Hosea 13:3

3 Therefore, they will be like the morning mist, like the dew that passes away early, like husks that swirl from the threshing floor, or like smoke from a window.

Hosea 13:3 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 13:3

Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud
Which, however promising it is, soon disappears when the sun is risen; signifying that the idolatrous Israelites, king, priests, and people, should be no more; their kingdom would cease, all their riches and wealth would depart from them, and they and their children be carried captive into a strange land: and as the early dew it passeth away;
as soon as the heat of the sun is felt, when the earth is left dry; so these people, though they seemed to be in great prosperity, and to be very fruitful in children, and in substance, and promised themselves much more; yet in a little time their land would become desolate, and they stripped of all that was dear and valuable to them these metaphors are used in ( Hosea 6:4 ) ; as the chaff [that] is driven with a whirlwind out of the floor;
signifying that these idolatrous people were like chaff, fight and empty, useless and unprofitable, fit for nothing but burning; and that they would be driven out of their own land through the Assyrian, that should come like a whirlwind with great three and power, as easily and as quickly as chaff is drove out of a threshing floor of corn with a strong blast of wind; see ( Psalms 1:5 ) ( Jeremiah 4:11-13 ) ( Daniel 2:35 ) ; and as the smoke out of the chimney;
which rises up in a pillar, and is so on dissipated by the wind, or dissolved into air; and is no sooner seen but it disappears; see ( Psalms 68:2 ) . All these similes show how easily, suddenly, and quickly, the destruction of this idolatrous nation would be brought about.

Hosea 13:3 In-Context

1 When Ephraim spoke, there was excitement; he was praised in Israel; but he became guilty through Baal and died.

2 And now they keep on sinning; they have made metal images, idols of silver, as a result of their skill, all of them the work of craftsmen. "Sacrifice to these," they say. People are kissing calves!

3 Therefore, they will be like the morning mist, like the dew that passes away early, like husks that swirl from the threshing floor, or like smoke from a window.

4 Yet I have been the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt; and you will know no other gods but me; there is no savior besides me.

5 I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of no rain.