Rebellion, adultery, and drunkenness
7
📚“When I would have healed Israel,then the guilt of Ephraim was
uncovered,
and the wickedness of Samaria 📖;
for they practice deceit.
The thief comes in,
and the band of robbers
plunders outside.
7:1 God did not want to punish His people. He much preferred to heal and bless them (compare Matt 23:37. See note at Jer 48:30-39). But He could not justly do so. The great Judge of the universe must uphold justice and righteousness and punish those who break His laws.⚜
2 📚And they do not consider
in their hearts that I remember 📖
all their wickedness.
Now their own deeds
have surrounded them;
they are before my face 📖.
3 📚“They make the king glad
with their wickedness,
and please the princes
with their lies.
4 📚They are all adulterers,
like an oven heated by the baker,
who stops stirring up
the fire after kneading
the dough until it is leavened.
5 📚On the king’s special day
the princes become inflamed
with bottles of wine.
He stretches out his hand
with scoffers 📖.
6 📚For they prepare their heart
like an oven,
while they lie in wait.
Their baker sleeps all night;
in the morning it burns
like a blazing fire.
7 📚They are all as hot as an oven,
and they have devoured their judges 📖.
All their kings have fallen.
There is none among them
who calls out to me.
7:4-7 These verses describe the condition among the people that delighted their rulers – adultery, drunkenness and uncontrollable passions. Verse 13 gives the result. All this in the midst of a people God chose to be His holy people and a special treasure!⚜
8 📚“Ephraim has mixed 📖 himself
among the peoples.
Ephraim is a cake not turned 📖 over.
9 📚Foreigners have devoured
his strength,
and he does not know it. Yes,
gray hairs are here and there on him,
but he does not know it.
7:9 Alliances with foreign countries cost them dearly both economically and spiritually. And Israel was getting old and enfeebled and still remained in ignorance of it.⚜
10 📚And the pride 📖 of Israel testifies
against him.
And they do not return
to the LORD their God,
or seek 📖 him, in spite of all this.
11 📚“And Ephraim has become
like a silly 📖 dove without heart.
They call out to Egypt,
they go to Assyria.
12 📚When they go, I will spread
my net on them.
I will bring them down like
the birds of the sky.
I will punish them,
as their congregation has heard.
7:12 God knows how to deal with people who behave like that. Compare Hos 5:13-14.⚜
13 📚Woe 📖 to them! For they have
strayed from me.
Destruction to them!
Because they have transgressed
against me.
Though I redeemed them 📖,
they have spoken lies against me.
14 📚And they have not cried out
to me with their heart 📖,
when they wailed on their beds.
They gather together for grain and new wine,
but they rebel against me.
15 📚Though I trained and strengthened
their arms,
they plot evil against me.
7:15 Israel was His people. All they had came from Him. He had done them good, but see what He got in return. This is the way with the people of this world. They want God’s blessings and complain bitterly if they don’t get them, but they will do only evil in return for all His good.⚜
16 📚They return, but not
to the Most High.
They are like a deceitful bow 📖.
Their princes will fall by the sword
because of the insolence
of their tongue.
This is why they will be
mocked in the land of Egypt.