Hoseachapter 12
14 verses · KJVHosea book hub →
Key verse
The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.
It stands in Jacob wrestled with the angel: now turn to your God, verses 1 to 6.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Ephraim feeds on wind and chases the east wind, cutting deals with Assyria while shipping oil to Egypt. Against that restless diplomacy the chapter sets Jacob: grasping his brother's heel in the womb, wrestling at Peniel with power over the angel, weeping and making supplication, meeting God at Beth-el: 'Jehovah is his memorial name.' The application is direct: 'turn thou to thy God: keep kindness and justice, and wait for thy God continually.' Instead Ephraim is a merchant with false balances who says, 'I am become rich.' God, who brought them from Egypt and multiplied visions by the prophets, will make them dwell in tents again as in the feast days.
Context
Prophecy · Hosea · Hosea overview
The world behind this chapter
Hosea 12The history
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.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
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.
What it meant to them
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.
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.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
Where the chapter sits
Hosea 12 falls in The LORD's controversy with Israel (chapters 4–14). Oracles against the northern kingdom's idolatry, political faithlessness, and corruption, closing with the great call ‘O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God’ (14:1).
Before it: The marriage and the children, chapters 1–3.
The whole shape of Hosea→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Jacob wrestled with the angel: now turn to your God
1. (vv. 1-2)
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
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
feedeth on wind: Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind pictures a nation chasing what cannot nourish, the daily increase of lies and desolation running alongside a foreign policy played both ways at once, a covenant made with Assyria while oil is carried south as tribute to Egypt, trust split between two powers instead of resting in the Lord who alone had delivered them before. The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah extends the charge south, according to his doings will he recompense him stating the law of just recompense that governs the rest of the chapter's Jacob material.
2. (vv. 3-5)
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
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
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
He took his brother by the heel: in the womb recalls Jacob's birth (Gen 25:26) and by his strength he had power with God turns at once to Peniel, where he wept, and made supplication unto him, wrestling all night until daybreak (Gen 32:24-30). The Lord God of hosts; the Lord is his memorial names the God Jacob met there by his covenant name, the same name Israel the nation now bears and now dishonors, the ancestor's midnight struggle and tears set as the pattern of true prevailing the descendants have abandoned for the calves of Beth-el, the very place Jacob found him.
3. (v. 6)
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
1 more voice on this verse
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
Hosea 12:6-8
keep mercy and judgment: Therefore turn thou to thy God applies Jacob's own history directly to his descendants, keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually naming the very virtues Jacob learned through decades of exile and struggle. Verse 7 turns to Ephraim as a merchant with balances of deceit, loving to oppress, the patriarch's own early cunning (his name meaning supplanter) resurfacing in the nation's commerce, and Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich answers every accusation with self-justification, wealth mistaken for innocence, in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin standing as the boast the rest of the book answers.
B. A merchant with false balances who loves to oppress
1. (vv. 7-8)
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.”
2 more voices on this verse
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
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.”
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
2. (v. 9)
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
Hosea 12:9-10
will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles: I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast points to the feast of Tabernacles (Lev 23:39-43), the Lord promising a return to the wilderness simplicity of the exodus years, discipline recalling the nation to what it was before prosperity corrupted it. I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes names the whole prophetic ministry, parable and vision alike, as the Lord's patient method of address across generations, a witness Israel had no excuse for missing.
C. Prophets sent, and Ephraim's bitter provocation
1. (v. 10)
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.”
2. (vv. 11-14)
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
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
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
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
Is there iniquity in Gilead?: names a place notorious for idol altars raised in heaps in the furrows of the fields, worship multiplied past counting. Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife recalls the flight from Esau and the years under Laban (Gen 29-31), the patriarch's servitude for love set beside verse 13's greater deliverance, by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved, naming Moses and reminding a people who had turned on their own prophets exactly who had carried them this far. Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly closes the chapter with the debt still owed, his reproach shall his Lord return unto him, judgment matching the provocation measure for measure.
This page carries no textual note on Hosea 12. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
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, Notes on the Old Testament; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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