The Lord Will Punish Israel
Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer. Hos. 9:13
Ephraim... The kingdom of Israel.
as I saw... Here is another comparison—the place of Tyrus compared with the inheritance of Ephraim. Tyrus; of which see (Eze. 26 Chapters 27 and 28); a very rich, well-fortified, and pleasant city, and secure too. That afterward held out thirteen years’ siege against all the power of the Babylonian empire in Nebuchadnezzar’s time.
is planted in... A pleasant place; is now well provided, seems invincible, is as secure as Tyrus was in her prosperity; perhaps reckons either strength shall break the enemies, or money buy friends, or the magnificence and beauty of their places and dwellings shall be some safety to them; but all this shall avail nothing.
shall bring forth... Though a multitude of children to send forth in mighty armies against the enemy, yet it will be but a sending them out to the slaughter. God is departed from them, and will not go out with their armies, so they shall fall by the sword of the enemy.
to the murderer... The children of Ephraim will no longer be protected by God, and they will fall prey to the murderer. The land God had given them was beautiful, as the city of Tyre had been. God took His blessings away, and the young males in the land were killed.
Yea, woe upon themselves also, when I look away from them! Ephraim again the Fruitful name is dragged to the front for prey, as I have seen, are his sons destined. Ephraim he must lead his sons to the slaughter.
The words like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place (Hos. 9:13) attempt to make sense of the difficult Hebrew text, which seems to contrast Ephraim’s prosperous past (comparable to the Phoenician commercial center Tyre; cf. Eze. 28:1-26) with its humiliating future. The RSV (following the LXX) translates Hos. 9:13, Ephraim’s sons, as I have seen, are destined for a prey. This seems to provide better parallelism with Hos. 9:13.
0 comments:
Post a Comment