Hosea 2:8

8 She didn't know that it was I all along who wined and dined and adorned her, That I was the one who dressed her up in the big-city fashions and jewelry that she wasted on wild Baal-orgies.

Hosea 2:8 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 2:8

For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil,
&c.] This is a reason, not of her resolution to return to her first husband, but to go after lovers, and of her ascribing these things to them, ( Hosea 2:5 ) , and why the Lord would behave towards her as he determined to do, ( Hosea 2:6 Hosea 2:7 ) , this ignorance was wilful and affected, and therefore blameable; she might have known, but she would not; she did not set her mind to know; she did not consider who gave her these things, nor behave as if she knew, as Jarchi: or she did not own and acknowledge God to be the author and giver of them, as she should have done; which was ingratitude rather than ignorance, and is a heinous sin, and to be resented; since all good things, temporal and spiritual, as daily bread, all the necessaries of life, signified by these things, so the word, and ordinances, and spiritual gifts, which they may be emblems of, come from God, and should be acknowledged; but the Jews, as in the times of Isaiah, did not know him, and acknowledge his benefits, ( Isaiah 1:2 Isaiah 1:3 ) , so, in the times of Christ, they did not know him to be the God of Israel, God over all, blessed for ever; from whom, and for whose sake, who was to be, and was born of them, they enjoyed the privileges they did, ( John 1:10 John 1:11 ) ( Romans 9:4 Romans 9:5 ) . And multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal;
the relative "which" may refer to all that goes before; and the sense be, that these gifts of God, and which should have been owned as such, and employed in his service, and to his glory; some were made use of in meat and drink offerings to Baal; and others in decking themselves to appear in his worship to his honour; or in ornamenting the idol therewith, or in making it thereof, so the Targum and Syriac version: and all this may be said to be done, when these things are spent in the service of other lords than the Lord himself; when they are abused to sinful purposes, and consumed on the lusts of men, to gratify their sensuality, pride, and vanity, which the Jews did.

Hosea 2:8 In-Context

6 But I'll fix her: I'll dump her in a field of thistles, then lose her in a dead-end alley.
7 She'll go on the hunt for her lovers but not bring down a single one. She'll look high and low but won't find a one. Then she'll say, 'I'm going back to my husband, the one I started out with. That was a better life by far than this one.'
8 She didn't know that it was I all along who wined and dined and adorned her, That I was the one who dressed her up in the big-city fashions and jewelry that she wasted on wild Baal-orgies.
9 I'm about to bring her up short: No more wining and dining! Silk lingerie and gowns are a thing of the past.
10 I'll expose her genitals to the public. All her fly-by-night lovers will be helpless to help her.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.