Preservation of the Jews
Hos. 3:4, 5.—For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God.
DUKE OF ARGYLL.—The preservation of the Jews as a distinct people during so many centuries of complete dispersion, is a fact standing nearly, if not absolutely, alone in the history of the world. It is at variance with all other experience of the laws which govern the amalgamation with each other of different families of the human race.... It is not surprising, therefore, that the preservation of the Jews, partly from the relation in which it stands to the apparent fulfillment of Prophecy, and partly from the extraordinary nature of the fact itself, is tacitly assumed by many persons to come strictly within the category of miraculous events.... An extraordinary resisting power has been given to the Jewish people against those dissolving and disintegrating forces which have caused the disappearance of every other race placed under similar conditions. They have been torn from home and country, and removed not in a body, but in scattered fragments, over the world. Yet they are as distinct from every other people now as they were in the days of Solomon. Nevertheless this resisting power, wonderful though it be, is the result of special laws, overruling those in ordinary operation. It has been effected by the use of means. Those means have been superhuman—they have been beyond human contrivance and arrangement.... In their concatenation and arrangement they seem to indicate the purpose of a Living Will, seeking and effecting the fulfillment of its designs.—Reign of Law, p. 20.
Idolatrous Practices
Hos. 4:12.—My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them. THEOPHYLACT.—The diviners set up rods, and began to mutter verses and enchantments, and when the rods fell, they drew their presages from the manner and direction of the fall.—In Pict. Bib., In loco.
CICERO.—That staff of yours, which is the most celebrated ensign of your augurship, is the staff with which Romulus parted out the several districts when he founded the city.—De Div., lib. i., c. 17.
HERODOTUS.—The Scythians use willow twigs for divination.—Melpomene, c. 67.
Hos. 4:13.—They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks, and poplars, and elms (fir-trees), because the shadow thereof is good.
JOSEPH BONOMI, F. R. S. L.—On a sculptured slab at Khorsabad, we find at the-extremity of the hunting ground, an artificial piece of wafer, in which are some fish, and two pleasure-boats. On the margin of the lake is a kiosk or pleasure house, the roof of which is supported by columns resembling those of the Ionic order in Grecian architecture. Surrounding the kiosk are fruit-trees, possibly the fig and others, the branches of which appear to bear leaves and fruit; the round appendages being painted blue and the others red. Near to this spot is a hill and a grove of fir-trees, abounding with pheasants; and on the top of the hill is an altar reminding us of the groves and altars on high places, so often alluded to in the sacred writings, as a heathen custom which the people of Israel were forbidden to imitate: " They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks, and poplars and fir trees, because the shadow thereof is good. "—Nineveh and its Palaces, p. 175.
Morning Dew
Hos. 6:4.—O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as the morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.
DR. SHAW.—The dews of the night, as we had the heavens only for our covering, would frequently wet us to the skin; but no sooner was the sun arisen, and the atmosphere a little heated, than the mists were quickly dispersed, and the copious moisture which the dews had communicated to the sand would be entirely evaporated.—Travels in Arabia Petrœa.
REV. J. ROBERTS.—Ah! what are my riches, and what my glory? Alas! it is like the dew, which flies off at the sight of the morning sun.—Orient. Illust., p. 499.
First Figs
Hos. 9:10.—I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig-tree at her first time.
DR. JOHN KITTO.—After mild winters it is no uncommon thing for the more forward fig-trees to yield a few ripe figs six weeks or more before the regular season.—Pict. Bib., In loco.
Oil Traffic
Hos. 12:1—Oil is carried into Egypt.
REV. THOMAS S. MILLINGTON.—A considerable trade was carried on with Egypt by the merchants of Greece and Judea, who carried their oil thither.— Test. of the Heath., p. 446.
PLUTARCH.—Thales, and Hippocrates the mathematician, are said to have had their share of commerce; and the oil that Plato disposed of in Egypt defrayed the expense of their travels.—Solon, c. 2.
Kissing Idols
Hos. 13:2.—And now they sin more and more, and have made molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.
CICERO.—In the temple at Agrigentum there is a brazen image of Hercules so greatly venerated that its mouth and chin are alike worn away, because men in addressing their prayers and congratulations to him, are accustomed, not only to worship the statue, but even to kiss it.—In Verrem, lib. v., c. 43.
Lebanon
Hos. 14:5.—He shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
PROF. J. LESLIE PORTER, M. A.—When viewed from the sea on a morning in early spring, Lebanon presents a picture, once seen, that is never forgotten but deeper still is the impression left on the mind when one looks down over its terraced slopes clothed in their gorgeous foliage, and through the vistas of its magnificent glens, on the broad and bright Mediterranean. How beautifully do these noble features illustrate the words of the prophet Hosea!—Smith's p. 1622.
Hos. 14:7.—The scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.
PROF. J. L. PORTER, M. A.—The vine is still largely cultivated in every part of the Mountain; and the wine is excellent, notwithstanding the clumsy apparatus and unskillful workmen employed in its manufacture.—Smith's Dict. of Bible, p. 1622.