Israel. They are chiefly addressed, (Chaldean; St. Jerome; Calmet) or what follows to ver. 15, regards all. (Worthington) — Judgment. Hebrew, “a trial.” — Mercy. The want of humanity and of practical knowledge is urged. (Calmet) — The knowledge of God includes the observance of the commandments, 1 John ii. 4. (Worthington) — This science alone is requisite, Jeremias ix. 3., and Isaias v. 13. Blind leaders prove their own and other’s ruin.
Verses 1-5 Hosea reproves for immorality, as well as idolatry. There was no truth, mercy, or knowledge of God in the land: it was ( 2 Kings. 21:16 ) which would desolate the country. Our sins, as separate persons, as a family, as a neighbourhood, as a nation, cause the Lord to have a controversy with us; let us submit and humble ourselves before Him, that he may not go on to destroy.
Prophets were sent to be reprovers, to tell people of their faults, and to warn them of the judgments of God, to which by sin they exposed themselves; so the prophet is employed in this and the following chapters. He is here, as counsel for the King of kings, opening an indictment against the people of Israel, and labouring to convince them of sin, and of their misery and danger because of sin, that he might prevail with them to repent and reform. I. He shows them what were the grounds of God's controversy with them, a general prevalency of vice and profaneness (ver 1, 2), ignorance and forgetfulness of God (ver 6, 7), the worldly-mindedness of the priests (ver 8), drunkenness and uncleanness (ver 11), using divination and witchcraft (ver 12), offering sacrifice in the high places (ver 13), whoredoms (ver 14, 18), and bribery among magistrates, ver 18. II. He shows them what would be the consequences of God's controversy. God would punish them for these things, ver 9. The whole land should be laid waste (ver 3), all sorts of people cut off (ver 5), their honour lost (ver 7), their creature-comforts unsatisfying (ver 10), and themselves made ashamed, ver 19. And, which is several times mentioned here as the sorest judgment of all, they should be let alone in their sins (ver 17), they shall not reprove one another (ver 4), God will not punish them (ver 14), nay, he will let them prosper, ver 16. III. He gives warning to Judah not to tread in the steps of Israel, because they saw their steps went down to hell, ver 15.
Because the people would not obey the admonitions of the Prophet, he citeth them before the judgment seat of God, against whom they chiefly offended, Isa. 7:13 ; Zech. 12:10 ; Mic. 6:1 , 2 .
Blood. The successors of Jeroboam II were mostly murdered. (Calmet) — Incestuous marriages take place. (Haydock)
II. The indictment read, by which the whole nation stands charged with crimes of a heinous nature, by which God is highly provoked. 1. They are charged with national omissions of the most important duties: There is no truth nor mercy, neither justice nor charity, these most weighty matters of the law, as our Saviour accounts them (Matt 23 23), judgment, mercy, and faith. The generality of the people seemed to have no sense at all of the thing called honesty; they made no conscience of what they said and did, though ever so contrary to the truth and injurious to their neighbour. Much less had they any sense of mercy, or any obligation they were under to pity and help the poor. And it is not strange that there is no truth and mercy when there is no knowledge of God in the land. What good can be expected where there is no knowledge of God? It was the privilege of that land that in Israel God was made known, and his name was great, which was an aggravation of their sin, that they did not know him, Ps 76 1. 2. Hence follows national commissions of the most enormous sins against both the first and second table, for they had no regard at all to either. Swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, against the third, ninth, sixth, eighth, and seventh commandments, were to be found in all corners of the land, and among all orders and degrees of men among them, v. 2. The corruption was universal; what good people there were among them were either lost or hid, or they hid themselves. By these they break out, that is, they transgress all bounds of reason and conscience, and the divine law; they have exceeded (Job 36 9); they have been overmuch wicked (Eccl 7 17); they suffer their corruptions to break out; they themselves break over, and break through, all that stands in their way and would stop them in their sinful career, as water overflows the banks. Note, Sin is a violent thing and its power exorbitant; when men's hearts are fully set in them to do evil (Eccl 8 11) what will be restrained from them? Gen 11 6. When they break out thus blood touches blood, that is, abundance of murders are committed in all parts of the country, and, as it were, in a constant series and succession. Cædes aliæ aliis sunt contiguæ—Murders touch murders; a stream of blood runs down among them, even royal blood. It was about this time that there was so much blood shed in grasping at the crown; Shallum slew Zechariah, and Menahem slew Shallum, Pekah slew Pekahiah, and Hoshea slew Pekah; and the like bloody work, it is likely, there was among other contenders, so that the land was polluted with blood (Ps 106 38); it was filled with blood from one end to the other, 2 Kings 21 16.
III. Sentence passed upon this guilty and polluted land, v. 3. It shall be utterly destroyed and laid waste. The whole land is infected with sin, and therefore the whole land shall mourn under God's sore judgments, shall sit in mourning, being stripped of all its wealth and beauty. As the valleys are said to shout for joy, and sing, when there are plenty and peace, so here they are said to mourn when by war and famine they are made desolate. The whole land shall be brimstone, and salt, and burning, was as threatened in the law, Deut 29 33. They had broken all God's commandments, and now God threatens to take away all their comforts. The land mourns when there is neither grass for the cattle nor herbs for the service of man; and then every one that dwells therein shall languish for want of nice food to support a wasting life, and fret for want of the usual dainties for delight. The beasts of the field will languish, Jer 14 5, 6. Nay, the destruction of the fruits of the earth shall be so great that there shall not be picking for the fowls of the air, to keep them alive; they shall suffer with man, and their dying, or growing lean, will be a punishment to those who used to have their tables replenished with wild-fowl. Nay, the fishes of the sea shall be taken away, or gathered together, that they may go away in shoals to some other coast, and then the fishing trade will be worth nothing. This desolation shall be in that respect more general than that by Noah's flood, for that did not affect the fishes of the sea, but this shall. It was part of one of the plagues of Egypt that he slew their fish (Ps 105 29); when the waters are dried the fish die, Isa 50 2; Zeph 1 2, 3. Note, When man becomes disobedient to God, it is just that the inferior creatures should be made unserviceable to man. Oh what reason have we to admire God's patience and mercy to our land, that though there is in it so much swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and adultery, yet there is plenty of flesh, and fish, and fowl, on our tables!
Together. The waters shall be dried up, or infected. (Calmet) — When the people are taken away, beasts will not long remain, Jeremias ix. 10., and Sophonias i. 2. (Haydock)