Ver. 1. When Ephraim spake trembling] Or, there was trembling, as there is among the beasts of the field when the lion roareth. Ephraim, while innocent of the great offence, spake with authority, and none durst budge against him; for he had great power in his hand. Now, as the philosopher told Adrian the emperor, who challenged him to dispute, Difficile est ei contradicere qui potest aqua et igni interdicere; vel adversus eum scribere, qui potest proscribere. It is dangerous meddling with the lion’s beard. Nebuchadnezzar’s majesty was such that “all people, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him,” Daniel 5:19; wheresoever his commands or armies came there were very great heart quakes and concussions of spirit. “Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?” Ecclesiastes 8:4. Job was no king; and yet while he was Jobab, Genesis 36:34, that is, in a prosperous condition, “The young men saw him, and hid themselves; the nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth,” Job 29:8,10. The people feared Joshua, Joshua 4:14, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life; for what reason? the Lord had magnified him in the sight of all Israel. Natural conscience cannot but stoop to the image of God in whomsoever. When Ephraim was first in the throne he became formidable; but when he fell openly from God he grew feeble; first he was a terror, and then a scorn. But when he offended in Baal, he died] When, by Jezebel (who did all under her husband, she was king, and he queen) Baal worship was brought in, then Ephraim fell from his dignity; then every paltry adversary trampled upon him, as the hare will do upon a dead lion. See how Benhadad insulted over Ahab, 1 Kings 20:3,4 “Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have.” Look how the worried cur falls upon his back, and holds up all four, as craving quarter; so did this sordid idolater, glad to crouch to his enemy: when God was departed from him he was even as a dead carcase. “ Morti vicinus iam magis atque magis. ” He that departeth from God (who is his life) by an evil heart of unbelief, Hebrews 3:12, subjecteth himself to all sorts of deaths, natural, civil, spiritual, and eternal.
Ver. 2. And now they sin more and more] Heb. They add to sin: God in his just judgment hath given them up unto hardness of mind, and to their heart’s lust; that for all this sudden change they repent not, but run more and more into idolatry. Not content to worship Baal and such heathen deities, They make them molten images of their silver] They laid their money together, to make the golden calves, or silver shrines, as Acts 19:24, and other idolatrous trinkets; they lavished silver out of the bag, and were at no small charge. They multiplied their altars, Hosea 10:1, and abused God’s gold and silver to mystical adultery, Hosea 2:8. All this they did now, saith the text; most unseasonably, and as it were in flat opposition to God; after he had sought to reclaim them both by counsels and corrections, and had hanged Ahab and his house up in gibbets, as it were, before them, for their admonition. Surely it is a just both presage and desert of ruin not to be warned. See Hosea 7:1. [See Trapp on “Ho 7:1”] And idols according to their own understanding] i.e. According to their own inventions, motu suo roprio; forsaking the rule of the word, they will needs be scholars to their own reason, though they are sure to have a fool to their master. That is a good saying of Solomon, Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding,” in matters of God’s worship especially; for there Deus damnat quicquid arridet iudicio hominum vel rationi God despises whatever is pleasing in the opinion of men or reason. (Calv. in loc.), “that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God,” Luke 16:15. All of it the work of the craftsmen] And should men worship the work of their own hands? what can be imagined more irrational and sottish? But it is a most righteous recompense of their error, Romans 1:27. See Isaiah 29:13,14, God doth blind and blast such, causing their madness to appear to all, and that they are men compact of mere incongruities, soloecising in opinion, speeches, actions, all: nothing is more irrational than irreligion. They say of it, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves] They, that is, the king and his counsellors, or the idolatrous priests by their appointment. These were active to invite and incite men to partake of those idolatrous services. Should we be less diligent in calling upon others to “kiss the Son,” with a kiss of love and homage? should we not be as serious and sedulous in building staircases for heaven as the wicked are in digging descents to hell? Kiss the calves] That the custom of kissing in divine worship was used in all nations is evident. They kissed either the idol’s mouth or their own hand (where the idol stood on high, so that they could not come at it) in token of homage. See 1 Kings 19:18 Job 31:27. (Adorare est quasi applicare manum ad os.) To wordship is just as to bring the hand to the mouth. So (after the example of Dioclesian) the pope holds forth his foot to be kissed by the greatest potentates, while he sitteth as God, in the temple of God.