Hosea Chapter 13 The Lord's Relentless Judgment on Israel
 
Chapter XIII

Israel reproved for idolatry and other sins, ver. 1 - 8. Ruin foretold, yet with encouragement to hope, ver. 9 - 16.

1 Ephraim - The ten tribes, of which Ephraim was the chief. Spake trembling - Humbled himself before God. Exalted himself - The kingdom flourished. When he offended - So soon as they sinned, taking Baal to be their God. He died - They lost their power and glory.
2 Of them - Of the idols. Let the man - Let all that bring their offerings to these idols, worship and adore, and shew they do so by kissing the calves.
4 Thou shalt know - I forbad thee to know any other God but me, in gratitude thou shouldest know no other.
5 I did know - Owned, took care of, guided and supplied.
6 Their pasture - When they were come into Canaan, and had abundance of all things, they ran into luxury. Was exalted - They grew proud.
7 Observe them - Watch for them, that I might be sure to take them.
8 Rent - First kill, then tear in pieces, and pull out the very heart.
10 Thy king - I would have been thy king to govern and save thee, but thou refusedst me in both: yet I will be thy king to punish thee. Thy judges - Where are they now? And princes - Necessary to assist the king.
11 A king - Such as Shallum, Menahem, Pekah.
12 Is bound up - As sins unpardoned; for to loose sins is to forgive, and to bind sins is to charge them upon the sinner, Matt 16:19. Hid - Not from God, but laid up with God against the day of recompense.
13 The sorrows - The punishment of his sins will overtake him suddenly, with great anguish. An unwise son - A foolish son, who endangers himself and his mother. He should not stay - As a child that sticks in the birth, so is Ephraim, one while will, another while will not return to God; and thus dies under the delay.
14 Ransom - By power and purchase, by the blood of the lamb of God, and by the power of his Godhead. Them - That repent and believe. From the grave - He conquered the grave, and will at the great day of the resurrection open those prison - doors, and bring us out in glory. From death - From the curse of the first death, and from the second death, which shall have no power over us. Thy plagues - Thus I will destroy death. I will pull down those prison - walls, and bring out all that are confined therein, the bad of whom I will remove into other prisons, the good I will restore to glorious liberty. Repentance shall be hid - I will never, as a man that repenteths, change my word and purpose, saith the Lord. What a glorious promise is this, which is interposed in the midst of all these judgments!
15 He - Ephraim. His brethren - Either the rest of the tribes, or the nations who by league are become as his brethren. An east - wind - An enemy as pernicious to his estate as the east - wind is to fruits. Of the Lord - A mighty enemy, called here the wind of the Lord, the usual superlative in Hebrew. The wilderness - Which lay south - east from Canaan. The south - east winds in that country were of all, most hot and blasting. He - The Assyrian army. Shall spoil - Shall carry away all desirable vessels and furniture.

John Wesley Explanatory Notes