Hoshea 10:10-15

10 When I please, I will chastise them; amim shall be gathered against them, when they are punished for their shtei avon (double iniquity).

11 And Ephrayim is an eglah melummadah (a trained heifer), and loveth to tread out the grain; but I will put a yoke on her fair neck; I will drive Ephrayim; Yehudah shall plow, and Ya’akov shall break his clods.

12 Sow to yourselves in tzedakah, reap in chesed; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek Hashem, till He come and rain tzedek upon you.

13 Ye have plowed resha, ye have reaped avlah; ye have eaten the pri kachash (fruit of lies); because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy gibborim (mighty men).

14 Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be devastated, as Shalman devastated Beit-Arbel on the yom milchamah; the em were dashed in pieces with their banim.

15 So shall Beit-El do unto you because of your great wickedness; in the shachar (dawn) shall the Melech Yisroel utterly be cut off [Isa 53:8].

Hoshea 10:10-15 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO HOSEA 10

This chapter is of the same argument with the former, and others before that; setting forth the sins of the ten tribes, and threatening them with the judgments of God for them; and exhorting them to repentance, and works of righteousness. They are charged with unfruitfulness and ingratitude; increasing in idolatry, as they increased in temporal good things, Ho 10:1; with a divided heart, and with irreverence of God, and their king; and with false swearing, covenant breaking, and injustice, Ho 10:2-4; and are threatened with a removal of their king, and with the destruction of their idols, and places of idolatry, which should cause fear in the common people, and mourning among the priests, Ho 10:1,5-8. It is observed, that their sin had been of long continuance, though the Lord had been kind and good unto them, in chastising them in love, giving them good laws, sending his prophets to exhort them to repentance and reformation, but all in vain, Ho 10:9-13; wherefore they are threatened with the spoiling of their fortresses, the destruction of the people, and the cutting off of their king, Ho 10:14,15.