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Os.7:1. And the iniquity of Ephraim and the malice of Samaria will be revealed, because they loved the lie. The punishment that befalls them will make their iniquity obvious to everyone. And the thief will come to him, seducing the robber on his way. Because, having neglected the true knowledge of God, they loved the charm of idols; then, like thieves and robbers, their enemies will attack them, burn some, plunder others, and deprive them of all their benefits. Hos.7:2. Let them sing together, like those who sing with their hearts. When this happens, says the Prophet, they will begin to cry and lament, not daring to proclaim their lamentations out loud with songs of lamentation, but mentally repeating their lamentations. I remembered all their malice: now having beaten them, advise them against the face of Mi Bysh. I endured for a very long time and, apparently, did not look at their crimes; Now I see them clearly, having determined to subject them to punishment. Therefore, blessed David cries out: “Turn away Your face from my sins” (Ps. 50:11). And the word: “advice” Aquila and Symmachus also translated the meaning word: “undertakings”; because seventy used a word meaning the first aspiration of the soul, thoughts, and they used a word meaning the undertakings and deeds generated by these thoughts. Hos.7:3. With your malice you made the king happy, and with your lies the princes. By their lawlessness, having brought themselves to the point of being ready to perish, they became the cause of joy for their enemies. Hos.7:4. All who commit adultery: like baking zhegoma for baking. Everyone, inflamed with obscenity, became like a fired oven, ready to receive the leavened dough for baking bread. those. the fire of obscenity will attract enemy flames to them. From the mixing of fat: the Dondezhe will leaven everything, Hos.7:5. In the days of your kings. Just as leaven transforms kneaded flour into something of the same quality as it; Thus, the brew of wickedness, brought by your first king Jeroboam, to all of you, and to those who reigned among you for a long time, imparted its stench. After this, the Prophet accuses the princes of loving drunkenness, and because of this they are inflamed with anger, take bribes, and spend time with wicked people and the perpetrators of disasters. He calls them destroyers, as the perpetrators of harm and destruction. Like an infection, if it touches someone, then through him it infects those approaching: so those who live viciously spoil those who know them; because “good customs are corrupted by evil conversations” (1 Cor. 15:33). The Prophet informs that even at night they do not stop plotting, and during the day, like fire, they destroy those who are offended by them. For it is said: Hos.7:6. Sometimes they rush all night, And instead of: “rush,” all the translators agreed to use: “to lie in wait.” However, they will be punished for this. Hos.7:7. Fire consumed their judges: all their kings fell. And the cause of all disasters was the following: Don’t pray to Me in them. The prophet spoke about the future as about the past, showing that this will certainly happen, and nothing will prevent the fulfillment of the prediction. This feature is also found in other Prophets. And Isaiah cries out: “as a sheep was led to the slaughter”, “and His judgment was taken away” (Is. 53:7-8), “and we saw Him, and without the name of form or kindness” (Is. 53:2), when it should have been said: we will see, He will be taken and led, and also: “For as a child a son was born to us, and was given to us” (Is. 9:6), instead of “he will be born and will be given." After this, the Prophet turns his speech to the second accusation. Hos.7:8. Ephraim himself became mixed up with his people. The lawlessness is obvious; Blessed David also accuses him of it, saying: “mingling among the nations, and becoming accustomed to their deeds” (Ps. 105:35). Ephraim quickly became unleavened bread, that is, he remained in anger, and did not change at all for the better, like unleavened bread, one side turned to the fire and burnt. Hos.7:9. Snedosha is an alien fortress, And among the surrounding disasters, he does not recognize the one who admonishes. And gray hair appeared on him, but he was not known. And for a long time he was not trained in what he should. Os.7:10. And the reproach of Israel in his face will be humbled. He will clearly see and know what fruits wickedness produces. And not returning to the Lord their God, and not seeking Him in all these. Hos.7:11. And Ephraim said, like a mad dove, without a heart: he prayed for Egypt, and went to Assyrians. After all the admonitions from Me, they never once begged Me to stop the progress of the disasters that threatened them, but when the Syrians attacked them, they rushed to the Assyrians, and when the Assyrians surrounded them, they rushed to the Egyptians, revealing in themselves the foolishness of a dove. For just as a dove, when its chicks are taken away from it, does not fly away, but circles in the same places, so they, repeatedly and constantly exterminated and enslaved, now by one or the other, resorted to both the Assyrians and the Egyptians, without receiving any benefit from them. Os.7:12. I will lay My slaughter upon her, as I will overthrow the birds of the air, and I will punish them in the hearing of their sorrow. First I will admonish them, threatening them with sorrowful consequences, then, like some kind of darkness, I will surround them with a cloud of enemies, and I will catch them all like birds. But having said this, he does not forget his characteristic love for mankind; on the contrary, with paternal compassion, he seems to mourn them. Os.7:13. Woe to them, for they have jumped away from Me: they are fearful, for they are disrespectful to Me. And because he called them pitiful, as those who turned out to be ungrateful and wicked before Him; then, of necessity, it reminds us of unspeakable blessings. Freed them from Egyptian slavery. These things I have spoken about Me, I lie. Blessed David also accuses them of this. For he imagines them reasoning: “Smite the stone, and the water flows, and the sweat floods: can food and bread be given? or prepare a table for His people” (Ps. 77:20)? Hos.7:14. And their hearts did not cry out to Me. He also calls out through the mouth of Isaiah, saying: “This people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Is. 29:13). Then he denounces what they did for idols. But I weep on my beds: I cry over wheat and wine. Having received the promised land to their fathers (he called it a bed, as it gave them peace from the labors suffered in the desert), they performed pagan rituals, and enjoying My blessings, in idol temples they made so-called incisions on their bodies (Lev. 21:5). Therefore he says: Hos.7:15–16. They will be punished by Me; because you have received strength from Me (for you call it “muscle”), When you think evilly against Me, you become corrupted into nothing, like a bow that is not strained 2 . Having left Me, they did not gain any benefit for themselves, but became like a weakened and unstretched bow, which does not cause the slightest harm to enemies. And for this reason Their princes will fall by the sword for the sake of not punishing their tongue: this is their reproach in the land of Egypt. According to the correct reading: the bow is tense.