Hosea 8 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Hosea 8

Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind

8:1   Set the trumpet to your lips!
    One like a vulture is over the house of the LORD,
  because they have transgressed my covenant
    and rebelled against my law.
2   To me they cry,
    “My God, we—Israel—know you.”
3   Israel has spurned the good;
    the enemy shall pursue him.
4   They made kings, but not through me.
    They set up princes, but I knew it not.
  With their silver and gold they made idols
    for their own destruction.
5   I have¹ spurned your calf, O Samaria.
    My anger burns against them.
  How long will they be incapable of innocence?
6   For it is from Israel;
  a craftsman made it;
    it is not God.
  The calf of Samaria
    shall be broken to pieces.²
7   For they sow the wind,
    and they shall reap the whirlwind.
  The standing grain has no heads;
    it shall yield no flour;
  if it were to yield,
    strangers would devour it.
8   Israel is swallowed up;
    already they are among the nations
    as a useless vessel.
9   For they have gone up to Assyria,
    a wild donkey wandering alone;
    Ephraim has hired lovers.
10   Though they hire allies among the nations,
    I will soon gather them up.
  And the king and princes shall soon writhe
    because of the tribute.
11   Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,
    they have become to him altars for sinning.
12   Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,
    they would be regarded as a strange thing.
13   As for my sacrificial offerings,
    they sacrifice meat and eat it,
    but the LORD does not accept them.
  Now he will remember their iniquity
    and punish their sins;
    they shall return to Egypt.
14   For Israel has forgotten his Maker
    and built palaces,
  and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;
    so I will send a fire upon his cities,
    and it shall devour her strongholds.

Footnotes

[1] 8:5 Hebrew He has
[2] 8:6 Or shall go up in flames

Commentary

v1-3: Enemy nations summoned by trumpet call to attack Israel, punishing them for their rebellion. The promise is that the enemy will prevail over Israel.

Although they claim to know God, 7.11-16, they transgress His covenant, and rebel against His law. For reference to the eagle over the house of the Lord, see Deut 28.49.

v4: They do not ask counsel of the Lord, kings and princes are appointed without seeking the mind of God. They live their lives without any reference to the God who redeemed them. Contrast James 4.13-15, "if the Lord wills;" all our decisions and plans must be made subject to Him. It is all too easy to fall into a way of life that does not acknowledge the involvement of the True and Living God in our lives.

v5-6: Reliance upon idols, gods made by man. The calf, one of their idols, will be broken; the true God cannot be broken.

v7-10: The promise of real suffering; they sowed to the wind, and will reap the whirlwind of their own destruction. They did not want God, and they would learn what it is to live without God.

v11: Altars for sinning; something that should have promoted godly living became a provision for sins; 2 Kings 18.4; Jer 11.13.

v12: God had great things for His people; promises for the obedient; but Israel grew ignorant of His word. It was now "something alien," unintelligible, out of date, irrelevant.

v13: One particular judgment was that they would return to Egypt.

v14: They live as if God does not exist; there are altars and sacrifices, palaces and fortified towns, but no knowledge of God.