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Selected Verse: Hosea 12:7 - Strong Concordance
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ho 12:7 |
Strong Concordance |
He is a merchant [03667], the balances [03976] of deceit [04820] are in his hand [03027]: he loveth [0157] to oppress [06231]. |
| |
King James |
He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
merchant--a play on the double sense of the Hebrew, "Canaan," that is, a Canaanite and a "merchant" Eze 16:3 : "Thy birth is . . . of Canaan." They who naturally were descendants of pious Jacob had become virtually Canaanites, who were proverbial as cheating merchants (compare Isa 23:11, Margin), the greatest reproach to Israel, who despised Canaan. The Phœnicians called themselves Canaanites or merchants (Isa 23:8).
oppress--open violence: as the "balances of deceit" imply fraud. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
| He is a merchant - Or, indignantly, "a merchant in whose hands are the balances of deceit!" How could they love "mercy and justice," whose trade was "deceit," who weighed out deceit with their goods? False in their dealings, in their weights and measures, and, by taking advantage of the necessities of others, oppressive also. Deceit is the sin of weakness oppression is the abuse of power. Wealth does not give the power to use naked violence but wealthy covetousness manifoldly grinds the poor. When for instance, wages are paid in necessaries priced exorbitantly, or when artisans are required to buy at a loss at their masters' shops, what is it but the union of deceit and oppression? The trading world is full of oppression, scarcely veiled by deceit. "He loveth to oppress." Deceit and oppression have, each, a devilish attractiveness to those practiced in them; deceit, as exercising cleverness, cunning, skill in overreaching, outwitting; oppression, as indulging self will, caprice, love of power, insolence, and the like vices. The word "merchant," as the prophet spoke it, was "Canaan;" merchants being so called, because the Canaanites or Phoenicians were the then great merchant-people, as astrologers were called Chaldeans. The Phoenicians were, in Homer's time, infamous for their griping in traffic. They are called "gnawers" and "money-lovers" . To call Israel, "Canaan," was to deny to him any title to the name of Israel, "reversing the blessing of Jacob, so that, as it had been said of Jacob, "thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel," he would in fact say, 'Thy name shall be called no more Israel, but Canaan'; as being, through their deeds, heirs, not to the blessings of Israel but to the curse of Canaan." So Ezekiel saith, "Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite" Eze 16:3. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
| "Canaan, in his hand is the scale of cheating: he loves to oppress. Hos 12:8. And Ephraim says, Yet I have become rich, have acquired property: all my exertions bring me no wrong, which would be sin." Israel is not a Jacob who wrestles with God; but it has become Canaan, seeking its advantage in deceit and wrong. Israel is called Canaan here, not so much on account of its attachment to Canaanitish idolatry (cf. Eze 16:3), as according to the appellative meaning of the word Kena‛an, which is borrowed from the commercial habits of the Canaanites (Phoenicians), viz., merchant or trader (Isa 23:8; Job 40:30), because, like a fraudulent merchant, it strove to become great by oppression and cheating; not "because it acted towards God like a fraudulent merchant, offering Him false show for true reverence," as Schmieder supposes. For however thoroughly this may apply to the worship of the Israelites, it is not to this that the prophet refers, but to fraudulent weights, and the love of oppression or violence. And this points not to their attitude towards God, but to their conduct towards their fellow-men, which is the very opposite of what, according to the previous verse, the Lord requires (chesed ūmishpât), and the very thing which He has forbidden in the law, in Lev 19:36; Deu 24:13-16, and also in the case of ‛âshaq, violence, in Lev 6:2-4; Deu 24:14. Ephraim prides itself upon this unrighteousness, in the idea that it has thereby acquired wealth and riches, and with the still greater self-deception, that with all its acquisition of property it has committed no wrong that was sin, i.e., that would be followed by punishment. און does not mean "might" here, but wealth, opes, although as a matter of fact, since Ephraim says this as a nation, the riches and power of the state are intended. כּל־יגיעי is not written at the head absolutely, in the sense of "so far as what I have acquired is concerned, men find no injustice in this;" for it that were the case, בּי would stand for לי; but it is really the subject, and יצמצאוּ is to be taken in the sense of acquiring = bringing in (cf. Lev 5:7; Lev 12:8, etc.). |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| A merchant - Ephraim is so far from being as Jacob, that you may account him a Canaanite, a subtle merchant. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| He is a merchant - Or a Canaanite; referring to the Phoenicians, famous for their traffic. Ephraim is as corrupt as those heathenish traffickers were. He kept, as many in all ages have done, a weight and a weight; a heavy one to buy with and a light one to sell by. |
8 Who hath taken this counsel [03289] against Tyre [06865], the crowning [05849] city, whose merchants [05503] are princes [08269], whose traffickers [03667] are the honourable [03513] of the earth [0776]?
11 He stretched out [05186] his hand [03027] over the sea [03220], he shook [07264] the kingdoms [04467]: the LORD [03068] hath given a commandment [06680] against the merchant [03667] city, to destroy [08045] the strong [04581] holds [04581] thereof.
3 And say [0559], Thus saith [0559] the Lord [0136] GOD [03069] unto Jerusalem [03389]; Thy birth [04351] and thy nativity [04138] is of the land [0776] of Canaan [03669]; thy father [01] was an Amorite [0567], and thy mother [0517] an Hittite [02850].
3 And say [0559], Thus saith [0559] the Lord [0136] GOD [03069] unto Jerusalem [03389]; Thy birth [04351] and thy nativity [04138] is of the land [0776] of Canaan [03669]; thy father [01] was an Amorite [0567], and thy mother [0517] an Hittite [02850].
8 And if she be not able to bring [04672] [01767] [03027] a lamb [07716], then she shall bring [03947] two [08147] turtles [08449], or two young [01121] pigeons [03123]; the one [0259] for the burnt offering [05930], and the other [0259] for a sin offering [02403]: and the priest [03548] shall make an atonement [03722] for her, and she shall be clean [02891].
7 And if he [03027] be not able [01767] to bring [05060] a lamb [07716], then he shall bring [0935] for [0854] his trespass [0817], which he hath committed [02398], two [08147] turtledoves [08449], or two [08147] young [01121] pigeons [03123], unto the LORD [03068]; one [0259] for a sin offering [02403], and the other [0259] for a burnt offering [05930].
14 Thou shalt not oppress [06231] an hired servant [07916] that is poor [06041] and needy [034], whether he be of thy brethren [0251], or of thy strangers [01616] that are in thy land [0776] within thy gates [08179]:
2 If a soul [05315] sin [02398], and commit [04603] a trespass [04604] against the LORD [03068], and lie [03584] unto his neighbour [05997] in that which was delivered [06487] him to keep, or in fellowship [08667] [03027], or in a thing taken away by violence [01498], or hath deceived [06231] his neighbour [05997];
3 Or have found [04672] that which was lost [09], and lieth [03584] concerning it, and sweareth [07650] falsely [08267]; in any [0259] of all these that a man [0120] doeth [06213], sinning [02398] therein [02007]:
4 Then it shall be, because he hath sinned [02398], and is guilty [0816], that he shall restore [07725] that [01500] which he took violently away [01497], or the thing [06233] which he hath deceitfully gotten [06231], or that which was delivered [06487] [0853] him to keep [06485], or the lost thing [09] which he found [04672],
13 In any case [07725] thou shalt deliver [07725] him the pledge [05667] again [07725] when the sun [08121] goeth down [0935], that he may sleep [07901] in his own raiment [08008], and bless [01288] thee: and it shall be righteousness [06666] unto thee before [06440] the LORD [03068] thy God [0430].
14 Thou shalt not oppress [06231] an hired servant [07916] that is poor [06041] and needy [034], whether he be of thy brethren [0251], or of thy strangers [01616] that are in thy land [0776] within thy gates [08179]:
15 At his day [03117] thou shalt give [05414] him his hire [07939], neither shall the sun [08121] go down [0935] upon it; for he is poor [06041], and setteth [05375] his heart [05315] upon it: lest he cry [07121] against thee unto the LORD [03068], and it be sin [02399] unto thee.
16 The fathers [01] shall not be put to death [04191] for the children [01121], neither shall the children [01121] be put to death [04191] for the fathers [01]: every man [0376] shall be put to death [04191] for his own sin [02399].
36 Just [06664] balances [03976], just [06664] weights [068], a just [06664] ephah [0374], and a just [06664] hin [01969], shall ye have: I am the LORD [03068] your God [0430], which brought you out [03318] of the land [0776] of Egypt [04714].
8 Who hath taken this counsel [03289] against Tyre [06865], the crowning [05849] city, whose merchants [05503] are princes [08269], whose traffickers [03667] are the honourable [03513] of the earth [0776]?
3 And say [0559], Thus saith [0559] the Lord [0136] GOD [03069] unto Jerusalem [03389]; Thy birth [04351] and thy nativity [04138] is of the land [0776] of Canaan [03669]; thy father [01] was an Amorite [0567], and thy mother [0517] an Hittite [02850].
8 And Ephraim [0669] said [0559], Yet I am become rich [06238], I have found me out [04672] substance [0202]: in all my labours [03018] they shall find [04672] none iniquity [05771] in me that were sin [02399].