seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Hosea 10:1 Israel was a spreading vine;
he brought forth fruit for himself.
As his fruit increased,
he built more altars;
as his land prospered,
he adorned his sacred stones.
2 Their heart is deceitful,
and now they must bear their guilt.
The Lord will demolish their altars
and destroy their sacred stones.
3 Then they will say, “We have no king
because we did not revere the Lord.
But even if we had a king,
what could he do for us?”
4 They make many promises,
take false oaths
and make agreements;
therefore lawsuits spring up
like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.
5 The people who live in Samaria fear
for the calf-idol of Beth Aven.[a]
Its people will mourn over it,
and so will its idolatrous priests,
those who had rejoiced over its splendor,
because it is taken from them into exile.
6 It will be carried to Assyria
as tribute for the great king.
Ephraim will be disgraced;
Israel will be ashamed of its foreign alliances.
7 Samaria’s king will be destroyed,
swept away like a twig on the surface of the waters.
8 The high places of wickedness[b] will be destroyed—
it is the sin of Israel.
Thorns and thistles will grow up
and cover their altars.
Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”
and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
9 “Since the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, Israel,
and there you have remained.[c]
Will not war again overtake
the evildoers in Gibeah?
10 When I please, I will punish them;
nations will be gathered against them
to put them in bonds for their double sin.
11 Ephraim is a trained heifer
that loves to thresh;
so I will put a yoke
on her fair neck.
I will drive Ephraim,
Judah must plow,
and Jacob must break up the ground.
12 Sow righteousness for yourselves,
reap the fruit of unfailing love,
and break up your unplowed ground;
for it is time to seek the Lord,
until he comes
and showers his righteousness on you.
13 But you have planted wickedness,
you have reaped evil,
you have eaten the fruit of deception.
Because you have depended on your own strength
and on your many warriors,
14 the roar of battle will rise against your people,
so that all your fortresses will be devastated—
as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle,
when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.
15 So will it happen to you, Bethel,
because your wickedness is great.
When that day dawns,
the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.
a. Hosea 10:5 Beth Aven means house of wickedness (a derogatory name for Bethel, which means house of God).
b. Hosea 10:8 Hebrew aven, a reference to Beth Aven (a derogatory name for Bethel); see verse 5.
c. Hosea 10:9 Or there a stand was taken
This commentary is from enduringword.com.
We have no king: Under the judgment of the LORD, foreign powers dominated Israel so they no longer had their own king. Even the idols they honored and trusted so much will be taken to foreign lands as treasure for foreign kings.
The thorn and thistle shall grow on their altars: After the desolation of exile, the once-busy pagan altars of Israel were now overgrown with thorns and thistles. This was the result of Israel’s rejection of the LORD and their embrace of pagan gods.
Break up your fallow ground: God builds on the picture of sowing and reaping by telling Israel to break up your fallow ground – ground that hasn’t been plowed for more than a year. It is ground that is hard and stubborn, resistant to the seed. It does little good to sow seed on fallow ground; it must be broken up first.
Because you trusted in your own way: This is the essence of all sin. We trust in our own way instead of in God’s way. Ruin always comes when we trust in our own way instead of God’s way, and that ruin was about to come upon Israel.
This is from bibletrack.org.
Apparently "king Jareb" is an alternate name for one of the Assyrian kings; the name is also used in Hosea 5:13, but nothing is known of the name. And there's the reference to Gibeah again in verse 9. Maybe it's of little significance here, but don't you find amusing Hosea's "heifer" metaphor in verse 11 referencing Ephraim (Israel) as the calf-worshipping people? And finally, notice verse 13, "Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men." That's it - both Israel and Judah (verse 11) adopted the corrupt practices of wicked men at the exclusion of the one true God.
The other commentaries say the same thing only preachier. Those people had no idea what was coming. I'm pretty sure they heard Hosea in the background but they must have shut him out..... because unlike Nineveh .... they didn't change.Some humans are so stupid..... they don't get it at all. This was a society that was caught up worshiping anything man-made. They thought of themselves as little gods as they learned to carve and smelt. They made lots of cool stuff and apparently they loved what they made so much it changed them. I just had a thought..... God must have felt a rush when He created His first molecule. Perhaps God shared that rushy feeling with humans the first time they carved something..... and it was too much for them... and those stupid humans forgot that God created the first molecule.... and those stupid humans gave credit for the first molecule to themselves.... because creating things feels so good..... creation... their addiction would be creation.
I don't understand why they could murder babies in the horrific manner they did. Didn't they see babies as a creation of their own? Or maybe that's it.... since those stupid humans learned that they could take credit for the first molecule... they took credit for creation of new life and figured since they created it they could destroy it.... or sacrifice it to the god of their choice. Stupid humans.... someone needed to tell them the truth.... oh wait... Hosea was doing that.... but they weren't listening.
It was the priests that were leading them to hell. Idolatrous priests..... preaching to the paycheck and the free housing.... was a real problem.... and the ignorant humans were going to suffer. God warned them to teach their children about their agreement with God.... and they didn't do it.... and they forgot the agreement.... and now they are doomed.
