Yet Jehovah has done still more for Israel. Hosea 7:15. "And I have instructed, have strengthened their arms, and they think evil against me. Hosea 7:16. They turn, but not upwards: they have become like a false bow. Their princes will fall by the sword, for the defiance of their tongue: this is their derision in the land of Egypt." יסּר here is not to chastise, but to instruct, so that זרועתם (their arms) is to be taken as the object to both verbs. Instructing the arms, according to the analogy of Psalm 18:35, is equivalent to showing where and how strength is to be acquired. And the Lord has not contented Himself with merely instructing. He has also strengthened their arms, and given them power to fight, and victory over their foes (cf. 2 Kings 14:25-26). And yet they think evil of Him; not by speaking lies (Hosea 7:13), but by falling away from Him, by their idolatrous calf-worship, by which they rob the Lord of the glory due to Him alone, practically denying His true divinity. This attitude towards the Lord is summed up in two allegorical sentences in Hosea 7:16, and the ruin of their princes is foretold. They turn, or turn round, but not upwards (על, an adverb, or a substantive signifying height, as in Hosea 11:7; 2 Samuel 23:1, not "the Most High," i.e., God, although turning upwards is actually turning to God). From the fact that with all their turning about they do not turn upwards, they have become like a treacherous bow, the string of which has lost its elasticity, so that the arrows do not hit the mark (cf. Psalm 78:57). And thus Israel also fails to reach its destination. Therefore its princes shall fall. The princes are mentioned as the originators of the enmity against God, and all the misery into which they have plunged the people and kingdom. זעם, fury, here defiance or rage. Defiance of tongue the princes showed in the lies which they uttered concerning Jehovah (Hosea 7:13), and with which they blasphemed in a daring manner the omnipotence and faithfulness of the Lord. זו stands, according to a dialectical difference in the mode of pronunciation, for זה, not for זאת (Ewald, 183, a). This, namely their falling by the sword, will be for a derision to them in the land of Egypt: not because they will fall in Egypt, or perish by the sword of the Egyptians; but because they put their trust in Egypt, the derision of Egypt will come upon them when they are overthrown (cf. Isaiah 30:3, Isaiah 30:5).

Joel 2:31 Parallel Commentaries

sun.

Joel 2:10 The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark...

Joel 3:1,15 For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem...

Isaiah 13:9,10 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate...

Isaiah 34:4,5 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down...

Matthew 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light...

Matthew 27:45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land to the ninth hour.

Mark 13:24,25 But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light...

Luke 21:25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity...

Revelation 6:12,13 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, see, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair...

the great.

Zephaniah 1:14-16 The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hastens greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD...

Malachi 4:1,5 For, behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yes, and all that do wickedly...