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Commentary on Hosea, Chapter Five
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COMMENTARY ON HOSEA, CHAPTER FIVE Hear this, you priests, pay heed, house of Israel, give ear, house of the king, because the judgment is directed to you, since you have been a snare on the lookout, and like a net spread on Tabor. By hunting it they transfixed the prey (vv.1–2). E HAD ACCUSED Judah of proving to be a “blast of wind” for Israel in the way just explained by us. He now directs his words of rebuke (118) to those who devised the deceit and error, and were the source of their senseless behavior . These were the falsely named priests, those not of the bloodline of Levi but exercising priesthood at a price, having purchased the right to act as priests to the idols. It is recorded of Jeroboam, remember, “Anyone of that mind greased his palm and was made a priest for the high places.”1 Rightly, therefore, attention moves to the ministers themselves and to the house of the king, Israel itself also being caught up in prosecution; some spoke and acted in favor of the continuance of idolatry, erecting altars, offering libations and sacrifices, and smoothing the path of destruction for the deceived, while the kings took the initiative in error. Accordingly, he says to them, You have been a snare on the lookout , by lookout referring to the masses subject to the priests (if they really were priests) and under the supervision of the leaders.2 They in fact were the ones to have oversight of their subjects, or were observed by those in their care: whatever those in power decided they used to mislead their subjects, since the leaders’ wishes were followed by those whom they led. Therefore, he is saying, you have proved to be like a snare for the populace who 123 1. 1 Kgs 13.33. 2. In these verses the LXX has not picked up mention of the cult centers Mizpah and Shittim. Cyril does his best to compensate for his own linguistic inability to detect the shortcomings of his version. 124 CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA were under your supervision or perhaps looking to you. You were also like a net spread on Tabor, a famous mountain situated in Galilee, which offered plenty of hunting of animals and birds on account of its height and the extreme density of forests and thickets. I am your chastiser. I know Ephraim, and Israel is not beyond me (v.3). The priests, then, and also those of the royal bloodline (119) became the net and snare and hunters of the people, directing them to sacrifice to the demons, themselves giving an example , encouraging them to entertain unlawful ideas and introducing them to other forms of error in addition to these unholy novelties—namely, the high places, Baal of Peor, the abomination of the Sidonians, Baal, Chemosh.3 But he promises that he will be their chastiser, and before long, inflicting on them to an unprecedented extent the evils stemming from anger and wrath. The promise proved true: some members of the royal house were involved in dire and ineluctable disasters, and others perished according to the testimony of the sacred writings, while others departed in subjugation to the oppression of the Babylonians and Medes. A miserable death—or, rather, a fitting one— befell the mercenary so-called priests, some at the hands of Jehu, others of Josiah, who was of the tribe of Judah, or David; this in fact had been prophesied by the man of God when Jeroboam was sacrificing and standing at the altar: “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: Lo, a son is born to the house of David, Josiah by name. He will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who offer incense on you, and human bones will be burned on you.”4 He therefore threatened to chastise with anger and wrath those who proved a snare on the lookout, namely, priests and those of the royal bloodline, not excusing from accusation in any way the one who was deceived—Israel, that is. Consequently, he says, I know Ephraim, and Israel is not beyond me. Resembling that is the verse, “Who is this that conceals his intentions from me, keeping his words in his heart, and thinks he can keep me in the dark?” I know (120) Ephraim, in fact, he says, and I have not removed Is3 . Cyril had referred to the Baal of the Ammonites, Chemosh of the Moabites, and Astarte...