Hosea 7:6 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Hosea 7:6
For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.
to approach (causatively · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person common plural
heart
לִבָּ֖םli.Bam
H3820
the heart · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
oven
כַתַּנּ֛וּרkha.ta.Nur
H8574
a fire-pot · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
wait
אָרַבʼârab
H693
to lurk
baker
אֹֽפֵהֶ֔ם'o.fe.Hem
H644
to cook · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
sleepeth
יָשֵׁ֣ןya.Shen
H3463
sleepy · adjective, masculine singular absolute
night
הַלַּ֙יְלָה֙ha.Lay.lah
H3915
properly · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
morning
בֹּ֕קֶרBo.ker
H1242
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
burneth
בֹעֵ֖רvo.'Er
H1197
to kindle · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
flaming
לֶהָבָֽהle.ha.Vah
H3852
a flash · noun, common feminine singular absolute
fire
כְּאֵ֥שׁke.'Esh
H784
fire (literally or figuratively) · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
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
Psalms 10:8-9 He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poo…
Micah 2:1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of…
1 Samuel 19:11-15 Saul also sent messengers unto David’s house, to watch him, and to slay him in the morning: and Michal David’s wife told him, saying, If tho…
2 Samuel 13:28-29 Now Absalom had commanded his servants, saying, Mark ye now when Amnon’s heart is merry with wine, and when I say unto you, Smite Amnon; the…
Proverbs 4:16 For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.
Hosea 7:4 They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.
Hosea 7:7 They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.
Psalms 21:9 Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them…
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…
they have made ready--rather, "they make their heart approach," namely their king, in going to drink with him.
like an oven--following out the image in Hos 7:4. As it conceals the lighted fire all night while the baker sleeps but in the morning burns as a flaming fire, so they brood mischief in their hearts while conscience is lulled asleep, and their wicked designs wait only for a fair occasion to break forth [HORSLEY]. Their heart is the oven, their baker the ringleader of the plot. In Hos 7:7 their plots appear, namely, the intestine disturbances and murders of one king after another, after Jeroboam II.
Adam Clarke on Hosea 7:4
As an oven heated by the baker - Calmet's paraphrase on this and the following verses expresses pretty nearly the sense: Hosea makes a twofold comparison of the Israelites; to an oven, and to dough. Jeroboam set fire to his own oven - his kingdom - and put the leaven in his dough; and afterwards went to rest, that the fire might have time to heat his oven, and the leaven to raise his dough, that the false principles which he introduced might infect the whole population. This prince, purposing to make his subjects relinquish their ancient religion, put, in a certain sense, the fire to his own oven, and mixed his dough with leaven. At first he used no violence, but was satisfied with exhorting…
But where shall I find an approach to the divine Scripture that teaches me what "an oven" is? I must call upon Jesus my Lord, that he may make me the seeker find and may open to the one knocking, that I may find in Scriptures "the oven" where I can rightly bake my sacrifice that God may accept it. Indeed, I think I have found it in Hosea the prophet, where he says, "All adulterers are as an oven ignited for burning." And again he says, "Their hearts glowed as an oven." The human heart therefore is "an oven." But this heart, if vices ignite it or the devil inflames it, will not bake, but it will burn up. But if that one who said, "I came to send fire into the earth" should ignite it, the loaves of the divine Scriptures and of the words of God which I receive in my heart, I do not burn up for destruction, but I bake for sacrifice.
"who placed his heart in the oven as he dined with them. He slept throughout the entire night cooking them, and in the morning he burned like a flame of fire." LXX: "because their hearts were burning like an oven, when they were rushing down all night. Ephraim is filled with sleep: in the morning it happened: he is inflamed like the flame of fire." Those deceivers, when their king was plotting against them, and was trying to draw them away from their God, gave their heart as a furnace to him, so that he might kindle them and cause them to burn with the flames of idolatry. Therefore, because all of them were turned in mind to error, the people agreed. And what follows: "He slept all night, baking them; in the morning he himself was kindled as a flame of fire," means this: after he had sent fire into their heart as a furnace and had seen them go mad and there being no one to resist his will, he slept all night, that is, he was secure; walking in darkness while they were being cooked and made into the bread of impiety. Therefore, in the morning he rose up, and showed openly the flame of his wickedness, so that they might not pass over into the ceremonies of idols by treachery, but shamelessly. And when he says: "Ephraim is filled in sleep throughout the entire night," he shows that heretics who are sleeping cannot see the light of the sun of righteousness. For those who sleep, sleep at night: because their senses are oppressed. And of them we read in the Psalms: "They slept their sleep, and found nothing" (Ps. LXXV, 6). Their hearts are heated by various disturbances: anger, love, avarice.
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
Bake — The duty of preparing bread was usually, in ancient times, committed to the females or the slaves of the family (Gen. 18:6; Lev. 26:26; 1 Sam. 8:13); but at a later period we find a class of public…
Baker · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Bread · Was baked: In ovens — Was baked: In ovens
Oven · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
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).
John Gill on Hosea 7:6
For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait,.... The prince, people, and scorners before mentioned, being heated with wine, and their lust enraged, they were ready for any wickedness; for the commission of adultery, lying in wait for their neighbours' wives to debauch them; or for rebellion and treason against their king, and even the murder of him, made drunk by them, whom they now despised, and waited for an opportunity to dispatch him:
their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire; as a baker having put wood into his oven, and kindled it, leaves it, and sleeps all night, and in the morning it is all burning, and in a flame,…
Hosea 7:6
6. For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.
6. Quoniam appropinquare fecerunt (ad verbum; hoc est, aptarunt) instar fornacis cor suum in fraudibus suis (vel, insidiis;) tota nocte dormiet pistor ipsorum; mane fornax ardebit quasi ignis flammae (hoc est, ignis projciens flammam.)
Here the Prophet says, that the Israelites did secretly, and by hidden means, prepare their hearts for deeds of evil; and he takes up nearly the same similitude as he did a little while before, though for a different purpose; for he says that they had prepared their hearts secretly, as the…
To this there is added the passion with which the people make themselves slave to idolatry, and their rulers give themselves up to debauchery (Hos 7:4-7). Hos 7:4. "They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker, who leaves off stirring from the kneading of the dough until its leavening. Hos 7:5. In the day of our king the princes are made sick with the heat of wine: he has stretched out his hand with the scorners. Hos 7:6. For they have brought their heart into their ambush, as into the oven; the whole night their baker sleeps; in the morning it burns like flaming fire. Hos 7:7. They are all red-hot like the oven, and consume their judges: all their kings have fallen; none among…
A simile aptly compares the plots and political intrigue during this turbulent time to a red-hot oven that breaks out to ignite the entire land.
Rashi on Hosea 7:6
For they have made ready their heart like an oven with their ambush They prepared and readied their heart with their ambush, like an oven which they prepare and heat in order to bake.
all night their baker sleeps Their baker, who heats the oven after they have prepared their heart and have thought of the execution of the evil, how they would do it.
their baker sleeps i.e., until morning they sleep, and in the morning they burn like fire until they consummate their evil.