Hosea 10
Israel's Prosperity and Idolatry 1–8
The Deep Roots of Israel's Sin 9–11
A Call to Repentance and Righteousness 12–15
Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain
Study Notes for Hosea 10
Verse 1
Israel is an empty vine — ‘Empty’ is baqaq, which can mean emptied or spread out like a fruitful vine. Israel is the LORD’s vine (Ps 80:8; Isa 5:1; Jer 2:21, ‘a noble vine… the degenerate plant of a strange vine’). The more fruit it bore, the more it ‘increased the altars’ (8:11) and made ‘goodly images’ (matstsebah, the pillars of 3:4).
Verse 2
Their heart is divided — ‘Divided’ is chalaq, to apportion or smooth, and ‘found faulty’ is asham, to be guilty, the verb of 4:15 and 5:15. Elijah put the same question to Israel: ‘How long halt ye between two opinions?’ (1 Kgs 18:21). ‘Break down’ is araph, to break the neck, the verb of ‘thou shalt break his neck’ in Exod 13:13.
Verse 3
We have no king — The saying echoes 3:4, ‘without a king’. ‘Feared’ is yare, to fear or revere; 3:5 says Israel ‘shall fear the LORD and his goodness’ (pachad). The question ‘what then should a king do to us?’ meets the LORD’s own word: ‘I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath’ (13:11).
Verse 4
swearing falsely in making a covenant — ‘Making’ is karat, to cut, the verb for cutting a covenant (Gen 15:18), and ‘swearing’ is alah, the word of 4:2. The commandment was ‘ye shall not swear by my name falsely’ (Lev 19:12). ‘Hemlock’ (rosh) is a bitter plant, named in ‘the fruit of righteousness into hemlock’ (Amos 6:12).
Verse 5
the calves of Bethaven — ‘Calves’ (eglah) is the feminine word, the same as ‘heifer’ in v.11. ‘Bethaven’ is Hosea’s name for Bethel’s shrine (see 10:15). The ‘priests’ are kemarim, idolatrous priests, a word found only here, in 2 Kgs 23:5 and in Zeph 1:4. The ‘glory’ (kavod) that ‘is departed’ is the glory the LORD said he would change into shame (4:7).
Verse 6
king Jareb — The name is found only here and in 5:13. The ‘present’ (minchah) is the word for the meal offering of Lev 2:1, here a tribute sent to Assyria. ‘Shame’ is boshnah, a word found only here. ‘Counsel’ (etsah) recalls the king who ‘took counsel, and made two calves of gold’ (1 Kgs 12:28).
Verse 7
her king is cut off as the foam — ‘Cut off’ is damah, the verb of 4:5–6 and 10:15. ‘Foam’ is qetseph, which elsewhere means wrath, and also a splinter or chip; a chip on the water is carried away by the stream. The king of Samaria is named as the one whose rule goes with the calf of v.5.
Verse 8
the high places also of Aven — Aven is ‘iniquity’, the short form of the name Bethaven in v.5. The high places are ‘the sin of Israel’. ‘The thorn and the thistle’ return from the curse of Gen 3:18. Christ says of the days of judgment, ‘to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us’ (Luke 23:30; cf. Rev 6:16).
Verse 9
from the days of Gibeah — The sin of Gibeah (Judg 19:22; 20:5) was named in 9:9. ‘There they stood’ (amad) is the verb for remaining in it. The ‘battle in Gibeah’ is the war of Judg 20 against the ‘children of iniquity’ (alvah), and the closing clause can be read as a statement, as in the KJV, or as a question.
Verse 10
It is in my desire that I should chastise them — ‘Desire’ is avvah, the LORD’s own longing, and ‘chastise’ is yasar, the verb of 7:12 and root of musar in 5:2. ‘The people shall be gathered against them’, as 8:10 says ‘now will I gather them’. ‘Furrows’ translates the Hebrew ayin, ‘eyes’, and the clause is hard to render.
Verse 11
Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught — ‘Heifer’ is eglah, the word of v.5, a different word from the stubborn parah of 4:16. She ‘loveth to tread out the corn’, the work in which the ox was not muzzled (Deut 25:4). The LORD lays the yoke on her ‘fair neck’, so that treading gives way to the plough: ‘Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods’.
Verse 12
Sow to yourselves in righteousness — The farming of vv.4, 13 is reversed. ‘Mercy’ is chesed, as in 4:1 and 6:6. ‘Break up your fallow ground’ is also Jeremiah’s word to Judah (Jer 4:3). ‘Rain’ is yarah, the verb of ‘former rain’ in 6:3, and Isaiah has the same longing, ‘let the skies pour down righteousness’ (Isa 45:8).
Verse 13
Ye have plowed wickedness — The plowing and reaping continue from v.12, now of ‘wickedness’ and ‘iniquity’, and the harvest is ‘the fruit of lies’ (kachash, as in 7:3). ‘He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity’ (Prov 22:8). Israel trusts ‘in thy way’ and in ‘mighty men’, while ‘Some trust in chariots, and some in horses’ (Ps 20:7).
Verse 14
as Shalman spoiled Betharbel — Shalman and Betharbel are named only here in Scripture, so the passage itself says no more of the event than that it was a day of battle. ‘Dashed in pieces’ is ratash; the same fate of children is told in 13:16, ‘their infants shall be dashed in pieces’, and in 2 Kgs 8:12.
Verse 15
So shall Bethel do unto you — Bethel, ‘house of God’, is called by its own name here, after ‘Bethaven’ in v.5, the place where the calf stood (1 Kgs 12:29); Amos says ‘Bethel shall come to nought’ (Amos 5:5). ‘Cut off’ is damah twice over, and ‘morning’ (shachar) is the word of 6:3, where the LORD’s coming is ‘prepared as the morning’.