to have been uttered about 700 or 800 years before Christ. This prophet was a son of Beeri, and lived in Samaria; and if we construe the title of the prophecy literally (Hos. i. 1), we should infer that his prophecy embraced a period of at least eighty years. From Jeroboam's death to Hezekiah's accession to the throne are about sixty years; and Hosea's public ministry may have filled this period. He was contemporary with Isaiah, and may have been preceded by Joel, Jonah, and Amos. He is placed the first among the twelve minor prophets, probably because of the peculiarly national character which belongs to his oracles. The years of Hosea's life were dark and foreboding. The vials of the wrath of heaven were about to be poured out on his apostate people. The nation suffered under the evils of that schism which was effected by the craft of him who has been branded with the indelible stigma "Jeroboam who made Israel to sin." The obligations of law had been relaxed, and the claims of religion disregarded; Baal became the rival of Jehovah, and in the dark recesses of the groves were practised the impure and murderous rites of heathen deities; peace and prosperity had fled the land, which was harassed by foreign invasion and domestic broils; might and murder became the twin sentinels of the throne; alliances were formed with other nations, which brought with them seductions to paganism; captivity and insult were heaped upon Israel by the uncircumcised; the nation was thoroughly debased, and but a fraction of its population maintained its spiritual allegiance (2 Ki. xix. 18). The death of Jeroboam II. was followed by an interregnum of ten years. At the expiry of this period his son Zechariah assumed the sovereignty, and was slain by Shallum, after the short space of six months (2 Ki. xv. 10). In four weeks Shallum was assassinated by Menahem. The assassin, during a disturbed reign of ten years, became tributary to the Assyrian Pul. His successor, Pekahiah, wore the crown but two years, when he was murdered by Pekah. Pekah, after swaying his bloody sceptre for twenty years, met a similar fate in the conspiracy of Hoshea. Hoshea, the last of the usurpers,, after another interregnum of eight years, ascended the throne; and his administration of nine years ended in the overthrow of his kingdom and the expatriation of his people. "So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day" (2 Ki. xvii. 18, 23). The prophecies of Hosea were directed especially against the people whose sin had brought upon it such disasters-prolonged anarchy and final captivity. Israel, or Ephraim, is the people especially addressed. Their homicides and fornications, their perjury and theft, their idolatry and impiety, are censured and satirized with a faithful severity. Judah is sometimes, indeed, introduced, warned, and admonished. But the prophet's mind was intensely interested in the destinies of his own people. The nations around him are unheeded; his prophetic eye beholds the crisis approaching his country, and sees its cantons ravaged, its tribes murdered or enslaved. No wonder that his rebukes were so terrible, his menaces so alarming, that his soul poured forth its strength in an ecstasy of grief and affection. Invitations, replete with tenderness and pathos, are interspersed with his warnings and expostulations. Now we are startled with a vision of the throne, at first shrouded in darkness, and sending forth lightnings, thunders, and voices; but while we gaze it becomes encircled with a rainbow, which gradually expands till it is lost in that universal brilliancy which itself had originated (chs. xi., xiv). New The peculiar mode of instruction which the prophet details in the first and third chapters of his oracles has given rise to many disputed theories. We refer to the command expressed in ch. i. 2-"The Lord said unto Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms," &c.; ch. iii. 1– "Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress," &c. What was the precise nature of the transactions here recorded? Were they real events, the result of divine injunctions literally understood and as literally fulfilled? or were these intimations to the prophet only intended to be pictorial illustrations of the apostasy and spiritual folly and unfaithfulness of Israel? The former view-viz., that the prophet actually and literally entered into this impure connubial alliance-was advocated in ancient times by Cyril, Theodoret, Basil, and Augustine; and has likewise been maintained by Mercer, Grotius, Houbigant, Manger, Horsley, Stuck, and Pusey. Fanciful theories are also rife on this subject. Luther supposed the prophet to perform a kind of drama in view of the people, giving his lawful wife and children these mystical appellations. come thinks that a wife of fornication means merely an Israelite, a woman of apostate and adulterous Israel. Hengstenberg supposes the prophet to relate actions which happened, indeed, actually, but not outwardly. Some, with Maimonides (Morch Nevochim, part ii.), imagine it to be a nocturnal vision; while others make it wholly an allegory, as the Chaldee Paraphrast, Jerome, Drusius, Bauer, Rosenmüller, Kuinoel, and Lowth. The view of Hengstenberg, and such as have held his theory, is not materially different from the last to which we have referred. Both agree in condemning the first opinion, which Horsley so strenuously maintained. Hengstenberg, at great length, and with much force, has refuted this strange hypothesis (Christology). Besides other arguments resting on the impurity and loathsomeness of the supposed nuptial contract, it may be argued against the external reality of the event, that it must have required several years for its completion, and that the impressiveness of the symbol would therefore be weakened and obliterated. Other pro phetic transactions of a similar nature might be referred to. Jerome (Comment. in loc.) has referred to Ezek. iv. 4. But it is not to be supposed, as has sometimes been argued, that the prophet was commanded to commit fornication. The divine injunction was to marry -"Scortum, aliquis, ducere potest sine peccato, scortari non item," (Drusius, Com. in loc. in Critici Sacri, tom. v.) Whichever way this question may be solved; whether these occurrences be regarded as a real and external transaction, or as a piece of spiritual scenery, or only, as is most probable, an allegorical description, it is agreed on all hands that the actions are typical; that they are, as Jerome calls them, sacramenta futurorum. The peculiarities of Hosea's style have been often remarked. "His style," says De Wette, "is abrupt, unrounded, and ebullient; his rhythm hard, leaping, and violent. The language is peculiar and difficult" (Einleitung, $228). Lowth (Prælect. 21) speaks of him as the most difficult and perplexed of the prophets. Bishop Horsley has remarked his peculiar idioms-his change of person, anomalies of gender and number, and use of the nominative absolute, (Works, vol. iii.) Eichorn says (Einleitung, § 555)-"His discourse is like a garland woven of a multiplicity of flowers: images are woven upon images, comparison wound upon comparison, metaphor strung upon metaphor. He plucks one flower, and throws it down, that he may directly break off another. Like a bee he flies from one flower-bed to another, that he may suck his honey from the most varied blossoms. It is a natural consequence that his figures sometimes form strings of pearls. Often is he prone to approach to allegory-often he sinks down in obscurity" (comp. chs. v. 9; vi. 3; vii. 8; xiii. 3, 7, 8, 16). The allusions in Hosea to the Messiah are not frequent; and yet many of his prophecies rest on the idea of a coming deliverer. He took for granted the promise of a Redeemer, and delighted to portray its blessed results. Many of his words and phrases are taken from the Pentateuch, or are based on its language. Hosea is several times referred to in the New Testament. HOSEN (Dan. viii. 21)-an old English plural of hose. (See CLOTHES.) HOSHEA. 1. (Deut. xxxii. 44) The same with Joshua. 2. (2 Ki. xv. 30) The son of Elah, and the nineteenth and last king of Israel. In the ninth year of his reign the Assyrian king, provoked by an attempt which Hoshea made to form an alliance with Egypt, and so throw off the Assyrian yoke, marched against Samaria, and, after a siege of three years, took it, and carried the people away into Assyria. Such was the melancholy end of the ten tribes of Israel as a separate kingdom (2 Ki. xvii. 1-6; Hos. xiii. 16; Mic. i. 6). HOSPITALITY. (See STRANGER.) HOSTAGES. In 2 Ki. xiv. 14, and in 2 Chr. xxv. 24, the words so rendered fully explain themselves. The Hebrew significantly reads, children of pledges. HOUGH (Josh. xi. 6, 9)-to disable by cutting the sinews of the ham (hamstring). HOUR (Matt. xxv. 13)-a division of time known among us as the twenty-fourth part of a day. One of the earliest divisions of the day was into morning, heat of the day, mid-day, and evening; and the night, into first, second, and third watch. The first use of the word hour by the sacred writers occurs, Dan. iii. 6; but the length of the time denoted by it was not a fixed period. The third, sixth, and ninth hours of the day, counting from 6 A. M., were especially hours of prayer. The hours varied with the length of the day, as they were measured from sunrise to sunset. The Egyptians had twelve hours both of the day and of the night. HOUSE. (See DWELLINGS.) The word house is also used to denote a family (Gen. xii. 17; 1 Tim. v. 8), a race or lineage (Luke ii. 4), and property (1 Ki. xiii. 8). House, in the New Testament, as some suppose, signifies the immediate family of the householder; while household includes all who dwell under his roof. HOUSE OF THE ROLLS (Ezra. vi. 1), and HOUSE, TREASURE (Ezra v. 17), are both expressions supposed to relate to the same apartment, and denote the public depository of books. (See ACHMETHA, MEDIA, PERSIA.) HOUSE-TOP. (See DWELLINGS.) HULDAH. (See COLLEGE.) HUMILITY (Prov. xv. 33) is the opposite of pride, and one of the cardinal graces of the renewed heart. It consists in a man's not thinking of himself more highly than he ought to think; and is urged with great force upon all who profess to be Christ's disciples (1 Pet. v. 5). In this, as in all other respects, our divine Saviour's life furnishes us with a perfect example (Phil. ii. 5-8); and the sacred Scriptures abound with promises of grace and favour to the humble, and threatenings of sorrow and punishment to the proud. HUNGER (Matt. xii. 1). In Palestine still, as in the days of our Lord, the hungry traveller plucks the ears of corn. Robinson says "The wheat was now ripening, and we had a beautiful illustration of Scripture. Our Arabs were an hungered,' and, going into the fields, they plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them with their hands.' On being questioned, they said this was an old custom, and no one would speak against it; they were supposed to be hungry, and it was allowed as a charity. We saw this afterwards in repeated instances." HUR (Exod. xvii. 10) was, according to Josephus, the husband of Miriam, the son of Caleb, and one of the chief men of the Israelites. Also one of the kings of Midian (Num. xxxi. 8; Exod. xxiv. 14). HUSBAND (Matt. i. 16)-a married man, and, as some derive it, the house-band, or one who connects the family and keeps it together. A man betrothed, but not married, was called a husband, as the espousals were considered sacred and inviolable. HYMN (Matt. xxvi. 30). This Hymn was the great Hallel sung at the passover, consisting of Ps. cxiii.-cxviii. The hymn was a sacred composition, the primary purpose of which is the ascription of praise. (See PSALMS.) "The husband is the head of the wife" | identified the resurrection of the body with the (Eph. v. 23), inasmuch as he is the head of regeneration of the soul-were the abettors of the household (though she is associated with an early and spurious spiritualism. him), and, as such, he is entitled to the respect and affection of all. (See BETROTH, MARRIAGE.) HUSBANDMAN (John xv. 1)-one whose profession and labour is to cultivate the ground. It is among the most ancient and honourable occupations (Gen. ix. 20; Isa. xxviii. 24-28). All the Jews who were not consecrated to religious offices were agriculturists or shepherds. The force and appropriateness of the figurative uses of this term by the sacred writers are sufficiently obvious from their connection. HUSHAI (2 Sam. xv. 32)-an Archite (Josh. xvi. 2), and a particular and faithful friend of David (2 Sam. xvi. 16). HYPOCRISY (Luke xii. 1). The word is only the English form of a Greek term which originally denoted a stage-player-one who assumes a character not his own. This odious sin is condemned again and again in the New Testament. It may deceive men, but it cannot impose upon God. After all, it is easier to be than to seem. There is constant toil and terror in keeping up appearances when there is no reality. HYSSOP (Exod. xii. 22). The precise plant referred to under this appellation in Scripture has been disputed. The Hebrew word esob, from its similarity in sound to the word hyssop, has been generally supposed to denote this shrub. The hyssop has bushy stalks, growing a foot and a half high; small, spearshaped, close-sitting, opposite leaves, with several smaller ones rising from the same joint; and all the stalks and branches terminated by erect HUSKS (Luke xv. 16). The term refers to the fruit of the carob tree, which is common in Palestine, and is used for food by the poor, and for the fattening of cattle and swine. It has a dark hard pod or capsule, about 3 inches in length, with seeds (eight or ten) that rattle in the case gently when shaken, and with a noise resembling that of a rattlesnake. Each seed is about the size of an ordinary dry pea, not perfectly round, but flattened; hard, and of a dark reddish colour. The taste of the pod is poor, but not entirely disagreeable; being sweetish, somewhat nutritious even in its dry form, and probably much more palat-whorled spikes of able and proper for food in its earlier or green flowers, of differstate. The shape is slightly curved, so that ent colours in the the pod resembles a small horn, from which in varieties of the Greek its name seems to be derived. The whole plant. The leaves show of them on the tree, especially at some have an aromatic seasons of the year, would better suggest prob- smell and a warm ably the idea of horns, as if the tree were full pungent taste. It of them. Both the Greek KepάTiov and the Latin grows in great siliqua signify specially the fruit of this carob plenty on the tree-a tree very common yet, not only in the mountains Levant, but also in the southern parts of Jerusalem. The Europe, as Spain and Italy. The Syriac and hyssop was used Arabic words are of the same import. This for sprinkling the fruit still continues to be used for the same people with the purposes, the feeding of swine. It is also called St. John's Bread, from the opinion that the Baptist used it in the wilderness. HUZZAB (Nah. ii. 7)-supposed, as in the Targums, by some to be the queen of Nineveh when Nahum delivered his prophecy; others take it as a common word "that which was established," as in the margin. But it may be either a symbolic name of Nineveh, or it may refer to the Zab country, in which the Assyrian capital was situated. HYMENÆUS (2 Tim. ii. 17). This name is mentioned once with Alexander and once with Philetus. He was probably an early denier of the doctrine of a future corporeal resurrection, and was given up to Satan (1 Tim. i. 20; comp. 1 Cor. v. 5). This error is stated by the apostle thus-"Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some" (2 Tim. ii. 18). They seem to have near purifying water; and the spunge filled with vinegar held up to the Saviour on the cross (John xix. 29) was put upon hyssop. But was the stalk of the plant commonly called hyssop long enough for such purposes? Solomon, it is recorded, spake of "the hyssop that springeth out of the wall,"-language which would seem to imply that at least one kind of hyssop had not very tall stalks. Some identify it with the caper plant. Such is the view of Dr. Boyle; and the Arabic name of the caper plant-asub-seems only another form of the Hebrew esob. Bochart took it to be marjoram; and his view is in accordance with the traditionary opinions on the subject. Such opposite statements show us that we cannot yet say with certainty of what species of plant the hyssop was. Its use in the ceremonial law explains the clause, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" (Ps. li. 7). I AM (Exod. iii. 14). (See JEHOVAH.) ICE. (See CRYSTAL.) ICHABOD-where is the glory? (1 Sam. iv. 21, 22)—the son of Phinehas, and grandson of Eli the high priest. He was born just after his mother received the sad tidings that her husband and father-in-law were dead, and the ark of God taken by the Philistines. Such was the effect of these tidings upon her, that she died immediately upon the birth of her child, giving him the significant name Ichabod. ICONIUM (Acts xiii. 51)—the capital of ancient Lycaonia, in Asia Minor, at the foot of mount Taurus, now called Konich, on the great road between Ephesus and the western coast. It was visited by Paul and Barnabas, who preached the Gospel there, and were so persecuted in consequence of it as to be obliged to leave the place (Acts xiv. 1-6). Iconium is mentioned by several ancient historians. I universal nature; the soul of the world; life and period of the world. The pagans worshipped reproduction under male and female forms; either separate and alone or in union with angels, demons, and the souls of departed men, some star or other body. They worshipped the heavens, and in them both particular and in it the meteors and fowls of the air; the luminaries and constellations; the atmosphere, earth, and in it beasts, birds, insects, plants, groves, and hills, together with divers fossils, and fire. They worshipped the water, and in it the sea and rivers; and in them fishes, serpents, and insects, together with such creatures as live in either element. They worshipped men, both living and dead; and in them the faculties the several accidents and conditions of life. and endowments of the soul, as well as Nay, they worshipped the images of animals, even the most hateful; such as serpents, dragons, crocodiles, &c.; and at last descended so low as to pay a religious regard to things inanimate, herbs and plants, and the most offensive vegetables. commandment which touches this point should No wonder that the not be represented in the form of graven so particularly specify the objects which should images (Exod. xx. 4). IDDO his hand (2 Chr. ix. 29). In this passage are mentioned the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam, &c.; and in 2 Chr. xii. 15 is mentioned the book of Iddo the seer Objects of physical glory, which the eye of concerning genealogies and again, it is said, divinity, seem to have been the first sharers sense might look on as representatives of 2 Chr. xiii. 22, that the rest of the acts of in man's homage. They were worshipped Abijah, and his ways and his sayings, are originally as emblems of God; but soon, and written in the story of the prophet Iddo. by a natural process of declension, they came These expressions may all refer to one and the to be regarded as actual gods. The Hebrew same volume. Iddo was probably a prophet idolaters said to the golden calf, "These be thy and annalist of some distinction, and is sup-gods-that brought thee out of Egypt;" and posed by many, on the authority of Josephus, to have been the person who was slain by a lion, as recorded Ì Ki. xiii. of the same name are mentioned as the Several others father, or rather grandfather, of Zechariah, the leader of the second party of captives from Babylon. IDLE (Matt. xii. 36). In this connection it means pernicious, calumnious, but especially false words-words spoken not in sinceritywords spoken against conviction. the sin against the Holy Ghost. (See BLASSuch was PHEMY.) 16). IDOL (1 Ki. xv. 13), IDOLATRY (Acts xvii. Whatever receives the worship which is due only to God is an idol. In a figurative sense the word denotes anything which draws the affections from God (Col. iii. 5); and in a restricted sense it denotes the visible image or figure to which religious worship is paid (Deut. xxix. 17). Idolatry consists-1. In worshipping, as the true God, some other person or thing besides Jehovah; and, 2. Worshipping the true God under some image, as the golden calf (Exod. xxxii. 4, 5). When the worship of idols commenced is uncertain. It was prevalent at a very early they named their superstitious revelry a feast to Jehovah. Many motives seem to have reof objects of idolatrous worship. (See AARON.) commended the old world to their selections the only quality that determined the object of Usefulness was the common, but it was not with its transcendent beauty, whatever afidolatry; for we find that whatever delighted frighted with its malignant power, whatever astonished with its uncommon greatnessmajestic-became a deity, as well as what whatever, in short, was beautiful, hurtful, or perceived, had all these powers and properties was profitable for its use. united in it: its beauty was glorious to behold; The sun, it was soon its motion wonderful to consider; its heat occasioned different effects, barrenness in some places and fruitfulness in others; and the immense globe of its light appeared highly exalted and riding in triumph as it were round the absence of the sun by night; gave a friendly the world. The moon, it was seen, supplied light to the earth; and, besides the great variety of its phases, had a wonderful influence over the sea and other humid bodies. The stars the order of their positions, and celerity of were admired for their height and magnitude, their motions; and the people were persuaded, 335 Salt thus groups the Egyptian "The wildest images, unheard of, strange. either that some celestial vigour or other guage. The pride and pomp of the great, and the abject spirits of the mean, occasioned first the flattery, and then the worship of kings and princes as gods upon earth. Men famous for their adventures and exploits, the founders of nations or cities, or the inventors of useful arts and sciences, were reverenced while they lived, and after death canonized. The pre vailing notion of the soul's immortality made Wooden Gods of Egypt. Pliny says that in Egypt they worshipped onions and garlic; and the poet Juvenal has not spared such follies in his satires. Egyptian Gods. Whether the idolatry of imageworship originated in Chaldea or in Egypt we have no data from history to determine; but wherever it had its origin, the apostle Paul has sufficiently accounted for the grounds and reasons of it, when he says of men, "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-punishments with which the Jewish law met footed beasts, and creeping things" (Rom. i. 21, 22, 23). The bestial worship of Egypt is an awful comment on the truth of the apostle's lan Such is the strong tendency of depraved nature to fall into this sin, that the Israelites, the chosen people of God, were subjected to a twofold restraint. God was their king, and hence idolatry with them was not only impiety, but treason. The positive precepts and severe every approach to idolatry, and the rigorous prohibition of all intercourse with the idolatrous nations which surrounded them, show plainly how abominable the sin of idolatry is |