians are all boys and babes in matters of antiquity: neither is there one old man among you (Plato in Timaeo). Samuel is counted the first prophet, Acts 3:24, but Hosea was the first of those that lived in these kings' days, and likely held out longest; See Trapp on " Hos 1:1 " as did father Latimer, preaching twice every sabbath day, though of a very great age; and rising to his study winter and summer at two o'clock in the morning. Others read the words thus, At the beginning when the Lord spake by Hosea, he said to Hosea himself, "Go, take unto thee," &c. An uncouth precept, and a rough beginning for a young preacher, whose youth might be despised, and whose sharpness might be disgusted. But truth must be spoken, however it be taken; and a preacher should take the same liberty to cry down sin that men take to commit sin, Isaiah 58:1. Jerome was called fulmen Ecclesiasticum, the Church thunderbolt; and our Mr Perkins applied the word so close to the consciences of his hearers, that he was able to make their hearts fall down and their hairs almost to stand upright (Mr Puller's Holy State). But in old age he was more mild, and delighted much to preach mercy; as did also our prophet Hosea, whose prophecy is comminatory in the fore part, consolatory in the latter part.
And the Lord said to Hosea] This is now the third time inculcated for more authority' sake, which the people, so rubbed and menaced, would be apt enough to question. He therefore shows them his commission, and that he hath good ground for what he saith; that they may have no cause to cavil, but reply, as that good Dutch divine did (if God would give them a heart so to do), Veniat, veniat, verbum Domini, et submittemus ei, sexcenta si nobis essent colla: Let the word of the Lord come, yea, let it come, and we will submit thereunto, though we had six hundred lives to lose for so doing (Melch. Ad.).
Go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms] An arrant whore, a stinking strumpet, scortum obsoletum, a known and trite harlot; such as were Thais, Lais, Phryne, &c.; yea, and such a one as, after marriage with a former husband at least, went astray after other sweethearts; for so the application of the figure to the subject, Hosea 2:2,5, requireth it to be understood. Whereby it appears (saith Diodati) that all this was done in a vision. Others infer as much from that phrase in this verse, "The beginning of the word of the Lord in Hosea," that is (saith Polanus), appearing and speaking to him by an inward vision, as it were in an ecstasy. Besides, in the third chapter and three first verses, the prophet is bidden to marry another harlot, to buy her for his own use, and to keep her at his house for a time. Now, scimus hoc non fuisse completum, saith Calvin; we know that this was never really done. It follows therefore that this figure was only proposed to the people, that they might perceive, in the looking glass of this allegory, first, their duty towards God; second, their disloyalty; thirdly, their penalty for the same. It is not a historical narration, but a prophetic vision. "Children of fornication, a bustardly brood," such as this "evil and adulterous generation" is; sons of the "rebellious whorish woman, children of transgression, a seed of falsehood," Isaiah 57:4. The Hebrews call such children brambles, such as Abimelech was, who grew in the hedgerow of a harlot: they call them also Mamzer, as ye would say, a strange blot; and Shatuki, or silent, because when others are praising their parents, such must hold their peace, and hold down their heads with shame enough, because they are bastards.
For the land hath committed great whoredoms] Fornicando fornicata est, i.e. frequentissime et fiedissime, most frequently and most filthily. See Ezekiel 23:2,4, throughout. Aholah (that is, Israel) played the harlot when she was mine, Ezekiel 23:5, In her youth they lay with her, Ezekiel 23:8, so that she might say, with that impudent strumpet, Quartilla, in Petronius, that she could never remember herself a virgin: yea, she grew old in her adulteries, Ezekiel 23:43, opened her feet to every passenger, and multiplied her whoredoms, Ezekiel 16:25. Meretricis scilicet hoc est meretricissimae. Such a common prostibulum prostitute is the whore of Rome, whom her followers call piam matrem, quae gremium claudat nemini. a pius matron who excludes no one. Joan of Naples was a saint to her. Idolatry is spiritual whoredom in many respects. It defiles the soul, God's bridal bed. It breaks the marriage knot, and discovenants. It enrageth God, who in this case will take no ransom. It subjecteth men to God's deepest displeasure: it besots them and unmans them: they that make idols are "like unto them, so are all they that trust in them," Psalms 115:8 .
Lastly, idolatry is seldom without adultery, in a proper sense; as appears in the old heathens, at their feasts of Priapus, Lupercalia, &c., the Canaanites had filled the land from one end to another with their uncleanness, Ezra 9:11; and in the Papists today, who reckon fornication a venial sin, have their stews allowed them; yea, among the very Indians, who abhor their most loathsome living. And for Rome itself - tota est iam Roma lupanar, it is become a great brothel house, and her stench is come up to heaven, as Matthew Paris (one of her sons) long since said.
Departing from the Lord] In whom all amiables and admirables are concentred. This did exceedingly aggravate the unkindness.
a De Praep. Evang. l. 20, c. ult.