A commentary on the prophecy of Hosea by Edward Pococke.

7 But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battel, by horses, nor by horsemen.

But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them, &c.] Gods sentence con∣cerning Judah is contrary to what he denoun∣ces to Israel; on Israel he will no more have mercy, nor save them from their enemies; on Judah he will have mercy and save them. For this his different dealing with the one and the other m some give for reasons, 1. Because though Judah did often offend against God, and provoke him sharply to chastise them by severe judge∣ments, of w^ch he made their enemies his execu∣tioners, yet they did not so utterly and univer∣sally cast off him and his worship, as Israel did, who, all along from the time that Jeroboam set up the worship of the Calves, continued to run a whoring from after the Lord, without turn∣ing by repentance, whereas Judah did oft re∣pent, and reform, as under those Godly Kings Hezekiah and Josiah, &c. 2. Because he had foretold and promised that out of the Tribe of Judah Christ should come according to the flesh, and we may add that it was prophe∣cyed, that, from that Tribe was not to de∣part the Scepter till he should come, Gen. 49.10. and therefore for making good these pro∣mises and Prophecies he would have mercy on Judah, and save them. But the Text ex∣presseth not any reason for Gods dealing thus, but only mentions it as an act of his free mer∣cy, of the righteousness of which there can be no doubt, and we need not seek to make it out by any reason, though the reasons men∣tioned be evident enough. But in that he saith, he will save them, it may be enquired to what act of saving them this is to be referred. n We read of a great and wonderful Salvation wrought for them, when he saved them from the hands of the Assyrians, who some few years after they had cut off the Kingdom of the house of Israel under o Salmaneser, came up also against Judah, under Senacherib, who in confidence of his great power, defied both them and God. Of another, described in the book of Ezrah, when after he had delivered them up for their sins to be car∣ried captives to Babylon, yet after some years captivity he restored them again to their Coun∣try and Kingdom, and prescrved them till that the promised Messiah was born among them. p Some do refer this to another deli∣verance, which was before either of these, viz. that related in the 2 Kings 15.5. &c. when Ju∣dah was delivered from Rezin King of Syria, and Pekah King of Israel, who came up to Jeru∣salem to war (w^ch is also spoken of in Isai. 7.5, &c.) but this seems not so probable, because it seems to respect a deliverance which should be after it had been made evident that God would not any more have mercy on Israel, and had utterly taken them away, as in the pre∣ceding words he threatens, which (though some think the name Lo-ruhamah was sufficiently made good on them, in what they suffered in Pekahs time, 2 Kings 15.29. when many of them were carried captive,) seems not fully done till their last captivity, of all their re∣mainder under Hoshea, (2 Kings 17.6.) but chiefly because the saving them here men∣tioned was to be not by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, &c. but by the Lord their God, whereas that was by the arms and help of the King of Assyria, as it appears in the 16. chap. of 2 Kings, ver. 9. To one, if not both, of the other therefore it seems more conve∣nient to refer it, for to either of them will it, as here described, well agree. In both God dealt with Judah contrary to what he

dealt with Israel. 1. He gave up Israel into the hand of the Assyrians, he saved Judah from them, so that they continued a King∣dom q many years after the Kingdom of Israel was utterly rooted out. 2. Israel he never yet restored from their captivity, Judah he did restore to their own Land: and both these deliverances were wrought in the manner here described, viz. by the Lord their God, i. e. by his sole might and power, or (as the Chaldee expresseth it) in (or by) the word of the Lord their God; and not by bow, nor by sword, nor by battel, nor by horses, nor by horsemen, i. e. not by any such weapons, or waies of defence, strength, or help of their r own, or allies, whereby people use to de∣fend and save themselves. If safety had been by any such means to be had, the Israelites might rather have been saved s who abounded in them much more then Judah, but now they having cast off the Lord from being their God, and being by him cast off, and given up, all those things cannot save them; but Judah, though destitute of such things, having the Lord for their God, shall by him, without them, be saved; for so it was in both these deliverances, the first was without their using any of those means, or striking a stroke in their own de∣fence, effected by the Angel of the Lord, slay∣ing in one night an hundred fourscore and five thousand in the Camp of the Assyrians, so that Senacherib departed from them, and returned with shame to his own Country, where he was slain by two of his own sons, t 2 Kings 19.37. &c. And as for the second, viz. their restauration from the Babylonish captivity, that also without their gathering an head, or using any forcible means, whereby to free themselves out of their enemies Land, or for re∣covery of their own, was brought about meer∣ly by Gods moving the heart of Cyrus to restore them, Ezra. 1.1, &c. Now to either of these, the words being thus appliable, u some Expositors understand them of the first, vv o∣thers of the second; we may well (I suppose) understand them as respecting both.

As for that expression, I will save them by the Lord their God, there is some difference betwixt Expositors in giving the meaning of them; for besides that already intimated, viz. that it (though the person be changed from the first to the third, x which is not elsewhere un∣usual) should signify all one as to say, by my self, i. e. by mine own power, y others think it to import, by Christ, who is eternal God with the Father and the Holy Spirit, as true man with us, and the foundation of the Co∣venant, and all the Promises of God, and the Fountain of all Salvation; and that the Salva∣tion promised is not only corporal, but spi∣ritual, not from earthly captivity only, but from the power of Satan and eternal death; and that for understanding it of Christ, some proof may be taken from the Chaldee Para∣phrast, who renders it, in the word of the Lord, and that hence may a proof be taken for the Divinity of Christ; which though pious∣ly said, and so as that it may be admit∣ted and embraced by such as embrace the truth of Christ, yet perhaps z will not seem of ne∣cessary force to such as do not, as Jews and others, who will say that the former way of Exposition gives as much as the letter of the words necessarily imports; especially when the Salvation here promised to the Jews is op∣posed to that denied to Israel, which here is apparently temporal, viz. of longer prote∣ction to them now in their Land, and pre∣serving them from going into captivity, and restoring them again to it out of captivity; and not spiritual, or of Salvation by Christ, if they shall come into him, as will ap∣pear, ver. 10. and in the second Chapter; so that there is no necessity of looking on the words hitherto as a promise of Salvation in Christ, or of the things belonging to his spi∣ritual Kingdom, though by the Salvation here promised, was made way and preparation for that, in the preservation of the Tribe of Judah, out of which he was to come in the flesh, that he might publish to them, and all others, that better Salvation. a It is farther ob∣servable that in this expression, by the Lord their God, there is comprehended a sharp re∣proof and upbraiding of Israel, and declara∣tion of Gods Justice in denying to save them, in that by running after Idols, they had for∣feited their right in God and his protection; so that in opposition to them he calls himself the God of the Jews, their God, not your God, though he spake to them: Your Idols have no power to save you, my Mercy which hitherto supported you, but you have for∣saken, being withdrawn from you: I their God will save them in my mercy, by my power.

Having thus by the second birth of a daughter, and the name imposed on her, ty∣pified a second degree of Gods Judgements on the Israelites, he proceeds under the type of a third birth, a son and his name, to set forth a third degree of punishment, in which his Judgements should be consummated on them. So follows it, ver. 8, 9.

Notes

• m

  Zanch. & Ch. à Castro.
• n

  2 Kings 19.
• o

  Ibid. ch. 18. ver. 9. & 13.
• p

  Jun. Trem. and Dutch Notes.
• q

  About 132. Drus.
• r

  Jun. Trem.
• s

  Zanch. and see Rivet.
• t

  Isa. 37.36, &c.
• u

  Aben Ezra, R. D. Kim∣chi, Mercer. Grot. &c.
• vv

  Abarb. & Ar. Mont.
• x

  See Drus. & Rivet.
• y

  Jun. Trem. Tarn. Dutch Notes, and see Pet. à Fig.
• z

  See Rivet. & Zanch.
• a

  See Rivet.