Matthew Henry

For this thing is from Israel—a craftsman made it, and it is not God. It will be broken to pieces, that calf of Samaria.

“What can be more absurd than for men to worship that as a god, giving being and good to them, which they themselves gave being to (both matter and form), but could not give life to? This is a self-evident truth; and yet St.”

For this thing is from Israel—a craftsman made it, and it is not God. It will be broken to pieces, that calf of Samaria.

“The calf they worshipped is here called the calf of Samaria, because it is probable that when Samaria, in Ahab's time, became the metropolis of the kingdom, a calf was set up there to be near the court, besides those at Dan and Bethel, or…”

For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey on its own. Ephraim has hired lovers.

“They take a course by themselves, and the effect will be that, like a wild ass by himself, they will be the easier and surer prey to the lion.”

Though I wrote for them the great things of My law, they regarded them as something strange.

“They are things that proclaim the greatness of the Law-maker, and things of great use and great importance to us; they are our life, and our eternal welfare depends upon our observance of them and obedience to them; they will make us great if we…”

Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they eat the meat, the LORD does not accept them.

“How should he, when they did not offer their sacrifice upon that altar which alone sanctified the gift, and when they only sacrificed flesh, but not the spiritual sacrifice of a penitent believing heart?”

Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; Judah has multiplied its fortified cities. But I will send fire upon their cities, and it will consume their citadels.

“They pretended to know him, and yet forgot him, for they liked not to retain God in their knowledge, when the remembrance of him would give check to their lusts.”

Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations, for you have played the harlot against your God; you have made love for hire on every threshing floor.

“Other people were idolaters, but that sin was not, in them, going a whoring from God, as it was in Israel that had been married to him.”

They will not remain in the land of the LORD; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.

“It was a great sin and folly to rebel against God, and go a whoring from him, in such a land as this, to deal unjustly in a land of uprightness, Isa. xxvi.”

What will you do on the appointed day, on the day of the LORD’s feast?

“Golgotha in Syriac is the same with Gilgal in Hebrew, and therefore he thinks this may have reference to the putting of Christ to death at Golgotha, which was the greatest sin of the Jewish nation, and of which it might truly be said, All…”

The days of punishment have come; the days of retribution have arrived—let Israel know it.

“The day of God's judgments is both a day of visitation, in which men's sins are enquired into and brought to light, and a day of recompence, in which men's doom will be passed, and a reward given to every man according to his work…”

The prophet is Ephraim’s watchman, along with my God, yet the snare of the fowler lies on all his paths. Hostility is in the house of his God!

“Woe unto thee, O land! unto thee, O church! that hast such watchmen, such prophets, that are seers, but not doers! Corruptio optimi est pessima--The best things, when corrupted, become the worst.”

They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah; He will remember their guilt; He will punish their sins. I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness.

“Every tribe is now as bad as the tribe of Benjamin then was, and therefore may expect to be brought as low as that tribe then was.”

Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird, with no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.

“Ephraim is as strong and rich as ever Tyre was, and as proud and secure. The Chaldee paraphrase gives this sense of it, The congregation of Israel, while they observed the law, was like to Tyrus in prosperity and security.”

Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird, with no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.

“Note, Worldly glory is glory that will fly away; but those that have their God their glory have in him an unfading everlasting glory. Ephraim has been as a fruitful tree.”

I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a meadow. But Ephraim will bring out his children for slaughter.

“Note, It is a great alloy to the comfort parents have in their children that they know not what they have brought them forth and brought them up for, perhaps for the murderer, or, which is worse, to be themselves the plagues of their generation.”

Give them, O LORD—what will You give? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that dry up!

“Rather let them have no children than have them to be made miserable; for the same reason, when a total ruin was coming on the Jewish nation, Christ said, Blessed is the womb that never bore and the paps that never gave suck, Luke xxiii.”

All their evil appears at Gilgal, for there I hated them. I will drive them from My house for the wickedness of their deeds.

“In Gilgal, where all their wickedness is, there I hated them. There, where the abominations of sin are committed, there God abominates the sinners.”

My God will reject them because they have not obeyed Him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

“Note, When others disown God, and are disowned by him, it is a very great satisfaction to good people that they can call God their God, can cheerfully own him and see themselves owned by him--all revolters, all ruined, yet God is my God.”

Their hearts are devious; now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will break down their altars and demolish their sacred pillars.

“But God is the sovereign of the heart and he will by no means endure a rival; he will either have all or none.”

They speak mere words; with false oaths they make covenants. So judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.

“They swore falsely in making a covenant; they were deceitful in their covenanting with God, the covenant of circumcision, the fair promises they made of reformation when they were in distress; and no marvel if those that were false to their God were false to…”

Since the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel, and there you have remained. Did not the battle in Gibeah overtake the sons of iniquity?

“Not only the wickedness that was committed in that age is revived in this, and reacted, a copy from that original, but the wickedness that was committed in that age has been continued in a constant series and succession through all the intervening ages down…”

I will chasten them when I please; nations will be gathered against them to put them in bondage for their double transgression.

“The Chaldee says, Those that are gathered against them shall exercise dominion over them, in like manner as a pair of heifers are tied to their two furrows.”

Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of loving devotion; break up your unplowed ground.

“(2.) If we do our part, God will do his. If we sow to ourselves in righteousness --if we be careful and diligent to do our duty, in a dependence upon his grace--he will shower down his grace upon us, will rain righteousness, the very…”

Thus it will be done to you, O Bethel, because of your great wickedness. When the day dawns, the king of Israel will be utterly cut off.

“Hoshea was the last king of Israel; in him the whole kingdom was cut off and came to a period; it may refer either to him or to some of his predecessors that were cut off by treachery.”

Thus it will be done to you, O Bethel, because of your great wickedness. When the day dawns, the king of Israel will be utterly cut off.

“He does not say, "So shall the king of Assyria do to you;" but, "So shall Bethel do to you." Note, Whatever mischief is done to us it is sin that does it. Are the fortresses spoiled?”