this progress should have been
made in the Messianic announcements, before the breaking in of the
divine judgments; for, otherwise, the hope of the Messiah would have
been extinguished by them, because it was but too natural to consider
the former as, _in fact_, an annihilation of these dreamy hopes. But
now there was offered to the elect a staff on which they might support
themselves, and walk with confidence through the dark valley of the
shadow of death.

The Book of Hosea may be divided into two parts, according to the two
principal periods of the prophet's ministry,--under Jeroboam, when the
external condition was as yet prosperous, and the bodily eye did not as
yet perceive anything of the storms of divine wrath which were
gathering,--and under the following kings, down to Hosea, when the
punishment had already begun, and was hastening, by rapid strides,
towards its consummation.--Another difference, although a subordinate
one, is this:--that the first part, which comprehends the first three
chapters, contains prophecies connected with a symbol, while the second
part contains direct prophecies which have no such connection. A
similar division occurs in Amos also,--with this difference, that
there, the symbolical prophecies form the conclusion. The first part
may be considered as a kind of outline, which all the subsequent
prophecies served to fill up; just [Pg 184] as may the 6th chapter in
Isaiah, and the first and second in Ezekiel. We shall give a complete
exposition of this section, as it will afford us a vivid view of the
whole position of Hosea, and as it is just there that the Messianic
announcement meets us in its most developed form.

Footnote 1: _Ewald_, _Thenius_, and others, will not grant that such an
interregnum took place. As numbers were originally expressed by
letters, in which an interchange might easily happen, we cannot deny
the possibility of such an error having occurred in 2 Kings xiv. 23. It
is quite possible that the duration of Jeroboam's reign was there
originally stated at fifty-two or fifty-three, instead of forty-one
years. But strong reasons would be required for rendering such a
supposition admissible,--the more so, as the interchange would not have
been limited to one letter, as _Thenius_ supposes, but must have
extended to both. But no such reasons exist. The silence of the Books
of Kings upon the subject of this interregnum cannot be urged as a
reason, since these books are s