Hosea 7:3

3 They make a king glad with their wickedness, And princes with their lies.

Hosea 7:3 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 7:3

They make the king glad with their wickedness
Not any particular king; not Jeroboam the first, as Kimchi; nor Jehu, as Grotius; if any particular king, rather Jeroboam the second; but their kings in general, as the Septuagint render it, in succession, one after another; who were highly delighted and pleased with the priests in offering sacrifice to the calves, and with the people in attending to that idolatrous worship, by which they hoped to secure the kingdom of Israel to themselves, and prevent the people going to Jerusalem to worship: it made them glad to the heart to hear them say that God was as well pleased with sacrifices offered at Dan and Bethel, as at Jerusalem: and the princes with their lies;
with their idols and idolatrous practices, which are vanity and a lie; though some interpret this of their flatteries, either of them, or their favourites; and of their calumnies and detractions of such they had a dislike of.

Hosea 7:3 In-Context

1 "When I would have healed Israel, Then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered, And the wickedness of Samaria. For they have committed fraud; A thief comes in; A band of robbers takes spoil outside.

2 They do not consider in their hearts That I remember all their wickedness; Now their own deeds have surrounded them; They are before My face.

3 They make a king glad with their wickedness, And princes with their lies.

4 "They are all adulterers. Like an oven heated by a baker-- He ceases stirring the fire after kneading the dough, Until it is leavened.

5 In the day of our king Princes have made him sick, inflamed with wine; He stretched out his hand with scoffers.