The reader will see that in the study entitled With All Thy Getting Get

Understanding, (p. 350 in this volume; and in greater detail, in the series

of studies with the same title in The Berean Expositor Vols. 25, 26 and 27),

we ran through the most important figures of speech used in the Scriptures.

One is called Catachresis or Incongruity.  It is a figure that attracts us by

its startling use of words.  There is something incongruous in the

association of 'calves' with 'lips'.  Another figure with which we dealt was

Metonymy, where one name is exchanged for another in a variety of ways.  In

Hosea 14:2, we have two metonymies.  First 'calves' are put (by metonymy of

the subject) for the sacrifices offered; and the 'lips' are put (by metonymy

of the cause) for the confession made by them.  Still further, the figure of

Metalepsis is here, for something has to be supplied that is left out, for

the calves are put for the sacrifice made of them, but these sacrifices in

turn stand for confession and praise.  This is parallel with such passages as

that in Psalm 51,

'The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit' (Psa. 51:17).

'I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with

thanksgiving.  This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or

bullock that hath horns and hoofs' (Psa. 69:30,31).

'I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon

the name of the Lord' (Psa. 116:17).

'Let my prayer be set forth before Thee as incense; and the lifting up

of my hands as the evening sacrifice' (Psa. 141:2).

The word translated 'giving thanks' in Hebrews 13:15 is homologeo

'saying together', 'confessing', 'professing'.  Its essential meaning is

'agreement'.  Reams have been written on this word, but much is unnecessary

if only we would keep in mind the very obvious fact that the writer of the

epistle to the Hebrews was one well versed in the Scriptures, making

quotations from both the Hebrew, and the Greek Septuagint at will.  He knew

without search, what we only discover by searching, that the passage that

supplies the expression 'the fruit of the lips', namely Hosea 14:2, uses the

word homologos in the same context and is saturated with the spirit of the

word as we shall see.  First the use of the word itself.

'I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely' (Hos. 14:4).

The word 'freely' is translated in the LXX (Hos. 14:5 in the LXX)

homologos 'confessedly', 'avowedly'.

The whole of the fourteenth chapter is an exhibition of homologia

'saying the same', for it says,

'Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto Him: Take away all

iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of

our lips' (Hos. 14:2).

Not only is Israel to return and repent, but the very words are given

them to say.  This, if uttered in the true spirit is truly 'saying the same'.

Faith in the Old Testament is saying Amen to all that God reveals (Isa. 53:1

where the Hebrew word aman is translated 'hath believed').

The Hebrews who had read through the epistle so far as the thirteenth

chapter, and had believed what had there been written would 'agree' and

'confess' the truth that they had no high priest but Christ, no visible altar

on earth, no continuing city here below, by offering the sacrifice