-
Commentary on Hosea, Chapter Nine
- The Catholic University of America Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
COMMENTARY ON HOSEA, CHAPTER NINE Do not rejoice, Israel, or be glad, as do the peoples, because you have been unfaithful to your God. You were fond of payment on every threshing floor. Threshing floor and wine vat did not know1 them, and the wine deceived them. They did not inhabit the land of the Lord. Ephraim inhabited Egypt, and they will eat unclean food in Assyria. They did not pour libations to the Lord, and did not please him. Their sacrifices will be like their bread of mourning: all who eat it will be defiled , because their bread is for their own selves, it will not enter the house of the Lord (vv.1–4). INCE THE HORDES of the nations were affected by the greatest possible folly, deceived as they admittedly were, it was their custom when beginning farm work and on the point of ploughing the land to offer sacrifices to the demons and ask them for fertility for the fields. Likewise, when harvesting, as the season required, they put the grapes into the wine vats and poured out libations, sacrificed to the gods, and sang the vintage songs by way of thanksgiving offerings, and kept rejoicing and celebrating. God accuses the people of Israel of doing this, clearly implying they should not rejoice like the other nations. For what reason? While others were completely ignorant of the one who was by nature and in truth God, and were instead conceived in error, and perhaps had a plausible excuse for their malady, namely, ignorance, Israel, however, being schooled in the Law and having acknowledged the Lord of all, was guilty of infidelity and apostasy. So they could rightly be understood to be guilty of a more serious charge and to bear the inexcusable accusation of impiety. The one who knew the master ’s will, remember, but ignored it and did not carry it out, (183) will be severely beaten, whereas the one who did not know 176 1. Cyril is unaware that the LXX is reading “know” for a similar Heb. form “feed.” it, and therefore did not do it, will suffer a less severe beating, as the Savior says.2 Accordingly, he says, Do not rejoice, as do the peoples: while they have been deceived from the womb, you by contrast were schooled in the Law, and yet you have been faithless to your God. What was the form of its infidelity? It was fond of payment, not from God but rather from the heifers and Baal, despite their giving nothing to those who asked. Where did it seek payment from them? On every threshing floor; apparently it sacrilegiously and foolishly requested fertility for the fields, as I said, from the futile idols. While Israel actually asked for payments from the idols, then, were their requests answered? Not at all: Threshing floor and wine vat did not know them, and the wine deceived them. None of the more studious readers would be in any doubt that in Samaria there were lengthy periods of famine, infertility, and drought; so its hopes were disappointed, since it did not receive what it requested . Further, they left the holy land and went into Egypt, a land bolstering itself with still more gods; in Egypt, in fact, there were countless idols, and an extraordinary belief by their adherents in their being efficacious to the point of being easily able to do anything with their magical powers. They were therefore forbidden to inhabit the land chosen by God, and exchanged it for the country of idols. Even if they did so, however, they will go to Assyria. They did not pour libations to the Lord: gathering the fruit of the vine in wine vats, they gave the initial vintage to the demons and not to God, its giver. They also offered bread by way of the firstfruits of the harvest; but this will be defilement and abomination , he says, and the offerings will be reckoned as bread of mourning , (184) that is, loathsome, profane, and odious. For what reason? The Law declared unclean a person who came close to a corpse, a closeness by way of blood relationship or even actual touching of the body.3 Family members were necessarily defiled, therefore, or friends of the deceased gathered about the corpse COMMENTARY ON HOSEA 9 177 2. Lk 12.47–48. 3. Nm 19.11; Lv 21.1–3. Theodore had failed to appreciate the reference to ritual uncleanness deriving from association...