Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_300.lzh/6_376.TXT

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&c.'] Whose name is the same with Joshua and Jesus,
and signifies a saylout; he was in some things a type
of Christ the Saviour, and prophesied of hi'm, and sal-
vation by him; and Was the instrument and means of
saving men, as all true prophets were, and faithful mi-
nisters. of the. word are: tO him the word of the Lord,
revealing his mind and will, was brought by the spirit
of God, and impressed upon his mind; and it was
committed to him to be delivered unto others. This
is the general title of the whole book, shewing the di-
vine original and authority of it: the son of Beeri;
which is added to distinguish him from another of the
same name; and perhaps his father's name was famous
in Israel, and therefore mentioned. The Jews have a
rule, that where a propbees father's name; is men-
tioned, it shews that he was the S9n of a prophet; but
this is not to be depended upon; and some of them
say that this is the same with-Beerah, a prince of the
Reubenites, who was carried captive by Tiglath-pi-
leser king of Assyria, 1 Chron. v. 6. but the name is
different; nor does the chronology seem so well to
agree with him; and especially he can't be the father
of Hosea, if he was of the tribe of Issachar, as some
have aft, rmed: in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz,
and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Je-
roboarn- the son of Joash, king of Israel ;. from whence
it, appears that Hosea prophealed losS, and lived to a
great. age; for from the last 'year of Jeroboam, which
was. the fifteenth of Uzziah, to the first of Hezekiah,
must be sixty-nine years; for Jeroboam reigned forty-
one years, and in the twenty-seventh of his reign
began Uzziah or Azariah to reign over Judah, and
he reignedfifty-two years, 2 Kings xiv. 23. and xv.
1,2. so that Uzziah reigned thirty-seven years after
the death of Jeroboam, through which time Hosea pro-
phealed; Jotham after him reigned sixteen years, and
so many reigned Ahaz, 2Kings xv. 23. and xvi. 2. so
that without reckoning any part, either of Jeroboam's
reign, or Hezekiah's, he must prophesy sixty-nine
years, and, no doubt, did upwards of seventy, very
probably eighty, ,the Jews. say ninety; and. allowing
him to be twenty-four or five years of age when he he,
gun to prophesy, or only twenty (for it is certain he
was at an_.age fit to marry, asappears bythe prophecy),
he: must live to be upwards of a. hundred years; and
in.all probability he lived to see not only part of Israel
carried captive by Tiglath-pileser, which is certain ;.
but the entire destruction of the ten tribes by Satrna-
neser, which he prophesied of. Jeroboam king of
Israel is mentioued last, though prior to these kings
ofJudah; because Hosea's prophecyis chiefly against
Israel, and beg. an in his reign, when they were in a
· flourishing cohdition. It appears from hence that
Isaiah, Amos, and Micah, were cotemporary with him;
see. Inn. i.1. Amos i. 1.Mic. i. 1. within this compaSs
of time Hosea prophesied lived Lycurgus the famous
lawgiver of the Lacedemonians, and Hesiod the Greek
poet; and Rome began to be built,
Ver. 2. The beginning of the word of the Lord by
Hosea, &c,] Or in Hosea {}; which was internally re-
vealed to him, and was inspired into him, by the
Holy Ghost, who first spoke in him, and then by him;
not that Hoses was the first of the prophetsto whom
the word of the Lord came; for there were Moses,
Samuel, David, and others, before him; nor the first
of the minor prophets, for Jonah, Joel, and Amos; are
by some thought to be before him; nor the fi'rst of
those cotemporary with him, as the Jewish writers
interpret it, which is not certain, at least not all of
them; but the meaning is, that what follows is the
first part of his prophecy, or what it began with; by
which it appears he was put upon hard service at first,
to' prophesy against Israel, an idolatrous people, and to
· do it in such a manner as must be disagreeable to a
young man: and the Lord said to 1Iosea, go, take
thee a wife of whoredores and children of whoredouts ;
a woman given to whoredore, a notorious strumpet,
one taken out of the stews, and children that were
spurious and illegitimate, not born in lawful wedlock.
Some think this was really done; that the prophet
took a whore, and cohabited with her, or married her
which, though forbidden a high-priest, was not forbid
to a prophet; and had it-been against a law, yet the
Lord commanding it made it lawful, as in the cases of
Abraham's slaying his son, and the Israelites borrow-
ing jewels of the Egyptians; but this seems not likely,
since it would not only look like countenancing whore-
dom, which is contrary to the holy law of God; but
must be very dishonourable to the prophet, and render
him contemptible to the people; and, besides, would
not answer the end proposed, to reprove the spiritual
adultery or idolatry of ISrael, but rather serve to con-
firm in it ; for howshould that appear criminal and abo-
minable to them, which was commanded thje prophet
by the Lord ? others think that the woman he is bid
to marry, though before marriage a harlot, was after-
wards reformed; but this is directly contrary to oh.
iii. 1. and besides, the children born of her, whether
reformed or not, yet in lawful wedlock could not be
called children of whoredore; nor would the above end
be answered by it, since such a person would be no
fit representative of Israel committing spiritual adul-
tery or idolatry, and continuing in it; and moreover,
whether this or the former was the case, the prophecy
must be. many years delivering; it must be near a year
.before the first child was born, and the same space
must be between the birth of each; so that here must
be a long and frequent interruption of the prophecy,
which does not seem likely: nor is it probable .that he
took his own wife, which is the opinion of others, and
gave her the character of a whore, and his children
with her, and called them children of whoredom, in
order to represent and reprove the idolatry of Israel:
what Maimonides {k}, and the Jewish writers in general,
give into, is more agreeable, that this was all done in
the vision of prophecy; that it so seemed to the pro-
phet in vision to be really done, and. so he related it to
the people; but this is liable to objection, that such
an impure scene of things should be represented to the
mind of the prophet by the Holy Spirit of God; nor
can the relation of it be thought to have any good
effect. upon the people, who would be ready to mock

{i} \^evwhb\^ \~en wshe\~, Sept.; in Hosea, Vulg. Lat. Pagninus, Montanus,
Drusius, Tarnovius.
{k} Moreh Nevochim, par. 2. 46. Aben Ezra & Kimchi in loc.