reat
confidence by _Maurer_, among others, in his _Observ. in Hos._, in the
_Commentat. Theol._ ii. i. p. 293. But the arguments by which he
supports this view will not stand the test. He appeals (1) to the
inscription. The circumstance that, in this, there is mention made of
the kings of Judah under whom Hosea exercised his ministry,--that they
are mentioned _at all_,--and that they are mentioned _first_ and
_completely_, while only one of the kings of Israel is named, [Pg 166]
proves, according to him--especially on a comparison with the
inscription of Amos--that the prophet acknowledged the kings of Judah
as his superiors. But this mode of argumentation entirely overlooks the
position which the pious in Israel generally, and the prophets
especially, occupied in reference to Judah. They considered the whole
separation--the civil as well as the religious--as an apostasy from
God. And how could they do otherwise, since the eternal dominion over
the people of God had been granted, by God, to the house of David? The
closeness of the connection between the religious and the civil
sufficiently appears from the fact, that Jeroboam and all his
successors despaired of being able to maintain their power, unless they
made the breach, in religious matters also, as wide as possible. The
chief of the prophets in the kingdom of the ten tribes--Elijah--by
taking twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of Israel (1
Kings xviii. 31), plainly enough declared, that he considered the
separation as one not consistent with the idea of the Jewish kingdom,
and that therefore, in reality, it must at some future period be done
away with; that he considered the government in Israel as existing _de
facto_, but not _de jure_.

By none do we find this view so distinctly brought out as by Hosea.
"They have set up kings, and not by Me"--says the Lord by him, chap.
viii. 4--"they have made princes, and I knew it not." In his view,
then, the whole basis of the government in Israel is ungodliness.
Because they have chosen kings and princes without God, and against the
will of God, they shall be taken from them by God, chap. iii. 4.
Salvation cannot come to the people until Israel and, Judah set over
themselves one head, ii. 2 (i. 11), until the children of Israel seek
Jehovah their Lord, and David their king, iii. 5. These two things are,
in his view, intimately connected; no true return to the invisible head
of the Theocracy is possible wi