Глава 9

Os.9:1. Do not rejoice in Israel, nor rejoice as men do, for you have strayed from the Lord Your God. It is not fitting for you to rejoice like other nations. They did not accept any teaching from the Prophets; and you, constantly using these teachings, have not gained any benefit from it; On the contrary, he brought the firstfruits of the blessings I gave you as a gift to the demons. God expressed this when he said: Thou hast loved giving in every threshing floor of wheat. Hos.9:2. The threshing floor and the winepress knew them not, and the wine lied to them; because I will deprive you of the blessings that I usually give. Hos.9:3. Do not dwell in the lands of the Lord; because they did not spend their lives as on land dedicated to God, but lived lawlessly. imitated the Egyptian way of life. And the Assyrians will be eaten by the unclean. Because even in the promised land they loved iniquity; then they will live lawlessly in the land of Assyria. Hos.9:4. You have not poured out wine to the Lord, and have not enjoyed Him. They neglected serving God, and, moreover, took great care of idols. Demand them as bread of pity for them: all who eat you will be defiled. Just as bread offered to those who weep, stirs up grief in those who are weeping because of their weeping, and is unpleasant to those who share the meal with them because of their participation in the weeping; and those who are forced to taste are disturbed by the thought that they will taste something defiling with it: so their sacrifices are filled with all kinds of abomination. Without the bread of their souls they shall not enter into the house of the Lord; because the righteous Judge does not accept anything offered without sincere affection, just like the sacrifices of Cain; That’s why he cries out through the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah: “If you bring Mi seven, it will be in vain: censer, that is an abomination to Me” (Is. 1:13); and through the mouth of the Prophet Malachi: “My will is not done in you, neither will I accept sacrifice at your hands” (Mal.1:10). Then he mentions the sorrows that will befall them during captivity. Hos.9:5. What will you do on the days of celebration, and on the day of the Feast of the Lord? Forced to slave and live according to other laws, you will not be able to celebrate the Master's holidays according to the law of Moses. Then he announces that they will flee to Egypt, will move to one city or another, and will spend their money, bringing gifts to the king of Egypt in vain. Hos.9:6. Thorns will be found in their yards, that is, they will not reap any useful fruit. And this makes clear the harmful consequences of fleeing to Egypt. This is the same meaning of the saying: “I waited for him to make grapes and create thorns” (Is. 5:2), that is, he did not receive any useful fruit from it, but on the contrary, he collected only bad fruits. Hos.9:7. The days of your retribution will come, and Israel will become embittered, like an astonished Prophet, a man carried by the spirit: because of the multitude of your iniquities, your amazement will increase. When you accept the fruits of your iniquity (and this time is near); then you will become like a false prophet, who is confused and carried hither and thither by the spirit living in him. You too will fall into the same frenzy of mind; and this fury has been produced in you by the multitude of your iniquities. Hos.9:8. Guardian Ephraim is with God, the Prophet is obstinate in all his ways. We must remember what was said to Ezekiel; for God also spoke to him: “I have given you a guard over the house of Israel” (Ezek. 3:17); and here he says to all the people: as if I have made you a kind of guardian and prophet of God for the neighboring nations, so that, seeing My providence for you and your life in accordance with the law, they too may acquire knowledge of Me. But you did the exact opposite: you became “obstinate” for them, and with your wickedness you increased their zeal for idols. For not only in other cities have you erected altars and churches to idols, but also in the church dedicated to Me you have placed idols. This is what God says: Amazement was established in the house of God. Hos.9:9. Spreading along the day of the hill. Since they began to respect the hills and loved the sacrifices made there, their thoughts became unhealthy. But soon they will be punished for this. Then he reminds them of the virtues of their fathers, thereby rousing them to competition. Os.9:10. As Israel found a dream in the desert, and as a guard on the early fig tree their fathers saw: they came down to Beelphegor, and were alienated in shame, and were beloved, as in abomination 3. Just as someone, if in a deserted and completely devoid of plants land finds a bunch of grapes and an early fig on a fig tree, plucks it with great pleasure: so I, among the people living in wickedness of old, seeing the virtue of Abraham, accepted it, made a covenant with him, and also with his son and with his son’s son. But those who descended from them were least jealous of their virtues; Having in fresh memory My blessings, liberation, deliverance from slavery, all kinds of executions that befell the Egyptians, the extraordinary passage across the sea and everything else that they enjoyed, they preferred serving Beelphegor to serving Me, and from this they acquired only shame. And through this ancient “beloved” became “abominable.” Os.9:11. Ephraim is like a bird flying away. So soon they will be resettled in a foreign land; because they do not love the glory of virtue, but they consider having many children as the greatest glory. Their glory is from births and diseases and from conceptions. Os.9:12. Moreover, even if they nourish their children, they will be childless from people: because they have too little and too much to eat, I will leave them behind. It is in vain that you boast of having many children; the enemy will attack you and make you childless, because you have lost My providence for you. To this he adds: However, you will not undergo final destruction at all until I receive flesh from you. The God-wise Paul teaches us this more clearly, saying: “An angel does not receive from him, but from the seed of Abraham he receives” (Heb. 2:16); and again: “He spoke vows to Abraham and to his seed: and he did not say to the seed, as many, but as one, even to your seed, who is Christ” (Gal. 3:16); and in another place: from “whom Christ is according to the flesh, who is God above all” (Rom. 9:5). And many similar places can be found in divine scripture. Therefore God says: Because My flesh, which I will take upon Myself, is borrowed from them; then I will not completely leave them until I take on this flesh and choose those who are obedient to My calling. This also cries out through the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah: “In the same way that a berry is found on a tree, and they say, do not destroy it, for the blessing of the Lord is in it, so I will create the One who Serves for My sake, I am not to destroy everyone for His sake. And I will bring forth seed from Jacob, and from Judah, and they will inherit My holy mountain” (Is. 65:8–9, 12); and a little lower: you who have forsaken the Lord, “I will put you under the sword.” Thus predicting the beating of children shows the justice of the punishment. For he says: Os.9:13. Ephraim provided his children as a catch and took them to the slaughter. Continues to sacrifice them to idols. For this reason I will give over the children already born to the slaughter, and I will make husbands and wives barren. The Prophet expressed this when he said: Os.9:14. Give them, Lord: what will you give them? The womb is barren, and the nipples are dry. Since they acted badly with the children given to them, I will stop the lawlessness with childlessness. Then, having mentioned Gilgal, the wickedness committed there, and the iniquity of their princes, the Prophet added: Os.9:16. More than Ephraim: his rooting is spent, let it not bear fruit: even if they give birth, I will kill their longed-for womb. Os.9:17. God will reject me because I did not listen to Him, and they will go astray among the nations. The Prophet called the root of the royal dignity, which Shalmaneser uprooted by destroying Samaria. After the capture of this city, the ten tribes no longer had a king. What was said: “there will be those who go astray among the nations” clearly means their scattering. The seventy read: “there was abomination as in love.”