SEV Biblia, Chapter 10:12
Sembrad vosotros mismos para justicia, segad vosotros mismos para misericordia; arad vuestro barbecho; porque es el tiempo de buscar al SEÑOR, hasta que venga y os enseñe justicia.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Hosea 10:12
Verse 12. Sow to yourselves in riqhteousness] Let the seed you sow be of the best kind, and in just measure. Reap in mercy] By the blessing of God on this ploughing, sowing, and harrowing, you may expect a good crop in harvest.
Break up your fallow ground] Do not be satisfied with a slight furrow; let the land that was fallowed (slightly ploughed) be broken up again with a deep furrow.
For it is time to seek the Lord] This should be immediately done: the season is passing; and if you do not get the seed in the ground, the early rain will be past, and your fields will be unfruitful.
Rain righteousness upon you.] God will give you the early rain in due time, and in proper measure. Here are the metaphors, and the application cannot be difficult.. Here are ploughing, fallowing, sowing, harrowing, watering, reaping, threshing, and feeding on the produce of well-directed labour. All may be applied to the human heart, and the work of God upon it. Correction, contrition, conversion, receiving the grace of Christ, bringing forth fruit, &c.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 12. Saw to yourselves in righteousness , etc.] Not the seed of grace, which bad men have not, and cannot saw it; and which good men need not, it being sown in them already, and remaining; rather the seed of the word, which should be laid up in their hearts, dwell richly in them, and be kept and retained by them; though it is best of all to understand it of works of righteousness; as sowing to the flesh is doing the works of the flesh, or carnal and sinful acts; so sowing “unto righteousness” f202 , as it may be rendered, is doing works of righteousness; living soberly and righteously; doing works according to the word of righteousness, from good principles, and with good views, with a view to the glory of God: and which will be “sowing to themselves”, turn to their own account; for though such works are not profitable to God, as to merit anything at his hands; yet they are not only profitable to others, but to those that do them; for though not “for”, yet “in keeping” the commands of God there is “great reward”, ( Psalm 19:11). Reap in mercy; or “according to mercy” not according to the merit of works, for there is none in them; but according to the mercy of God, to which all blessings, temporal, spiritual, and eternaL, are owing; and such who sow to the Spirit, or spiritual things, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting; not as the reward of debt, but of grace; not as of merit, but as owing to the mercy of Christ, ( Galatians 6:9) ( Jude 1:21); break up your fallow ground ; that is, of their hearts; which were like ground unopened, unbroken, not filled and manured, nor sown with seed, but overrun with weeds and thistles; and so were they, hard and impenitent, destitute of grace, and full of sin and wickedness, and stood in need of being renewed in the spirit of their minds; which this exhortation is designed to convince them of, and to stir them up to make use of proper methods of obtaining it, through the efficacious grace of God; (see Jeremiah 4:5); for [it is] time to seek the Lord : for his grace; as the husbandman seeks, prays, and waits for rain, when he has tilled his ground, and sowed his seed, to water it, and make it fruitful, that he may have a good reaping time, a plentiful harvest; and as there is a time to seek for the one, so for the other: till he come and rain righteousness upon you ; that is, Christ, whose coming is as the rain, ( Hosea 6:3 Psalm 72:6); and who, when he should come, whether personally by his incarnation, or spiritually by his gracious presence, would rain a plentiful rain of the doctrines of grace, and the blessings of it, such as peace pardon, righteousness, and eternal life by him; particularly the justifying righteousness wrought out by him, which is fully manifested in the Gospel, the ministration of that righteousness, and is applied unto, and put upon, all them that believe: or “till he come and teach you righteousness” f204 ; as Christ did when come; he taught the word of righteousness in general, and the righteousness of God in particular, and directed men to seek it; declared he came to fulfil all righteousness, and taught men to believe in him for it, and that he is their righteousness, and the end of the law for it; as well as he taught them to live righteously and godly; (see Joel 2:23). The Targum is, “O house of Israel, do for yourselves good works; walk in the way of truth; establish for yourselves the doctrine of the law; behold, at all times the prophets say to you, return to the fear of the Lord; now shall he be revealed, and bring righteousness to you.”
But these exhortations were vain and fruitless, as appears by what follows:
Matthew Henry Commentary
The distress to come upon Israel. (Hos. 9:1-6) The approach of the da of trouble. (Hos. 9:7-10) Judgments on Israel. (Hos. 9:11-17)
Hos. 9:1-6 Israel gave rewards to their idols, in the offering presented to them. It is common for those who are niggardly in religion, to be prodigal upon their lusts. Those are reckoned a idolaters, who love a reward in the corn-floor better than a reward in the favour of God and in eternal life. They are full of the joy of harvest, and have no disposition to mourn for sin. When we make the world, and the things of it, our idol and our portion, it is just with God to show us our folly, and correct us. None may expect to dwell in the Lord's land, who will not be subject to the Lord's laws, or be influenced by his love. When we enjoy the means of grace, we ought to consider what we shall do, if they should be taken from us. While the pleasures of communion with God are out of the reach of change, the pleasant places purchased with silver, or in which men deposit silver are liable to be laid in ruins. No famine is so dreadful as that of the soul.
Hos. 9:7-10 Time had been when the spiritual watchmen of Israel wer with the Lord, but now they were like the snare of a fowler to entangl persons to their ruin. The people were become as corrupt as those of Gibeah, Judg. 19; and their crimes should be visited in like manner. A first God had found Israel pleasing to Him, as grapes to the travelle in the wilderness. He saw them with pleasure as the first ripe figs This shows the delight God took in them; yet they followed afte idolatry.
Hos. 9:11-17. God departs from a people, or from a person, when he withdraws his goodness and mercy from them; and when the Lord is departed, what can the creature do? Even though, for the present, goo things seem to remain, yet the blessing is gone if God is gone. Eve the children should perish with the parents. The Divine wrath dries u the root, and withers the fruit of all comforts; and the scattered Jew daily warn us to beware, lest we neglect or abuse the gospel. Yet ever smiting is not a drying up of the root. It may be that God intends onl to smite so that the sap may be turned to the root, that there may be more of root graces, more humility, patience, faith, and self-denial It is very just that God should bring judgments on those who slight his offered mercy __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
זרעו 2232 לכם לצדקה 6666 קצרו 7114 לפי 6310 חסד 2617 נירו 5214 לכם ניר 5215 ועת 6256 לדרושׁ 1875 את 853 יהוה 3069 עד 5704 יבוא 935 וירה 3384 צדק׃ 6664
