The prophet stays with the threat of future captivity and takes away the trust and help on which they rely. He goes against their security, in which they vainly believe that there will be peace as long as they depart from the law of the Lord.
V. 1. you seek whores' wages (mercedem).
"Reward" means, as above in the second chapter [v. 12], abundance and fullness of temporal things. That is, you hoped for a rich reward for your worship; that is what you seek. You have hoped for abundance of all things, and this you seek to earn by your worship, but your hope will fail you and lie to you. Your winepress will deceive your hope; it will give less than you hoped for. Even if everything is superfluous, it will disappear under your hands, so that you will not know where it will go.
V. 4: In which all who eat of it become unclean.
It is written in the fifth book of Moses [Cap. 16, 10. III that when the tithes are paid, the
When the sacrifices were made, they were to be made with the utmost joy and gladness, and it was not proper to offer anything in sadness. Therefore, the prophet says here: They will sacrifice in sorrow, and will not be able to be joyful because of their servitude. Therefore, even the sacrifices will be defiled by sorrow.
V. 7. the prophets are fools (Cognoscet Israel stultum prophetam).
That is, you do as the wicked do and condemn the godly prophets, who are foolish and nonsensical in your eyes, and you hate them with great hatred. But you will know how foolish or how lying I have been against you. I am true, but because of your godlessness or wickedness I must be a liar, but you will know how false I am.
V. 8. lay the ropes (Laqueus aucupis factus sum).
Here he speaks of the punishment, not of the guilt, so that one must interpret it in an active way: I have become a rope that catches them. Or it can be understood in a suffering way: You will punish the prophet
you will also get to know the snare. And you have hated this prophet in the house of God, that is, in my people. You will know who he was, whether he spoke true or false.
V. 9. They spoil it too deeply.
You were so stubborn that you resisted the very good prophet, and it was he who wanted to untie you and free you from the already existing anger; meanwhile he had to be your rope. You hated the one who was worthy of love. But He will punish you like the wicked in Gibeah, Judges chapter 19.
V. 11. Therefore the glory of Ephraim must fly away like a bird.
The prophet begins to speak about the punishment of barrenness among people. Until now you have been fruitful, but you will be made unfruitful, since the time of captivity is already present. The prophet does not say that all will continue to be barren, but that there will not be such a great glory of fruitfulness, rather it will become lonely and disgraceful.
V. 12. Woe to them, too, when I have departed from them!
Some think that the prophet here makes the transition from the physical kingdom to the spiritual one, so that the opinion would be: Woe to them when my incarnation will have departed from them. But I think that this is the opinion of the prophet: I will kill their descendants, they shall be completely miserable in their descendants. But woe will befall them when I will have completely departed from them and allow this remnant, which is still left to them of their descendants, to be oppressed most severely in the servitude of the Assyrians.
V. 15. For the sake of their evil nature.
Since the wrath of God is proclaimed to the people of Israel without mercy, it must be understood that God does not want to have mercy, that He wants to destroy their temporal kingdom. But there are several passages in this prophet that clearly teach of God's mercy toward Jerusalem, and I understand this from that in the spiritual realm.