1 Reioyce not, O Israel, for ioy as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loued a reward vpon euery corne floore.
2 The floore and the winepresse shall not feede them, and the new wine shall faile in her.
3 They shal not dwel in þe Lords land: but Ephraim shall returne to Egypt, and they shall eat vncleane things in Assyria.
4 They shall not offer wine offrings to the Lord: neither shall they be pleasing vnto him: their sacrifices shalbe vnto them as the bread of mourners: all that eate thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soule shall not come into the house of the Lord.
5 What will yee doe in the solemne day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord ?
6 For loe they are gone, because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them vp, Memphis shall burie them: the pleasant places for their siluer, netles shal possesse them: thornes shall be in their Tabernacles.
7 The dayes of visitation are come, the dayes of recompence are come, Israel shall know it; the Prophet is a foole, the spirituall man is madde, for the multitude of thine iniquitie and the great hatred.
8 The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the Prophet is a snare of a fouler in all his wayes, and hatred in the house of his God.
9 They haue deeply corrupted themselues as in the dayes of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquitie, he will visite their sinnes.
10 I found Israel like grapes in the wildernesse: I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselues vnto that shame, and their abominations were according as they loued.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall flee away like a bird: from the birth and from the wombe, and from the conception.
12 Though they bring vp their children, yet wil I bereaue them that there shall not be a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them.
13 Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring foorth his children to the murderer.
14 Giue them, O Lord: what wilt thou giue? giue them a miscarying wombe, and drie breasts.
15 All their wickednesse is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickednesse of their doings I will driue them out of mine house, I will loue them no more: all their princes are reuolters.
16 Ephraim is smitten, their roote is dried vp, they shall beare no fruite: yea though they bring foorth, yet wil I slay euen the beloued fruite of their wombe.
17 My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken vnto him: and they shalbe wanderers among the nations.
The distress to come upon Israel. (1-6) The approach of the day of trouble. (7-10) Judgments on Israel. (11-17)1-6 Israel gave rewards to their idols, in the offerings presented to them. It is common for those who are niggardly in religion, to be prodigal upon their lusts. Those are reckoned as idolaters, who love a reward in the corn-floor better than a reward in the favour of God and in eternal life. They are full of the joy of harvest, and have no disposition to mourn for sin. When we make the world, and the things of it, our idol and our portion, it is just with God to show us our folly, and correct us. None may expect to dwell in the Lord's land, who will not be subject to the Lord's laws, or be influenced by his love. When we enjoy the means of grace, we ought to consider what we shall do, if they should be taken from us. While the pleasures of communion with God are out of the reach of change, the pleasant places purchased with silver, or in which men deposit silver, are liable to be laid in ruins. No famine is so dreadful as that of the soul.
7-10 Time had been when the spiritual watchmen of Israel were with the Lord, but now they were like the snare of a fowler to entangle persons to their ruin. The people were become as corrupt as those of Gibeah, #Jud 19|; and their crimes should be visited in like manner. At first God had found Israel pleasing to Him, as grapes to the traveller in the wilderness. He saw them with pleasure as the first ripe figs. This shows the delight God took in them; yet they followed after idolatry.
11-17. God departs from a people, or from a person, when he withdraws his goodness and mercy from them; and when the Lord is departed, what can the creature do? Even though, for the present, good things seem to remain, yet the blessing is gone if God is gone. Even the children should perish with the parents. The Divine wrath dries up the root, and withers the fruit of all comforts; and the scattered Jews daily warn us to beware, lest we neglect or abuse the gospel. Yet every smiting is not a drying up of the root. It may be that God intends only to smite so that the sap may be turned to the root, that there may be more of root graces, more humility, patience, faith, and self-denial. It is very just that God should bring judgments on those who slight his offered mercy.
Commentary by Matthew Henry, 1710.