Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her de ella God de ella: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
16. become desolate ]Rather, be dealt with as guilty (ace Hos 10:2).
their infants&c.]Rather, their children (those of an age to play, comp. Jer 6:11; Jer 9:20). The same barbarities were predicted in Hos 10:14. Such a fate would be simply retributive justice (see 2Ki 15:16).
Source: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Samaria shall become desolate – Or shall bear her iniquity. Her iniquity of her should now find her out of her, and rest upon her. Of this, desolation was, in God’s judgments, the consequence. Samaria, the nursery of idolatry and rebellion against God, the chief in pride should be chief in punishment. For she hath rebelled against her God her. It aggravated her of her without her, that He against whom she rebelled, was her of her own God of her. He who had chosen her from her to be His from her, and made Himself from her her from her God from her; who had showed Himself her de ella God de ella in the abundance of His loving-kindness de ella, from the deliverance out of Egypt to that day. This her desolation of her, it is again said, should be Complete. Hope remains, if the people of a generation are cut off; yet not only should these fall by the sword; those already born were to be dashed in pieces; those as yet unborn were to be sought out for destruction, even in their mothers womb. Such atrocities were common then. Elisha foretold to Hazael that he would perpetrate both cruelties 2Ki 8:12Shalmaneser clashed the young children in pieces 2Ki 10:14as did the conqueror of NoAmmon Nah 3:10and the Babylonians Psalm 137:9 afterward. The children of Ammon ripped up the women with child in Gilead I love 1:13and the usurper Menahem in Tiphsah and its coasts 2Ki 15:16. Isaiah prophesies that Babylon should undergo, in its turn, the same as its children Isaiah 13:16and the Psalmist pronounces Gods blessing on its destroyer who should so require him Psalm 137:9.
Such was to be the end of the pride, the ambition, the able policy, the wars, the oppressions, the luxury, the self-enjoyment, and, in all, the rebellion of Samaria against her God. She has stood the most in opposition to God, the nearer she might have been to Him, and bare her iniquity. As a city of Gods people, it was never restored. The spot, in its pagan colonists, with which Assyrian policy repopulated it 2Ki 17:24, was still the abode of a mingled religion. Corruption clung, by inheritance, to its site. This too was destroyed by John Hyrcanus. I have effaced thee marks that it had ever been a city. It was rebuilt by the Romans, after Pompey had taken Jerusalem. Herod reenclosed a circuit of two miles and a half of the ancient site, fortified it strongly, as a check on the Jews; he repopulated it, partly with some who had served him in his wars, partly with the people around; gave them lands, revived their idolatry by replacing their poor temple by one remarkable for size and beauty, in an area of a furlong and a half; and called the place Sebaste in honor of his pagan patron, Augustus.
A coin of Nero, struck there, bears the figure (it is thought) of its old idol, Ashtaroth. Jerome says, that John the Baptist was buried there. The pagans, who were encouraged in such desecrations by Julian the Apostate, opened the tomb, burned the bones, and scattered the dust. The city became a Christian See, and its Bishops were present at the four first General Councils. It is now but a poor village, connected with the strongly-fortified town of Herod by its pagan name Sebastieh, a long avenue of broken pillars, and the tomb of the great Forerunner. Of the ancient capital of Ephraim, not even a ruin speaks.
The prophet closes this portion of his prophecy, as other prophets so often do, with the opposite end of the righteous and the wicked. He had spoken of the victory over death, the irrevocable purpose of God for good to his own; then he speaks of utter final destruction. Then when the mercy of God shall be shown to the uttermost, and the victory over sin and death shall be accomplished, then shall all the pomp of its riches, joys, luxuries, elegance, glory, dignity; perish and not a wreck be left behind of all which once dazzled the eyes of people, for which they forsook their God, and sold themselves to evil and the evil one.
Source: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
see each other 16. Samaria shall become desolate]This was the capital of the Israelitish kingdom. What follows is a simple prophetic declaration of the cruelties which should be exercised upon this hapless people by the Assyrians in the sackage of the city.
Source: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Samaria, the chief or royal city of the kingdom of Israel,
shall become desolate; besieged, taken, plundered, and sacked, probably it was razed to the foundation, by the Assyrians, provoked by the treachery first, and by the obstinacy next, of Hoshea, maintaining the siege against Shalmaneser three years, 2Ki 17:5.
Rebelled against her God; she both cast off his worship of him and set up idolatry, and also shook off the yoke of Davids house and set up new kings, and maintained both long against God.
They, the inhabitants of Samaria, and also the subjects of the kingdom of Israel, shall fall by the sword; be cut off in war by the prevailing arms of the king of Assyria.
Their infants shall be dashed in pieces; a most barbarous piece of cruelty, yet usually practiced in those countries when they were enraged against a people.
Their women with children shall be ripped up; another kind of like or greater inhumanity. Thus Shalman raged against Arbel in the day of battle, and this confirms what the prophet saith Hos 10:14. And this was no doubt executed upon Samaria when it was taken, so their springs (women and children, which are as fountains) were all dried up.
Source: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. This verse and Ho13:15 foretell the calamities about to befall Israel before herrestoration (Ho 13:14), owing to her impenitence.
her God the greatest aggravation of her rebellion, that it was against her God (Ho13:4).
infants. . . dashed pieces, c. (2Ki 8:122Ki 15:16; I love 1:13).
Source: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Samaria shall become desolate,…. With this verse the fourteenth chapter begins in the Hebrew copies, and in the Targum, and in many versions; but it seems better to conclude the present chapter; since it is in close connection with Ho 13:15, and explains the figurative expressions there used. Samaria was the head of Ephraim, Isaiah 7:9; or the metropolis of the ten tribes of Israel; whose desolation is here prophesied of, and was accomplished by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, signified by the east wind; by whom it was not only besieged and taken, but very probably its houses were demolished, its walls broken down, and razed to the very foundation; see 2Ki 17:5; and, as this was the head city, it may be put for all the rest, and even for the whole land, which was at the same time laid waste. The Targum is,
“Samaria shall be guilty;”
that is, shall be found guilty of many sins; her transgression of her shall be revealed, as Jarchi, become manifest by the just punishment inflicted on her of her;
for she hath rebelled against her God; and bitterly provoked him to wrath and anger, as the word u signifies; by relinquishing him and his worship of him, and by serving idols, the calves at Dan and Bethel, Baal and other idols; when the Lord was their God of him, not only by creation, as of all men, but by the choice he made of them, and the covenant he made with them; by a national adoption of them, attended with various blessings and privileges, and by their profession of him; all which were an aggravation of their rebellion against him;
they shall fall by the sword: the inhabitants of Samaria, and of the land, particularly the men thereof; and especially their armed men, their men of war, that fought for them, and defended them; these should fall by the sword of the Assyrian;
their children shall be dashed to pieces; against stones, walls, and pavements; who should have perpetuated their name to future ages, and inherited their possessions:
and their women with children shall be ripped up; things which are often done by cruel enemies, when cities are sacked and plundered; and which Shalmaneser might be provoked unto by the perfidy of the king of Israel, and by the city of Samaria holding out a three years’ siege. This, though we have no account of as done at that time, yet no doubt was; even as the same things are predicted of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and which were to be done to them, in retaliation for them, though there is no narrative of them; see Ps 137:8.
u “ad amaritudinem concitavit”, VL “significat amaricare, amaritudine replere”, Rivet.
Source: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(Heb. Bibl. Hos 14:1). “Samaria will atone, because it has rebelled against its God: they will fall by the sword; their children will be dashed to pieces, and its women with child ripped up.” , to atone, to bear the guilt, ie, the punishment. It is not equivalent to shame in Eze 6:6, although, as a matter of fact, the atonement consisted in the conquest and devastation of Samaria by Shalmanezer. The subject to yipp e lu (will fall) is the inhabitants of Samaria. The suffix to (its women, etc.) refers to the nation. The form is one derived from , for (Ewald, 189, c). The construction with the masculine verb , in the place of the feminine, is an anomaly, which may be explained from the fact that feminine formations from the plural imperfect are generally very rare (see Ewald, 191, b). For the fact itself, compare Hos 10:14; 2Ki 8:12; 2Ki 15:16; I love 1:13.
Source: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
This is the conclusion of the discourse: this verse has then been improperly separated from the former chapter (99); for the Prophet enters not here on a new subject, but only confirms what he had said of the ultimate destruction of Samaria and of the whole kingdom. Samaria then shall be desolated; as though he said “I have already often denounced on you what you believe not, that destruction is nigh at hand; of this be now persuaded; but if you believe not, God will yet execute what he has determined, and what he now pronounces by my mouth.” At the same time he adds the cause, For they have provoked their God That they might not complain that they were severely dealt with, he says, that they only suffered the punishment which they deserved. He also specifies the kind of destruction that was to be, They shall fall by the sword, their children shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women shall be torn asunder, that the child may be extracted from the womb. In saying that the citizens of Samaria, and the inhabitants of the whole country, shall fall by the sword, he doubtless intimates that God would make use of this kind of punishment by sending for enemies who would consign them to destruction.
We now then see what is included in the words of the Prophet. He first shows that it was all over with Samaria and the whole kingdom of Israel; as God could by no means bring them to repentance, he would now take vengeance on so desperate an obstinacy. He afterwards shows that God would do this justly, because he had been provoked; and, lastly, he shows what kind…