Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him.
Israel hath cast off good: the enemy shall pursue him.
But Israel has rejected good; an enemy will pursue him.
Cast off good hath Israel, an enemy pursueth him.
Hosea — A prophet commanded to marry an unfaithful wife — his marriage becomes the sermon. Fourteen chapters on covenant unfaithfulness and a love that will not let Israel go.
Voices5
"Israel has rejected the good, the enemy will pursue him." LXX: "because Israel has rejected the good; they persecuted the enemy." To which the Lord responds: "How can you be called Israel, when Israel has rejected the good, that is, the Lord God, whom Israel was named after? Therefore, because Israel has rejected the good, the enemy, that is, the Assyrian, will pursue him and capture him."
Jerome· Commentary on Hosea 8:1-4, 420patristic
Israel hath cast off the thing that is good,....
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed
Israel has cast off the thing that is good - Or (since the word means to cast off with abhorrence Israel hath east off and abhorred Good, both Him who is Good and that which is good. The word tob includes both. They rejected good in rejecting God , Who is simply, supremely, wholly, universally good, and good to all, the Author and Fountain of all good, so that there is nothing simply good but God; nothing worthy of that title, except in respect of its relation to Him who is good and doining good Psa 119:
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)evangelical
Israel--God repeats the name in opposition to their use of it (Ho 8:2). the thing that is good--JEROME translates, "God" who is good and doing good (Ps 119:68). He is the chief object rejected, but with Him also all that is good. the enemy shall pursue him--in just retribution from God.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871reformed
But, if we make it to point at the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes by the king of Assyria, we must reckon it is the body of that people which as Israelites, to whom pertained the adoption, the glory, and the covenants, is here called the house of the Lord.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Amos 1:11This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Edom, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because he pursued his brother with the sword and stifled all compassion; his anger raged…
leads to
This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because Edom acted vengefully against the house of Judah, and in so doing incurred grievous guilt,
From Kadesh, Moses sent messengers to tell the king of Edom, “This is what your brother Israel says: You know all the hardship that has befallen us,
The Edomites had again come and attacked Judah and carried away captives.
Egypt will become desolate, and Edom a desert wasteland, because of the violence done to the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood.
Remember, O LORD, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!”
Through
Leviticus 26:36As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to…
leads to
And when they ask, ‘Why are you groaning?’ you are to say, ‘Because of the news that is coming. Every heart will melt, and every hand will go limp. Every spirit will faint, and…
A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee, until you are left alone like a pole on a mountaintop, like a banner on a…
Through
Psalms 36:3The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and well-doing.
leads to
“For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”
The whole web at once: see the Arc.
The verses this one reaches8
I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it.
You will pursue them in anger and exterminate them from under Your heavens, O LORD.
This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Edom, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because he pursued his brother with the sword and stifled all compassion; his anger raged continually, and his fury flamed incessantly.
As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them.
The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and well-doing.
The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
Those who chased us were swifter than the eagles in the sky; they pursued us over the mountains and ambushed us in the wilderness.
and thus will incur judgment because they are setting aside their first faith.
