Глава 13

Having received from Me the justifications and laws by which life should be led, Ephraim instead loved the iniquities of idols, from which he acquired death instead of life. But with each day, one might say, his descendants will increase their wickedness, making statues of various animals from gold and silver, and serving man-made idols. For with such madness they will indulge in this, that due to the multitude of victims they will not be able to get the sacrificial animals, and they will dare to say: Hos.13:2. Devour the people, your bodies will become scarce. Hos.13:3. For this reason they will be like the morning cloud, like the morning dew flowing, and like dust blown by a whirlwind from the current, like vapor from locusts. For such wickedness, says God, I will turn them into nothing by the invasion of enemies. How the rising sun conveniently dries up the morning dew, and soon the cloud that appears at that time dissipates, and how a strong wind easily destroys the dust on the threshing floor, and the steam floating in the air destroys a cloud of locusts; So a cloud of enemies will destroy you, and the land you now inhabit will turn into a desert. Hos.13:4. I am the Lord your God, establish the heavens and create the earth, and by His hand you will create all the host of heaven, that is, I not only created heaven and earth, but also granted them a long existence, brought into existence the entire heavenly army, visible and invisible, the heavenly forces and intelligent natures, and many stars with great luminaries - the sun and the moon. And don’t show them off before you follow them. And I brought you out of the land of Egypt, and you don’t know God, and you don’t know Me to save. For after your liberation and deliverance from Egypt, giving you the law, I commanded you not to know any other God besides Me, and said: “Thou shalt not make any likeness to yourself, every tree in the heavens, and every tree on the earth below, and every tree in the waters under the earth” (Ex. 20:4). Not only did I free you from the bitter slavery of Egypt; but also Hos.13:5. I shepherd you in the desert, in uninhabited lands that is, he gave you manna from the sky, krastel from the sea, water from the stone according to your needs; because even while living in the desert, you did not lack what was necessary. But their hearts, filled to the point of fulfillment, were exalted, and for this reason they forgot Me. The divine Moses also spoke about them in a similar way: “And Jacob was satisfied, and the beloved was rejected: fat, thick, wide, and forsake the Lord who made him” (Deut. 32:15). But I will not leave him, says God, unpunished. Hos.13:7. I will be them like panfir and like a lynx on the path of the Assyrians. I will raise up beastly enemies against him, who will treat him like a panther and a lynx. And since God, as the ruler of everything, Himself sends enemies; then he likens himself to a panther and a lynx. It also adds the following: Hos.13:8. I will hide them like a she-bear, and I will destroy the bond of their hearts. Like a she-bear, constrained and unable to escape, she rushes at those approaching with great fury; so their enemies will not give them any mercy, but will show them their cruel and fierce disposition. I will do the same with them at the end in order to open their imprisoned heart, which does not want to open, but remains cruel and inflexible, and bring them into contrition and a consciousness of duty. And I will eat up the oak trees, and the wild beasts will tear me apart. He expressed the same thing in different ways in order to amaze and frighten those who were ill with insensibility with a multitude of terrible images. Then the Prophet mourns, reproaches them, and reminds them of their former folly. Hos.13:9. In your destruction to Israel, who will help you? Os.13:10. Where is this king of yours? Let him save you in all your cities: and let him judge you, about whom you said: give me a king and a prince. Who will adequately mourn your corruption, O Israel? You are left without any help, although you are under the authority of the king and live under his rule; because, despising My rule, says God, you desired to have a man as king. Os.13:11. And I gave you a king in My wrath, but again you remained strong in My wrath. I was angry at the foolish request and gave you Saul; but, again guided by forbearance and long-suffering, he installed David in his place. For this is the meaning of the words: “I was strengthened in My wrath,” that is, I was led by long-suffering. Os.13:12. Ephraim is a pile of untruth, his sin is hidden. This is similar to what was said in Isaiah: “Woe to those who draw away sins, as if they are already long” (Is. 5:18). Hosea says the same thing here, namely, that Ephraim constantly piles up and multiplies untruths, guided by evil advice. This is what the words mean: “his sin is hidden,” i.e. in the depths of his deceit. But I will surround him, says God, with such calamities that he will suffer like a woman giving birth. Then he seems to ask Israel: your wise. You preferred him to Manasseh, and placed the young man above the old man, but for this honor he will fall into dishonor. Zane will not stand in the destruction of the children theirs; because he will not be able to help neighbors who are attacked by enemies. Having announced the sad, God again turns his speech to the promise of the joyful. Os.13:14. I will deliver you from the hand of hell, and I will redeem you from death. Then he commands us to sing a song of victory over death. Where is yours, death? Where is your osten, hell? This happened educationally at the return of the Jews; because the Prophet calls being in captivity figuratively hell and death, but this completely and truly came to fulfillment after the resurrection of our Savior. For with the resurrection of our Firstfruits, we all received the hope of the resurrection. This can also be found in the prophecy of Ezekiel; because there, too, the revival of bones signifies the return of Israel, who, having lost good hopes, said: “We are dead, our bones are dry” (Ezek. 37:11), and the general resurrection of all people. What happened to the Jews was a prototype of the care of God of all kinds for all people. Consolation hidden from my sight: Os.13:15. This will separate the brethren. But this consolation of good hope and expectation of the resurrection, it seems, was hidden for a time both from the Jews who were in captivity and from all people; because the Jews, having become slaves, separated from their relatives and forced to servile separately, who got who, had no hope of returning, and all people, seeing how death reaps the entire human race, then separates brother from brother, then deprives a father of children, completely denied the resurrection. However, God says, what was said is true, although at present it is unknown to many. The Lord will bring a scorching wind from the Nan desert, and dry up his veins, and devastate his springs: this will dry up his land, and all his beloved vessels. And through this he makes clear the Persian king Cyrus, who took up arms and crushed the Assyrian, or Babylonian, kingdom, destroyed the entire royal family, and took away the means of self-government. In a figurative sense, God calls them sources and veins. And by this He was pleased to show how He would crush the one who is figuratively called hell and death. But this will happen later, now.