The Prophet says first, that Ephraim had provoked God by his high places Some, however, take the word tmrvrym, tamerurim, for bitternesses. Then it is, "Israel or Ephraim have provoked God to bitterness." But since this word in other places as in the thirty-first of Jeremiah, is taken for high places and as it clearly appears that the Prophet here inveighs avowedly against Israel and their vicious worship, I doubt not but that he points out these high places in which the Israelites appointed their false and impious modes of worship. Ephraim then have provoked him with their high places: [1] Ephraim having in so many ways immersed themselves in their superstitions, provoked God in their high places. Then his blood shall remain on him. As the word nts, nuthesh, signifies "to pour out," and signifies also to "remain," some render it, "His blood shall remain;" others "Shall be poured upon him." But this makes but a little difference as to what is meant; for the Prophet intends to show, that Ephraim would have to suffer the punishment of their impiety; as though he said, "They shall not at last escape from the hand of God, they shall receive the wages of their iniquities." And his reproach shall his Lord return unto him Here he calls God himself the Lord of Israel, though Israel had shaken off the yoke, and alienated themselves from the service of God. They cannot, he says, escape the authority of God, though they have spurned his law; though they have become wanton in their superstitions, they shall yet know that they remain under the hand and power of God, they shall know that they effect nothing by this their petulance; though they thus wander after their abominations, yet the Lord will not lose his right, which he had obtained for himself by redeeming Israel. Their Lord then shall render to them their own reproach, of which they are worthy.

Footnotes

1 - Calvin is not correct as to the meaning of this word. There is no instance in which it means "high places;" in Jeremiah 31:21, to which reference is made, it means obelisks or pillars set up as way-marks. There is no doubt but that the word signifies here what is expressed in our version. Gesenius says, that it is to be taken here adverbially, and with him Newcome and most critics agree. Horsley renders the clause thus, -- "Ephraim has given bitterest provocation."

Ephraim provoked - the Lord most bitterly Literally, "with bitternesses," i. e., with most heinous sins, such as are most grievously displeasing to God, and were a most bitter requital of all His goodness. "Wherefore He shall leave" (or, "cast") "his blood" (literally, "bloods") "upon him." The plural "bloods" expresses the manifoldness of the bloodshed . It is not used in Holy Scripture of mere guilt. Ephraim had shed blood profusely, so that it ran like water in the land (see the notes above at Hosea 4:2; Hosea 5:2). He had sinned with a high hand against God, in destroying man made in the image of God. Amid that bloodshed, had been the blood not of the innocent only, but of those whom God sent to rebuke them for their idolatry, their rapine, their bloodshed. "Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord" 1-Kings 18:4, as far as in her lay, with a complete excision. Ephraim thought his sins past; they were out of his sight; he thought that they were out of God's also; but they were laid up with God; and God, the prophet says, would cast them down upon him, so that they would crush him.
And his reproach shall his Lord return unto him - For the blood which he had shed, should his own blood be shed, for the reproaches which he had in divers ways cast against God or brought upon Him, he should inherit reproach. Those who rebel against God, bring reproach on Him by their sins, reproach Him by their excuses for their sins reproach Him in those whom He sends to recall them from their sins, reproach Him for chastening them for their sins. All who sin against the knowledge of God, bring reproach upon Him by acting sinfully against that knowledge. So Nathan says to David, "Thou hast given much occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme" 2-Samuel 12:14. The reproachful words of the enemies of God are but the echo of the opprobrious deeds of His unfaithful servants. The reproach is therefore, in an special manner, "their reproach" who caused it. All Israel's idolatries had this aggravation.
Their worship of the calves or of Baal or of any other gods of the nations, was a triumph of the false gods over God. Then, all sin must find some plea for itself, by impugning the wisdom or goodness of God who forbad it. Jeroboam, and Ephraim by adhering to Jeroboam's sin reproached God, as though the going up to Jerusalem was a hard service. "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." : "It was an open injury and reproach to God, to attribute to dead lifeless things those great and wonderful things done by Him for them." All the reproach, which they, in these ways, brought, or cast upon God, he says, "his Lord shall return" or "restore" to them. Their's it was; He would give it back to them, as He says, "Them that honor Me, I will honor; and they that despise Me, shall be lightly esteemed" 1-Samuel 2:30.
Truly shame and reproach have been for centuries the portion of God's unfaithful people. To those who are lost, He gives back their reproach, in that they "rise to reproaches Daniel 12:2 and everlasting abhorrence . It is an aggravation of this misery, that He who shall "give back to him" his reproach, had been "his God." Since "his God" was against him, who could be for him? "For whither should we go for refuge, save to Him? If we find wrath with Him, with whom should we find ruth?" Ephraim did not, the sinner will not, allow God to be "his God" in worship and service and love: but whether he willed or no, God would remain his Lord. He was, and might still have been their Lord for good; they would not have Him so, and so they should find Him still their Lord, as an Avenger, returning their own evil to them.

Therefore shall he leave his blood upon him - He will not remove his guilt. These are similar to our Lord's words, John 3:36; John 9:41 : "He that believeth not on the Son of God, shall not see life, for the wrath of God Abideth On Him" - shall not be removed by any remission, as he rejects the only way in which he can be saved. Because ye say, We see; therefore, Your Sin Remaineth, i.e., it still stands charged against you. Your miseries and destruction are of your own procuring; your perdition is of yourselves. God is as merciful as he is just.

Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly,.... The Vulgate Latin version supplies it, me; that is, God, as Kimchi; or his Lord, as it may be supplied from the last clause of the verse; the sense is the same either way: it was God that Ephraim or the ten tribes provoked to stir up his wrath and vengeance against them; notwithstanding all the favours that they and their ancestors had received from him, they provoked him in a most bitter manner, to bitter anger, vehement wrath and fury: or, "with bitternesses" (n); with their sins, which are in their own nature bitter, displeasing to God; and in their effects bring bitterness and death on those that commit them; meaning particularly their idolatry, and all belonging to it; their idols, high places, altars, &c. The word here used is rendered "high heaps" (o), Jeremiah 31:21; and is here by Kimchi interpreted of altars, with which, and their sacrifices on them, they provoked the Lord to anger:
therefore shall he leave his blood upon him; the blood of innocent persons, prophets, and other good men shed by him; the sin of it shall be charged upon him, and he shall bear the punishment of it. So the Targum,
"the fault of innocent blood which he shed shall return upon him:''
or "his own blood shall be poured out upon him" (p); in just retaliation for the blood of others shed by him, and for all the blood sired by him in idolatrous sacrifices, and other bloody sins; or his own blood being shed by the enemy shall remain upon him unrevenged; God will not punish those that shed it:
and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him: that is, as he has reproached the prophets of the Lord for reproving him for his idolatry, and reproached fire Lord himself, by revolting from him, and neglecting his worship, and preferring the worship of idols to him; so, as a just recompence, he shall be delivered up into the hands of the enemy, and become a reproach, a taunt, and a proverb, in all places into which he shall be brought. God is called "his Lord", though he had rebelled against him, and shook off his yoke, and would not obey him; yet, whether he will or not, he is his Lord, and will show himself to be so by his sovereignty and authority over him, and by the judgments exercised on him. Some understand this of the Assyrian king, become his lord, by taking and carrying him captive, the instrument in God's hand of bringing him to reproach; but the former sense seems best.
(n) "amaritudinibus", Pagninus, Vatablus, Piscator, Schmidt. (o) And is so understood by R. Song. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 64. 1. (p) , Sept. so Syr. & Ar. "ideo sanguis ejus super eum diffundetur, sive effundetur", Zanchius.

provoked him--that is, God.
leave his blood upon him--not take away the guilt and penalty of the innocent blood shed by Ephraim in general, and to Moloch in particular.
his reproach shall his Lord return unto him--Ephraim's dishonor to God in worshipping idols, God will repay to him. That God is "his Lord" by right redemption and special revelation to Ephraim only aggravates his guilt, instead of giving him hope of escape. God does not give up His claim to them as His, however they set aside His dominion.

His blood - He shall bear the punishment of all his blood; his murders of the innocent, and his own guilt too. His reproach - Which Ephraim hath cast upon the prophets, the worshippers of God, and on God; preferring idols before him. His Lord - God who is Lord of all.