1 "Put the trumpet to your lips! Something like an eagle is over Yahweh's house, because they have broken my covenant, and rebelled against my law. 2 They cry to me, 'My God, we Israel acknowledge you!' 3 Israel has cast off that which is good. The enemy will pursue him. 4 They have set up kings, but not by me. They have made princes, and I didn't approve. Of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols, that they may be cut off. 5 Let Samaria throw out his calf idol! My anger burns against them! How long will it be until they are capable of purity? 6 For this is even from Israel! The workman made it, and it is no God; indeed, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces. 7 For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain. The stalk will yield no head. If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up. 8 Israel is swallowed up. Now they are among the nations like a worthless thing. 9 For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has hired lovers for himself. 10 But although they sold themselves among the nations, I will now gather them; and they begin to waste away because of the oppression of the king of mighty ones. 11 Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning, they became for him altars for sinning. 12 I wrote for him the many things of my law; but they were regarded as a strange thing. 13 As for the sacrifices of my offerings, they sacrifice flesh and eat it; But Yahweh doesn't accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish their sins. They will return to Egypt. 14 For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send a fire on his cities, and it will devour its fortresses."
This chapter begins with threatening some hostile invasion in short and broken sentences, full of rapidity, and expressive of sudden danger and alarm: "The trumpet to thy mouth; he cometh as an eagle," Hosea 8:1. And why? For their hypocrisy, Hosea 8:2; iniquity, Hosea 8:3; treason (see 2-Kings 15:13, 2-Kings 15:17) and idolatry, Hosea 8:4; particularly the worshipping of the calves of Daniel and Bethel, Hosea 8:5, Hosea 8:6. The folly and unprofitableness of pursuing evil courses is then set forth in brief but very emphatic terms. The labor of the wicked is vain, like sowing of the wind; and the fruit of it destructive as the whirlwind. Like corn blighted in the bud, their toil shall have no recompense; or if it should have a little, their enemies shell devour it, Hosea 8:7. They themselves, too, shall suffer the same fate, and shall be treated by the nations of Assyria and Egypt as the vile sherds of a broken vessel, Hosea 8:8, Hosea 8:9. Their incorrigible idolatry is again declared to be the cause of their approaching captivity under the king of Assyria. And as they delighted in idolatrous altars, there they shall have these in abundance, Hosea 8:10-14. The last words contain a prediction of the destruction of the fenced cities of Judah, because the people trusted in these for deliverance, and not in the Lord their God.
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, Hosea 8:1; their hypocrisy is exposed, Hosea 8:2; they are charged with the rejection of that which is good, and therefore should be pursued by the enemy, Hosea 8:3; with setting up kings and princes without consulting the Lord, Hosea 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, Hosea 8:4; 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, Hosea 8:7; 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, Hosea 8:11; and the chapter is concluded with some notice and Judah, the one building temples, and multiplying fenced cities, which should be by fire, Hosea 8:14.
(Hosea 8:1-4) Destruction threatened for the impiety of Israel.
(Hosea 8:5-10) For their idolatry.
(Hosea 8:11-14) Further threatenings for the same sins.
The Judgment Consequent Upon Apostasy - Hosea 8-9:9
The coming judgment, viz., the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes, is predicted in three strophes, containing a fresh enumeration of the sins of Israel (1-7), a reference to the fall of the kingdom, which is already about to commence (Hosea 8:8-14), and a warning against false security (Hosea 9:1-9).
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