Hosea 7:4-14

4 They are all adulterers; they are like a heated oven, whose baker ceases to stir the fire, from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.

5 On the day of our king the princes became sick with the heat of wine; he stretched out his hand with mockers.

6 For like an oven their hearts burn with intrigue; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

7 All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings have fallen; and none of them calls upon me.

8 E'phraim mixes himself with the peoples; E'phraim is a cake not turned.

9 Aliens devour his strength, and he knows it not; gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, and he knows it not.

10 The pride of Israel witnesses against him; yet they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him, for all this.

11 E'phraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.

12 As they go, I will spread over them my net; I will bring them down like birds of the air; I will chastise them for their wicked deeds.

13 Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me.

14 They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves, they rebel against me.

Hosea 7:4-14 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.