Hosea 8

2–6 The Israelites claimed to acknowledge the Lord (verse 2), but their worship of Him was defiled by pagan practices.²³ Samaria (Israel) worshiped a calf–idol (verse 5); their first king, Jeroboam, had set up calf–idols in two places in Israel and had said to the Israelites: “Here are your gods” (1 Kings 12:28–30). God, through Hosea, says of the calf–idol: “. . . it is not God” (verse 6).

7–10 They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. People reap what they sow (Galatians 6:7–8). The Israelites had sown the “wind” of false worship and had reaped the “whirlwind” of Assyria. They had sown something insubstantial (an offer of alliance) and had reaped something substantial (total destruction—at the hands of Assyria, their supposed ally). Now God would gather them together (verse 10); He would gather the Israelites together for judgment. They would soon waste away under the oppression of the mighty king, the king of Assyria.

In verse 8, the Lord says that Israel has become a worthless thing. Israel was God’s treasured possession; it was meant to be a holy nation (Exodus 19:5–6). But because the Israelites had become like the ungodly people around them, they were no longer of value to God; they had become “worthless.”

11–14 Ephraim had built many altars, but they were altars to Baal, not to God (verse 11). Now God was going to punish their sins (verse 13): the Israelites would be sent to Egypt, the place of bondage. Assyria was to become their new “Egypt.” And their own land, which they had tried to fortify by their own efforts, would be utterly destroyed (verse 14).