So shall Beth-el do unto you - This shall be the consequence of your idolatry.
In a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off - Suddenly, unexpectedly. Hoshea, the king of Israel, shall be cut off by the Assyrians. There are some allusions to facts in this chapter, which cannot be easily verified, as we have not sufficient acquaintance with the history of those times.
So shall Bethel do unto you - God was the judge, who condemned them so to suffer from the enemy. The Assyrian was the instrument of the wrath of God. But, in order to point out the moral government of God, the prophet says, neither that God did it, nor that the Assyrian did it, but Bethel, once “the house of God,” now the place where they dishonored God, “because of your great wickedness,” literally, “the wickedness of your wickedness.” In their wickedness itself, there was an essence of wickedness, malice within malice.
In a morning shall the king of Israel be cut off - Hoshea was cut off finally, leaving neither root nor branch. His kingdom perished; he left no memorial. Like the morning, he seemed to dawn on the troubles of his people: he sinned against God: and “in a morning,” the kingdom, in “the multitude of” whose “mighty men” he trusted, “was cut off” forever.
Of Ephraim the prophet testified, “Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.” [The prophet Hosea often referred to Ephraim, a leader in apostasy among the tribes of Israel, as a symbol of the apostate nation.] “Israel hath cast off the thing that is good.” “Broken in judgment,” unable to discern the disastrous outcome of their evil course, the ten tribes were soon to be “wanderers among the nations.” Hosea 7:9; 8:3; Hosea 5:11; 9:17. PK 280.1
Some of the leaders in Israel felt keenly their loss of prestige and wished that this might be regained. But instead of turning away from those practices which had brought weakness to the kingdom, they continued in iniquity, flattering themselves that when occasion arose, they would attain to the political power they desired by allying themselves with the heathen. “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian.” “Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.” “They do make a covenant with the Assyrians.” Hosea 5:13; 7:11; Hosea 12:1. PK 280.2
Through the man of God that had appeared before the altar at Bethel, through Elijah and Elisha, through Amos and Hosea, the Lord had repeatedly set before the ten tribes the evils of disobedience. But notwithstanding reproof and entreaty, Israel had sunk lower and still lower in apostasy. “Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer,” the Lord declared; “My people are bent to backsliding from Me.” Hosea 4:16; 11:7. PK 281.1
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