All their wickedness [is] in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes [are] revolters.
Ver. 15. All their wickedness is in Gilgal] We have had the prophet's prayer: follows now the Lord's answer in this and the following verse, where we have the former threats repeated, to show that God was unchangeably resolved upon their ruin; and that, first, for their idolatry, secondly, for their other vile practices, thirdly, for the apostasy of their princes: all this here. Their idolatry was the worse, because committed at Gilgal, where God had done much for their forefathers; See Trapp on " Hos 4:15 " The quality of the place adds much to the greatness of the sin, "In the land of uprightness they will deal unjustly," Isaiah 26:10, "the faithful city is become a harlot," Isaiah 1:21; Isaiah 5:7, he looked for judgment, but behold a scab. The devil desireth to set himself up in such places as have been formerly eminent for God's sincere service, as Gilgal once was, 1 Samuel 10:8; 1 Samuel 11:15; for the ark of the covenant was there, which these idolaters had not. So in the holy land (as they still call it), which is possessed by Mahometans and Papists: so Wittenberg, where Luther first began to reform, is now deformed by divers errors and heresies, as Polanus observeth. Wilkinson against the Familists reports the like of Colchester in Essex.
For there I hated them] Angry I was with them before, and grieved for their other misdoings; but their idolatry hath enraged me with a holy hatred of them, and that there, where I showed greatest love to their forefathers. God thinks the worse of such places wherein idolaters rest and roost; like as he thinks the better of the towns and houses where his faithful servants inhabit, as Isaiah 49:16, their walls are ever before him.
For the wickedness of their doings, I will drive them out] Revenge and expulsion is the next effect of hatred. There is a great deal of other wicked doings where idolatry (that wickedness with a witness, as it is herd styled) is set up. Surely of this abominable thing we may well say, as St James doth of discord, "Where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evll work," James 3:16. But God will not endure such doings in his house: David would not in his, Psalms 101:7. Solomon entertained Jeroboam into his house and service, because he saw the young man was suitable for the work, 1 Kings 11:28, but he proved a mischief to and against his house. Many today scruple not to entertain and harbour such as are serviceable, though otherwise their religion be either a Popish puppet and calf worship, or a flat irreligion. These have little of God in them.
I will drive them out of mine house, saith he, I will love them no more] A fearful sentence, like that Jeremiah 16:13, I will show them no favour: this was worse to them than their captivity there threatened. Ephraim had a great deal of outward peace and prosperity, but love they had none; because none of those graces that flow from election and accompany salvation. These are God's love tokens, that all must court. But oh! take heed (saith one) if thou addest any more to thy wickednesses, lest that this dreadful sentence be pronounced in heaven against thee, I will love thee no more, Heb. I will add no more to love thee.
All their princes are revolters] Col sarehem sorerim, an elegance past the capability of translation. The princes were all rebellious and refractory, uncounsellable, unpersuadable (απειθουντες, as the Seventy render it), like that king of Scotland that would seldom ask counsel, but never follow any; so wedded he was to his own will. (Dan. Hist. of Eng. fol. 207). Elati superbia volebant superiores esse verbo, saith Luther upon this text. Jeroboam-like they would stretch out their hand against a prophet, 1 Kings 13:4, that should cry against their altars, and deal plainly with them, as Hosea here doth; testifying to their faces that they were all apostates, and made Israel sin. Princes should be the lord keepers of both tables of the law; as it was written upon the sword of Charles the Great (Decem praeceptorum custos Caxolus); but when they are naught, as here, the people take after them. Principis vita censura est et cynosura.