1.
Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.
2.
The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.
3.
They shall not dwell in the LORD's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
4.
They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD.
5.
What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?
6.
For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles.
7.
The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.
ENTHUSIASTS!
‘The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad.’
Hosea 9:7
I. Enthusiasm is a term employed in a good sense, and is used to describe the feeling with which men often devote themselves to national interests and secular professions. The politician, the poet, the painter, the man of science and of literature, or, what is more to the purpose at present, the physician and the surgeon, who give themselves to the science and philosophy of their profession—who enlarge its boundaries and unravel its mysteries and promote its advancement—these men are spoken of with rapture for the extravagance and eccentricity of zeal which they consume on the promotion of their favourite pursuits; they are thus spoken of by the very men who, when a tithe of such zeal appears in the professors of a science, in comparison with which every other sinks into insignificance, are ever ready to express their pity in the language of contempt—the prophet is a fool, or the preacher is mad.
II. Now, conduct like this is just anything but wisdom.—To use a familiar comparison, it is like the feeling of a man who, on seeing the successful application of medicine in suddenly raising an individual from the bed of sickness, and bringing him forth into society in vigour and in health, should fix his admiration, not upon the skill of the physician who had restored the patient, but upon the skill of the operatives who selected the fashion of his coat, or the figure of his shoe. Any extravagance, in fact, on the subject of religion is more rational and more dignified than indifference; and any folly is tolerable and innocent but that which admires the enthusiasm often absurdly devoted to present interests and temporary claims, and condemns that which belongs to the eternal, the infinite, and the future.
8.
The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.
9.
They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.
10.
I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baal-peor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.
11.
As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.
12.
Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!
13.
Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.
14.
Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
15.
All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.
16.
Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.
17.
My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.