Hosea 10:6-15

6 but it will be carried off to Assyria as a gift to the great king. Israel will be disgraced, and the people will be ashamed for not obeying.

7 Israel will be destroyed; its king will be like a chip of wood floating on the water.

8 The places of false worship will be destroyed, the places where Israel sins. Thorns and weeds will grow up and cover their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, "Cover us!" and to the hills, "Fall on us!"

9 "Israel, you have sinned since the time of Gibeah, and the people there have continued sinning. But war will surely overwhelm them in Gibeah, because of the evil they have done there.

10 When I am ready, I will come to punish them. Nations will come together against them, and they will be punished for their double sins.

11 Israel is like a well-trained young cow that likes to thresh grain. I will put a yoke on her neck and make her work hard in the field. Israel will plow, and Judah will break up the ground.

12 I said, 'Plant goodness, harvest the fruit of loyalty, plow the new ground of knowledge. and pours goodness on you like water.'

13 But you have plowed evil and harvested trouble; you have eaten the fruit of your lies. Because you have trusted in your own power and your many soldiers,

14 your people will hear the noise of battle, and all your strong, walled cities will be destroyed. destroyed Beth Arbel in battle, when mothers and their children were bashed to death.

15 The same will happen to you, people of Bethel, because you did so much evil. When the sun comes up, the king of Israel will die.

Hosea 10:6-15 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO HOSEA 10

This chapter is of the same argument with the former, and others before that; setting forth the sins of the ten tribes, and threatening them with the judgments of God for them; and exhorting them to repentance, and works of righteousness. They are charged with unfruitfulness and ingratitude; increasing in idolatry, as they increased in temporal good things, Ho 10:1; with a divided heart, and with irreverence of God, and their king; and with false swearing, covenant breaking, and injustice, Ho 10:2-4; and are threatened with a removal of their king, and with the destruction of their idols, and places of idolatry, which should cause fear in the common people, and mourning among the priests, Ho 10:1,5-8. It is observed, that their sin had been of long continuance, though the Lord had been kind and good unto them, in chastising them in love, giving them good laws, sending his prophets to exhort them to repentance and reformation, but all in vain, Ho 10:9-13; wherefore they are threatened with the spoiling of their fortresses, the destruction of the people, and the cutting off of their king, Ho 10:14,15.