Hosea 7:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Hosea 7:1
When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.
perversity · noun, common masculine singular construct
Ephraim
אֶפְרַ֙יִם֙'ef.Ra.yim
H669
Ephrajim · proper noun, a man's name
discovered
וְנִגְלָ֞הve.nig.Lah
H1540
to denude (especially in a disgraceful sense) · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
wickedness
וְרָע֣וֹתve.ra.'ot
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural construct
Samaria
שֹֽׁמְר֔וֹןsho.me.Ron
H8111
Shomeron · proper noun, a place name
commit
פָעֲל֖וּfa.'a.Lu
H6466
to do or make (systematically and habitually) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
falsehood
שָׁ֑קֶרSha.ker
H8267
an untruth · noun, common masculine singular absolute
thief
וְגַנָּ֣בve.ga.Nav
H1590
a stealer · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
in
יָב֔וֹאya.Vo'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
troop
גְּד֖וּדge.Dud
H1416
a crowd (especially of soldiers) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
spoileth
פָּשַׁ֥טpa.Shat
H6584
to spread out (i.e. deploy in hostile array) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
without
בַּחֽוּץba.Chutz
H2351
properly · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Hosea 7:13 Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, ye…
Hosea 6:4 O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it g…
Micah 7:3-7 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mi…
Jeremiah 9:2-6 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers…
Hosea 4:2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy child…
Luke 13:34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children t…
Luke 19:42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine ey…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Hosea 7:1-7
Some take away the last words of the foregoing chapter, and make them the beginning of this: "When I returned, or would have returned, the captivity of my people, when I was about to come towards them in ways of mercy, even when I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim (the country and common people) was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria, the court and the chief city." Now, in these verses, we may observe,
I. A general idea given of the present state of Israel, Hos 7:1, Hos 7:2. See how the case now stood with them.
1. God graciously designed to do well for them: I would have healed Israel. Israel were sick and wounded; their disease was dangerous and malignant, and l…
When I would have healed Israel - As soon as one wound was healed, another was discovered. Scarcely was one sin blotted out till another was committed.
The thief cometh in - Their own princes spoil them.
The troop of robbers spoileth without - The Assyrians, under different leaders, waste and plunder the country.
John Gill on Hosea 7:1
When I would have healed Israel,.... Or rather, "when I healed Israel" (k); for this is not to be understood of a velleity, wish, or desire of healing and saving them, as Jarchi; nor of a bare attempt to do it by the admonitions of the prophets, and by corrections in Providence; but of actual healing them; and by which is meant, not healing them in a spiritual and religious sense, as in Hosea 6:1; but in a political sense, of the restoring of their civil state to a more flourishing condition; which was done in the times of Jeroboam the son of Joash, as Kimchi rightly observes; who restored the coast of Israel, from the entering of Hamath, unto the sea of the plain, 2 Kings 14:25;
then the i…
Hosea 7:1
1. When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.
1. Dum medeor Israel, tunc retecta fuit iniquitas Ephraim et malitiae Samariae, quia gesserunt se mendaciter (vel, fallaciter; ad verbum, fecerunt fellaciam;) et fur ingressus est, spoliavit praedo foris.
God, that he might show how corrupt was the state of all the people of Israel, compares himself here to a physician, who, while he wishes to try remedies, acknowledges that there are hid more grievous diseases; which is often the case. When a sick person sends for a physici…
The Church Fathers
When I wanted to heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim was revealed, and the malice of Samaria: for they have wrought falsehood, and a thief is come in to spoil, a robber without. The Septuagint likewise. Often has Israel received wounds of idolatry, and especially that one, when in the desert they fashioned a calf's head, and said: 'These are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt' (Exod. XXXII, 4). Therefore I, who desire the sinner's repentance rather than his death (Ezech. XVIII, XXXIII), afterwards say in the Gospel: 'They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill' (Luke V, 31), and have attempted to heal the wounds of my people. And when I treated all these things with every art, that the miserable people might be cured, suddenly Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim appeared, who made golden calves, and the wickedness of Samaria was revealed, following the impious king: for both the king and the people operated in falsehood, that is, idolatry. For just as an image is contrary to God, so is falsehood to truth. But the king himself, like a thief, entered among the people of Israel, and like a robber despoiled the unhappy people of God with the help of his people. And the sense is this: When I wished to wipe away the sins of my people, because of their ancient idolatry, Ephraim and Samaria found new idols. But it can also be said that after the shedding of his own blood, the Lord and Savior sought to heal the sins of the people and lead them to repentance, both Jews and Gentiles gathered in his Church. Suddenly Ephraim, who promised the fertility of false dogmas, and the people of Samaria who proclaimed they followed God's commands, arose and performed the idolatry of false dogmas, and through them, the thief and robber, the devil, entered the Church, or the doctrine of heretics entered like a thief and robber, of whom the Savior said in the Gospel, "All who came before me were thieves and robbers" (John 10: 8). Thieves lie in wait, and deceive with hidden fraud: robbers boldly plunder the possessions of others. For those who steal, steal at night and in darkness. Hence, it is significantly said, that the thief enters secretly, and the robber plunders outside. For they cannot strip those of Christ's clothes whom they have taught, unless they have led them out of the Church, and made them walk in the perverse…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Robbers · Bands of — Bands of
Samaria, Ancient · People of characterised as: Corrupt and wicked — People of characterised as: Corrupt and wicked
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
I want to heal Israel: God’s overwhelming desire was to heal Israel’s harlotry (see 14:4) and restore her to right relationship with him, but she was filled with liars, thieves, and bandits. • The Israelites might have thought that the Lord was unaware of their sins, but he was watching them, and he saw everything they did.
Rashi on Hosea 7:1
When I would heal Israel When I wish to save them and heal them, their iniquities are revealed before Me, for they constantly commit falsehood, and thieves come constantly from them and steal their neighbors’ property, and also their bands spread out with lawlessness, to rob the people.