Ephraim [shall say], What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard [him], and observed him: I [am] like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.
Ver. 8. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do, &c.] Heb. Ephraim, what have I to do, &c. This some make to be the speech of God to Ephraim; as if Ephraim here were the vocative case and God were brought in abhorring the notion of parting stakes with idols, of sharing his glory with another. But because this God never did (for what communion hath light with darkness, Christ with Belial?) and because the Chaldee Paraphrast, and from him the best interpreters, supply "shall say," I take this latter to be the better translation. Here, then, God promiseth, first, what Ephraim shall do, or rather, what he by his grace will cause him to do; he shall utterly abominate and abandon his idols, whereunto his heart had been joined, or glued, Hosea 4:17; secondly, what he will thereupon do for Ephraim; what special favour he will show him, and what a gracious compensation he will make him: "I have heard him, and observed him," &c. Ephraim, now grown penitent, shall say (see the like ellipsis supplied, Isa 5:9), with utmost indignation and aversion, with greatest heat of anger and height of hatred, shall he utter it. See the like 2 Samuel 16:10 2 Kings 3:13 Matthew 8:29 .
What have I to do any more with idols] Or sorrows, or bugs, those Balaam's blocks, those images and monuments of idolatry, those images of jealousy, that provoke to jealousy, Ezekiel 8:3, those dunghill deities, that can produce no good, hear no prayers, work no deliverance, bring nothing but evil and auguish to us. What, then, should we rather do, than pollute those images that we had perfumed, cast them away with detestation, as a menstruous cloth, and say unto them, Get ye hence? Isaiah 30:22. Then will God soon say, I have heard him thus bemoaning and befooling himself, Jeremiah 31:18. God hath a quick ear in such a case; he hath also an eye open to the supplications of his servants, in all that they call upon him for, as Solomon telleth us, 1 Kings 8:52 .
I have observed him] Or fixed mine eyes upon him, with a most vigilant care and critical inspection. It would be wide with God's Ephraims, and they would want many things, if he should not see as well as hear, if he should not seriously and solicitously consider and care for them, above all that they ask or think, Ephesians 3:20, and without any monitor, aid and accommodate them. He is many times better to them than their prayers; for what reason? "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, as well as his ears are open to their cry," Psalms 34:15. The Vulgate Latin rendereth it, Dirigam eum, I will direct him, as a tutor and guardian doth his pupil, his orphan, see Hosea 14:8. He will also protect him, that nothing may be wanting to his happiness.
I am like a green fir tree] Green all the year about, and of so large branches, and broad leaves thick set, that neither sun nor rain can easily come at the wearied passenger, reposing himself under them. And whereas Ephraim might say, Here is repose, but where shall I have repast? it is added;
In me is thy fruit found] q.d. The fir tree is indeed green and shady, but also barren; it bears no fruit, either ad esum, or ad usum to eat or to use. It boweth itself down to the earth, so that a man may easily lay hold upon the branches, saith Rabbi David and other Hebrews. But what shall he get by that more than a green bower, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat? &c. As an ancient, speaking of Ahab, describeth him sitting in his ivory palace in Samaria, in the time of the three years' famine: He had everything else, but wanted bread; so Ephraim here hath shade, but can he live by that? what shall he do for food? He shall not want for that, saith God all-sufficient; for
From me is thy fruit found] Praesto est (so some render it), here it is ready, and mouth meet; yea, satis est (so others render it), it is enough of it, satisfactory, and proportionable to thy necessity. Yea, I would thou shouldest know that what fruit soever thou hast, or shalt bear as an olive or vine, Hosea 14:6,7, it is found in me, proceeds in me; the root of the matter is in me, as Job speaketh in another case. Sine Deo omnis copia est egestas (Bern.). Without God, all plenty is poverty.