Hosea 8:1 [Set] the trumpet to thy mouth. [He shall come] as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.
Ver. 1. Set the trumpet to thy mouth] Heb. The trumpet to thy palate. A hasty expression, an abrupt and imperfect speech, common with such as are moved with passions, of anger, grief, or fear, as Hosea 5:8, "after thee, O Benjamin." God, though not subject to such perturbations, James 1:17, yet here aud elsewhere utters himself in this sort; to set forth the nearness of the people's danger by the enemies' approach; and the necessity of their return to him by true repentance, for the diversion of his displeasure. "Break off thy sins by righteousness," saith the prophet to Nebuchadnezzar; be abrupt in the work, cut the cart ropes of vanity, if "it may be a lengthening of the tranquillity," Daniel 4:27. Take the bark from the tree, and the sap can never find the way to the boughs; get sin remitted, and punishment shall be removed. In this sermon of the prophet (which is much sharper than the former, and may seem to be one of the last, because God is so absolute in threatening, as if he meant to be resolute in punishing) there is (as one saith) peccatorum et poenarum συναθροισμος, a heaping together of sins and of punishments of many sorts; and the prophet commanded to give sudden warning of the enemy at hand, which is elegantly set forth by a military hypotyposis, or lively representation; as if it were now doing. "The trumpet to thy mouth," that is, set up thy note, and proclaim with a loud and clear voice, as Isaiah 58:1, cry in the throat (so the Chaldee hath it here), spare not, that none may say he was not warned; "lift up thy voice like a trumpet," that all may hear and fear, Amos 3:6, as people use to do when an alarm is sounded, or the bells are rung backward. See Hosea 5:8. There they had been before alarmed, here reminded in brief; for the prophet is, as it were, monosyllabus, as one in haste; he uttereth amputatas sententias et verba ante expectatum cadentia, as Seneca somewhere hath it, broken sentences, concise but pithy periods.
He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord] He, that is, the Assyrian; not Nebuchadnezzar, though the like is said of him, Ezekiel 17:3; Ezekiel 17:7; much less the Romans (as Lyra interpreteth this text of the last destruction of Jerusalem, because the eagle was their ensign); but Pul, Tiglathpileser, and Shalmaneser, who came against the ten tribes as an eagle, to waste, spoil, and carry captive speedily, impetuously, irresistibly; as 2 Kings 15:19; 2Ki 15:29; 2 Kings 17:3; 2Ki 18:19 Lamentations 4:19. The eagle is the strongest and swiftest of birds, and feareth no obstacle, either from other fowl, or wind, or thunderbolt, as Pliny afflrmeth (Plin. lib. x. 3). Nebuchadnezzar is not only compared to an eagle (as before is noted), but to a lion with eagle's wings, Daniel 7:4, that is, with invincible armies, that march with incredible swiftness. And all this was long since forethreatened, Deuteronomy 28:49, "The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth"; to which text the prophet here seemeth to allude; as indeed all the prophets do but comment upon Moses, and draw out that arras, which was folded together by him before.
Against the house of the Lord] That is, the house of Israel, called God's house, Numbers 12:7 Hebrews 3:5, and God's land, Hosea 9:3; Hosea 9:15, and their commonwealth is by Josephus called a theocracy. And although they were now become apostates, yet they gloried no less than before to be of the stock of Abraham, and of the family of faith; like as the Turks call themselves at this day Mussulmans, that is, the true and right believers; especially after they are circumcised, which is not done till they be past ten years of age; following the example of Ishmael, whom they imitate and honour as their progenitor; alleging that Abraham loved him, and not Isaac, and that it was Ishmael whom Abraham would have sacrificed.
Because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed] Sin is the mother of misery; and the great makebate between God and his creature. It moves him when we ask bread and fish to feed us, as Hos 8:2 to answer us with a stone to bruise us, or a serpent to bite us. The sin of this people was the more heinous, because they were covenanters, and confederate with God. It was his covenant that was in their flesh, Genesis 17:13, and he had betrothed them to himself, and betrusted them with his oracles, "but they like men transgressed the covenant, and dealt treacherously against him," Hosea 6:7, See Trapp on " Hos 6:7 " they performed not the "stipulation of a good conscience toward God," 1 Peter 3:21 .
They trespassed against his law] As if it had not been holy, and just, and good, precious, perfect, and profitable; grounded upon so much good reason, that if God had not commanded it, yet it had been best for us to have practised it. Isaiah 48:17, "I am the Lord that teacheth thee to profit, &c. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments!" &c. q.d. It is for thy profit, and not for mine own, that I have given thee a law to live by. But they have trespassed, or prevaricated; and this out of pride and malice, as the word signifieth; and as before he had oft convinced them of many particulars, and more will do, therefore are they justly punished.