Ver. 1. Began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign.] Heb., He reigned, sc., as an absolute king, and no longer a vassal or tributary to the king of Assyria as before. Over Israel nine years,] viz., Four in the days of Ahaz, and five of Hezekiah. Vatab.
Ver. 2. But not as the kings of Israel that were before him.] For he suffered his subjects to go up to the passover celebrated by Hezekiah when he invited them, (2 Chronicles 30:11) and to worship the Lord as they thought meet. Sulpitius Severus therefore is out when he saith of Hoshea, Hic ultra omnes superiores reges impius, &c.; this king being wicked above all that went before him, procured to himself punishment from God, and to his nation perpetual captivity. For he was better than his predecessors, as here appeareth; and the iniquity of the people was now full. It is not the last sand that exhausteth the hour glass, nor the last stroke of the axe that felleth the tree; so here.
Ver. 3. Against him came up Shalmaneser.] Son to Tiglathpileser, and father to Sennacherib; not the same with Sennacherib, as Eusebius maketh him. Under this Shalmaneser Tobias was carried captive, and he seemeth to be the same with that Shalman (Hosea 10:14) who “spoiled Betharbel”—famous afterwards for the overthrow of Darius there—“in the day of battle; the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.”
Ver. 4. And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea,] sc., With So, king of Egypt, to whom he had sent ambassadors, and afterwards denied to pay his yearly tribute, as 2 Kings 17:3. For he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt.] Jerome calleth him Sua; he seemeth to be the same with Sabicon the Ethiopian, who had taken Bocchoris in battle, and reigned in Egypt eight years in his stead. Whence Chrysostom saith that Hoshea was confederate with the Ethiopians; and Sulpitius saith that he sent for help to the king of the Ethiopians, who then ruled over Egypt. African. In Johan., homil, xxx. Hist. Sac., lib. i.
Ver. 5. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land.] Like an overflowing flood; having first seized upon the country of the Moabites, that he might leave nothing behind him that might be to his prejudice, Ar and Kirharaseth being destroyed, as had been foretold three years before. See Isaiah 16:1-14 cum notis Tremellii.
Ver. 6. And carried Israel away into Assyria.] Whither Tiglathpileser had before carried five of the tribes. (1 Chronicles 5:26) And this was the end of the Israelitish kingdom, after it had stood two hundred and fifty-four years; the time being now come of which the prophet Isaiah had spoken, saying, Within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be wasted, so that he shall not be a people. This time began, say the Hebrews, in the twenty-fifth year of Uzziah, when their carrying away captive was first threatened by Amos. And placed them in Halah and in Habor.] Which are in Media and Persia, saith Josephus; among the Colchians and Iberians, saith Scaliger; the Tartarians, saith Genebrard, where certain places are known still by the names of Dan, Nephthalim, and Zebulon, &c. The name also of Tartars, alias Tatari or Totari, is supposed by some to come from the Hebrew word Tothar, which signifieth a residue or remnant. Iudicium sit penes lectorem.
Ver. 7. For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned.] Their iniquity was their ruin. Out of Hosea and Amos their sins may be gathered; and especially their abominable idolatry, contempt of God’s prophets, and abuse of his benefits. Of the ruin of the Greek empire, the historian assigneth these for the chief causes:—first the innovation and change of their ancient religion, by Michael Paleologus, whereof ensued a world of woes: then covetousness, coloured with the name of good husbandry, the utter destruction of the chief strength of the empire. Next unto that, envy, the ruin of the great; false suspect, the looser of friends; ambition, honour’s overthrow; distrust, the great mind’s torment; and foreign aid, the empire’s unfaithful porter, opening the gate even to the enemy himself; whereunto foul discord joined, what wanted that the barbarous enemy could desire, for the helping of them in the supplanting of so great an empire! Turk. Hist., 178.
Ver. 8. And of the kings of Israel.] They made them kings, and those kings made statutes of their own devising, without God’s approbation, (Micah 6:16) and the people loved to have it so.
Ver. 9. And the children of Israel did secretly.] Heb., They hid, or covered, or cloaked over what they did, [see Ezekiel 8:12] but all in vain; for God is all eye, and to him dark things appear, dumb things answer, silence itself maketh confession, as an ancient speaketh. From the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city,] i.e., From one corner of the country to another: a proverbial speech.
Ver. 10. In every high hill.] Where they “poured forth their whoredoms,” (Ezekiel 16:20-26) and “this had been their custom from their youth.” (Ezekiel 23:8)
Ver. 11. To provoke the Lord to anger.] As if they had done all this expressly and on purpose.
Ver. 12. Whereof the Lord had said, Ye shall not.] But they did it the rather; taking occasion by the law, that their sin might appear to be exceeding sinful. (Romans 7:13) Such is the canker of our vile natures, that the more God forbids a thing, the more we bid for it. Nitimur in vetitum semper petimusque negata.
Ver. 13. Yet the Lord testified against Israel.] He left not himself without witness; but them utterly without excuse. Turn you from your evil ways.] This was the voice of all the prophets; as of Christ and his apostles, Repent, amend your lives, which is the same.
Ver. 14. But hardened their necks.] Adding to their sinews of iron (natural impudency), brows of brass, notorious impudency in sin. (Isaiah 48:8)
Ver. 15. And they rejected his statutes.] With extreme contempt; Non unius tantum sed omnium quae caelestis sapientiae sunt, as one here glosseth. And went after the heathen that were round about them.] A Lapide here complaineth, but without cause, that in like sort the neighbour kingdoms of Germany, France, Switzerland, Denmark, England, Scotland, &c., were infected with the Lutheran heresy—so he blasphemously calleth the truth according to godliness—from Saxony, by the means of heretical merchants especially.
Ver. 16. And they left all the commandments of God.] So they will soon do, who take liberty to leave any; for the whole law is but one copulative, as the schools speak. All the host of heaven.] So the heavenly bodies, sun, moon, and stars are called, for their (1.) number; (2.) order; (3.) obedience.
Ver. 17. And they caused their sons.] See on 2 Kings 16:3. And used divination.] Dealt with the devil.
Ver. 18. Removed them out of his sight.] That since they would not live by his laws, they should not live in his land, quippe qui moribus suis quam legibus uti mallent. Val. Max.
Ver. 19. Also Judah.] Being the worse for Israel’s ill neighbourhood, (Hosea 4:14) and therefore the worse, because she should have been better by such a warning. (Jeremiah 3:8)
Ver. 20. And the Lord rejected.] Making them to become Loammi, and Loruhamah, according to Hosea 1:6,9. And delivered them into the hand of spoilers.] So that when to leave their dear country, they cried out to the mountains to cover them, and to the hills to fall upon them, according to Hosea 10:8.
Ver. 21. For he rent Israel.] Or, Israel rent itself; and became miserable by their own election. And Jeroboam drove Israel.] By fraud and by force. So seducers are said to “thrust men out of the way.” (Deuteronomy 13:5)
Ver. 22. Walked in the sins of Jeroboam.] And nothing would cure them of this leprosy, but captivity. They departed not from them.] Nothing is more pertinacious than a strong corruption.
Ver. 23. Until the Lord removed.] See on 2 Kings 17:18. Unto this day.] Wrath is come upon them to the utmost, if not to the very end, as the Greek hath it. (1 Thessalonians 2:16)
Ver. 24. And the king of Assyria.] First Shalmaneser, as here, and then his grandson Esarhaddon. (Ezra 4:2) These colonies were afterwards called Samaritans. (Matthew 10:5 Luke 9:52 John 4:4)
Ver. 25. That they feared not the Lord.] As he expected they should some way own him in a land which he was pleased to own. To do wickedly in a land of uprightness is a foul business. (Isaiah 26:10)
Ver. 26. Know not the manner of the god of the land.] They foolishly thought that each land had its proper god, whenas both they and their posterity worshipped they knew not what; (John 4:22) worshipped devils. (Revelation 9:20)
Ver. 27. Carry thither one of the priests.] One of Jeroboam’s priests, for want of a better. Docendi munus suscipit quisquis ad sacerdotium accedit. An unteaching priest is a monster. (2 Chronicles 15:3)
Ver. 28. And taught them how they should fear the Lord.] Timore cultus, non culpae; fear him at least as the idolatrous Israelites did Servile fear materially is not evil, but formally and eventually, because joined with a hatred of him we fear, saith Ribera.
Ver. 29. Made gods of their own.] Goodly gods, that were made of men. Olim truncus eram ficulnus, &c. God made man after his own image, and men, to be even with him, will needs make gods after their image. See Romans 1:23 2Co 8:5. Every nation in the cities.] So each city had its own god, and lest they should miss of the right, they closed their petitions with that general Diique deaeque omnes; or, as Medics doth in the tragedy, O Deus quisquis es, vel in caelo vel in terra; O God, whoever thou art in heaven or earth. But God requireth that we be at a better certainty. (Hebrews 11:6 Matthew 16:15) Servius in Georgic, lib. i.
Ver. 30. Succothbenoth.] This idol was made in the form of a hen hurking her chickens. Most of these names of heathenish deities are Syriac and Chaldee. Nergol significth a woodcock, or a rooster (roostcock); Asima, a goat or wolf; Nibhaz, a dog; Tartak, an ass. Adrammelech and Anammelech were idols made in the shape of a horse and a mule. See here Romans 1:23 verified, and bless God who hath taught us better. Gildas saith that our forefathers were gross idolaters, and that their gods were portenta diabolica, poene numero Aegyptiaca vincentia, devilish fray-bugs (bogies), as many in number almost as those of Egypt.
Ver. 31. Made Nibhaz and Tartak.] A dog and an ass, as 2 Kings 17:30. So the Africans worshipped a dog; the Persians, a cock; the Mendesians, a goat, &c. The people of the East Indies, in the isle Ceylon, having an ape’s tooth got from them which they had consecrated, offered an incredible mass of treasure to recover it.
Ver. 32. So they feared the Lord.] They did, and they did not; (2 Kings 17:34) they feared him for his lions, as the old Romans served their Veioves, that they might not hurt them, and their gods Rubigus, Orbona, Febris, &c., for the same reason. So the poor Indians do at this day worship the devil, that he may not whip them. Rosin., Ant., ii. 21.
Ver. 33. They feared the Lord.] Religione mixta et interimistica. See 2 Kings 17:32. And served their own gods.] So Redwald, the first king of the East Saxons that was baptized, had in the same church one altar for Christian religion, and another for sacrifice to devils. The Papists do no less. (Revelation 9:20) Neither doth their distinction of Latria and Dulia excuse them. Camden.
Ver. 34. They fear not the Lord.] Rightly they feared him not, because neither truly nor totally: their religion was a galimaufrey, a mixture of true and false, which is as good as none; for God will not part stakes with the devil at any hand. Such a religion is a mere irreligion, because contrary, (1.) To God’s law, which rejecteth heathen rites; (2 Kings 17:34,36,37,39,40) (2.) To God’s covenant, which heathens have nothing to do with. (2 Kings 17:33,38) The mongrel religion of the Samaritans was afterwards refined by Manasseh, a Jewish priest, that in Alexander’s time made a defection to them, and brought many Jews with him.