Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He threatens Israel with destruction, because they have sacrificed men to calves, so that they may be scattered and vanish like a cloud, dew, chaff, and smoke: because God will attack them like a lioness, a leopard, and a she-bear robbed of her cubs. Therefore your destruction is from yourself, O Israel; but in Me is your help. Second, at verse 14, he takes flight to Christ and teaches that Christ, dying, will free them and all believers from death, and will lead them out of hell: for He will be like a scorching wind, who through the fire of conflagration, destroying the impious world on the day of judgment, will divide and repay to each their lot according to their merits.
Vulgate Text: Hosea 13:1-2
1. When Ephraim spoke, horror seized Israel; and he offended in Baal, and died. 2. And now they have continued to sin: and they have made for themselves a molten thing from their silver, a kind of likeness
Verse 1: When Ephraim spoke (he calls Jeroboam "Ephraim," who was born from the tribe of ...
1. When Ephraim spoke (he calls Jeroboam "Ephraim," who was born from the tribe of Ephraim, and was the first from that tribe to be made king of Israel, meaning: When Jeroboam the Ephraimite began to speak and to incite the people to idols, namely to worship the golden calves), horror (or, as Symmachus and Theodotion render it, trembling) seized Israel (so that they did not dare resist the idolatrous king, but struck by fear of him as by trembling, they worshipped Baal, that is, the idols — namely the golden calves proposed by him. And so) he died — both he himself and his king, that is, he was consigned to captivity and temporal death, and much more he incurred spiritual death of the soul, losing Him who says: "I am the life," John 14:6, according to that passage in Ezekiel 18:20: "The soul that sins, it shall die." So St. Jerome, Rupert, Hugh, Lyranus, Emmanuel, and Mariana. Literally, Baasha killed Nadab the son of Jeroboam, overthrew his line, and transferred the kingdom to himself, 3 Kings 15:29. Arias interprets it differently: for he takes "horror" as the aversion from Rehoboam which Jeroboam impressed upon the people, setting before them his tyranny and the enormity of his taxes; and so Jeroboam was made king by the people, who had turned away from Rehoboam.
Verse 2: And now they have added to their sinning (meaning: moreover they heap sins upon ...
2. And now they have added to their sinning (meaning: moreover they heap sins upon sins, idols upon idols: for) they have made for themselves a molten image (they have cast an idol) from their silver (or gold, or other metal) like a likeness of idols. — In Hebrew, according to the understanding or conception they had of idols — that is, as it came into each one's mind, as each one conceived in his imagination, as it seemed good or pleased each one to fashion or form this or that idol of such and such an appearance, form, and figure. This is what our Translator clearly renders as "a likeness of idols." For this conception or idea in their mind was nothing other than an idea and likeness of idols. Whence he adds:
The work of artisans is all that it is — meaning: The idol has nothing of divinity or the divine, but it is entirely conceived by the idea of the artisan, and fabricated by his hand. Therefore when you worship an idol, you worship the idea and imagination of a craftsman: for it is his work and image, and it came from no other source than from his workshop. For just as an artisan first conceives in his mind the idea of a house that he plans to build, and then according to it constructs and builds the house; so too the idol-maker, or artisan of the idol, first forms for himself the idea of the idol in his mind — for instance, that it should have such a measurement, such a face, such eyes, such a posture, etc. — and then according to it casts and fashions it from silver or gold. The Hebrew word תבונה tebuna therefore properly signifies understanding, not idea, from the root בן ban, that is, "he understood"; but in practice, the understanding of an architect, artisan, or craftsman is nothing other than the pattern and idea of the thing to be built and fashioned, which the Hebrews properly call תבניה tabnit, from the root בנה bana, that is, "he built."
Verse 3: Therefore they shall be like a morning cloud
3. Therefore they shall be like a morning cloud. — For the guilt he threatens the punishment of destruction, and that swift, fierce, and complete, which he therefore explains and amplifies with four parables. The first is: "They shall be (namely the Israelites who worshipped the calves) like a morning cloud," which, quickly dissolved or dispersed by the rising sun, perishes.
The second: like "the morning dew that passes away," which the morning sun immediately absorbs, dries up, and removes.
The third: "like dust swept by a whirlwind from the threshing floor." By dust understand not sand or earth, but the chaff of threshed grain, namely the husks and refuse of straw (for this is what the Hebrew מוץ mots signifies), which the whirlwind snatches from the threshing floor and blows here and there. For in the same way the Israelites, once Samaria was destroyed, were snatched from it as from their threshing floor by the Assyrians into captivity, and from there were scattered in every direction.
The fourth: "like smoke from a chimney" — that is, from a smoke-hole or furnace — it exits and is driven away, and immediately vanishes into thin air. So from Samaria the Israelites will be driven out into Assyria. For "chimney" the Hebrew has ארבה arubba, which Aquila renders as "cataract"; Symmachus as "opening"; Theodotion as καπνοδόχην, that is, "smoke-hole." He properly calls "cataract" an opening fabricated in a wall through which smoke exits, says St. Jerome. But the Septuagint, reading with different vowel points ארבה arbe, translate it as "locust"; explaining which St. Jerome says: Let Ephraim hear that he is compared to arbe, that is, to vapor, or to a breeze and breath, which exits so thinly from the mouth of a locust that it is not perceived.
Verse 4: But I am the Lord your God (I have been continuously) from the land of Egypt (me...
4. But I am the Lord your God (I have been continuously) from the land of Egypt (meaning: From that ancient time when I brought you out of Egypt through so many wonders, I bore continual care for you, I protected, nourished, and prospered you as God, indeed as your father.
Verse 5: I knew (practically, that is, I loved, benefited, ruled, and directed) you in th...
5. I knew (practically, that is, I loved, benefited, ruled, and directed) you in the desert. — So St. Jerome. Whence the Septuagint translates: I fed you in the wilderness, namely giving manna from heaven daily. Truly the Psalmist says, Psalm 22:1: "The Lord rules me (in Hebrew, feeds me, or is my shepherd), and I shall want for nothing: in a place of pasture there He has placed me."
Verse 6: According to their pastures they were filled
6. According to their pastures they were filled — meaning: When I so lavishly and miraculously fed them with manna, quails, and water from the rock in the most arid desert, as if I had placed them in the richest pastures, they, being satiated, kicked back against Me. So the Chaldean; and thus they fulfilled that prophecy of Moses about themselves: "The beloved grew fat and kicked back: he grew fat, became thick, was enlarged, and forsook God his maker," Deuteronomy 32:15. So St. Jerome, the Chaldean, Hugh, Lyranus, and others.
Verse 7: And (that is, therefore, meaning: Because they were ungrateful and rebellious to...
7. And (that is, therefore, meaning: Because they were ungrateful and rebellious toward Me who fed them so abundantly, therefore) I will be to them like a lioness. — He compares God the avenger, fierce and terrible, and consequently the Assyrians, whom God used for this vengeance, first to a lioness, which is fiercer than a lion, especially when nursing her cubs; secondly to leopards "on the road to Assyria," which are accustomed to prowl in the desert through which one travels from Judea and Samaria to Assyria. He indicates the captivity carried out by the Assyrians: for the Assyrians like leopards, through this desert, by harassing, burdening, and beating the Israelites as slaves, led them into Assyria. In Hebrew it is אשור Assur, that is, Assyrian: but the Chaldean, Rabbis, Clarius, Arias, Pagninus, and Vatablus instead of Assur read אשור asur, that is, "I will look, I will gird myself for prey, I will lie in ambush," from the root שור sur, that is, "he looked, he lay in ambush." Whence they translate: Like a leopard I will watch by the road, and I will lie in ambush for them, to plunder and tear them apart.
Verse 8: Thirdly: 8. I will meet them like a she-bear robbed of her cubs
Thirdly: 8. I will meet them like a she-bear robbed of her cubs — raging against the one who seized them, and consequently against anyone she encounters. The ferocity of a she-bear robbed of her cubs is extraordinary, because her love for them is extraordinary. For the she-bear gives birth to formless cubs, and then by licking them gradually forms and perfects them, which other animals do not do. Whence Blessed Isidore of Pelusium, a disciple of St. Chrysostom, book 3, epistle 267, reads: "I will meet them like an anxious she-bear," and says that by this simile the avenging power of God is signified.
Tropologically, if so great is the love of a she-bear for her formless offspring, and so great her fury against the one who snatches them from her, how great is the love of God for His faithful and His children, and how great His fury against those who by bad example, or by wicked counsel, enticements, etc., turn them away from God, and lure them into lust and other crimes? Surely against such people God will rage more fiercely than a she-bear against the one who seizes her cubs. On the devotion of the she-bear to her cubs, see Pliny, book 8, chapter 36, and Aelian, book 2, chapter 19.
Burn the loins and the diseased liver With a fitting fire.
Meaning: Burn away the desire which chiefly resides in the loins and liver.
When burning love and desire Shall rage around your ulcerous liver.
And book 4, ode 1, to Venus:
If you seek a liver fit to roast.
And book 1, epistle 18:
Let not a slave-girl ulcerate your liver.
Further, God will tear apart the liver, that is, the life, happiness, and glory of the Israelites; for the liver is a symbol of these, as I said in Lamentations 2:8.
Verse 9: Your destruction is yours, O Israel; only in Me is your help
9. Your destruction is yours, O Israel; only in Me is your help. — "Yours," that is, it comes upon you from yourself, and from your sins and demerits, meaning: You, O Israel, are the cause of your own destruction, that is, of your captivity and ruin — not I. For in Me there is no destruction, but rather your help: for there is no one who can and will help you except Me. You go about destroying yourself; I desire and endeavor nothing except to help you and save you. Hence Leo Hebraeus, Pagninus, and Vatablus, reading שחת scichet instead of שחת scachet (that is, "to destroy, destruction"), meaning "he destroyed, he cut off, he blotted out," translate: Your calf which you worshipped, having forsaken Me, destroyed you — but in Me is your help. "Destruction" therefore here does not signify sin and guilt, but the punishment and ruin of sin: for this is what the Hebrew scachet signifies. So the Septuagint, St. Jerome, Lyranus, Vatablus, a Castro, Mariana, and others. The meaning therefore is: You, O Israel, have always by your rebellion, idols, and crimes brought upon yourself disasters, ruins, and a thousand calamities. I on the contrary, as far as it is in Me, have cared and do care for your salvation by sending Prophets who would exhort you to the repentance by which you might escape the impending disasters. Therefore impute your ruin to yourself, not to Me; for even though I am finally going to confront you through the Assyrians like a lion, leopard, and raging she-bear, yet you compel Me to this by your obstinacy and impenitence, which is so great that it wrests the whip with which you are chastised from Me who wishes to have mercy on you and spare you, as if against My will. Hence the Chaldean translates: When you corrupt your works, O house of Israel, peoples dominate over you; but as often as you have turned to My law, My word was your protection. The Syriac: I have destroyed (ruined) you, Israel; who will help you? The Arabic Alexandrian: In your destruction, O Israel, who is it that helps you? The Arabic Antiochene: They will destroy you (enemies, e.g., the Assyrians); who is it that will help you?
Thirdly, the Septuagint translates: To your corruption, Israel, who will bring help? — that is, to your captivity and final servitude, which of those whom you considered your leaders will be able to bring aid? says St. Jerome. Whence it follows: "Where is your king?"
This statement therefore — "Your destruction is from you, O Israel; only in Me is your help" — is general and universal, which you may explain through parts and parallels as follows:
Your captivity, O Israel, is from you: your redemption is from Me. Your ruin is from you: your salvation is from Me. Your death is from you: your life is from Me. Your evil is from you: your good is from Me. Your reprobation is from you: your predestination is from Me, who always stand at the door of your heart and mercifully knock. Your abandonment is from you: your calling is from Me. Your misery is from you: your happiness is from Me. Your damnation is from you: your salvation and beatification are from Me.
Therefore, that some Doctors explain it thus: "Destruction," that is, your sin and guilt, by which you destroy yourself, O reprobate man, is from you and your evil will; but the destruction — that is, the reprobation and permission of sin, from which sin and damnation infallibly follow — is from God who reprobates: this interpretation, I say, is impertinent to this passage —
With a similar figure, the Poet sang of the destruction of Troy:
Not the hateful face of the Spartan daughter of Tyndareus, Nor blamed Paris — but the mercilessness of the Gods Overthrew these fortunes.
Verse 10: Where is your king? Let him especially now save you
10. Where is your king? Let him especially now save you — meaning: The kings whom you sought and created for yourself cannot snatch you from the impending destruction by the Assyrians and save you; but only I, whom you neglect and despise. This is proof of what he said in the preceding verse: "Only in Me is your help," meaning: Your kings and princes cannot help you in this disaster; learn therefore from experience itself that I alone can come to your aid.
Verse 11: I will give you a king in My fury
11. I will give you a king in My fury. — "I will give," that is, I gave you Saul, angered that you were asking for a king other than Me; likewise Jeroboam and the other kings of Israel, whom I therefore soon took away because they lived impiously. In a similar manner I will soon take away the last king Hosea, equally impious, and in him and with him I will overthrow your kingdom. Truly St. Augustine in his Sentences, sentence 252: "When something evil is requested of God, He shows His anger by granting it, His mercy by not granting it."
Whence St. Jerome and Lyranus explain it thus: I gave you Saul as first king in fury, and I will take away the last king Zedekiah equally in fury. Or rather: I gave Jeroboam as your first king, O Israel, in fury (for the subject here is him, not Zedekiah and Judah), and I will take away your last king Hosea in fury.
He proves what he said — that Israel should not expect protection from the Assyrians and salvation from their kings — because, he says, I gave these kings to Israel not out of love but out of anger, and therefore I will likewise take them away along with their kingdom and people in anger. Wherefore they are not so much a scepter as a scourge of God, because they are a rod with which God does not govern His flock but chastises His enemies. Livy truly said in book 9: "Power badly obtained, badly administered, and badly retained is overthrown." This is what Job 34:30 says: "Who makes a hypocrite to reign because of the sins of the people." Explaining these words, St. Gregory, book 25 of the Moralia, chapter 14, teaches that subjects should not complain about the vices of kings and princes, but about their own, because on account of these God gives them wicked rulers. "Therefore, he says, let one accuse rather the guilt of one's own conduct than the injustice of the ruler. For it is written: I will give kings in My fury. Why then do we despise those who are set over us, whose government over us we receive from the Lord's fury?" Whence he concludes: "Thus according to the merits of subjects, the persons of rulers are assigned. Thus according to the qualities of subjects, the acts of rulers are arranged, so that often on account of a bad flock, even a truly good pastor's life goes astray."
This city, he says, is pregnant; but I fear it may give birth To a man who will correct your wicked insolence.
Anastasius of Nicaea, Question 15 on Scripture, reports two illustrious examples. First, when Phocas, he says, as Emperor was raging tyrannically against the innocent, a certain monk often remonstrated with God: "Why, Lord, did You make him Emperor?" To whom the answer came from heaven: "Because I could not find a worse one." Second, a certain monk, a hypocrite but wicked, was made [bishop] by the angel's prompting.
Verse 12: The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up (meaning: The crime of Israel is stored and ...
12. The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up (meaning: The crime of Israel is stored and hidden in the treasury of My memory, just as money is bound up and hidden in a chest and money-bags — bound up, I say, lest it be lost, and therefore in My mind) his sin is hidden — because it is reserved there for the time of vengeance, which will shortly arrive, so that it may be punished. So the Chaldean, St. Jerome, Theodoret, Vatablus, and others. He alludes to Deuteronomy 32:34: "Are not these things stored up with Me, and sealed in My treasuries?"
Verse 13: The pangs of a woman in labor shall come upon him, etc.
13. The pangs of a woman in labor shall come upon him, etc.; for now he shall not stand in the breaking forth of children — meaning: Israel will suffer like a woman in labor when it sees its children killed and crushed by the Assyrians. For "in the breaking forth of children," Pagninus and Vatablus translate: "in the breaking of the offspring," that is, in the very act of childbirth and the anguish of labor. By "breaking" he means the anguish of the maternal womb, from its effect — that the fetus is crushed there — meaning: I will exact the gravest punishments upon Israel, and yet he will not come to his senses; for he is like a foolish fetus that does not attempt to immediately exit the anguish of the maternal womb and come forth into the light, but lingers there a long time in the crushing. So foolish are sinners who, though often in the most extreme anguish, remain stuck in it and are crushed and ground down by it, and do not turn to repentance and to God — which if they did, they would soon free themselves; for they would be freed by God. Rupert and Arias give a different interpretation, meaning: Ephraim does not acknowledge his guilt and crime, "and says: All my labors will not find iniquity in me." He therefore acts like a foolish girl who, having fornicated, conceals the crime; but when the anguish of childbirth comes upon her, the crime is revealed with the greatest shame and pain — for he will not stand in the breaking forth of children, that is, he will suffer such torments and pains in giving birth that he cannot endure or dissemble them, but will betray by face and voice that he is giving birth — indeed, he will cry out. In the same way it will happen to Israel in its destruction: for so great will be its disaster and grief that all will recognize that its crime was enormous, on account of which it is so severely punished — though it now denies and conceals it. So Rupert, Arias, and Sanchez, whom see.
Verse 14: I will deliver them from the hand of death
14. I will deliver them from the hand of death. — The Chaldean translates in the past tense, "I delivered them," meaning: Hitherto I have often delivered the repentant Israelites who invoked Me from enemies, death, and destruction; but now that they are impenitent and rebellious against Me, I will hand them over to enemies and death — indeed, I Myself will be death to them, as follows. But the Hebrew, the Septuagint, and others generally read in the future tense: I will deliver and redeem. Secondly, Leo Hebraeus and Clarius supply the conditional particle "if,"
But neither the Hebrew, nor the Septuagint, nor the Chaldean, nor others have the particle "if" — rather they read absolutely: I will deliver and I will redeem. This therefore is the true and genuine reading.
Better, Theodoret and a Castro think that what is discussed here is the liberation from the Babylonian captivity: for although that was primarily of the Jews, it was secondarily of the Israelites as well — for many of them, mingling with the Jews, returned with them from captivity to Judea. For in captivity they were as if in death and in hell, and they were going to die there and descend into hell unless God had freed them from there. Typically, however, the subject here is the liberation and redemption by Christ, who by dying and rising freed the Fathers from limbo and from death, and restored them to life. With a similar figure, Ezekiel in chapter 37:1, through the vivification of dry bones, represents the liberation of the Jews from captivity, and typically the resurrection of the dead.
I admit, however, that there is an allusion here to the liberation from the Babylonian captivity, according to the interpretation from Theodoret cited a little earlier — yet in such a way that the Prophet does not stop there, but only touches upon it in passing, like a shadow, and flies past it, fixing the aim and target of his mind on Christ, whom alone he intends to signify literally. In a similar way Isaiah soars from Cyrus to Christ, saying in chapter 45:8: "Drop down dew, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One." See Canons 4 and 5 which I prefixed to the Major Prophets.
Secondly, just as the ichneumon kills the crocodile, so Christ kills death and hell. Hear Blessed Peter Damian, book 2, epistle 18 to the Cardinals: "The ichneumon, he says, is an animal dwelling in the depths of rivers, the deadly enemy of crocodiles. When it sees a crocodile sleeping with its mouth open on the bank of a river, it rolls itself in the mud of the slime, so that with its slippery body it may more easily slide into the crocodile's jaws. Then it swiftly leaps into the mouth of the sleeping crocodile, which, suddenly awakened, swallows it. But the ichneumon tears apart all its entrails, until the crocodile is completely dead, and it bursts forth alive and victorious from its carcass. What does this crocodile represent if not the figure of death and hell? What does the ichneumon suggest if not the victory of the Savior? The ichneumon is therefore covered in mud, just as our Redeemer was clothed in the clay of human flesh. It enters the belly of the crocodile, just as the Lord penetrated the prison of hell. It demolishes the innermost parts of the bowels, and the Lord overthrew the empire of death. The ichneumon, having gnawed through and penetrated the carcass, returns after the victory, because our Savior, after He bit into hell by dying, rose from the tomb with triumphal glory. Whence He, the victor, taunts death through the Prophet: Where, He says, O death, is your victory? Where is your sting? And again: O death, I will be your death; I will be your sting, O hell."
Note secondly: For "your death" the Hebrew has דברך debarecha. If you derive it from דבר deber, it means "your plagues," as if to say: O death, I will be the fullest plague and death of you; and, as Symmachus translates: I will be your blow. But if you derive it from דבר dabar, that is, "word," it means: Where are your words or speeches? — as Aquila and the Old Edition translate. The Septuagint translates δίκη, that is, "cause"; for which Paul here has νίκος, that is, "victory." Whence some think Paul read νίκος or νίκη instead of δίκη in the Septuagint. But all the ancient copies of the Septuagint translators, according to Jerome, have δίκη, that is, "cause." Better, therefore, we shall say that the Apostle changed the words but not the meaning, when he put "victory" for "cause." For the Greek δίκη has four meanings: First, a forensic cause, and, as Jerome translates in Hosea chapter 13, a contention, meaning: Where, O death, is your contentious cause, by which in God's judgment you convicted and defeated men as guilty of death on account of sin? Secondly, δίκη means a sentence, meaning: Where, O death, is your sentence? — namely, all were adjudged to you, that is, to death. Thirdly, it means a right, meaning: Where is the right you formerly had over all? Fourthly, it means a punishment, meaning: Where is that most harsh punishment with which you punished and destroyed men? And this fourth meaning alludes to the Hebrew deber, that is, plague; the first three allude to dabar, that is, word. From all of which it is clear that in substance "cause" is the same as "victory."
Our Translator aptly renders it as "sting." Note here: this "sting" can be taken both passively and actively, meaning: I, Christ, will be bitten by you, O death, and O hell; but in such a way that, bitten by you, I will in turn bite you, so that, as it were swallowed by you, I will burst open your entrails, and thus lead the faithful elect out of your belly.
Further, for "consolation" the Hebrew has נחם nocham, which has three meanings: consolation, compassion, and repentance. Our Translator and the Septuagint translate "consolation"; but more recent interpreters, such as Rabbi David, and following him Leo Hebraeus, Pagninus, and Arias, translate it as "regret," meaning: It will be hidden, that is, regret will not come before My sight — that is, I will not change My sentence about the destruction of Israel, moved by repentance, as I have often done hitherto — but without any compassion I will certainly and resolutely destroy them. But how does this cohere with the supreme consolation that preceded: "I will be your death, O death; I will be your sting, O hell"? Again, these words pertain to Christ, not to Israel, as I demonstrated a little earlier.
Verse 15: For he shall divide among brothers
15. For he shall divide among brothers. — "He," namely "hell" — not of the Assyrian captivity, as Theodoret and Arias would have it, meaning: Because Ephraim made a schism and divided himself from his brothers, namely from the two tribes, therefore God will bring a scorching wind, namely Shalmaneser, who will divide and scatter him in captivity — but hell properly so called. For hell divides living brothers from the dead whom it swallows; it also divides the dead themselves, when one is placed in one part, another in another part of hell according to the diversity of their works. So Jerome and Haymo. Lyranus gives a different interpretation: "He," he says, namely Christ, will in the judgment divide the just from the unjust — that is, the elect from the reprobate.
But I say the "scorching wind" is Christ, meaning: Because hell divided brothers from brothers, therefore God the Father brought Christ like a scorching south wind into the world, when He raised Him from the uncultivated desert of this world, and equally from the unplowed womb of the Blessed Virgin, as from a desert — to dry up and abolish the veins of death, namely the sins by which we tend toward death and hell as toward the common and abundant fountain of evils, and to desolate the fountain itself — namely death and hell — and to plunder the souls of the Holy Fathers and Saints, which death and hell held in their treasuries as the most precious and desirable possessions, and kept under close guard. So St. Cyril, Jerome, Rupert, Haymo, and others.