Hosea 13:3

3 So those people will be like the morning mist; they will disappear like the morning dew. They will be like chaff blown from the threshing floor, like smoke going out 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 People used to fear the tribe of Ephraim; they were important people in Israel. But they sinned by worshiping Baal, so they must die.

2 But they still keep on sinning more and more. They make idols of their silver, idols that are cleverly made, the work of a craftsman. Yet the people of Israel say to each other, "Kiss those calf idols and sacrifice to them."

3 So those people will be like the morning mist; they will disappear like the morning dew. They will be like chaff blown from the threshing floor, like smoke going out a window.

4 "I, the Lord, have been your God since you were in the land of Egypt. You should have known no other God except me. I am the only one who saves.

5 I cared for them in the desert where it was hot and dry.