Hosea 8
BSB
Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind
1Put the ram’s horn to your lips!
An eagle looms over the house of the LORD,
because the people have transgressed My covenant
and rebelled against My law.
2Israel cries out to Me,
“O our God, we know You!”
3But Israel has rejected good;
an enemy will pursue him.
4They set up kings, but not by Me.
They make princes, but without My approval.
With their silver and gold they make themselves idols,
to their own destruction.
5He has rejected your calf, O Samaria.
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be
incapable of innocence?
6For this thing is from Israel—
a craftsman made it, and it is not God.
It will be broken to pieces,
that calf of Samaria.
7For they sow the wind,
and they shall reap the whirlwind.
There is no standing grain;
what sprouts fails to yield flour.
Even if it should produce,
the foreigners would swallow it up.
8Israel is swallowed up!
Now they are among the nations
like a worthless vessel.
9For they have gone up to Assyria
like a wild donkey on its own.
Ephraim has hired lovers.
10Though they hire allies among the nations,
I will now round them up,
and they will begin to diminish
under the oppression of the king of princes.
11Though Ephraim multiplied the altars for sin,
they became his altars for sinning.
12Though I wrote for them the great things of My law,
they regarded them as something strange.
13Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me,
and though they eat the meat,
the LORD does not accept them.
Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins:
They will return to Egypt.
14Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces;
Judah has multiplied its fortified cities.
But I will send fire upon their cities,
and it will consume their citadels.
Introduction
Hosea 8
This chapter, as that before, divides itself into the sins and punishments of Israel; every verse almost declares both, and all to bring them to repentance. When they saw the malignant nature of their sin, in the descriptions of that, they could not but be convinced now much it was their duty to repent of what was so bad in itself; and when they saw the mischievous consequences of their sin, in the predictions of them, they could not but see how much it was their interest to repent for the preventing of them. I. The sin of Israel is here set forth, 1. In many general expressions (Hos 8:1, Hos 8:3, Hos 8:12, Hos 8:14). 2. In many particular instances; setting up kings without God (Hos 8:4), setting up idols against God (Hos 8:4-6, Hos 8:11), and courting alliances with the neighbouring nations, (Hos 8:8-10). 3. In this aggravation of it, that they still kept up a profession of religion and relation to God (Hos 8:2, Hos 8:13, Hos 8:14). II. The punishment of Israel is here set forth as answering to the sin. God would bring an enemy upon them (Hos 8:1, Hos 8:3). All their projects should be blasted (Hos 8:7). Their confidence both in their idols and in their foreign alliances should disappoint them (Hos 8:6, Hos 8:8, Hos 8:10). Their strength at home should fail them (Hos 8:14). Their sacrifices should have no reckoning made of them, and their sins should have a reckoning made for them (Hos 8:13).
Cross-references: Hos 8:1 · Hos 8:3 · Hos 8:12 · Hos 8:14 · Hos 8:4 · Hos 8:11 · Hos 8:8 · Hos 8:2 · Hos 8:13 · Hos 8:7 · Hos 8:6 · Hos 8:10