Hoseachapter 12
14 verses · Hosea · 755 to 715 BC · The Twelve
In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel, and in his vigor he wrestled with God.
Introduction
Hosea, The Twelve, Hosea Overview.
Hosea wrote this chapter for a nation that took its name from Jacob, the ancestor every Israelite knew from childhood. He spoke in the last years before Samaria fell, about 730 to 722 BC, while Ephraim made treaties with Assyria and sent goods to Egypt. The chapter sets the ancestor's life beside his descendants' and reads each by the other. It also turns to the market, where every hearer had seen scales at work. Listen for the episodes from Jacob's life and their order. Listen also for what the chapter says about prophets, spoken to a people who called their own prophet a fool.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who took their name and their identity from Jacob
- What
- A charge against Ephraim and Judah that sets the nation's deceit and dishonest trade beside the life of their ancestor Jacob.
- Where
- The northern kingdom and its markets, with Gilead, Gilgal, Bethel and Aram named and the treaties with Assyria and Egypt in view.
- When
- About 730 to 722 BC, while Ephraim held treaties with Assyria in the years before Samaria's fall; the date is approximate.
- Why
- To call Israel to return to God as Jacob did, holding to love and justice and waiting on Him.
Historical context
Every episode named here was a story hearers had known since childhood, grasping the heel at birth, wrestling through the night at Peniel and coming away with a new name and a limp, fleeing to Aram and working seven years and then seven more for a wife, keeping sheep for his wages. Hosea retells the family history without softening the grasping in it.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The trader in the middle of the chapter is a pun. The Hebrew word for a Canaanite also meant a merchant, because Phoenician traders dominated commerce in the region. So calling Ephraim a Canaanite with false balances in his hand says both things at once: you have become a shopkeeper, and you have become one of them.
False balances were a specific, checkable crime. Merchants weighed silver and goods against stone weights on a two-pan balance, and sets of Israelite weights have been excavated, some of them inscribed with their value. A dishonest trader carried two sets, heavy for buying, light for selling, which is why the Law repeatedly demands honest weights.
Gilead and Gilgal are named again, and the detail about altars like stone heaps on the furrows of a field is a farmer's image. Stones cleared from a field were piled at the edges; Israel's altars had multiplied until they looked like that.
Significance
The nation was invited to see itself in its ancestor at his worst rather than at his best, and then pointed to the turn: he wept and sought God's favour, and God spoke with him there. The way back was in the family story all along.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
Between the two halves sits the line that would have stung the most: by a prophet the LORD brought Israel up from Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved. The nation that was now calling Hosea a madman had been founded and kept alive by exactly the kind of man it was now dismissing.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts sets this chapter in the Haftarah of Vayetzei in both rites, on the Sabbath of the portion Genesis 28:10 to 32:3, and the two rites divide it. The Sephardi reading is Hosea 11:7 to 12:12 and the Ashkenazi reading is Hosea 12:13 to 14:10, so the opening of the chapter is heard in the one rite and its close in the other. A congregation keeping that cycle hears the reading aloud after the Torah portion of its Sabbath. That table carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days, so any further public reading of this chapter is left to a source that holds those readings.
The table's own notes say that its verse numbers are the Hebrew ones, which part from an English Bible in several places. A reader counting in an English translation may find the start or the end of this reading a verse away.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the first verse it carries Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Bereshit 33. Under the third verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Emor 13:1.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries. He is quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY, and every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern. His lemmas, which carry the verse in that translation's wording, are never quoted.
Rashi reads the first verse as a contrast between the kingdoms. Ephraim has surrounded God with lies, while Judah still rules with the fear of God: "Their kings are still with the Holy One, blessed be He" (Rashi on Hosea 12:1:1). The oil carried to Egypt is a bribe, given "to Egypt to aid them" (Rashi on Hosea 12:2:1).
The chapter turns to Jacob, and Rashi reads each step as a gift. The heel held in the womb was "a sign that he would be a master over him" (Rashi on Hosea 12:4:1). The one who wept at the Jabbok was the angel, and Rashi names Chullin 92a (Rashi on Hosea 12:5:1). He begged Jacob to let him go and promised the meeting at Bethel, and Rashi says who he was: "Now that angel was Esau’s genius, and he was contesting the blessings" (Rashi on Hosea 12:5:2).
The point of the story comes at the sixth verse. God is the same now as then: "had you walked with Me wholeheartedly, like Jacob your father, I would have acted toward you as I acted toward him" (Rashi on Hosea 12:6:1). The tents of the tenth verse are houses of study: "I will set up from among you students engaging in the Torah" (Rashi on Hosea 12:10:1). At the thirteenth verse Rashi marks the return to Jacob's flight to Aram, "you know how I guarded him" (Rashi on Hosea 12:13:1).
The corpus carries seven further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Rashi on Hosea 12:1:2, 12:2:2, 12:7:2 and 12:8:2. The corpus cites Ibn Ezra on Hosea 12:3:1, 12:4:1 and 12:6:1 the same way.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 64:2, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Bereshit 33, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayeshev 24 and Devarim Rabbah 11:10. On the second verse it holds Eikhah Rabbah 4:20. On the third verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 10:1, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Emor 13:1, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayigash 8:3 and Midrash Tanchuma, Emor 10:1. On the fourth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 62:3, Aggadat Bereshit 8:2, Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 35:4 and Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 37:4.
On the fifth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 3:6, Bereshit Rabbah 78:2, Bereshit Rabbah 82:2 and Chullin 92a:2. On the sixth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 53:2 and Shemot Rabbah 25:2. On the seventh verse it holds Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 16:12, Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 13:1 and Tractate Soferim 4:9. On the eighth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 23:10, Bava Batra 75a:5, Bereshit Rabbah 59:9 and Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 5:17. On the tenth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 11:2, Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 2:17:1 and Pesikta DeRav Kahana 5:8.
On the eleventh verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 14:1, Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 15:2 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Bachodesh 3:9. On the twelfth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 12:18, Devarim Rabbah 10:4 and Devarim Rabbah 2:19. On the thirteenth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 47:1, Bamidbar Rabbah 23:1 and Bereshit Rabbah 70:20. On the fourteenth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 69:2 and Pesikta Rabbati 4:1. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Hosea 12:1:1 to 12:13:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Rashi, Rashi on Hosea 12:1:2, 12:2:2, 12:7:2 and 12:8:2, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Hosea 12:3:1, 12:4:1 and 12:6:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/hosea/12.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, the Haftarah table and its note on Hebrew verse numbers.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Jacob wrestled with the angel: now turn to your God
Hosea 12:1-2
Ephraim chases the wind: d and pursues the east wind all day long", a nation chasing what cannot nourish while it "multiplies lies and violence". Its foreign policy runs both ways at once, as "he makes a covenant with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt".
Hosea 12:1
"Ephraim feeds on the wind and follows after the east wind: all day long he multiplies lies and desolation. And he made a covenant with the Assyrians and brought oil into Egypt." LXX: "But Ephraim is a spirit of wickedness, following the heat: all the day long he hath multiplied lies and vanities, and he hath made a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil he carried into Egypt."
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 12:1patristic
3 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Hosea 12:1
“Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind - The East wind in Palestine, coming from Arabia and the far East, over large tracts of sandy waste, is parching, scorching, destructive to vegetation, oppressive to man, violent and destructive on the sea Psa 48:7, and, by land also, having the force of the whirlwind (Job 27:21; see Jer 18:17). “The East wind carrieth him away and he departeth, and as a whirlwind hurleth him out of his place.” In leaving God and following idols, Ephraim “fed on” what is unsatisfying, and chased after what is destructive.”
Hosea 12:1
“They thought to secure the Egyptians for their confederates by a rich present of the commodities of their country, not only to purchase their favour, but to show that their friendship was worth having: Oil is carried into Egypt. But the Egyptians, when they had got the bribe, dropped the cause, and Ephraim was never the better for them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hosea 12:1
“Israel follows not only things vain, but things pernicious (compare Job 15:2). increaseth lies--accumulates lie upon lie, that is, impostures wherewith they deceive themselves, forsaking the truth of God. desolation--violent oppressions practised by Israel [MAURER]. Acts which would prove the cause of Israel's own desolation [CALVIN]. covenant with . . .”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
brings a charge against Judah: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown date the LORD's charge against Judah to Ahaz, when Judah fell into idolatry, as 2 Kings 16:3 records. They read Jacob here as the ten northern tribes of Israel. If the LORD will punish favored Judah, Israel can expect worse.
Hosea 12:2
“The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah - The rest of the prophecy belongs both to Judah and Israel. He reproaches both with their ingratitude, and threatens them with God’s anger. In order to make their infidelity the more hateful, and their malice the more sensible, he opposes to them the righteousness, obedience, and piety of their father Jacob. He recalls to their minds the benefits they had received since they returned from Egypt.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 12:2
“Judah, under Ahaz, had fallen into idolatry (2Ki 16:3, &c.). Jacob--that is, the ten tribes. If Judah, the favored portion of the nation, shall not be spared, much less degenerate Israel.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Hosea 12:3-5
grasped his brother’s heel: "In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel" recalls Jacob's birth (Genesis 25:26), then Peniel, where he wrestled until daybreak (Genesis 32:24 to 30). Verse 5 names the God he met, "the LORD is His name of renown", the covenant name the nation now bears and dishonors.
Hosea 12:3
“He took his brother by the heel in the womb - Whether or no the act of Jacob was beyond the strength, ordinarily given to infants in the womb, the meaning of the act was beyond man’s wisdom to declare. Whence the Jews paraphrased , “Was it not predicted of your lather Jacob, before he was born, that he should become greater than his brother?” Yet this was not fulfilled until more than 500 years afterward, nor completely until the time of David. These gifts were promised to Jacob out of the free mercy of God, antecedent to all deserts.”
3 more voices on this verse
Hosea 12:3
“Took his brother - The design of mentioning this is to mind them of that goodness which God shewed them in their father Jacob. His strength - This strength was not of nature, but of grace. Strength received of God was well employed betimes; in it he wrestled for and obtained the blessing.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Hosea 12:3
“As the promised Canaan had to be gained forcibly by Israel, so heaven by the faithful (Re 3:21; compare Lu 13:24). "Strive," literally, "as in the agony of a contest." So the Canaanitess (Mt 15:22). his strength--which lay in his conscious weakness, whence, when his thigh was put out of joint by God, he hung upon Him. To seek strength was his object; to grant it, God's.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Hosea 12:3
“Jacob was poor, and low, and a fugitive; therefore his posterity ought not to be proud. He was a plain man, dwelling in tents, and keeping sheep; therefore balances of deceit ill became them. He served for a wife that was not a Canaanitess, as Esau's wives were; therefore it was a shame for them to degenerate into Canaanites, and mingle with the nations.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
struggled with the angel and prevailed: Wesley notes this angel is called God in verse 3 and the LORD of Hosts in verse 5, and took him for the Messiah. Clarke observes that the weeping appears only here. Genesis records the wrestling, and Bethel is where God gave Jacob the promises of Genesis 28:13 to 15.
Hosea 12:4
“He had power over the Angel - Who represented the invisible Jehovah. He wept, and made supplication - He entreated with tears that God would bless him; and he prevailed. The circumstance of his weeping is not mentioned in Genesis. He found him in Beth-el - It was there that God made those glorious promises to Jacob relative to his posterity. See Gen 28:13-15.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Hosea 12:4
“The angel - Called ver. 3, God; and ver. 5, Jehovah, Lord of hosts. He was no created angel, but the Messiah; eternal God by nature and essence, angel by office, and voluntary undertaking. He wept - He prayed with tears from a sense of his own unworthiness, and with earnestness for the mercy he desired.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Hosea 12:4
There were places in Jerusalem where he taught and other places to which he retired. "In daytime he was teaching in the temple." Just this had been foretold by Hosea: "In my house did they find me, and there did I speak with them."
Tertullian · written before 220 · Against Marcion 4.39patristic
Hosea 12:4
“What a sad contrast, that in this same Beth-el now Israel worships the golden calves! there he spake with us--"with us," as being in the loins of our progenitor Jacob (compare Ps 66:6, "They . . . we;" Heb 7:9, 10). What God there spoke to Jacob appertains to us. God's promises to him belong to all his posterity who follow in the steps of his prayerful faith.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
His name of renown: Barnes explains LORD as the proper name God gave himself, the name that declares his being, which God explained when Moses asked at Exodus 3. Wesley names the speaker at Bethel as YHWH, the eternal and unchangeable God. He can keep what he promised there.
Hosea 12:5
“Even the Lord God of Hosts, the Lord is His memorial - The word, here as translated and written Lord, is the special and, so to say, the proper Name of God, that which He gave to Himself, and which declares His Being. God Himself authoritatively explained its meaning. When Moses inquired of Him, what he should say to Israel, when they should ask him, “what is the Name of the God of their fathers,” who, he was to tell them, had sent him to them, “God said ...”
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 12:5
“The Lord God of hosts - He that appeared and spake, who promised the blessing and commanded the reformation at Beth-el was Jehovah, the eternal and unchangeable God; who can perform his promise, and execute his threat, who is a most terrible enemy, and most desirable friend.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Hosea 12:6-8
maintaining love and justice: Verse 6 applies Jacob's history to his descendants: "return to your God, maintaining love and justice, and always waiting on your God". Verse 7 shows Ephraim as a merchant who "loves to defraud with dishonest scales", the early cunning of Jacob surfacing again in the nation's trade.
Hosea 12:6
“Mercy - Shew kindness to all who need it. Judgment - Wrong none; but with justice in dealings, in judicatures; and public offices, render to every one their due. Wait on thy God - In public worship and private duties serve and trust God alone: let not idols have either sacrifice, prayer, praise, or trust from you; and let your hope and worship, be forever continued.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 12:6
“Therefore turn thou to thy God - Because he is the same, and cannot change. Seek him as faithfully and as fervently as Jacob did, and you will find him the same merciful and compassionate Being.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
A merchant with false balances who loves to oppress
with dishonest scales: Gill notes the Hebrew for merchant can be read Canaan: Ephraim deals like a Canaanite, a son of Canaan more than of Jacob. Barnes asks how a merchant who loves to defraud could keep the love and justice of verse 6. Deceit is the sin of weakness, Barnes adds.
Hosea 12:7
"Canaan in his hand deceitful balance, he loved calumny, and Ephraim said: Nevertheless, I have become rich, I have found myself an idol, all my labors will not find me the iniquity which I have sinned." LXX: "Canaan in his hand is the weight of iniquity, he loved to oppress through power, and Ephraim said: But I have become rich, I have found rest for myself, all his labors will not find him, for the iniquities in which he sinned."
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 12:7-8patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 12:7
“He is a merchant - Or, indignantly, “a merchant in whose hands are the balances of deceit!” How could they love “mercy and justice,” whose trade was “deceit,” who weighed out deceit with their goods? False in their dealings, in their weights and measures, and, by taking advantage of the necessities of others, oppressive also. Deceit is the sin of weakness oppression is the abuse of power. Wealth does not give the power to use naked violence but wealthy covetousness manifoldly grinds the poor.”
Hosea 12:7
“He is a merchant,.... Here is a change of person from "thou" to "he", from Judah to Ephraim, who is said to be a "merchant"; and if that was all, there is nothing worthy of dispraise in it; but he was a cheating merchant, a fraudulent dealer, as appears by what follows: or he is Canaan, or a Canaanite (y); more like a descendant of Canaan, by his manners, than a descendant of Jacob.”
Ephraim answers the charge of false scales with his wealth. Matthew Henry calls it folly to think that growing rich in a sinful way makes a man innocent, or safe, or easy in that way. The prosperity of fools, he adds, deceives and destroys them.
Hosea 12:8
“Riches are not the honours of the soul, are not peculiar to the best men, nor sure to us; and therefore let not the rich man glory in his riches, Jam. i. Fifthly, It is folly to think that growing rich in a sinful way makes us innocent, or will make us safe, or may make us easy, in that way; for the prosperity of fools deceives and destroys them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hosea 12:9-10
make you dwell in tents: "I will again make you dwell in tents" points to the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:39 to 43) and the wilderness years. The discipline recalls the nation to what it was before prosperity corrupted it. Verse 10 names the prophetic ministry as the LORD's patient way of speaking across generations.
Hosea 12:9
"And I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt; I will make you dwell in tabernacles as in the days of the feast. And I spoke to the prophets, and I multiplied visions, and by the hand of the prophets I was likened."
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 12:9-10patristic
Prophets sent, and Ephraim's bitter provocation
multiplied their visions: Clarke names the LORD's three ways: prophets who spoke plainly, visions they declared, and parables to fix Israel's attention. Spurgeon adds that God spoke to Israel sometimes with the rod and sometimes with plenty of grain, wine and oil. Clarke judged it all in vain.
Hosea 12:10
“I have also spoken - I have used every means, and employed every method, to instruct and save you. I have sent prophets, who spake plainly, exhorting, warning, and beseeching you to return to me. They have had Divine visions, which they have declared and interpreted. They have used similitudes, symbols, metaphors, allegories, etc., in order to fix your attention, and bring you back to your duty and interest. And, alas! all is in vain; you have not profited by my condescension.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 12:10
“For certain of these men used to see the prophetic Spirit and His active influences poured forth for all kinds of gifts; others, again, [beheld] the advent of the Lord, and that dispensation which obtained from the beginning, by which He accomplished the will of the Father with regard to things both celestial and terrestrial; and others [beheld] paternal glories adapted to the times, and to those who saw and who heard them then, and to all who were subsequently to hear them.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies 4:20.6patristic
Hosea 12:10
“WHEN THE LORD would win his people Israel from their iniquities, he did not leave a stone unturned, but gave them precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little. He taught them sometimes with a rod in his hand, when he smote them with sore famine and pestilence, and invasion; at other times he sought to win them with bounties, for he multiplied their corn and their wine and their oil, and he laid no famine upon them.”
Hosea 12:11-14
Is there iniquity in Gilead?: "Jacob fled to the land of Aram and Israel worked for a wife" recalls the years under Laban (Genesis 29 to 31). Verse 13 answers that servitude: "by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt", naming Moses to a people who turned on their prophets.
Hosea 12:11
“Is there iniquity in Gilead? Yea, (2.) And in Gilgal too; there they sacrifice bullocks ( ch. ix. 15 ), and there their altars which they have set up, either to strange gods in opposition to his own appointed altar, are as thick as heaps of manure in the furrows of the field that is to be sown, ch. viii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 12:11
"If Galahad was an idol, then they were sacrificing their cattle in vain at Galgal; for even their altars were like heaps on the furrows of the field." LXX: "If it is not Galahad, then the princes sacrificing at Galgala were false, and their altars were like tortoises on the desert of the field." Because we have translated "bobus," which is called Surim in Hebrew, the LXX translated it as "princes," which are called Sarim, being deceived by the similarity and ambiguity of the word.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 12:11patristic
Hosea 12:11
“Is there iniquity in Gilead?--He asks the question, not as if the answer was doubtful, but to strengthen the affirmation: "Surely they are vanity"; or as MAURER translates, "They are nothing but iniquity." Iniquity, especially idolatry, in Scripture is often termed "vanity." Pr 13:11: "Wealth gotten by vanity," that is, iniquity.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jacob fled to the land: Gill takes the land of Aram as Padan-aram. Clarke counts fourteen years Jacob worked and tended sheep, the price of Rachel and Leah after Laban cheated him. The prophet reminds Israel how low Jacob stood and how the LORD preserved him.
Hosea 12:12
“Jacob fled into the region of Syria and served for Israel in his wife, and he kept watch over his wife. In the prophet, the Lord led Israel out of Egypt, and in the prophet, he was saved. The seventy interpreters [translators] say: And Jacob went into the plain of Syria and served for Israel in his wife, and he kept watch over his wife, and in the prophet, the Lord led Israel out of Egypt, and in the prophet, he was saved.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 12:12-13patristic
3 more voices on this verse
Hosea 12:12
“And Jacob fled into the country of Syria,.... Or, "field of Syria" (m); the same with Padanaram; for "Padan", in the Arabic language, as Bochart has shown, signifies a field; and "Aram" is Syria, and is the word here used.”
Hosea 12:12
“Served for a wife - Seven years for Rachel. For a wife he kept sheep - Seven years for Leah; having been cheated by Laban, who gave him first Leah, instead of Rachel; and afterwards made him serve seven years more before he would confirm his first engagement. Critics complain of want of connection here. Why is this isolated fact predicted? Thus, in a detached sentence, the prophet speaks of the low estate of their ancestors, and how amply the providence of God had preserved and provided for them. This is all the connection the place requires.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Hosea 12:12
“Ye, though delivered from Egypt (Ho 12:13), and loaded with My favors, are yet unwilling to return to Me. country of Syria--the champaign region of Syria, the portion lying between the Tigris and Euphrates, hence called Mesopotamia. Padan-aram means the same, that is, "Low Syria," as opposed to Aramea (meaning the "high country") or Syria (Ge 48:7).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
by a prophet he was preserved: The prophet is Moses. Barnes hears one Hebrew word in both verses: Jacob tended sheep for a wife, and the LORD preserved Israel like sheep, as Psalm 77:20 says. Matthew Henry took Moses the prophet as a type of Christ, who brought his people out of the Egypt of sin.
Hosea 12:13
“The ensign of his authority was not a royal sceptre, but the rod of God; with that he summoned both Egypt's plagues and Israel's blessings. Moses, as a prophet, was a type of Christ ( Acts iii. 22 ), and it is by Christ as a prophet that we are brought out of the Egypt of sin and Satan by the power of his truth.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
leave his bloodguilt upon him: Clarke reads the bloodguilt the LORD will leave on Ephraim as guilt still charged against him, and sets beside it John 3:36. Wesley counts murders of the innocent in that bloodguilt. The contempt Ephraim will be repaid for is his reproach of the prophets and of God.
Hosea 12:14
"Ephraim has provoked me to anger with his bitter words; his blood will be on him, and his Lord will repay him for his contempt." Likewise Septuagint. Therefore when I had so helped Ephraim that I had led the naked, the exiled and the lonely to a rich and a masterful Lord, and had made him the parent of many sons, Ephraim deserted me, indeed provoked me to anger: and with his bitterness made bitter what was sweet.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 12:14patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 12:14
“Therefore shall he leave his blood upon him - He will not remove his guilt. These are similar to our Lord’s words, Joh 3:36; Joh 9:41: “He that believeth not on the Son of God, shall not see life, for the wrath of God Abideth On Him” - shall not be removed by any remission, as he rejects the only way in which he can be saved. Because ye say, We see; therefore, Your Sin Remaineth, i.e., it still stands charged against you. Your miseries and destruction are of your own procuring; your perdition is of yourselves.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Hosea 12:14
“His blood - He shall bear the punishment of all his blood; his murders of the innocent, and his own guilt too. His reproach - Which Ephraim hath cast upon the prophets, the worshippers of God, and on God; preferring idols before him. His Lord - God who is Lord of all.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Charles Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit, Sermon No. 206: “Everybody's Sermon” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.