Chapter Twelve

1–2. Israel’s false politics. 3–4. Recollection of the patriarch Jacob. 5–14. Condemnation of Israel’s ingratitude and pronouncement of punishment.

Hosea 12:1. Ephraim feeds on wind and pursues the east wind; all day long he multiplies lies and desolation; they make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried to Egypt. Chapters twelve through fourteen form a new section of the prophet’s speeches. In them Hosea condemns the people for impiety and idolatry and proclaims the coming of punishment. The image of the wind (kadim—east wind) which Ephraim pursues in verse 1 means that Ephraim pursues unattainable goals. In this case the prophet specifically means the making of covenants with foreigners, from which Israel vainly expects help. —Instead of the words “feeds on wind” in the Slavonic “evil spirit,” because the LXX read the word roch (“feeds”) as rаа (from rа—bad, evil). The words “he multiplies lies and violence” (schod) in the Slavonic are rendered: “he has multiplied vain and empty things,” the LXX apparently read schod as schav (lie, vanity).

Hosea 12:2. But the Lord also has a case against Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways; He will repay him according to his deeds. In verse 2 the prophet recalls Judah, which also faces punishment. “He will punish Jacob”: by the law the prophet means the ten-tribe kingdom, and by the punishment of Judah he designates the future punishment of the Judeans. —The mention of Judah in verse 3 appears to modern commentators (Nowack, Hoonacker) as disrupting the flow of prophetic speech, the subject of which is Israel. Therefore they suppose that the name of Judah was placed by later copyists in place of the name Israel.

Hosea 12:3. In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel, and in manhood he wrestled with God. Hosea 12:4. He wrestled with the Angel and prevailed; he wept and begged Him; in Bethel He found us, and there He spoke to us. In verses 4–5 the prophet recalls Jacob, for whom he called the people in verse 3. The prophet’s mention of the patriarch is understood differently. According to some commentators (Umbreit, Hitzig, Nowack), the prophet wants to say that from the beginning, even in the person of his progenitor, who seized his brother and struggled with God, Israel displayed deception and violence (Gen 25:26). But the prophet could not consider the weeping and pleading of Jacob (“wept and pleaded with Him”) as an expression of trickery or violence on Jacob’s part. Therefore other interpreters understand the prophet’s mention of Jacob in a different sense, namely that by his striving for the birthright and for obtaining through it God’s blessing, and by his struggle with God, in which Jacob conquered through weeping and pleading, “the patriarch left an example to follow and a pledge of salvation for those who bear his name” (Brodovich). Instead of the words “in his maturity” (beono—in strength, having achieved strength) “he struggled with God” in the Slavonic: “with his labors he grew strong toward God”; Hebrew sarah, to struggle, contend (Gen 32:28), the LXX translated as ενίσχυσε—came into strength, grew strong. He struggled with the angel—namely with the Angel of Jehovah, who is nothing other than God Himself or the divine Logos in his Old Testament operation (A. Glagolev, The Old Testament Biblical Doctrine of Angels. Kiev. 1900). “Wept and pleaded with Him” (in Slavonic “Me”); it is supposed that the prophet supplements here the narrative of the book of Genesis (Gen 32:24-29) on the basis of the very words of the narrator: Jacob said “I will not let you go until you bless me.” In Bethel He found us, and there He spoke with us. The speech is about the patriarch Jacob, but Jacob is viewed as the bearer of the entire Israelite people; therefore the prophet uses the pronoun of the first person, plural (“us,” with us). The prophet’s thought is that the promises given in Bethel to Jacob upon his return from Mesopotamia belong also to the people of Israel. —The LXX understood the prophet’s words directly about the people and therefore translated: “in the house of Bethel (in Bethel) they found Me.” —One of the new commentators (Hoonacker) considers verses 3–4 a folk song in which Israel’s glory is spoken of, which the prophet puts into the mouth of the people. The following words are the prophet’s answer to this song.

Hosea 12:5. And the Lord is the God of hosts; the Eternal [Jehovah] is His name. In verse 5 the prophet establishes the thought expressed at the end of the previous verse. The promises given in Bethel belong to the descendants of Jacob because the Lord is the Almighty, unchangeable God. “God of hosts” (zabah, host, army)—the Ruler of the hosts of heaven (Gen 32:2), the luminaries (Isa 40:26; Ps 102:21), and earthly armies (Isa 24:21-23; Exod 7:4): a designation expressing the idea of God’s omnipotence. —Instead of the words “the Lord”—(Jehovah) is His name” in the Slavonic “His remembrance will be,” because the LXX instead of God’s name read the verb Ihjeh (will be), and took the word sichro (his name) in its literal sense—“remembrance.”

Hosea 12:6. And you, turn back to your God; observe mercy and justice, and hope in your God continually. An exhortation to Israel. “Observe mercy and justice” (chesed—love, mishpat—justice). Instead of the words “wait for your God” in the Slavonic “draw near to your God.”

Hosea 12:7. A Canaanite with dishonest scales in his hand loves to oppress; Hosea 12:8. and Ephraim says: “Yet I have become rich; I have acquired wealth, though in all my labors they will find nothing unlawful that would be sin. According to the prophet’s thought, Israel instead of being a people of God became a merchant—a petty trader who has made profit and enrichment his goal through deception and violence. In such blindness, Israel is so in its acquisition of wealth through deception that it sees nothing illegal or sinful in it (cf. Lev 19:36; Deut 25:18-16). Canaanite—from Hebrew Canaan (as also in Slavonic): as a proper name—the word Canaan is used in the Bible to designate a land (Exod 15:15; Num 13:29) and to designate a people; inasmuch as the inhabitants of Canaan, particularly the Phoenicians, were mainly engaged in commerce, the word Canaan acquired the sense of a common noun—merchant, trader (Isa 23:8; Zeph 1:11). Instead of the words “I have found wealth for myself” (on) in the Slavonic “I found rest”: The LXX derived on, as Schleusner supposes, from the Arabic root and translated it with αναψυχή. The end of the verse the LXX translated in the third person.

Hosea 12:9. But I, the Lord your God from the land of Egypt, will again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the feast. Israel boasted that he had become rich by his own labor. But in reality—the Lord from the time of the exodus from Egypt is the sole source of Israel’s prosperity. And because the people forgot this, he will be punished. “Will make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast.” It is not entirely clear whether the prophet’s words contain a threat or consolation. The prophet, apparently, speaks of the Feast of Tabernacles, when the Israelites were supposed to dwell in tents in remembrance of the fact that God had made them dwell in tents after their exodus from Egypt (Lev 23:42-43). Dwelling in tents reminded the people both of the hard wilderness wandering and of God’s merciful miraculous guidance. Therefore in verse 9 the figurative expression may be understood in the sense that when the people are overtaken by God’s punishment, they will be as if taken back into the wilderness, but they will not have their hope and God’s guidance taken away from them (Brodovich).

Hosea 12:10. I spoke to the prophets, and I multiplied visions, and through the prophets I spoke in parables. The prophet reveals the thought that the Lord is the benefactor of Israel. Instead of the words “through the prophets I used parables,” bejad hannebiim adammeh in the Slavonic “in the hands of the prophets I was likened”; The LXX translated the text literally. Hoonacker, in accordance with Hos 4:6, sees in adammeh the verb daman, to destroy, and translates: through the prophets (messengers of God’s will) I will destroy them.

Hosea 12:11. If Gilead has become Aven, then they have become vain; in Gilgal they sacrificed bulls as offerings, and their altars stood like heaps of stones on the field. Verse 11 is very difficult to understand. Apparently, the prophet’s thought is as follows. The Lord has instructed Israel through the prophets, but Israel remained deaf to God’s words and turned away from serving Jehovah both in Gilead (the Transjordanian part) and in Gilgal (the Cisjordanian part). “If Gilead is worthless, then they are worthless” (schave): more exactly from Hebrew—“If Gilead is nothingness (aven), then they are nothing”; schave apparently is used of worthlessness in the sense of physical destruction, which the prophet thus threatens against Israel. —The LXX instead of aven (nothingness) read ain (there is not); from this comes the Slavonic text: “if not Gilead there is.” —“In Gilgal they sacrificed bulls” (schevanm sibbechu). The prophet condemns Israel not for sacrificing bulls, but for making offerings in an unauthorized place, which should have been only Jerusalem (cf. Hos 4:15). Instead of the words “in Gilgal” the LXX read έν Γαλααδ, in Gilead. Instead of schevarim (bulls) the LXX read sarim (princes) and connected the sentence with the preceding; from this comes the Slavonic: “therefore false were in Gilgal princes making offerings.” The Vulgate reads the last words: bobus immolantes, offering sacrifices to oxen. Given the disagreement of the translations, some commentators propose instead of schevarim, sedim, demons (“offering sacrifice to demons”). “And their altars are like heaps of stones in the furrows of the field.” The altars are compared with the heaps (gallim) which are made up of stones dug up in the cultivation of land. The speech of the prophet, containing a play on words (galgal will turn into gallim), refers to the future and contains a threat of the destruction of Israel’s altars: The LXX translated the word gallim as χελώναι, turtles; from this comes the Slavonic: “like turtles on the field boundaries.”

Hosea 12:12. Jacob fled to the fields of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he tended flocks. Hosea 12:13. By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet He preserved him. The prophet again turns to past times. The sense of verses 12–13 is understood differently. According to some interpreters (Ewald), the prophet points out the caring relationship of the Lord both to the patriarch of the Israelite people (verse 12) and to Israel itself. According to others (Brodovich), the prophet contrasts the fate of the patriarch of Israel with the fate of Israel itself: Jacob had to flee to a foreign land and, like a slave, keep sheep; but his descendants were miraculously brought out of Egypt and were protected by God through the prophets. With this contrast Hosea points to God’s love for Israel, so as to emphasize the ingratitude of the latter.