Hosea 7:9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knows it not: yes, gray hairs are here and there on him, yet he knows not. I. THE SAD AND MISERABLE CONDITION OF EPHRAIM CONSIDERED SIMPLY IN ITSELF. I. The good they are deprived of. "Their strength." God fits the punishment to the sin, in the old dispensation. What a sad and lament able thing it is for men to spend their youth and the strength and prime of their time in the ways of sin. It is — 1. Very disingenuous. 2. Very hazardous. 3. Very grievous and uncomfortable in the reflections upon it, when men shall call them selves to a serious reckoning and an account about it.Take the words in their notional signification, as setting forth the condition of Israel at this time. "Strangers." may mean strange gods, strange women, strange enemies. Strange gods include strange worship and strange doctrine. II. SYMPTOMS OF RUIN APPROACHING. 1. Unfruitfulness under powerful means and dispensations of grace. 2. Strange sins, which do abound and increase in it. 3. Plagues as forewarnings.The aggravation lay in Ephraim's senselessness under all this. This proceeded from the deceitfulness of sin and the blinding of Satan. All this teaches us two lessons- pity for others and caution for ourselves. (T. Herren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not. |
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