Hosea 7:3

3 "They entertain the king with their evil circus, delight the princes with their acrobatic 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 "Every time I gave Israel a fresh start, wiped the slate clean and got them going again, Ephraim soon filled the slate with new sins, the treachery of Samaria written out in bold print. Two-faced and double-tongued, they steal you blind, pick you clean.

2 It never crosses their mind that I keep account of their every crime. They're mud-spattered head to toe with the residue of sin. I see who they are and what they've done.

3 "They entertain the king with their evil circus, delight the princes with their acrobatic lies.

4 They're a bunch of overheated adulterers, like an oven that holds its heat From the kneading of the dough to the rising of the bread.

5 On the royal holiday the princes get drunk on wine and the frenzy of the mocking mob.