The Pulpit Commentary on Hosea 13:3

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

Driven chaff and vanished smoke.

The imagery here employed is of obvious interpretation. When the blast of the whirlwind or of the winnowing fan passes ever the threshing-floor, the chaff is driven away and dispersed. When the fire is kindled upon the earth, the smoke makes its escape through the lattice-work below the roof into the open air. Even so, those who wickedly depart from Jehovah and addict themselves to the worship of idols shall, says the prophet, learn by bitter experience the folly of their course and the vanity of their trust. No safety, no stability, but certain ruin and destruction shall be their lot.

I. DEFECTION FROM TRUE RELIGION EXCITES THE DISPLEASURE AND INDIGNATION OF THE ONLY TRUE GOD. There are many who refuse to admit that the supreme Ruler concerns himself with the conduct of men. And others consider that benevolence is so all-absorbing an attribute of Deity that they will not hear of punishment either in this world or in a world to come. The declarations of the prophet are utterly inconsistent with such views as these.

II. RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE WILL CERTAINLY ASSERT ITSELF IN THE CONDEMNATION AND PUNISHMENT OF THE IRRELIGIOUS.

1. There is national retribution, as the history of Israel and of every nation abundantly proves.

2. There is individual chastisement, as every human life in a measure may convince us.

3. The punishment inflicted upon the ungodly and impenitent is not limited to this earthly life, to this transitory scene of probation.—T.

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commentaryMatthew Henry on Hosea 13:1-8While Ephraim kept up a holy fear of God, and worshipped Him in that fear, so long he was very considerable. When Ephraim forsook God, and followed idolatry, he sunk. Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves, in token…Matthew Henry commentaryReproofs and Threatenings. (b. c. 722.)REPROOFS AND THREATENINGS. (B. C. 722.) Idolatry was the sin that did most easily beset the Jewish nation till after the captivity; the ten tribes from the first were guilty of it, but especially after the days of Ahab;…Matthew Henry commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Hosea 13:1-8Ephraim, living and dead. This passage portrays anew the dreadful prevalence of apostasy and idolatry throughout the nation. "The same strings, though generally unpleasing ones, are harped upon in this chapter that were…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Hosea 13:1-8Justification of the ways of God to man. Israel had been the cause of their own calamities—another proof that sin is the procuring cause of all human suffering and sorrow. God's character is seen to be everlastingly the…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Hosea 13:1-4Baal-exaltation. The first clause is better read, "When Ephraim spake, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel." The contrast is between what Ephraim once was, and what his offending in Baal had now brought him to…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Hosea 13:1-16EXPOSITION The first eight verses of this chapter form the premises from which the prophet, in the ninth verse, draws the conclusion that the conduct of Israel had been suicidal; that they had brought on themselves the…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Hosea 13:3Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind cut of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney. The illative particle with whic…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Hosea 13:3The life of the wicked. "Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney." This…Joseph S. Exell and contributors