V. 1. This is the word of the Lord that came to Hosea the son of Gehen in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
He does not mention his name nor his fatherland. He only indicates the name of his father, who was perhaps also either a prophet or a teacher, because he has a name that comes from teaching. The names of the kings, however, serve to indicate the time in which the prophet taught.
And Jeroboam was not only a blessed king, for he drove back the Syrians and restored the old borders of the kingdom as far as Damascus, but he also held the kingdom for a long time, for he reigned forty-one years. Since at that time the kingdom of Israel was in its highest bloom, it was almost ridiculous that the prophet should have
threatened desolation. But it goes like Solomon says [Proverbs 16, 18.]: "He who is to perish becomes proud beforehand, and proud courage comes before the fall." For since God does not immediately execute the punishment, but continues to do good to the ungrateful, and waits, as Isaiah says [Cap. 5, 2], whether His vine will bear fruit, the wicked are gradually hardened and heap up wrath and punishment.
There is no doubt that the godless king Jeroboam attributed such great successes to his worship of God, or rather, to speak more correctly, to his idolatry. For this teaches quite obviously the history of the kings [2 Kings 14:24], that he maintained the idolatrous worship, which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, had established. Thus, in our time, the Pabst's ungodly crowd ascribes the deep peace and other benefits of earlier times to the worship services which
1080 mv. 174-17". Interpretation of Hosea (3.), Cap. 1, 1-3. W. vi. is78-is8i. 1081
He puts the present troubles of wars, turmoil and epidemics on the Gospel.
But the history of 2 Kings 14 shows the true cause of the prosperity under the godless king, namely that the people at that time had been plagued by the Syrians in many ways, therefore God, according to His mercy, had also shown Himself kind to the wicked. For so says the Scripture [2 Kings 14:26, 27]: "For the LORD saw the miserable affliction of Israel, that even the shut up and the forsaken were gone, and there was no helper in Israel. And the LORD had not spoken that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, and helped them by Jeroboam." This is the true cause of good success, that God is kind even to the wicked, and will not destroy unless He has first well admonished them by the word. Therefore, the sinners deserved to perish, but because the Lord had not yet proclaimed perdition through the Word, He sent salvation to the afflicted, and to this success He added a greater gift, namely faithful teachers who both exhorted to godliness and condemned idolatry. But since the wicked did not respect this blessing of the Word and misused the welfare against the Word and the prophets, devastation finally followed.
Therefore, it is not in vain that history adds that the Lord has not yet said that he will destroy Israel. If you look carefully at our time, you will see a great resemblance to those times, which is why we rightly fear a similar outcome.
V. 2. 3. And when the LORD began to speak by Hosea, he said unto him, Go and take a harlot wife and children of harlots: for the land runneth after harlotry from the LORD. And he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, which conceived, and bare him a son.
This is a prophetic beginning, that in the beginning he draws on the divine calling, and twice remembers the Lord that he has spoken. However, this does not only serve to incite the prophet, so that he will do the work with great courage.
The first commandment is given not only for the people of Israel to hear the commanded ministry, but also for the admonition of the listeners, so that they do not, thinking that they can justly despise the prophet, despise God, who commanded that such things be proclaimed through the prophet. Therefore, the first commandment is inculcated here, without expressing it explicitly in words (tacite), that the people of Israel should hear their God speaking. For since he is their God, he will not be preached to them in vain, nor will he suffer his word to be despised by his people without punishment.
The same way was followed by the apostles in the entrance of their writings, publicly stating that they were appointed apostles and servants of Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, almost all commentators are offended by the inconsistency of the commandment that the prophet is ordered to take a prostitute wife. Therefore, some only follow the secret interpretation, while others believe that the prophet humbled himself and joined himself to a prostitute in lawful marriage by command of the Lord. But those are most inconsistent who think that the prophet himself committed fornication with a whore, and make God the author and cause of this fornication, and excuse it by comparing it to the theft or robbery in Egypt, when the people of Israel, at the command of the Lord, took away the gold and silver vessels borrowed from the Egyptians, thinking that fornication could be excused in the same way as the Jews were excused when they took away the gold and silver of the Egyptians.
But here is a very great difference. For not only the divine command excuses the deed of the Jews, but also the reason or the natural right, which orders that the workers are entitled to wages. Since the Jews had been oppressed by long-lasting tyranny, they finally take the wages of their work from the ungrateful Egyptians by God's command. Therefore, this act was not theft, but the just reward due to the Israelites for their long and hard service, which God, the highest and most just sovereign and judge, bestowed upon them.
Here, however, no right can be given,
1082 n xxiv, I78-N8. Interpretations on the Prophets. W. vi, is8i-is84. 1083
which would excuse fornication, because not only the divine laws, but also the law of nature requires a lawful marriage, and it can never happen that God should command or approve free fornication, or a union between man and woman that is not lawful. For this is His unchangeable will, that the union of a man and a woman be a lawful marriage, as it is written [Gen. 2:24]: "They shall be one flesh," that is, inseparably joined. And again and again this saying is valid [Hebr. 13, 4]: "God will judge fornicators and adulterers." And this will of God is proven by the daily punishments with which, as we see, fornicators and adulterers are needlessly punished. For not only do certain diseases, which are ordained for this sin, devastate the bodies, not only does free fornication bring about the ruin of the household and the property, but the hearts are also defiled. Therefore, how or for what purpose should God force the prophet to fornicate? Although the people had to be taught about idolatry, could they not be taught without the prophet fornicating? Or shall we suppose that a teacher tainted by such an offence shall have more credit for the direction of his office, and not rather that he shall bring the office into contempt? For truly, he who teaches rightly and lives shamefully (as Gregory of Nazianzus said so well) gives with one hand what he takes away with the other.
What then is the opinion of the prophet? For the words are clear: "The prophet went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, who conceived, and bore him a son." I answer that the prophet gave birth is obviously inconsistent, and is not only against nature, but also against the commandment of God. But that he took a harlot as a wife is also inconsistent, for because a shameful act is thereby committed (for marriage should be honest, especially that of the teachers in the church), we rightly reject this opinion.
Therefore, it only remains that we firmly believe that the prophet has put this woman in
The Prophet said that he had married in a lawful marriage, not some dirty whore, but the daughter of an honorable citizen, who was raised in an honorable way, which is also indicated by the name of the father, which is added here. For what some say, here not a history is told, and it also did not happen so, but was shown to the prophet only in a vision, that cannot exist. For if this were allowed, it would be a reason to destroy other similar prophetic examples, many of which, as it is written, happened to be signs and testimonies of the prophetic sermons that were publicly presented to the people. Thus it is written of Isaiah, Cap. 20, 2, 1) that he went about naked and barefoot, that he might be a sign and wonder over Egypt; and of Jeremiah, who for a time wore a yoke about his neck, and chains, Cap. 27, 2. [28, 13.] 2) Similarly, Ezekiel [Cap. 24, 16.] is foretold that his wife will die on the same day, and he is forbidden to mourn. And since he proclaimed this and also showed it to the people by the fulfillment, the people asked what this meant. But how should the people be moved, or recognize that something was shown to them by God through Hosea, if this was only shown to him in a vision, but not done and brought to the people by the deed itself?
Why then is it said, when the prophet is commanded to take a wife and beget children with her, that he takes a harlot's wife? and what is more strange, that he begets harlot's children? since they were certainly not illegitimate, although his wife would have been a harlot's wife before marriage.
It is a strange thing. The prophet is especially called to accuse the idolatry of the people and to preach of the punishments that will follow, namely, the destruction and rejection of the people and the whole worldly regime, and because it is nevertheless necessary, according to the divine promises, that a church be preserved, he adds the consolation that is given to the godly
1) In the issues: eax. 15.
2) In the issues: oax. 26.
The first thing that is necessary is the preservation of some remnants and the calling of the Gentiles. Therefore, in order to seriously testify that he accuses the people of idolatry out of God's commandment and preaches that punishment will surely follow, he shows this to the people by this gesture and sign, as it were. He is commanded to call the wife he has taken and the children born to him by this shameful name, so to speak, that he himself calls them a whore-wife and whore-children, and testifies that they are so called by God, namely, so that he may indicate that all the people are so constituted before God, They were guilty of idolatry and would suffer punishment for it, or guilty of failing in the word, faith and right service of this God, who had revealed Himself to this people through given promises and had called them through special testimonies and miracles and set them apart from the other peoples.
It is common in the writings of the prophets to call this fornication, when one falls away from the faith in the given word and the service commanded by God, and follows the teaching and the service according to human counsel and human choice.
Therefore, in the word fornication there is also a figurative speech, and the prophet's action is, as it were, a gesture or painting, which indicates that idolatry is accused, as if he wanted to say: I have taken a wife and begotten children with her by divine command, but what a wife, what children! What do I have but a harlot wife and harlot children? How does this happen? Because this whole nation is so constituted, as he says here, adding in plain words the interpretation: "For the land runneth after fornication from the LORD." Therefore I am compelled to call them by this opprobrious name, "A wife of fornication, and children of fornication." Likewise, the names attached to the children also indicate punishments, namely, LoRyhamo and LoAmmi, "who does not obtain mercy" and "not my people."
That this is the opinion of this whole passage is sufficiently indicated (as I have said) by the following, when he says that the land has forsaken the Lord and committed fornication, that is, it has gone to foreign gods and to God.
services followed. For this must be understood of idolatrous services. Just as the godless priesthood does not deny the name of Christ and His merit, baptism, the Lord's Supper and other things in words, but denies them in deeds, because, apart from the merit of Christ and the forgiveness of sins, it has established its own merits in vain by grace, so the godless idolaters in the kingdom of Israel wanted to be taken for the right worshippers of the true God, by whom they had been led out of Egypt. But because they deviated from the worship that God had commanded, although they said with their mouths that they honored the God of Israel, they were true idolaters, and it was rightly said of them that they had departed from God as a fornicating woman departs from her husband, for they did not worship God, but the imagination and delusion of their hearts, which they had formed for themselves without the word of God from God.
However, God is only truly worshipped when He is worshipped according to His word, that is, when the hearts worship and fear God, and then also trust in God's goodness. These are the most noble and inward services; they must be followed by the outward services, not as we invent them (as the papacy invented the masses, the vows, the intercessions of the saints, the merits of the saints to be distributed in the church, the fasts, and therefore cannot escape the accusation of idolatry), but as God's word or the second tablet prescribes them.
Therefore, the Jews who obeyed the commandment of God concerning the temple at Jerusalem, and sacrificed in Dan, Bethel, Gilgal, on the mountain of Samaria and in the groves, were hateful idolaters, even though they considered themselves to be worshipping the right God. For, not to speak of the ungodly heart, this worship was also unjust in respect of place and person; for it was commanded to sacrifice in the kingdom of Judah, and the priesthood was administered by the tribe of Levi according to God's commandments. But Jeroboam sacrificed against the commandment of God in the kingdom of Israel, and let without distinction
1086 XXIV, 180-182. interpretations on the prophets. W. vi. is88-is9i. 1087
He also sold for money the office that was assigned by God to a certain gender, just as the popes sell the bishoprics and other ecclesiastical offices today.
Not only did the other kings of Israel follow this change of worship, but Ahab added a pagan worship of the idol Baal on the mountain of Samaria. For there is no doubt that Baal was Belus, who was worshipped by the pagans, as the histories of the pagans also testify. Therefore, this departure from God is rightly considered to be idolatry, since these idolatries were in conflict with the commandment of God and were nothing but disobedience. But God, as Samuel [1 Sam. 15, 22] proclaims, prefers obedience to sacrifice, and hates rebellion no less than sorcery, by which one not only departs from God, but through it men also ask something of Satan, seeking his work and his help.
I have said about the commandment given to Hosea, now it must be explained what is repeated in almost every single part of the prophecy and is often used by Moses as well as by other prophets, namely why the scripture compares idolatry with fornication or adultery. But it is an exceedingly apt simile, when all the circumstances are carefully considered. For just as a husband unites with his spouse, so God has at all times united with His Church. For immediately after the first parents fell, God promised salvation through the seed of the wife.
He not only repeated this promise, but also confirmed it with many outward signs. Abraham was promised a manifest blessing, and the sign of circumcision was added so that the chosen people and the designated heirs of the promise would also be assured of the blessing. Moses also instructed the people, who had been circumcised, from God's command about the outward worship, and the Lord added a manifest covenant that he would be the God of this people.
if they kept the commandments. But if they deviated from his commandments, he would still have his promises, even though he would associate himself with another people. Such promises are nothing else than, as Christ says in the Gospel, a friendly invitation to a wedding, where the guests themselves or the church are the bride, and the bridegroom gives her everything he has. For the guests are invited in such a way that it is announced that everything is ready [Matth. 22, 4].
The prophets refer to these promises when they call idolatry fornication, for they indicate that God has joined Himself to His people as a husband, as it were, and has adorned them in many ways, but the people have forgotten these benefits and, like a bride, have departed from her bridegroom and have joined themselves to others.
In this way the prophet Ezekiel Cap. 16, 3. 4. preaches about the people of the Old Testament, because he says that they originated from the Gentiles, were born like a girl whose navel was not cut, who was not washed clean with water, who was not rubbed with salt, who was not wrapped in swaddling clothes. For such was the origin of this people, as Joshua [Cap. 24, 2] and Stephen [Apost. 7, 2] also testify, that the Lord out of pure mercy took Abraham from the midst of the Gentiles and prepared a servant for Himself out of an idolater. For when he had compassion on the human race, he plucked it, as it were, as a branch from the tree of the whole human race, in order to plant the people from it, as it were, as a garden. This was, as it were, the first age of the people of the Old Testament.
But when the people had begun to multiply and had become, as it were, a manly girl, then, says the Lord [Ezek. 16:7 ff], "you were still naked and circumcised. And that was the time when you could be wooed. Therefore I first spread my robe over you and covered your shame. For when the people of Egypt had grown up, and were already almost entangled in the idolatry of the heathen, only then did the Lord show his mercy to them.
1088 L. XXIV, 182-I8S. Interpretation of Hosea (3:), Cap. 1, 2. 3. W. VI, IS9I-IS93. 1089
And after he came to this people through Moses, as to a bride, he made a covenant with them. Here you see that everything was done as by a bridegroom with his bride. But after the people had forgotten this covenant and joined themselves to other gods, can this not be called fornication and adultery with truth and rightly?
But only then was this covenant completed in truth, when the Son of God became man, for then he joined himself as a bridegroom to the bride, and washed us, who, as the prophet says [Ezek. 16, 6.], lay in the blood of original sin, with the bath or water of baptism, by which we are baptized into the death of the Son of God. For this is the right cleansing from the blood. Then he anoints with oil, that is, he gives the Holy Spirit through baptism, he clothes with embroidered garments, stirring the hearts in various ways to obey the law of God.
Therefore, Paul also uses this very simile when he says in Eph. 5:29 that Christ nurtures and cares for his church as a member of his body, flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone. Although these benefits were only shown through Christ, they were also promised to the people of the Old Testament, and those who accepted this promise in faith were saved.
That now also the people of the Old Testament fall away from the so kind God, and that we today forget the benefits of Christ, neglect the Word and the services ordered and commanded by Him, and follow what is neither indicated nor commanded by the Word, but goes against the Word: how can this sin be described more poperly than by this likeness of fornication or adultery? For in this one offense is included all that God declares His immeasurable mercy against us, who are unworthy and in truth roll in our blood, that we are ungrateful to this so gracious God, that this is the utter wickedness of departing from such a gracious, kind and benevolent husband, with whom we are kn of the highest honor, but who is not worthy of us.
and associate ourselves with those who abuse our goods and our souls only for shame, for here one sees not only infidelity but also the utmost nonsense.
Finally, this parable presents the righteous zeal of God, who cannot suffer this contempt, as it is impossible that a husband, who loves respectability, could suffer dishonorable love affairs with the equanimity of his wife, as Ezekiel indeed treats this subject in excellent fashion. This is what is peculiar to this simile, and indeed, if all the circumstances are carefully considered, they perfectly illustrate the hideousness of idolatry.
But apart from this, this likeness also depicts the rage by which the idolaters are carried away. For just as a lewd woman dreams of nothing else, even when she is awake, but of adultery with the adulterer, and is completely ready for every kind of poison mixing and murder, so the idolaters are inflamed with a tremendous hatred against true religion and drive and protect idolatry with the highest zeal. zeal. They do not spare the servants of God, not the parents, not the authorities, not the children. Whoever opposes them, they persecute with inhuman force and do not rest until they have eliminated him, as the hatred of the Pharisees against Christ and the apostles, and the hatred of the papists against our churches show. So, of course, the histories of the pagans and the fables of the poets also remember many terrible parricides and the most horrible acts of blood, which happened so that the adulterers could enjoy their nonsensical courtship.
Therefore, this is an exceedingly suitable image by which idolatry is compared to fornication. And because the thing has an obvious shamefulness, it also serves to make people turn away from such a grave sin. For if a monk were to realize that when he becomes an early Ciscan or Dominican, and seeks to attain righteousness through a peculiar state and works, he would fall away from God, and after the manner of an adulteress, break the covenant he made with God in baptism: do you think that he would be able to do so?
would he not ask for mercy and reconnect with his God through true repentance, but flee the monastery, masses, fasts, idolatrous prayers, hypocritical clothing and other superstitious things as the most harmful plague? In this way, he would consider that the intercessions of the saints and the service of the saints, the impure celibate state, and all the multitude of human statutes are an apostasy from God or an adultery. Truly, not only by the sin itself, but also by the shamefulness of the thing, he would be moved not to be so ungrateful and godless to his God.
Whoever, therefore, wants to portray the church of the Pope correctly, should compare the conduct and the services of the papists entirely with the shameful adultery, since they despise Christ, to whose death they are baptized, and who offers righteousness by grace free of charge, and follow the statutes of men and the presumption of their hearts, by which they promise righteousness to themselves and to others. The Revelation of John therefore rightly imitates the prophet and compares the Antichrist to a harlot, calling him the great Babylonian harlot [Revelation 17].
Nowadays the bishops are the patrons of this fornication and the so shameful adultery. Their support and satellites are the godless teachers, the dull-witted people like Cochläus, the shouters and drunkards like Eck, the mangy people like Pighius, the hypocrites like Witzel, and everything of the same ilk, who receive the bishops for the sake of praising the godless services to the ignorant rabble and inviting them to their shameful adulterous nature. But what punishments will follow this impiety, the prophet now indicates.
V. 4 And the LORD said unto him, Call him Jezreel, for it is yet a little while, and I will visit the blood in Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will make an end of the kingdom of the house of Israel.
This is the second part of this first prophecy of the kingdom of Israel. For that the prophet is commanded to take a wife, which he calls a harlot's wife, that serves
to indicate the sin of this people, which, corrupted by idolatry, had turned away from God and the right service of God. Now that a son is born of her, the Lord commands that the child be given the name Jezreel. This serves, as the prophet himself indicates, to designate the punishment that the people had earned with their ungodly fornication. But, you may ask, in what way?
The word Jezreel comes from the verb Sara, which means "to sow". But because this people was arrogant mainly because it knew that it was God's people and planted, as it were, as a vine by the Lord Himself, and because of this it surely despised the threats of the prophets, therefore God commands that this very name be attached to it, but in a completely different way than it had been claimed by the people until now. For it boasted of the name Jezreel, which comes from sowing, that it was the people sown and planted by God, but the prophet calls it Jezreel because God wanted to sow it among the Gentiles for the sin of idolatry. For as the seed needs the earth in which it is to be scattered, so he calls this people God's seed, because God wanted to scatter it like a seed among the far-dwelling Gentiles.
This opinion is indicated by the prophet himself, since he adds that the blood debts of the house of Jehu shall be visited and the kingdom of Israel destroyed. But also this passage makes the various opinions of the interpreters dark. For since history teaches that Jehu removed the two kings of Judah and Israel from the way and then intervened with the sword against the descendants of the godless king Ahab and against the prophets of Baal, some think that the prophet is speaking of this shed blood in this passage. Therefore, the difficulty immediately arises as to why God at this point threatens the descendants of Jehu with punishment because of the shed blood, since God approved of Jehu's deed and therefore promised him the kingdom of Israel up to the fourth generation, as a reward for a well-directed cause; and truly, it is not at all easy to understand this.
1092 6- xxiv, I87-I8S. Interpretation of Hosea (3.), Cap. 1, 4. 5. W. vi. iss7-isoo. 1093
to bring them into harmony with each other. For God is not so fickle that He should disapprove again what He once approved.
Therefore, let us hold that Jehu did not sin when he acted on the command of God against the ungodly kings and their descendants, and then also against the priests of Baal. For when he did this, he was not a private person, for he had previously been both anointed king by the prophet and confirmed by the people. In addition, not only was the commandment of the Lord through the prophet that he should do this, but the Lord also approves of the deed. For thus saith he [2 Kings 10:30], Because thou hast been willing to do that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done in the house of Ahab all that was in mine heart, thy children shall sit upon thy throne Israel unto the fourth generation."
What is therefore the sin of Jehu, or what are these blood debts, of which the Lord says that he will impose them on the house of Jehu? Certainly nothing else than what the history of the kings immediately adds, in that it says so [2 Kings 10:31]: "But yet Jehu kept not that he walked in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart; for he left not the sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin." Therefore, as the prophet above called idolatry a fornication, so here he calls it init a new name Damim, "blood debt." And one must not look far for the cause of this designation, for idolatry is always connected with murder and bloodshed. Because the godly teachers cannot turn a blind eye to the ungodly services, but must, according to God's command, condemn them and bring the people back to the right doctrine, whereas the ungodly can suffer nothing less than a reproach of their services, therefore they arm themselves with power and goods, and immediately take up arms and persecute the right teachers. And the sacrifice of children was also common in those days, as the histories show. Therefore, also for this reason, idolatry is called "blood" or "blood debt".
But moreover, it is common among the prophets to call sins blood debts in general. Thus David asks in the
my prayers [Ps. 51, 16.] for the sins, that he might be saved Middamim, from the blood debt. And although Ezekiel alludes to the birth of man in the passage [Cap. 16, 6.] we quoted above, when he says: "I saw you lying in your blood," he thereby indicates the original sin that makes us guilty before God and is the source from which all the rest of the disobedience flows. The correct opinion of this passage is therefore that just as God did not tolerate the idolatry of the earlier kings unpunished, so He would punish the same against the house of Jehu in Jezreel, that is, against Samaria or the kingdom of Israel.
But what kind of visitation or punishment it will be, the following interprets: "I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel". For Zechariah, the last king of the descendants of Jehu and the son of this Jeroboam, under whom the prophet taught, was killed in a riot by Shallum after he had reigned six months, who himself was also punished for this unjust murder. For in the first month of his reign he was killed by Menahem. Therefore, while the empire was troubled by internal rebellion, an enemy also came from without, the Assyrian, who made himself tributary to the king of Israel. Pekahiah reigned after Menahem. When he had been king for two years, he was killed by Pekah. Under him, Thiglath Pileffer devastated Israel and led a good part of the people captive. But under Hosea, who was the last king, Salmanasser took the whole kingdom and put an end to it. All this happened about forty years after the death of Jeroboam. Only then did Israel become a Jezreel, as the prophet prophesies in this passage, for it was rejected by the Lord, who visited the idolatry of so many nations, and was scattered among the Gentiles.
[At that time I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.] 1)
It is a common way of speaking: "the bow of Israel", that is, the power of Israel and.
1) Inserted by us.
warlike strength, because it was a very powerful empire. But the fact that he says: "in the valley of Jezreel" - although a great defeat may have taken place there, or Zechariah may have been killed - does not prevent us from taking it for the whole kingdom of Israel, because Jezreel was the capital of Samaria, and there was the king's house, as the history of Ahab shows.
V. 6 And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And he said unto him, Call her LoRyhamo: for I will have no more mercy upon the house of Israel, but I will put her away.
This piece also belongs to the prophecy of the punishment of idolatry. For immediately after idolatry had begun in the kingdom of Israel through Jeroboam, God in many ways exhorted the people through His scourges, the Syrians, the Assyrians and other peoples neighboring the kingdom of Israel, to return to the right way and join the God whose worship was in Jerusalem. But because God is long-suffering, patient and of great goodness, He heard the cries and the pleas of the afflicted people, as we see in the history of Jehoash. There it is said [2 Kings 13:23], "The LORD had mercy on them, and turned to them for his covenant's sake." Likewise in the history of Jeroboam [Cap. 14, 26]: "The Lord saw the wretched affliction of Israel" 2c.
Although he therefore afflicted them for sin, he sometimes gave happy princes who "drove back the enemy" and healed those wounds of the temporal regime. Such examples undoubtedly revived the people's hopes to some extent, since the kingdom was so variously plagued by turmoil and other calamities after the descendants of Jehu.
But the prophet threatens something new here, because he says that his daughter received the name LoRyhamo. Because he indicates with it that henceforth no such changes would occur as they had taken place, but the people would remain, after it once among the heathen will be scattered, without mercy in this misfortune.
The name is formed from Ryham he has mercy, with the negation word Lo; but it means: who does not obtain mercy, "who is in disgrace". For what the Latin text sin the Vulgate] has: oblivione obliviscar ejus himself wants to forget her completely], the Hebrew has the verbum nasa suA], which means to annul. Therefore it is more properly translated by the word "to cast away," and this fits the scattering of the seed of which he said above. For when we want to throw something away, we lift it up. But because he [the Hebrew text] repeats the verbum: I will cast away with casting away, therefore we have added the little word "wholly," that the vehemence that is in the Hebrew may be somewhat expressed.
This is a truly terrifying prophecy of the house of Israel, if you put yourself into the matter in your mind as if it were present. For although it is not uncommon for kingdoms to be destroyed and communities to perish, the downfall of this people is all the more severe and terrifying because it was the people of God to whom the promises were made in Abraham, not only about multiplication and physical well-being, but, what is greater, about the woman's seed that would bless all generations on earth. This people, which sprang from the fathers, endowed with promises, redeemed from Egypt, transferred to the land of Canaan, adorned with God's word and service, has so rejected God that it seems as if He loves all other peoples more and takes more care of them, who without God and without the word had sunk into idolatry and godlessness. For what other kingdom is so destroyed that at least some traces of it do not remain? But this people is so cast out of its land that not even the name remains.
What is the cause of this great wrath? None other than that the kingdom of Israel has departed from the word and service of God and followed idolatry, or the services that were not ordered by the word of the Lord. For this is the sin that God cannot tolerate, but avenges with the utmost destruction, as the truly terrifying verdict is written here: "I will not
have more mercy on the house of Israel." For if the mercy of God is taken away, dear one, what else is left for the wretched but to perish in misfortune without any hope of help?
This threat also applies to our times, in which the light of the Word has been restored to the German land through God's benevolence, and it is clear which are the right and which are the wrong services, what agrees with the word of Christ and what does not agree with it; but in this great light we see what the pope, what the bishops, the sworn slaves of the pope, are doing. For they keep the old idolatry, defend it, force their subordinates to the same, blaspheme and condemn the right doctrine, exercise against us, wherever they can, the utmost cruelty, which we desire that the churches be advised and Christ's honor remain unharmed. That is why that unfortunate LoRyhamo was born in our time. For it is certain, although we do not know the time when it will happen, that God will visit Germany because of this sin of idolatry, as we have examples of it before our eyes in the churches in Egypt, Syria, Asia, Greece and almost all of Hungary, which the Turk has disturbed.
Therefore, it should be the concern of godly princes that the churches are purified again, the abuses are stopped and proper services are established, if they wish otherwise, that the enemy stays away and the fatherland is well preserved. For if they continue to act cruelly against the churches that have the word and to protect the papal idolatry, the Lord will punish their blood debts like those of Jehu, in whom a frightening example is presented to the authorities. For since he did not prevent idolatry, but by his example also invited the subjects to ungodliness, the sin of the people is imputed to him alone; of him alone is it said that he sinned with his household. For the sins of the people, which the authorities could have prevented, are imputed to the authorities. And for this sin of their father the children also must atone according to the fourth member, according to the saying of the first commandment.
But how few kings the whole world has, how few princes Germany, who seriously think of their descendants. Therefore, as the house of Israel under the blessed king Jeroboam despised these threats, so do our princes despise them. But the anger of the Lord will not sleep, but will soon burn, and the sinners will suddenly perish, as the second Psalm also threatens the kings and nations who do not kiss the Son, that is, do not want to accept His word and follow it.
V. 7 But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and will help them by the LORD their God; but I will not help them by bow, sword, battle, horse, or horseman.
Here the prophet concludes the prophecy of the kingdom of Israel, and it is a terrifying and powerful example, which all descendants should often contemplate, so that they learn to flee idolatry and to pay more careful attention to the word. But because the enemy should also proceed against the kingdom of Judah, he appends a prophecy that it should not be preserved by human but by heavenly help, as also history shows, which explains this passage of the prophet quite beautifully. For I do not approve of the opinion of those who draw this passage to the return from Babylon. Isaiah shows in the tenth chapter [v. 28. ff.] according to the order, which oerter the enemy had devastated after the capture of the kingdom of Israel. But the cause of this disaster was also the idolatry of Ahaz, who had let his son go through the fire, as the Scripture says, and had introduced the service of the gods at Damascus in his kingdom, to which he was tempted by the success of the enemies; just as if today a godless king would fall away to the godless nature of the Turks, because he was tempted by their luck.
When God visited the idolatry of the house of Israel, Judah also felt the misfortune of its neighbor and suffered the punishment of such great wickedness, and only Jerusalem remained, which the enemy even besieged. But suddenly the siege was lifted with a very great defeat.
1098 L- xxiv. 193-iss. Interpretations on the prophets. W. vr. isos-iE 1099
The angel of the Lord killed one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in one night. Therefore Sanherib retreated, moved, not by his danger, but by the defeat of his own, and fled to Assyria, where, as Isaias [Cap. 37, 38.] reports, he was killed by his sons. And the kingdom of the Assyrians came to an end and was transferred to the Babylonians on this occasion. The prophet preaches here about this deliverance, since he says that the help will come through the Lord, not through the sword.
But as we have indicated above the causes of the desolation of both kingdoms, so it will be useful here also that we note what had been the cause of the preservation of the kingdom of Judah. The sins of Ahaz had been the cause of the desolation of the kingdom of Judah. But his godly son Ezekiah or Hezekiah, who by the grace of God had been given Isaiah as a teacher and courtier, was highly devoted to the right worship of God. Therefore, he also burned the bronze serpent after the Jews had misused it for idolatry, and established proper worship in the church, as history shows. Then, in the danger, when the enemy had already approached the city of Jerusalem, he did not take refuge in human help, but prayed in the temple and also exhorted his teacher Isaiah to pray.
If we had such military leaders today, don't you think we would be happier fighting with the Turks? But now, when the true religion is despised and the idolatry of the pope is maintained, or the hearts are corrupted by greed and avarice, what is it to be wondered at if we not only do not win, but are daily more and more pressed by the enemy? Therefore, this history would be worthy of being engraved, as it were, with a chisel in the hearts of all princes. For truly, God glorifies those who glorify Him, while those who set aside God's honor, that is, who favor idolatrous worship, are disgraced.
It is this history of which the prophet prophesies that Judah shall be helped by the Lord, not by horses or horsemen.
But it can also be generally referred to the fact that reliance on the carnal arm is condemned. For although God wants us to use the means He has created, He does not want us to trust in them or rely on them, but He wants us to ask and expect success from Him alone, as the Psalm also reminds us [Ps. 20:8 ff]: "They rely on chariots and horses and have fallen down, but we remember the name of the Lord and stand upright."
But at this point we are rightly reminded of the difference that the history and the prophet Isaiah say that this pod was done by the angel, but the prophet says at this point that it was done BaJehovah, by GOD. For it is here the divine name that is not attached to anyone as GOtt. Therefore, both are secretly indicated here, both that through Christ this salvation took place, and that Christ is God by nature. So also Paul says [1 Cor. 10, 4] that Christ accompanied the Jews in the wilderness. And the first promise [Gen. 3:15] prophesies that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. For the defense of the church, which has taken place continuously since the fall of Adam, did not happen through the angels, but through the Son of God, whom the Scriptures often call an angel, as Gen. 48, 16: "The angel of the LORD, who has delivered me from all evil." Isa. 63, 9: "The angel that is before him helped them." Mal. 3, 1: "The angel of the covenant, whom you desire." For although God uses the ministry of angels to defend the church, it is Christ alone who breaks Satan's powers and crushes his head.
And this is above all a lovely spectacle, to see that in so many dangers from the beginning of the world the church had the Son of God as its defender, who afterwards showed himself to men and suffered that he might be overcome by the devil, who had been overcome so often, so that the church might be delivered from the highest danger, that of eternal death. But we hope that, just as Christ, before taking on human nature, was not idle, but opposed the fury of Satan, so also
at this time, after he is in glory, will not forsake us, but will suppress his enemy, Satan, who in so many ways persecutes the wretched church.
V. 8, 9: And when she had weaned LoRyharno, she conceived again, and bare a son. And he said, Call his name LoAmmi: for ye are not my people, neither will I be yours.
That the Jews say that first a son was born to the prophet, then a daughter, finally again a son, because the kingdom was at one time firmer, at another less firm and in misfortune, I do not entirely dislike, because it agrees with history, and the Scriptures often compare that which is firmest with that which is male.
But let us see what the opinion is. He compares the kingdom of Israel, which was already scattered among the Gentiles, to the weaned maiden, to whom the mother no longer gives milk. For as the name shows, God had rejected the ten tribes of Israel "without mercy," that is, without the promise of bodily restoration. Therefore, the following piece of the third son goes to the house of Judah. And quite rightly Lyra interprets it of the final rejection of the synagogue and of the desolation wrought by the Romans. For because they would not accept the gospel, GOD
rejected them, not sparing even the temple and the worship. For he holds the honor of his Son higher than those outward gifts of his people, he holds his Son higher than the disobedient people.
But first of all, the magnitude of the punishment is to be seen with diligence, and that God threatens: As they do not want to be my people, so I do not want to be their God. For those who do not have God, dear one, what do they have, if they also possess the whole world? But what is the cause of such great wrath? The prophet will amply indicate it below, and Christ says in clear words in the Gospel [Luc. 19, 44.Christ says in the Gospel with clear words [Luc 19:44] that the synagogue must be destroyed because it did not recognize the time in which it is afflicted, that is, because it did not want to accept the grace of God offered in the Gospel through the Son of God, but kept Moses and despised Christ, kept the Law and rejected the Gospel, kept its works and rejected the grace of God, which the Son of God purchased for us through His death.
Here, therefore, we are again reminded of how great a sin it is not to accept the gospel. Who does not see by what fate Germany must finally perish if the princes and bishops of Germany continue in this sin?