I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, [and] Israel is defiled.
Ver. 3. I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me] Those that by Ephraim understand the princes, and by Israel the common people, etiam hoc operae addant, et illud ex Scriptura probent, saith Tarnovius, let them prove what they say by Scripture, and we will say with them: till then we take them for synonyms (Repetitione etiam auget populi rebellionem. Rivet). A hypocritical nation they were, Isaiah 9:17, and atheistically they thought, by hiding God from themselves, to hide themselves from God. Hear them else, Hosea 12:8, "And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin": that were a heinous business that iniquity should be found in them, though they were a people laden with iniquity, Isaiah 1:4. But I know them through and through, intus et in cute, saith God, I am privy to all their plots and policies. And although they are profound to make slaughter (Tyndale reads it, They kill sacrifices on heaps to deceive), yet let not them be deceived, I am not mocked. They must not think to put me off with shows and shadows; to colour and cover their base spirits and vile ends with specious pretences. For I search the hearts, and try the reins: "neither is there any creature" (no, not the creature of the heart, the thoughts and intentions) "that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and open" (naked for the outside, γυμνα, and open for the inside; the Greek word, τετραχηλισμενα, signifieth dissected, quartered, and as it were cleft through the backbone) "before the eye of him with whom we have to deal," Hebrews 4:13. Indeed, he is all eye; and every man before God is all window, ολοφθαλμος : so that no man needeth a window in his breast, pectus clathratum (as the heathen Momus wished), for God to look in at. "For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves," Job 34:21,22. "His eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men," Psalms 11:4. The former points out his knowledge, the latter his critical descant. David, Psalms 139:8, findeth God not only at his finger ends, but at his tongue's end too, Hosea 5:4. His knowledge stays not here in the porch or lobbies, but passeth into the presence, yea, privy chamber, Hosea 5:2, yea, my thoughts in potential before I think them. Deus intimo nostro nobis intimior. The word is to God a sea of glass, Revelation 4:6, a clear transparent body: "and his eyes are as a flaming fire," Revelation 1:14, which needs no outward light, because it seeth extramittendo by sending out a ray; so that the "night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to him," Psalms 139:12. What wonder therefore though he know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from him? And how should this both humble them (for which cause it is here urged) and caution them for the future, as it did that holy man, who had written upon the walls and windows of his study these verses,
“ Ne pecces, Deus ipse videt, bonus Angelus astat,
Accusat Satanas, et lex, mens conscia culpae. ”
For now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled ] In body and soul, rushing into all impiety without restraint; working all uncleanness with greediness, Ephesians 4:19 , being filled "with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness: full of envy, murder, debate, deceit," &c., Romans 1:29,30 . All these evil things "come from within, and defile a man," Mark 7:23 , worse than any leprosy, worse than the vomit of a dog, or the mire of a swine. It is the pollution of flesh and spirit, 2 Corinthians 7:1 , it is the putrefication of a dead carcase, the sanies of a plague sore, the devil's excrement, and that which defileth far worse than that which is cast into the draught, Mark 7:21 . It sets defilement upon ourselves, others, the whole land, Jeremiah 3:1 , yea, upon the visible heavens, which must therefore be purged by that last fire. And this was typified by those many Levitical washings and purifications of garments, vessels, persons. "Wash you, therefore, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings," &c., Isaiah 1:16 . "Wash thy heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem," not thy hands only, as Pilate, though those too, Jam 4:8 Jeremiah 4:14 . "Cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit," 2 Corinthians 7:1 . Of the flesh, that is, fleshly lusts and gross evils, as uncleanness, earthly mindedness; or of spirit, that is, those more spiritual lusts that lie more up in the heart of the country, such as are pride, creature confidence, self-deceit, presumption, &c. Out with all these: there is both a stain and a sting in them. Run to the bath of Christ's blood, that blessed fountain, Zechariah 13:1 , and there wash and be clean. Look not upon God's Jordan with Syrian eyes, as Naaman did. Abanah and Pharpar may wash and scour; but Jordan is for cure. And if God see fit to lay us a frosting to fetch out our filth, yea, or cast into the fire to take away our defilements, let us be contented.