Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant
Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people. Hos. 6:11
Also,
O Judah,... Lest Judah feel smug at her neighbor’s demise, the
prophet reminds them that they have a day of reckoning awaiting them
(Jer. 51:13; Joel 2:10-3-1).
Also...
גַּם
gam: An adverbial conjunction meaning also, even, moreover, indeed, yea, as well as, both, though. In different contexts, the word can be translated in various ways: it ties things together, new and old (Song 7:13,14); includes other things or persons, such as a husband (Gen. 3:6); adds action (Gen. 3:22); intensifies, such as even a blameless nation (Gen. 20:4); indicates neither . . . nor (1Sam. 28:20). It may stress a particular word with which it is used and mean even or else (Exo. 4:9; Num. 22:33; Pro. 14:13). It introduces a climax to a statement (Gen. 27:33) and means yes (KJV, yea). It expresses agreement in oneself with another, e.g., I also (Gen. 20:6; Jos. 24:18; Jdg. 2:21). When used in pairs gam . . . gam, it means also . . . as or as . . . as (Jer. 2:36) or as . . . so (Isa. 66:3-4). It means though in some contexts: "They tried Me, though [gam] they had seen My work" (of judgment) (Psm. 95:9 NASB, cf. Psm. 129:2; Jer. 6:15; Ezk. 20:23). When used in the phrase gam kiy, it is best rendered as yes, when, or even when (Pro. 22:6; Isa. 1:15; Lam. 3:8; Hos. 8:10).
O Judah,...
יְהוּדָה
yehûḏāh: A proper noun designating Judah:
A. The fourth son of Jacob through Leah (Gen. 29:35; 35:23). He married a Canaanite woman and bore two sons by her (Er, Onan). Er died and then Onan his brother died, leaving Tamar, Er's wife, without a child. Judah, heartlessly, refused to allow his third son to have a child by Tamar. Judah then committed an unwitting, but heinous sin with his daughter-in-law by hiring her as a prostitute and unwittingly fathered twins by her (Gen. 38). His lack of compassion is evident in the story. Judah himself bore many other sons (Gen. 46:12). Jacob prophesied of the high status Judah and his descendants would have among the patriarchs (Gen. 49:8-12). He and they would be above their enemies, their own kinsmen; he was compared to a lion. He would have royal prerogatives ("scepter," "rulership"); he would be prosperous and powerful in appearance (cf. also Deu. 33:7). From Judah would come the Star out of Jacob and Israel (Gen. 24:17).
B. The territory of Judah ran north-south from north of Jerusalem and Aijalom and south to Kadesh Barnea. Its eastern border ran from Gath south to the El-Arish (River of Egypt). Its eastern border was the Dead Sea and a boundary running from the Brook Zered southwest to Kadesh Barnea. Jerusalem, Hebron, and Bethlehem, all important cities in Israel and the Old Testament, were within its boundaries.
The tribe took its territory in Canaan rather forcefully (Jdg. 1:1-9) but could not totally capture Jerusalem. Judah seems gradually to have become isolated from the northern tribes (Jdg. 4; 5).
Under David, Judah became powerful. David was crowned king in Judah at Hebron and then captured Jerusalem to consolidate Judah and to attract the other tribes to Jerusalem as the central capital and worship center of the nation (2Sam. 5:1-16). Solomon attempted to consolidate the nation further, but through poor politics, poor economics, oppressive taxation, and megalomanical building projects, he forced those outside of Judah into a subordinate, almost slave-like position toward Judah and Jerusalem (2Sam. 8-12). As a result, Israel split off from Judah after Solomon's death in 930 B.C. The nation of Israel went into exile in 722 B.C., while the nation of Judah, with the Davidic covenant and royal line intact, lingered on with a few good kings (Asa, Jehosophat, Joash, Hezekiah, Josiah) until she too was destroyed because of her religious and moral corruption (2Kgs. 25).
Within Judah, God had chosen a king and established an eternal covenant (2 Sam. 7). The tribe of Judah went into exile in 586 B.C., as predicted by Jeremiah, but likewise returned in 538 B.C. according to the prophet's word, still bearing the promised royal seed. The tribe was a mere shadow of itself from then until the end of the Old Testament. The high priest became dominant, for no kings were permitted in Judah, now a province of Persia, then Egypt, Syria, and Rome.
C. A Levite who had intermarried with the foreign people of the land in Ezra's day (Ezra 10:23).
D. A district or sectional director in Jerusalem over its newly returned residents from exile or the surrounding region (Neh. 11:9).
E. A leading Levite who returned from exile from Babylon under Zerubbabel (Neh. 12:8).
F. A priest who took part in the procession celebrating the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem (Neh. 12:34).
he hath set... Judah, the southern kingdom, will fare no better than Ephraim, the northern kingdom; for it committed the same sins. God’s judgment will come to them some 136 years later and by a different agent, Babylon.
שִׁית
šiyṯ: A verb meaning to set, to put, to lay. It basically means to place or put something somewhere: hostility between the serpent and the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15); to appoint or replace something (Gen. 4:25); to place or put sheep in a separate area (Gen. 30:40); to appoint or establish a person in an official position (Gen. 41:33; Psm. 21:6,7; 132:11; Isa. 5:6; 26:1; Jer. 22:6). It is used of God's setting or establishing the earth on its foundations (1Sam. 2:8). To set one's hand on a person's eyes at death means to close them (Gen. 46:4). It indicates merely placing one's hand on a person (Gen. 48:14, 48:17). To set one's heart on something means to pay attention to it (Exo. 7:23; 2Sam. 13:20; Jer. 31:21). The phrase šîṯ leḇaddô means to set apart (Gen. 30:40). The phrases to set one's hand to means to help or to have a common goal (Exo. 23:1); to blame someone means to set sin upon them (Num. 12:11). It takes on the sense of to make, to constitute something as: to make someone turn the shoulder (Psm. 21:12,13); to make something like something else, e.g., Israel like a land of hunting, a wilderness (Jer. 2:15; Hos. 2:3,5); to make or appoint darkness (Psm. 104:20). It refers to appointing a feast (Jer. 51:39); or of setting, putting one's refuge in the Lord (Ps. 73:28). God sets, defines Israel's borders (Exo. 23:31).
an harvest for... A reaping time of judgment.
when I returned... Judah had sinned like Israel, and they too, would reap what they had sown. There is a great harvest at the end of the earth when all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will be carried to heaven to live for God. Those who reject Jesus will be the tares which are gathered and burned.
קָצִיר
qāṣiyr: I. A masculine noun indicating a harvest, a reaping. It refers to the time of the year set by God when crops have ripened and are harvested (Gen. 8:22; 30:14, April-June); and to the activity of harvesting itself (2Sam. 21:9). The failure of a harvest was devastating (Gen. 45:6). Certain feasts were centered around times of harvesting (Exo. 23:16).
II. A masculine noun meaning a bough, a branch. It refers to a fresh bough or sprig springing forth from a stump, an indication of life (Job 14:9). It is used figuratively of the wicked whose branch is dead, cut off (Job 18:16); and to the prosperity of Job in his earlier years (Job 29:19). It is used of Israel's prospering (Psm. 80:11,12), but also to her state of ruin as dry limbs (Isa. 27:11).
The comparison of judgment to a harvest (cf. Jer. 51:33; Joel 3:13) emphasizes its certainty (appointed) and its thoroughness.
for
thee, when I returned...
שׁוּב
šûḇ: A verb meaning to turn, to return, to go back, to do again, to change, to withdraw, to bring back, to reestablish, to be returned, to bring back, to take, to restore, to recompense, to answer, to hinder. The verb is used over one thousand times and has various shades of meaning in its four stems. In the simple stem, it is used to describe divine and human reactions, attitudes, and feelings. The verb describes the possibility that Israel might change (turn) their minds and return to Egypt (Exo. 13:17). Josiah the king turned back to the Lord with all his heart, soul, and strength (2Kgs. 23:25; Jer. 34:15). Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn from the anger He held toward Judah (2Kgs. 23:26; Jer. 4:28). Job pleaded with his miserable comforters to relent (i.e., turn away) from him (Job 6:29). God's people will return (repent) and seek Him in the last days (Deu. 30:2; Isa. 59:20; Hos. 3:5) instead of turning away from Him as they are now; to return to Egypt (Isa. 6:10; Hos. 11:5). God's call was persistently for His people to return to Him (1Kgs. 8:33; Jer. 4:1). Any nation can repent and turn to God for forgiveness (Jer. 18:8).
The word is used metaphorically to describe things returning: God's Word will not be revoked (returned) once it has been uttered (Isa. 45:23; 55:11); Jacob stayed with Laban until Esau's anger cooled off (turned back) (Gen. 27:44-45); blood guilt could return on one's own head (1Kgs. 2:33; Psm. 7:16,17). This word also describes the sword of Saul that did not return without success from the battlefield (2Sam. 1:22).
The verb also indicates to returning to or to change into. For example, human beings return to the dust of the earth (Gen. 3:19; Ecc. 12:7); but a person cannot naturally return to life (2Sam. 12:23); unless God's Spirit brings it about (1Kgs. 13:6). A land of great natural fertility can be reduced (turned into) to a farmer's cropland (Isa. 29:17).
In its simplest sense, the word means to return, to restore, to go back. Abraham's descendants in their fourth generation would return to Canaan (Gen. 15:16); God returned to visit His people (Gen. 8:9; 18:10). It is also used to describe turning chariots about when needed (1Kgs. 22:33; Mic. 2:8).
This verb is used with other verbs of motion, all in their infinitive or participial forms, to describe a back and forth motion; the ravens Noah sent out went back and forth (Gen. 8:7). Used with another verb in general, šûḇis either not translated or means to do again whatever action is indicated by the other verb, such as when Isaac dug again the wells his father had previously dug (Gen. 26:18). A similar meaning is to take back or recapture when this verb is used with the Hebrew verb lāqaḥ, meaning to take or to receive (2Kgs. 13:25; Mic. 7:19). Finally, if this verb is used with a following infinitive of another verb, it means to do over and over or more and more; Israel angered the Lord more and more than they had already angered Him by performing pagan rituals (Ezk. 8:17).
the captivity...
שְׁבוּת
šeḇûṯ, שְׁבִית
šeḇiyṯ: A feminine noun meaning captivity, captives. This word conveys either a state of exile, such as being taken for a spoil of war, or the subjects of such captivity. The chief use was in declaring the liberating power of the Lord in releasing His people from such banishment (Deu. 30:3; Jer. 33:7; Hos. 6:11). Interestingly, when Job's fortunes were restored, he was said to have been freed from captivity (Job 42:10).
of my people...
עַ ם
‛am, עָ ם
‛ām: A masculine noun meaning a people, peoples, people of the land, citizens. The word is used over nineteen hundred times to indicate groups of people that can be categorized in various ways. The largest group of people is the one comprising the whole earth (see Gen. 11:1); it constituted one people (Gen. 11:6); who shared a common language (Gen. 11:6; Ezk. 3:5); a common location (see Gen. 11:2); and a common purpose and goal (see Gen. 11:4). However, the Lord scattered the group and brought about multiple languages, thereby producing many groups who would then develop into new peoples united around common languages, including common ancestors, religious beliefs, traditions, and ongoing blood relationships.
The word is used to describe various groups that developed. The people of the sons of Israel (Exo. 1:9; Ezra 9:1), was a term referring to all Israel. The people of Judah were a subgroup of Israel (2Sam. 19:40,41), as was northern Israel (2Kgs. 9:6). The people of Israel as a whole could be described in religious or moral terms as a holy, special people (Deu. 7:6; 14:2; Dan. 8:24); or the Lord's inheritance (Deu. 4:20). Above all, they were to be the Lord's people (Jdg. 5:11; 1Sam. 2:24); and the people of God (2Sam. 14:13). They were the Lord's own people because He had rescued them from slavery to Pharaoh and his gods (Exo. 6:7). But the Lord Himself characterized His people as stiff-necked (Exo. 32:9; 33:3; 34:9; Deu. 9:13). To be a member of the Lord's people was to have the Lord as one's God (Ruth 1:16); if God's people rejected the Lord, they ceased to be His people. Therefore, it is clear that God's presence and ownership of His people gave them their identity (Exo. 33:13, 33:16; Hos. 1:9; cf. Deu. 32:21).
In the plural form, the word refers to many peoples or nations. Jerusalem, destroyed and lamenting, called for the people of the world to look on it and its guilt (Lam. 1:18). Israel was chosen from among all the peoples of the earth (Exo. 19:5, 19:7; Deu. 14:2). The Lord is in control of all the plans of the nations and peoples (Psm. 33:10). The word is used in parallel with gôyim. Isaac prayed for Jacob's offspring to become a community of peoples that would include the twelve tribes of Israel (Gen. 28:3).
The word described people in general that is, nonethnic or national groups. It refers to all the people as individuals in the world (Isa. 42:5). When persons died, they were gathered to their people (Gen. 25:8, 25:17). It also referred to people from a particular city (Ruth 4:9; 2Chr. 32:18); or people from a specific land (e.g., Canaan [Zep. 1:11]). Centuries earlier, Pharaoh referred to the Hebrews living in Egypt under slavery as the people of the land (Exo. 5:5). This phrase could refer to the population at large in Solomon's time and later (2Kgs. 11:14, 11:18; 15:5); or to the population of Canaan in Abraham's time (Gen. 23:7).
The term also depicted foreign peoples and nations. The Moabites were the people of the god Chemosh (Num. 21:29). The word designated foreigners in general as strange or alien people (Exo. 21:8); the people of Egypt were considered the people of Pharaoh (Exo. 1:9, 1:22).
The word is even used to describe a gathering of ants (Pro. 30:25); or rock badgers (Pro. 30:26).
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