Hosea 8:5-14

5 I hate the gold bull worshiped by the people of the city of Samaria. I am furious with them. How long will it be before they give up their idolatry?

6 An Israelite craftsman made the idol, and it is not a god at all! The gold bull worshiped in Samaria will be smashed to pieces!

7 When they sow the wind, they will reap a storm! A field of grain that doesn't ripen can never produce any bread. But even if it did, foreigners would eat it up.

8 Israel has become like any other nation and is as useless as a broken pot.

9 Stubborn as wild donkeys, the people of Israel go their own way. They have gone off to seek help from Assyria and have paid other nations to protect them.

10 But now I am going to gather them together and punish them. Soon they will writhe in pain when the emperor of Assyria oppresses them.

11 "The more altars the people of Israel build for removing sin, the more places they have for sinning!

12 I write down countless teachings for the people, but they reject them as strange and foreign.

13 They offer sacrifices to me and eat the meat of the sacrifices. But I, the Lord, am not pleased with them, and now I will remember their sin and punish them for it; I will send them back to Egypt!

14 "The people of Israel have built palaces, but they have forgotten their own Maker. The people of Judah have built fortified cities. But I will send fire that will burn down their palaces and their cities."

Hosea 8:5-14 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO HOSEA 8

This chapter treats of the sins and punishment of Israel for them, as the preceding; it is threatened and proclaimed that an enemy should come swiftly against them, because of their transgression of the covenant and law of God, Ho 8:1; their hypocrisy is exposed, Ho 8:2; they are charged with the rejection of that which is good, and therefore should be pursued by the enemy, Ho 8:3; with setting up kings and princes without consulting the Lord, Ho 8:4; and with making of idols, particularly the golden calves, which would be of no use to them, disappoint them, and at last be broke to pieces, Ho 8:4-6; their seeking to their neighbours for help, and entering into alliances with them, are represented as vain and fruitless, and issuing in their ruin and destruction, Ho 8:7-10; their sins of multiplying altars, contrary to the law of God, and in contempt of it, and offering sacrifices to the Lord, are observed; and they with a visitation from him, Ho 8:11-13; and the chapter is concluded with some notice and Judah, the one building temples, and multiplying fenced cities, which should be by fire, Ho 8:14.

Footnotes

• [a]. They offer . . . the sacrifices; [Hebrew unclear.]