*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
The verb scht, shecheth, means, to kill, to sacrifice; and this place is usually explained of sacrifices; and this opinion I do not reject. But though the Prophet spake of sacrifices, he no doubt called sacrificing, in contempt, killing: as though one should call the temple, the shambles, and the killing of victims, slaughtering, so also the Prophet says, In sacrificing and killing, they, having turned aside, have become deeply fixed; that is, By turning aside to their own sacrificing, they have completely hardened their hearts, so that their depravity is incurable. For by saying that they had gone deep, the meaning is, that they were so addicted to their own superstitions, that they could not be restored to a sound mind, however often admonished by the Prophets. Yet this verb has another meaning in Scripture, even this, that men flatter themselves with their own counsels, and think that by twining together reasons of their own, they can deceive God: and this metaphor the Prophets employ with regard to profane despisers of God, whom they call ltsym, latism, mockers: for these, while they deceive men, think that they have nothing to do with God. The same we see at this day: courtiers and proud men of the same character, flatter themselves with their own deceptions, and complacently laugh at our simplicity; because they think that wisdom was born with them, and that it is enclosed as it were within their brains. But I know not whether this idea is suitable to this passage. That simpler meaning which I have already stated, I prefer, and that is, that the Israelites were so obstinate in their superstitions, that they perversely despised all counsels, all admonitions, yea, that they petulantly resisted every instruction. But each word must be noticed: turning aside in sacrificing, he says, "they became deep". By saying, that they had turned aside in sacrificing, he no doubt makes a distinction between false and strange forms of worship and the true worship of God, prescribed in the law. The frequency of sacrificing could not indeed have been condemned in itself either as to the Israelites or the Jews; but they turned aside, that is, departed from what the law prescribes. Hence the more zealously they engaged in sacrificing, and the more victims they offered to God, the more they provoked God's vengeance against themselves. We then see that the Prophet points out here as by the finger the sin he reproved in the people of Israel, and that was, -- they sacrificed not according to God's command and according to the ritual of the law, but turned aside and followed their own devices. Hence it is, that in contempt and in scorn he calls their sacrificing, killing, or cutting the throat: "they are," he says "executioners," or, "they are butchers. What is it to me, that they bring their victims with great pomp and show? That they use so many ceremonies? I repudiate," the Lord says, "the whole of this; it is profane butchering; these slaughterings have nothing in common with the worship which I approve." That our sacrifices then may please God, they must be according to the rule of his word; for obedience,' as it has been said already, is better than all sacrifices,' (1 Samuel 15:22.) But when men retake themselves to false forms of worship or such as are invented, nothing then is holy or acceptable to God, but an abominable filth. And further, the Prophet, as I have said, not only accuses the people of having turned aside to perverted forms of worship, but also of having become obstinately fixed in them. They have become deep, he says, in their superstitions: as he said before, that they were fast joined to their idols, that they could not be torn away from them; so also he says now, that they were deeply rooted in their iniquity. It follows, And I have been, or will be, a correction to them all Some think that the Prophet in the person of God threatens the Israelites, that God declares that he himself would become the avenger, because the people had so stubbornly followed wicked superstitions, -- "I sit as a judge in heaven, nor will I suffer you to fall away with impunity, since you are become so hardened in your wickedness." But they are more correct who think that their sin was more increased by this circumstance, that God by his Prophets had not ceased to recall the Israelites to a sound mind, since they might not have been wholly irreclaimable: I have been to them a correction; that is, "They cannot excuse themselves and say, that they had fallen through error and ignorance; for there has been in them a wilful obstinacy, as I have not ceased to show them the right way by my Prophets. I have, then, been a correction to them; but I could not bend them, so indomitable has been that stubbornness, or rather madness, with which they were inflamed towards their idols." It is now seen which of the two views I deem the most correct. But I will adduce a third: God may be thought to be here complaining that he had been an object of dislike to the Israelites, as though he said, "When I sent my Prophets, they could not bear to be admonished, because my word was too bitter for them." Reproofs are not easily endured by men. We indeed know, that those who are ill at ease with themselves, are yet not willing to hear any reproof: every one who deceives himself, wishes to be deceived by others. As then the ears of men are so tender and delicate, that they will patiently receive no reproof, this meaning seems not inappropriate, I have been to them all a correction, that is, "My doctrine has been by them rejected because it had in it too much asperity." But the other explanation, which I have mentioned as the second, has been more approved: I was, however, unwilling to omit what seems to me to be no less suitable. We may now choose or receive either of these two expositions, -- either that the Lord here takes away from the Israelites the excuse of error, because he had continued to reprove their vices by his Prophets, -- or that he expostulates with the Israelites for having rejected his word on the ground that it was too rigid and severe: yet this main thing will still remain the same, that the people of Israel were not only apostates, having fallen away from the lawful worship of God into their own superstitions but were also contumacious and refractory in their wickedness, so that they would receive no instruction, no salutary counsels. Let us proceed --
And the revolters are profound to make slaughter - Literally, "They made the slaughter deep," as Isaiah says, "they deeply corupted themselves" Isaiah 31:6; and our old writers say "He smote deep." They willed also doubtless to "make it deep," hide it so deep, that God should never know it, as the Psalmist says of the ungodly, "that the inward self and heart of the worker's of iniquity is deep," whereon it follows, that God should "suddenly wound them," as here the prophet subjoins that God rebuked them. Actual and profuse murder has been already Hosea 4:2 mentioned as one of the common sins of Israel, and it is afterward Hosea 6:9 also charged upon the priests.
Though I have been a rebuker - Literally, "a rebuke," as the Psalmist says, "I am prayer" Psalm 109:4, i. e., "I am all prayer." The Psalmist's whole being was turned into prayer. So here, all the attributes of God, His mercies, love, justice, were concentrated into one, and that one, rebuke. Rebuke was the one form, in which they were all seen. It is an aggravation of crime to do it in the place of judgment or in the presence of the judge. Israel was immersed in his sin and heeded not, although God rebuked him continually by His voice in the law, forbidding all idolatry, and was now all the while, both in word and deed, rebuking him.
The revolters are profound to make slaughter - Here may be a reference to the practice of hunters, making deep pits in the ground, and lightly covering them over, that the beasts, not discovering them, might fall in, and become a prey.
Though I have been a Rebuker - "I will bring chastisement on them all." As they have made victims of others to their idolatry, I will make victims of them to my justice. Some have thought that as many as wished to depart from the idolatrous worship set up by Jeroboam, were slaughtered; and thus Jeroboam the son of Nebat Made Israel to sin.
And the revolters are profound to make (b) slaughter, though I [have been] a (c) rebuker of them all.
(b) Even though they seemed to be given altogether to holiness, and to sacrifices which here he calls slaughter in contempt.
(c) Though I had admonished them continually by my Prophets.
And the revolters are profound to make slaughter,.... The revolters are the king, priests, and people, who had revolted from the true worship and ways of God unto idolatry. These formed deep laid schemes, and took crafty methods, like hawkers; who lay themselves flat upon the ground to manage their snares and nets, and observe the creatures that fall into them, and take them, and whom they artfully decoy, to which the allusion is; and that either to slay those who would not comply with their false worship; or rather to multiply the sacrifices of slain beasts, and offer them with a great show of devotion and religion, and thereby beguile, entice, and ensnare simple and unwary souls; so the Targum,
"they sacrifice to idols abundantly;''
and which, in the sight of God, was mere slaughter and butchery:
though I have been a rebuker of them all; king, priests, and prophets; those idolaters, revolters, or worshippers of Baal, as Aben Ezra calls them: this is to be interpreted either of the prophet, who had freely, faithfully, and openly reproved all orders of men for their departure from God and his worship, and for their idolatrous practices; or of the Lord himself, which comes to the same sense, who had rebuked them by his prophets, and corrected them by his judgments, but to no purpose: and therefore they could not plead ignorance, or excuse themselves upon that account.
revolters--apostates.
profound--deeply rooted [CALVIN] and sunk to the lowest depths, excessive in their idolatry (Hosea 9:9; Isaiah 31:6) [HENDERSON]. From the antithesis (Hosea 5:3), "not hid from me," I prefer explaining, profoundly cunning in their idolatry. Jeroboam thought it a profound piece of policy to set up golden calves to represent God in Daniel and Beth-el, in order to prevent Israel's heart from turning again to David's line by going up to Jerusalem to worship. So Israel's subsequent idolatry was grounded by their leaders on various pleas of state expediency (compare Isaiah 29:15).
to . . . slaughter--He does not say "to sacrifice," for their so-called sacrifices were butcheries rather than sacrifices; there was nothing sacred about them, being to idols instead of to the holy God.
though--MAURER translates, "and (in spite of their hope of safety through their slaughter of victims to idols) I will be a chastisement to them all." English Version is good sense: They have deeply revolted, notwithstanding all my prophetical warnings.
This accusation is still further vindicated in Hosea 5:2., by a fuller exposure of the moral corruption of the nation. Hosea 5:2. "And excesses they have spread out deeply; but I am a chastisement to them all." The meaning of the first half of the verse, which is very difficult, and has been very differently interpreted by both ancient and modern expositors, has been brought out best by Delitzsch (Com. on Psalm 101:3), who renders it, "they understand from the very foundation how to spread out transgressions." For the word שׂטים the meaning transgressions is well established by the use of סטים in Psalm 101:3, where Hengstenberg, Hupfeld, and Delitzsch all agree that this is the proper rendering (see Ewald's philological defence of it at 146, e). In the psalm referred to, however, the expression עשׂה סטים also shows that shachătâh is the inf. piel, and sētı̄m the accusative of the object. And it follows from this that shachătâh neither means to slaughter or slaughter sacrifices, nor can be used for שׁחתה in the sense of acting injuriously, but that it is to be interpreted according to the shâchūth in 1-Kings 10:16-17, in the sense of stretching, stretching out; so that there is no necessity to take שׁחט in the sense of שׁטח, as Delitzsch does, though the use of עלוה for עולה in Hosea 10:9 may no doubt be adduced in its support. שׂטים, from שׂטה (to turn aside, Numbers 5:12, Numbers 5:19), are literally digressions or excesses, answering to the hiznâh in Hosea 5:3, the leading sin of Israel. "They have deepened to stretch out excesses," i.e., they have gone to great lengths, or are deeply sunken in excesses, - a thought quite in harmony with the context, to which the threat is appended. "I (Jehovah) am a chastisement to them all, to the rulers as well as to the people;" i.e., I will punish them all (cf. Hosea 5:12), because their idolatrous conduct is well known to me. The way is thus prepared for the two following verses.
The revolters - All those that have cast off the law of God. Profound - Dig deep to hide their counsels, and to slay the innocent. Though I - Hosea.
*More commentary available at chapter level.