Hosea 7:8-16

8 "Israel mixes with other nations; he is like a pancake cooked only on one side.

9 Foreign nations have eaten up his strength, but he doesn't know it. Israel is weak and feeble, like an old man, but he doesn't know it.

10 Israel's pride will cause their defeat; they will not turn back to the Lord their God or look to him for help in all this.

11 Israel has become like a pigeon -- easy to fool and stupid. First they call to Egypt for help. Then they run to Assyria.

12 When they go, I will catch them in a net, I will bring them down like birds from the sky; I will punish them countless times for their evil.

13 How terrible for them because they left me! They will be destroyed, because they turned against me. I want to save them, but they have spoken lies against me.

14 They do not call to me from their hearts. They just lie on their beds and cry. They come together to ask for grain and new wine, but they really turn away from me.

15 Though I trained them and gave them strength, they have made evil plans against me.

16 They did not turn to the Most High God. They are like a loose bow that can't shoot. Because their leaders brag about their strength, they will be killed with swords, and the people in Egypt will laugh at them.

Hosea 7:8-16 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO HOSEA 7

This chapter either begins a new sermon, discourse, or prophecy, or it is a continuation of the former; at least it seems to be of the same argument with the latter part of it, only it is directed to Israel alone; and consists of complaints against them because of their manifold sins, and of denunciations of punishment for them. They are charged with ingratitude to God, sinning in a daring manner against mercy, and with falsehood, thefts, and robberies, Ho 7:1; with want of consideration of the omniscience of God, and his notice of their sins, which surrounded them, Ho 7:2; with flattery to their king and princes, Ho 7:3; with adultery, which lust raged in them like a heated oven, Ho 7:4; with drunkenness, aggravated by drawing their king into it, Ho 7:5; with raging lusts, which devoured their judges, made their kings to fall, and brought on such a general corruption, that there were none that called upon the Lord, Ho 7:6,7; with mixing themselves with the nations of the earth, and so learning their ways, and bringing their superstition and idolatry into the worship of God, so that they were nothing in religion, like a half baked cake, Ho 7:8; with stupidity and insensibility of their declining state, Ho 7:9; with pride, impenitence, and stubbornness, Ho 7:10; with folly, in seeking to Egypt and Assyria for help, and not to the Lord; for which they would be taken as birds in a net, and sorely chastised, Ho 7:11,12; with ingratitude, hypocrisy, and deceitfulness; for all which they are threatened with destruction, Ho 7:13-16.