In this case the _speaking_ would be intended in the same sense as the _speaking_ in chap. ii. to the heavens and earth, that they might _speak_ to the _corn and wine_.[662] Then Ephraim replies:-- _I am like an ever-green fir-tree;_ _From me is Thy fruit found._ But the division appears artificial, and the text does not suggest that the two _I_'s belong to different speakers. The first version therefore is the preferable. * * * * * Some one has added a summons to later generations to lay this book to heart in face of their own problems and sins. May we do so for ourselves! _Who is wise, that he understands these things?_ _Intelligent, that he knows them?_ _Yea, straight are the ways of Jehovah,_ _And the righteous shall walk therein, but sinners shall stumble upon them._ FOOTNOTES: [646] Cf. vi. 6, etc. [647] Cf. xii. 2, etc. [648] Cf. i. 7; ii. 22, 25. [649] Cf. xi. 4. [650] Cf. xi. 8, 9. [651] Since preparing the above for the press there has come into my hands Professor Cheyne's "Introduction" to the new edition of Robertson Smith's _The Prophets of Israel_, in which (p. xix.) he reaches with regard to Hosea xiv. 2-10 conclusions entirely opposite to those reached above. Professor Cheyne denies the passage to Hosea on the grounds that it is akin in language and imagery and ideas to writings of the age which begins with Jeremiah, and which among other works includes the Song of Songs. But, as has been shown above, the "language, imagery and ideas" are all akin to what Professor Cheyne admits to be genuine prophecies of Hosea; and the likeness to them of, _e.g._, Jer. xxxi. 10-20 may be explained on the same ground as so much else in Jeremiah, by the influence of Hosea. The allusion in ver. 3 suits Hosea's own day more than Jeremiah's. Nor can I understand what Professor Cheyne means by this: "The spirituality of the tone of vers. 1-3 is indeed surprising (contrast the picture in Hos. v. 6)." Spirituality surprising in the book that contains "I will have love and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings"! The verse, v. 6, he would contrast with xiv. 1-3 is actually one in which Hosea says that when they go "with flocks and herds" Israel shall not find God! He says that "to understand Hosea aright we must omit it" (_i.e._ the whole epilogue). But after the argument I have given above it will be plain that if we "understand Hosea aright" we have every reason _not_ "to omit it." His last contention, that "to have added anything to the stern warning in xiii. 16 would have robbed it of half its force," is fully met by the considerations stated above on p. 310.