HOSEA
Hosea’s (Hebrew: salvation) ministry seems to have happened between 750-725 B.C. and he apparently did his prophesying in the Northern Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) until the Northern Kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians in 721 B.C. Nothing more is heard from him after 721 B.C.
Hosea would have been a contemporary of the prophet Isaiah (740-698 B.C.).
HOSEA 1:1-2
1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
2 When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord.”
Hosea is commanded to marry a prostitute and adopt her illegitimate children as a symbol of the relationship between the idolatrous Northern kingdom of Israel and God. Their turning from God to idolatry was being compared to an unfaithful wife leaving her husband for other lovers.
HOSEA 1:3-5
3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 Then the Lord said to him: “Call his name Jezreel, for in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
5 It shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”
God, through a student of the prophet Elisha had anointed a captain of the army of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) named Jehu as king and ordered him to destroy the descendants of house of Ahab, husband of murderous queen Jezebel.
God had prophesied to Ahab through Elisha;
1 KINGS 21:21-26
21 ‘Behold, I will bring calamity on you. I will take away your posterity, and will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, both bond and free.
22 I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, because of the provocation with which you have provoked Me to anger, and made Israel sin.’
23 And concerning Jezebel the Lord also spoke, saying, ‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.’
24 The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Ahab and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field.”
25 But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up.
26 And he behaved very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites had done, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.
Scripture records that Ahab had died (852 B.C.) before God’s command to Jehu, but queen Jezebel was still alive. Jehu had killed Ahab’s son Jehoram in the valley of Jezreel and also killed Ahaziah king of Judah, Jehoram’s nephew at the same time.
He then rode into Samaria, and seeing queen Jezebel mocking him from an upper window, he ordered her thrown down at which time he ran over her with his chariot. Sometime later, he ordered her burial but all that was found of her was her skull, her hands and her feet. She had been devoured by dogs in 842 B.C. as God promised in verse 23 above.
Jehu had then slaughtered all of Ahab’s descendants (70 people) and slaughtered all descendants of king Ahaziah (Jehoram’s nephew), wiping out the house of Ahab in fulfillment of verses 21-22 above.
Jehu is depicted on the “Black Obelisk” (a carved pillar of black stone) as bowing before Assyrian king Shalmaneser III as a vassal (about 841 B.C.), although Scripture is silent concerning this event.
Recently, the “bulla” (clay seal) verified to be that of queen Jezebel was found in the ruins of the royal palace of Samaria.
God prophesies that He will avenge the blood that Jehu shed in the Jezreel valley and will put an end to the Northern Kingdom because of its sins.
HOSEA 1:6-9
6 And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him: “Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away.
7 Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword or battle, by horses or horsemen.”
8 Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son.
9 Then God said: “Call his name Lo-Ammi, for you are not My people, and I will not be your God.
(Lo-Ruhamah - “not pitied”)
(Lo-Ammi - “not My people”)
God shows His displeasure with the Northern Kingdom’s wickedness, declaring that He will no longer be merciful to them and will destroy them as a nation which occurred when the Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom in 721 B.C.
Yet in 701 B.C. 20 years after the destruction of the Northern Kingdom the Assyrians attacked Judah and besieged Jerusalem. True to His word in verse 7 above, overnight God destroyed 185,000 men of the Assyrian army under king Sennacherib, more than likely with a plague. The Assyrian army then left and went home, a fact recorded in Scripture (2 Kings chapters 18, 19), Assyrian annals and on the “Sennacherib prism” (a 6-sided clay pillar found in the ruins of Nineveh, the Assyrian capital).
The prophet Isaiah (himself an eyewitness) recorded;
ISAIAH 37:36-37
36 Then the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead.
37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh.
HOSEA 1:10-11
10 “Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ there it shall be said to them, ‘You are sons of the living God.’
11 Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and appoint for themselves one head; and they shall come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel!
When the Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 721 B.C. the survivors were deported to Assyria and lands East (Media, Elam) as captives. When the Babylonians defeated Assyrian forces under king Nebuchadnezzar II at the battle of Carchemish in 605 B.C., Assyria (and its Jewish captives) came under Babylonian control.
When Babylon conquered Judah in 586 B.C. the surviving Jews were deported as captives to Babylon, where they were met by the remnants of the previously-deported Northern Kingdom of Israel.
In 539 B.C. Persian king Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and allowed all of the Jews to return to Judah where they became one people as prophesied in verse 11 above. And as prophesied in verse 11 above, Zerubbabel (also known as Sheshbazzar), the grandson of former king Jeconiah of Judah was their first governor when they returned as recorded in the book of Ezra.
HOSEA 2:1-3
1 Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’ and to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’
2 “Bring charges against your mother, bring charges; for she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband! Let her put away her harlotries from her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
3 Lest I strip her naked and expose her, as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
God formally charges the Northern Kingdom of Israel with being unfaithful to Him, and promises misery and destruction to its people if they don’t return to Him.
HOSEA 2:4-9
4 “I will not have mercy on her children, for they are the children of harlotry.
5 For their mother has played the harlot; she who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.’
6 “Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and wall her in, so that she cannot find her paths.
7 She will chase her lovers, but not overtake them; yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now.’
8 For she did not know that I gave her grain, new wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold— which they prepared for Baal.
9 “Therefore I will return and take away My grain in its time and My new wine in its season, and will take back My wool and My linen, given to cover her nakedness.
God has had enough of Israel’s sinful acts. He has blessed them with abundance and they attributed it all to Ba’al, and worshiped the pagan gods of the surrounding nations instead. He therefore will withhold His blessings to remind Israel where the blessings of abundance come from.
Israel will seek alliances with the surrounding nations and their gods but will be rejected.
HOSEA 2:10-13
10 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall deliver her from My hand.
11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her New Moons, her Sabbaths— all her appointed feasts.
12 “And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, of which she has said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’ So I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
13 I will punish her for the days of the Baals to which she burned incense. She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but Me she forgot,” says the Lord.
In just a few years, God will bring the brutal Assyrians to destroy the Northen Kingdom of Israel, deporting the survivors to Assyria and lands to the East. As Scripture records;
2 KINGS 17:5-6
5 Now the king of Assyria went throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years.
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
(Hoshea was king of the Northern Kingdom, not to be confused with Hosea, the prophet who wrote the book which bears his name)
HOSEA 2:14-20
14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her.
15 I will give her her vineyards from there, and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
16 “And it shall be, in that day,” says the Lord, “That you will call Me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer call Me ‘My Master,’
17 For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals, and they shall be remembered by their name no more.
18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the creeping things of the ground. Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth, to make them lie down safely.
19 “I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy;
20 I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.
God speaks of a future time when Israel will at last be at peace, and will turn fully to the Lord and will worship Him instead of other gods. His relationship with them will be as a husband to a wife, rather than a Master and servant.
HOSEA 2:21-23
21 “It shall come to pass in that day that I will answer,” says the Lord; “I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth.
22 The earth shall answer with grain, with new wine, and with oil; they shall answer Jezreel.
23 Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; then I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’
And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ ”
Again God speaks of a glorious future for all Israel in which He will greatly bless them and they will fully worship Him. He will no longer afflict or destroy them and they will be His people in truth, forever.
HOSEA 3:1-5
1 Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.”
2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley.
3 And I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man—so, too, will I be toward you.”
4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim.
5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.
Gomer had apparently abandoned her husband (Hosea) and had taken a lover. God commands Hosea to again pay her “bride-price” (a payment to the bride’s parents to compensate for the “loss” of their daughter) and to be her husband again.
15 shekels equals about $1200;
1½ homers equals about 75 gallons (330 liters) dry measure
Speaking through Hosea, God prophesies that Israel will endure a long time without a king or other ruler, without a Temple, idols (teraphim and ‘sacred pillars’) and the like, a promise fulfilled when Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, the Temple and Judah in 586 B.C. and deported the Jews as captives to Babylon for 70 years because of their wickedness in accordance with God’s prophecies through Jeremiah.
For 70 years they had no king, and they had been without a Temple for roughly 70 years. They were also ruled by governors until Edomite (Idumean) Herod the Great declared himself king of Judea and was confirmed as such by the Roman Senate in 37 B.C.
Israel will seek the rule of king David after the return of Jesus and the resurrection of the righteous dead, as God prophesied through Jeremiah;
JEREMIAH 30:9
9 But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
HOSEA 4:1-10
1 Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land.
2 By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint, with bloodshed upon bloodshed.
3 Therefore the land will mourn; and everyone who dwells there will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea will be taken away.
4 “Now let no man contend, or rebuke another; for your people are like those who contend with the priest.
5 Therefore you shall stumble in the day; the prophet also shall stumble with you in the night; and I will destroy your mother.
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
7 “The more they increased, the more they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into shame.
8 They eat up the sin of My people; they set their heart on their iniquity.
9 And it shall be: like people, like priest. So I will punish them for their ways, and reward them for their deeds.
10 For they shall eat, but not have enough; they shall commit harlotry, but not increase; because they have ceased obeying the Lord.
The key to Israel’s problems is identified in verses 1 and 6 above. The priests and scribes have failed in teaching the people God’s commandments, sinful behavior is rampant, none of them repent or seeks after God.
God created the Law of Moses to identify what was sin in His sight so that Man could avoid sinful behavior. But with the failure of the teachers of the Law in teaching the people and the people rejecting such knowledge, God was about to destroy the land and its people for their wickedness.
And in 721 B.C. the Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel and deported its inhabitants to Assyria and lands eastward.
God continues His accusations ;
HOSEA 4:11-14
11 “Harlotry, wine, and new wine enslave the heart.
12 My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, and their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, and they have played the harlot against their God.
13 They offer sacrifices on the mountaintops, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters commit harlotry, and your brides commit adultery.
14 “I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go apart with harlots, and offer sacrifices with a ritual harlot. Therefore people who do not understand will be trampled.
Israel had made themselves ‘Asherah’, wooden pillars or statues representing a Middle-Eastern goddess who was supposedly a consort of Ba’al and was supposedly even a consort to the God of Israel. Numerous times in the Old Testament God commanded the destruction of these idols and images;
EXODUS 34:12-13
12 Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst.
13 But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images;
DEUTERONOMY 12:1-4
1 “These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth.
2 You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.
3 And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place.
4 You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things.
Approximately 80 years after the destruction of the idolatrous Northern Kingdom of Israel, King Josiah of Judah later did as God commanded concerning idols of Asherah and Ba’al which Judah had even installed in the Temple itself;
2 KINGS 23:4-6
4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.
5 Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.
6 And he brought out the wooden image from the house of the Lord, to the Brook Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it at the Brook Kidron and ground it to ashes, and threw its ashes on the graves of the common people.
God said he would not punish the daughters of Israel for their harlotry and the brides for their adultery, both physical and spiritual, as their fathers and husbands were just as guilty, if not more so. He would instead punish them as a whole for their sins, men and women both which He did when He had the Assyrians destroy Samaria in 721 B.C.
HOSEA 4:15-19
15 “Though you, Israel, play the harlot, let not Judah offend. Do not come up to Gilgal, nor go up to Beth Aven, nor swear an oath, saying, ‘As the Lord lives’—
16 “For Israel is stubborn like a stubborn calf; now the Lord will let them forage like a lamb in open country.
17 “Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone.
18 Their drink is rebellion, they commit harlotry continually. Her rulers dearly love dishonor.
19 The wind has wrapped her up in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.
God warns Judah to not sin in the manner of Israel. He also warns against going up to Gilgal (“circle of stones”) or Beth Aven (“House of Iniquity”) in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, both well-known places of pagan worship. He also warns Israel to not use His name any more because their wickedness is so great.
God is going to turn Israel loose to fend for themselves and they will be like an undefended lamb in a hostile territory. He tells Judah to leave Israel alone and soon the wind (the Assyrians) will take them away.
HOSEA 5:1
1 “Hear this, O priests! Take heed, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For yours is the judgment, because you have been a snare to Mizpah and a net spread on Tabor.
The location of Mount Tabor was important as it was located next to the main north / south highway between northern Israel (Galilee) and Judah and the east / west highway through the Jezreel valley.
‘Mizpah’ means “watchtower” and while several places have been called ‘Mizpah’ in the Old Testament, I think that here God is referring to Mount Tabor, which suddenly bulges upward above the surrounding plains and offers a commanding view over the main north / south and
east / west highways through the region.
A fortress here would allow Israel to intercept (and rob) any and all merchant traffic through the region.
HOSEA 5:2-7
2 The revolters are deeply involved in slaughter, though I rebuke them all.
3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me; for now, O Ephraim, you commit harlotry; Israel is defiled.
4 “They do not direct their deeds toward turning to their God, for the spirit of harlotry is in their midst, and they do not know the Lord.
5 The pride of Israel testifies to his face; therefore Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity; Judah also stumbles with them.
6 “With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord, but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn Himself from them.
7 They have dealt treacherously with the Lord, for they have begotten pagan children. Now a New Moon shall devour them and their heritage.
Northern Israel (sometimes called ‘Ephraim’) is totally corrupt, they glory in their corruption, much like the people of the church at the Roman colony of Philippi in the New Testament, which the apostle Paul said;
PHILIPPIANS 3:18-19
18 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.
The Northern Kingdom of Israel was so corrupt that God has withdrawn Himself from them, and even worse, Judah was following their corrupt practices. Therefore God has planned the Northern Kingdom’s destruction.
HOSEA 5:8-10
8 “Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah! Cry aloud at Beth Aven, ‘Look behind you, O Benjamin!’
9 Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke; among the tribes of Israel I make known what is sure.
10 “The princes of Judah are like those who remove a landmark; I will pour out My wrath on them like water.
Ram’s horns and trumpets were warning devices, much like today’s ‘air-raid sirens’, they were blown to warn the populace of approaching enemy forces. People living outside of walled cities could then flee into the cities before the gates were closed and barred.
Moving a landmark was a serious offence as landmarks were used to set the boundaries of a person’s property. Moving a landmark meant that you were stealing another’s land and their inheritance. God had said;
DEUTERONOMY 9:14
14 “You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.
And;
DEUTERONOMY 27:17
17 ‘Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor’s landmark.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
HOSEA 5:11-15
11 Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked by human precept.
12 Therefore I will be to Ephraim like a moth, and to the house of Judah like rottenness.
13 “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to King Jareb; yet he cannot cure you, nor heal you of your wound.
14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them and go away; I will take them away, and no one shall rescue.
15 I will return again to My place till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”
There is no king of Assyria named “Jareb” in any of the annals of the kings of Assyria, but in light of the timeframe involved it was probably another name for either Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727 B.C.); or Shalmaneser V (727–722 B.C.)
In fulfillment of God’s words in verse 14 above, the Northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by Sargon II of Assyria in 721 B.C. who slaughtered the Jews and deported the survivors to Assyria and lands east.
Sargon’s son Sennacherib would later invade Judah during the reign of king Hezekiah (701 B.C.) and while he besieged Jerusalem, he could not take it. Scripture records in 2 Kings, chapters 18-20 that God destroyed 185,000 Assyrians in one night (more than likely by plague) forcing Sennacherib to return home.
It is interesting that the Prism of Sennacherib (a 6-sided clay pillar) denoting his attack on Hezekiah states that he (Sennacherib) “besieged and captured forty-six of his fortified cities, along with many smaller towns, taken in battle with my battering rams. ... I took as plunder 200,150 people, both small and great, male and female, along with a great number of animals including horses, mules, donkeys, camels, oxen, and sheep. As for Hezekiah, I shut him up like a caged bird in his royal city of Jerusalem. I then constructed a series of fortresses around him, and I did not allow anyone to come out of the city gates. His towns which I captured I gave to the kings of Ashod, Ekron, and Gaza.”
Even more interesting is the fact that Sennacherib doesn’t say that he captured Jerusalem, an event verified in Scripture and Assyrian records.
And in fulfillment of verse 15 above, Israel (called Ephraim) did repent of their wickedness, as God told the prophet Jeremiah over 100 years after Israel’s destruction;
JEREMIAH 31:18-19
18 “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself: ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, like an untrained bull; restore me, and I will return, for You are the Lord my God.
19 Surely, after my turning, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck myself on the thigh; I was ashamed, yes, even humiliated, because I bore the reproach of my youth.’
HOSEA 6:1-3
1 Come, and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
2 After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight.
3 Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and former rain to the earth.
A reminder of God’s mercy, in that He punishes in His anger, but He will also heal the penitent when they repent of their wickedness. The “former rain” is the Spring rains which are vital to crop growth, and the “latter rain” is rain in the Fall which moistens and softens the ground for planting after hot, dry summers.
HOSEA 6:4-6
4 “O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do to you? For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud, and like the early dew it goes away.
5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of My mouth; and your judgments are like light that goes forth.
6 For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
God deplores the faithlessness of Israel and Judah. When He blesses them, they fall away and pursue sinful behaviors. God punishes them, they repent and return and the cycle continues.
In verse 6 is the core of God’s nature in that He values genuine mercy more than ritualistic sacrifices which can be performed without faith, reverence or a humble heart.
HOSEA 6:7-11
7 “But like men they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt treacherously with Me.
8 Gilead is a city of evildoers and defiled with blood.
9 As bands of robbers lie in wait for a man, so the company of priests murder on the way to Shechem; surely they commit lewdness.
10 I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the harlotry of Ephraim; Israel is defiled.
11 Also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed for you, when I return the captives of My people.
Shechem and Gilead were both in the territory of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and Shechem was one of the places where idolatrous king Jeroboam I put one of two golden calves for Israel to worship.
10 of the 12 tribes had rebelled against Solomon’s son Rehoboam in approximately 930 B.C. with the 10 tribes forming the Northern Kingdom of Israel and crowned Solomon’s servant Jeroboam as king.
Jeroboam, afraid that his people would defect to Judah to worship at the Jerusalem Temple created two golden calves for Israel to worship. One was placed one in Shechem (near the southern border) and the other in Dan (near the northern border). Scripture states;
1 KINGS 12:28-29
28 Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!”
29 And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.
The priests of Ba’al were rampant in the Northern Kingdom especially when sponsored by murderous queen Jezebel, wife of king Ahab. They destroyed God’s prophets and places of worship, forcing the prophet Elijah to cry out to the Lord;
1 KINGS 19:14
14 And he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”
Gilead was the name given to several locations in the Old Testament, but it is generally agreed that it encompassed a large area of the Northern Kingdom east of the Jordan River. Between Shechem and Gilead, God is saying that the whole Northern Kingdom is defiled with shed blood.
God also promises Judah that they, too, would be reduced because of their sins, causing God to say through the prophet Ezekiel;
EZEKIEL 16:46-47
46 “Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who dwells to the south of you, is Sodom and her daughters.
47 You did not walk in their ways nor act according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you became more corrupt than they in all your ways.
“Daughters” spoken of here refers to cities.
HOSEA 7:1-7
1 “When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered, and the wickedness of Samaria. For they have committed fraud; a thief comes in; a band of robbers takes spoil outside.
2 They do not consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness; now their own deeds have surrounded them; they are before My face.
3 They make a king glad with their wickedness, and princes with their lies.
4 “They are all adulterers. Like an oven heated by a baker— he ceases stirring the fire after kneading the dough, until it is leavened.
5 In the day of our king, princes have made him sick, inflamed with wine; he stretched out his hand with scoffers.
6 They prepare their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait; their baker sleeps all night; in the morning it burns like a flaming fire.
7 They are all hot, like an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings have fallen. None among them calls upon Me.
God compares the wickedness of the people to a continuously-burning oven, destroying everything they touch. They lie to their kings and princes so as to pervert judgment, the princes have made the king drunk and they have corrupted their judges, again to pervert justice in their favor.
HOSEA 7:8-12
8 “Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake unturned.
9 Aliens have devoured his strength, but he does not know it; yes, gray hairs are here and there on him, yet he does not know it.
10 And the pride of Israel testifies to his face, but they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek Him for all this.
11 “Ephraim also is like a silly dove, without sense—they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
12 Wherever they go, I will spread My net on them; I will bring them down like birds of the air; I will chastise them according to what their congregation has heard.
Israel (the Northern Kingdom) had intermarried with the pagan nations surrounding them, strictly forbidden by God;
EXODUS 34:12-16
12 Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst.
13 But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images
14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice,
16 and you take of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods.
Israel had formed tight relations with both Egypt and Assyria, forsaking the Lord and His statutes to their own detriment. They are destroying themselves and don’t even realize it. And like rebellious children who need punishment to get their attention, God is about to punish Israel’s wickedness.
They had also intermarried with the pagans around them and worshiping their pagan gods much as king Solomon before them;
1 KINGS 11:1-8
1 But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites—
2 from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, “You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love.
3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
4 For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.
5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
6 Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David.
7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon.
8 And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
HOSEA 7:13-16
13 “Woe to them, for they have fled from Me! Destruction to them, because they have transgressed against Me! Though I redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against Me.
14 They did not cry out to Me with their heart when they wailed upon their beds. They assemble together for grain and new wine, they rebel against Me;
15 Though I disciplined and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against Me;
16 They return, but not to the Most High; they are like a treacherous bow. Their princes shall fall by the sword for the cursings of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.”
God has blessed and strengthened Israel, but they used His blessings of grain and new wine for their carousing, giving the credit to foreign gods instead of the Lord. God in turn would make them an abomination to both Assyria and Egypt whom they relied on as trading partners.
HOSEA 8:1-6
1 “Set the trumpet to your mouth! He shall come like an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law.
2 Israel will cry to Me, ‘My God, we know You!’
3 Israel has rejected the good; the enemy will pursue him.
4 “They set up kings, but not by Me; they made princes, but I did not acknowledge them. From their silver and gold they made idols for themselves— that they might be cut off.
5 Your calf is rejected, O Samaria! My anger is aroused against them— how long until they attain to innocence?
6 For from Israel is even this: a workman made it, and it is not God; but the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.
God tells Israel to sound the alarm to warn the people that war with the Assyrians is coming. He also calls out Israel’s hypocrisy in that they cry out to God in their distress, but worship idols and perform abominations at the same time.
He also promises that the golden calf they worship will not protect them, but it will be broken up and carried away to Assyria with them.
HOSEA 8:7-10
7 “They sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no bud; it shall never produce meal. If it should produce, aliens would swallow it up.
8 Israel is swallowed up; now they are among the Gentiles like a vessel in which is no pleasure.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey alone by itself; Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 Yes, though they have hired among the nations, now I will gather them; and they shall sorrow a little, because of the burden of the king of princes.
God pronounces all of Israel’s works to be vanity, of no profit because they have sold themselves to sin. It is much like a farmer sowing wheat only to have Darnel (a weed resembling wheat but producing no grain) grow up instead.
Israel sold itself in alliances to the surrounding pagan nations, and those nations would in turn destroy them. The king of Assyria had already conquered many nations and had assigned princes to run them, and Israel would also suffer under the bondage of foreign rulers in foreign lands.
HOSEA 8:11-14
11 “Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin, They have become for him altars for sinning.
12 I have written for him the great things of My law, but they were considered a strange thing.
13 For the sacrifices of My offerings they sacrifice flesh and eat it, but the Lord does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins. They shall return to Egypt.
14 “For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and has built temples; Judah also has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send fire upon his cities, and it shall devour his palaces.”
Israel had built many altars, but to foreign gods. They performed sacrifices, but not to the Lord. They knew the Law of Moses that He had given to them but they did not follow it, instead following the dictates of their wicked hearts and minds.
Therefore God in His wrath prophesied that those who escape the Assyrian assault would return to Egypt, there to die in a sinful land.
Like a cancer, the corruption of Israel had infected Judah, and God would bring punishment upon them also. As He later told the prophet Jeremiah;
JEREMIAH 3:6-11
6 The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: “Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot.
7 And I said, after she had done all these things, ‘Return to Me.’ But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
8 Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.
9 So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.
10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense,” says the Lord.
11 Then the Lord said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.
Like Israel, Judah had created and worshiped gods in the form of sacred wooden pillars of the female fertility goddess Ashtoreth (Asherah) and idols made of stone. Judah is worse than Israel in God’s eyes as they had seen what had happened to Israel, but did not take it to heart or repent of their deeds.
HOSEA 9:1-6
1 Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples, for you have played the harlot against your God. You have made love for hire on every threshing floor.
2 The threshing floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.
3 They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
4 They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, nor shall their sacrifices be pleasing to Him. It shall be like bread of mourners to them; all who eat it shall be defiled. For their bread shall be for their own life; it shall not come into the house of the Lord.
5 What will you do in the appointed day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord?
6 For indeed they are gone because of destruction. Egypt shall gather them up; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their valuables of silver; thorns shall be in their tents.
The Northern Kingdom of Israel had made trade alliances with Assyria and Egypt, selling grain and oil with the idea of “buying them off” so they would leave Israel out of their conquests. But God has promised to take way their blessings of grain and wine, leaving only enough for the people to avoid starvation.
God prophesies that when Assyria attacks, some of the people would flee to Egypt where they would be despised by the Egyptians and would not prosper but would die there. The rest would eat defiled foods in Assyria.
HOSEA 9:7-9
7 The days of punishment have come; the days of recompense have come. Israel knows! The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is insane, because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity.
8 The watchman of Ephraim is with my God; but the prophet is a fowler’s snare in all his ways— enmity in the house of his God.
9 They are deeply corrupted, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity; He will punish their sins.
The “prophets” of the Northern kingdom of Israel are deceiving the people, prophesying lies and out of their own imaginations, much like what had happened approximately 100 years earlier.
King Ahab of the Northern Kingdom wanted to attack the city of Ramoth Gilead and take it back from Syria who had captured it. All of the “prophets” of the Northern Kingdom had prophesied success, but a lone prophet of Judah named Micaiah prophesied defeat. As he told king Ahab;
1 KINGS 22:19-23
19 Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by, on His right hand and on His left.
20 And the Lord said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner.
21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’
22 The Lord said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the Lord said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’
23 Therefore look! The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you.”
And in 852 B.C., king Ahab was killed by the Syrians at Ramoth Gilead just as Micaiah had prophesied. Satan had been a lying spirit in all of the other “prophets” as Micaiah had said, and was a lying spirit in these “prophets” as well.
The “watchman” spoken of here is Hosea who faithfully warned Israel of what was coming. As God would later tell the prophet Ezekiel;
EZEKIEL 33:1-6
1 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
2 “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman,
3 when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people,
4 then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head.
5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life.
6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’
HOSEA 9:10-13
10 “I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal Peor, and separated themselves to that shame; they became an abomination like the thing they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird— no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!
12 Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them to the last man. Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!
13 Just as I saw Ephraim like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place, so Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.”
God had rescued Israel from 430 years of slavery in Egypt, He had destroyed the pursuing Egyptian army and Israel had seen God descend in a dark lightning-filled cloud atop Mount Sinai and had heard His voice speak from the cloud.
Yet shortly afterward they began carousing with the women of Moab and worshiped Ba’al Peor (Aramaic: Master of Peor, a mountain in Moab) and ate sacrifices dedicated to the dead.
PSALMS 106:28-29
28 They joined themselves also to Baal of Peor, and ate sacrifices made to the dead.
29 Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds, and the plague broke out among them.
God in His wrath then destroyed 24,000 Israelites at Ba’al Peor for their sinful acts.
HOSEA 9:14-17
14 Give them, O Lord— what will You give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts!
15 “All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them. Because of the evil of their deeds, I will drive them from My house; I will love them no more. All their princes are rebellious.
16 Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit. Yes, were they to bear children, I would kill the darlings of their womb.”
17 My God will cast them away, because they did not obey Him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
God will greatly reduce their childbearing, I suspect because of all the illegitimate children born of adultery and harlotry. Gilgal was a center of pagan worship and God was about to destroy the Northern Kingdom for their wickedness.
HOSEA 10:1-6
1 Israel empties his vine; he brings forth fruit for himself. According to the multitude of his fruit He has increased the altars; according to the bounty of his land they have embellished his sacred pillars.
2 Their heart is divided; now they are held guilty. He will break down their altars; He will ruin their sacred pillars.
3 For now they say, “We have no king, because we did not fear the Lord. And as for a king, what would he do for us?”
4 They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant. Thus judgment springs up like hemlock in the furrows of the field.
5 The inhabitants of Samaria fear because of the calf of Beth Aven. For its people mourn for it, and its priests shriek for it— because its glory has departed from it.
6 The idol also shall be carried to Assyria as a present for King Jareb. Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.
Israel lavished the fruits of the land upon the altars of their idols. In approximately 722 B.C., Shalmaneser V, king of Assyria besieged Samaria and took king Hoshea hostage to Assyria because he had broken his covenant with Assyria and had tried to join himself to Pharaoh So of Egypt.
2 KINGS 17:1-4
1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years.
2 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel who were before him.
3 Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him; and Hoshea became his vassal, and paid him tribute money.
4 And the king of Assyria uncovered a conspiracy by Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and brought no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.
Thus as in Hosea 10:3 above, Israel had no king.
Beth Aven was one of two places in the Northern Kingdom where king Jeroboam I had placed a golden calf for Israel to worship. The invading Assyrians had sent it to the king of Assyria as captured booty and Israel bewailed the loss of their “god”.
Note: king Hoshea of the Northern Kingdom is not to be confused with Hosea, the prophet of God.
HOSEA 10:7-9
7 As for Samaria, her king is cut off like a twig on the water.
8 Also the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. The thorn and thistle shall grow on their altars; they shall say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
9 “O Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah; there they stood. The battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them.
The battle of Gibeah referred to above is the battle in the Book of Judges that resulted from evil men from the tribe of Benjamin abusing, raping and murdering the concubine of a visiting Levite, an act considered an abomination in Israel.
Israel had demanded that the perpetrators be turned over for justice. The Benjamites refused and war erupted which nearly wiped out the tribe of Benjamin.
HOSEA 10:10-15
10 When it is My desire, I will chasten them. Peoples shall be gathered against them when I bind them for their two transgressions.
11 Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh grain; but I harnessed her fair neck, I will make Ephraim pull a plow. Judah shall plow; Jacob shall break his clods.”
12 Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you.
13 You have plowed wickedness; you have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, because you trusted in your own way, in the multitude of your mighty men.
14 Therefore tumult shall arise among your people, and all your fortresses shall be plundered as Shalman plundered Beth Arbel in the day of battle— a mother dashed in pieces upon her children.
15 Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel, because of your great wickedness. At dawn the king of Israel shall be cut off utterly.
Ephraim loved harvests, but God was about to have them work as slaves in a foreign land. Judah would later be slaves of the Babylonian Empire and in both cases they would eventually return to the Lord that they abandoned.
The location of Beth Arbel (Aramaic: house of God’s court) is unknown but the reference seems to point to a battle with the Assyrians under Shalmaneser V (Shalman) in which mothers were killed trying in vain to protect their children.
Bethel was where king Jeroboam I put one of the two golden calf idols for the people of the Northern Kingdom to worship.
HOSEA 11:1-7
1 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.
2 As they called them, so they went from them; they sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to carved images.
3 “I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms; but they did not know that I healed them.
4 I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them.
5 “He shall not return to the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to repent.
6 And the sword shall slash in his cities, devour his districts, and consume them, because of their own counsels.
7 My people are bent on backsliding from Me. Though they call to the Most High, none at all exalt Him.
God states His case against the Northern Kingdom of Israel. He freed them from 430 years of slavery in Egypt, led them and fed them in the wilderness until they entered the Promised Land (Canaan). But they rebelled, worshiped Ba’als, intermarried with pagan foreigners and worshiped idols.
They relied on Egypt to save them from Assyria, but would not receive help from Egypt. Instead, God will give them up to Assyria, and their worship of God is merely lip-service. Therefore destruction is decreed to them.
HOSEA 11:8-12
8 “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I set you like Zeboiim? My heart churns within Me; My sympathy is stirred.
9 I will not execute the fierceness of My anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim. For I am God, and not man, the Holy One in your midst; and I will not come with terror.
10 “They shall walk after the Lord. He will roar like a lion. When He roars, then His sons shall come trembling from the west;
11 They shall come trembling like a bird from Egypt, like a dove from the land of Assyria. And I will let them dwell in their houses,” says the Lord.
12 “Ephraim has encircled Me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah still walks with God, even with the Holy One who is faithful.
Admah and Zeboiim were two cities located to the west of Sodom and were destroyed by the firestorm that consumed the “cities of the plain” (the Dead Sea valley, also known as the Valley of Salt). This is mentioned in;
DEUTERONOMY 29:23
23 ‘The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and His wrath.’
God, even though He destroyed the Northern Kingdom will not put a total end to the people of the Northern Kingdom. In 612 B.C. the Babylonians conquered Assyria and deported its people to Babylon, including the remnants of the 10 tribes of the Jews from the Northern Kingdom.
In 586 B.C. the Babylonians conquered Judah and deported its people to Babylon where they were met with the Jews of the Northern Kingdom previously deported to Assyria in 721 B.C.
In 539 B.C. the Medes and the Persians conquered Babylon and Persian king Cyrus the Great allowed the captive Jews to return to Judah, thus reuniting the 12 tribes as one people again as denoted in the Biblical book of Ezra.
Verse 11 above was fulfilled when all twelve tribes returned to Judah, and Ezra the priest sacrificed for all twelve tribes;
EZRA 6:16-17
16 Then the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites and the rest of the descendants of the captivity, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.
17 And they offered sacrifices at the dedication of this house of God, one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.
HOSEA 12:1-6
1 “Ephraim feeds on the wind, and pursues the east wind; he daily increases lies and desolation. Also they make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried to Egypt.
2 “The Lord also brings a charge against Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his deeds He will recompense him.
3 He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and in his strength he struggled with God.
4 Yes, he struggled with the Angel and prevailed; he wept, and sought favor from Him. He found Him in Bethel, and there He spoke to us—
5 That is, the Lord God of hosts. The Lord is His memorable name.
6 So you, by the help of your God, return; observe mercy and justice, and wait on your God continually.
The East wind is always described as a hot, dry, destructive wind in Scripture. God describes a fruitful vine subjected to the East wind;
EZEKIEL 17:10
10 Behold, it is planted, Will it thrive? Will it not utterly wither when the east wind touches it? It will wither in the garden terrace where it grew.
God is saying that Ephraim is pursuing his own destruction by cozying up to Assyria to the East.
And by the same token, they are courting disaster by trading with Egypt.
God also reiterates Israel’s and Judah’s history back during the days of their forefather Jacob, showing his strong relationship and prosperity with God.
HOSEA 12:7-11
7 “A cunning Canaanite! Deceitful scales are in his hand; he loves to oppress.
8 And Ephraim said, ‘Surely I have become rich, I have found wealth for myself; in all my labors they shall find in me no iniquity that is sin.’
9 “But I am the Lord your God, ever since the land of Egypt; I will again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast.
10 I have also spoken by the prophets, and have multiplied visions; I have given symbols through the witness of the prophets.”
11 Though Gilead has idols— surely they are vanity— though they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal, indeed their altars shall be heaps in the furrows of the field.
In ancient times, gold and silver coins were weighed to determine their value as unscrupulous people would “trim” metal off the edges making the coin actually less than it’s intended weight and value. That’s why many ancient gold and silver coins that have been recovered are irregularly-shaped.
Grains, flour, and other “dry goods” were also similarly weighed to determine their value. The dry goods were placed on one side of a balanced scale and supposedly standardized weights were placed on the other side to determine the weight of the product.
Balance scales are hard to tamper with, so deceitful merchants would use deceptive weights that were less than their stated value to cheat customers. As God said through the prophet Micah;
MICAH 6:10-11
10 Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the short measure that is an abomination?
11 Shall I count pure those with the wicked scales, and with the bag of deceitful weights?
Just as the Jews lived in tents after coming out of Egypt until they came into Canaan, and God commanded that once a year they live in temporary “booths” to commemorate the event;
LEVITICUS 23:39-43
39 ‘Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest.
40 And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.
41 You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths,
43 that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.’ ”
God promised that Israel will again live in tents, more than likely while on their way to Assyria after their deportation. He also promises that the altars dedicated to their idols will soon be torn down and destroyed.
HOSEA 12:12-14
12 Jacob fled to the country of Syria; Israel served for a spouse, and for a wife he tended sheep.
13 By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved.
14 Ephraim provoked Him to anger most bitterly; therefore his Lord will leave the guilt of his bloodshed upon him, and return his reproach upon him.
God reminds Israel that their forefather Jacob served as a shepherd to his wife Rachel’s father, and that God enriched Jacob even though his wife’s father cheated him concerning his wages many times.
He also reminds them of His intervention through Moses, freeing them from 430 years of slavery in Egypt, and promises to avenge the blood shed by the people of the Northern Kingdom.
HOSEA 13:1-6
1 When Ephraim spoke, trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended through Baal worship, he died.
2 Now they sin more and more, and have made for themselves molded images, idols of their silver, according to their skill; all of it is the work of craftsmen. They say of them, “Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves!”
3 Therefore they shall be like the morning cloud and like the early dew that passes away, like chaff blown off from a threshing floor and like smoke from a chimney.
4 “Yet I am the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but Me; for there is no savior besides Me.
5 I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.
6 When they had pasture, they were filled; they were filled and their heart was exalted; therefore they forgot Me.
God compares Ephraim’s (the Northern Kingdom) past and present behavior. When Israel walked with God, they prospered. When they turned away, they destroyed themselves through idolatry (golden calves), corruption and unrestrained lewd behavior.
God reminds them how He chose them at the beginning, and saved them from bondage in Egypt and led them through the desert. He also points out that no other God did such, as there is no other God but Him.
He also mourns the fact that as soon as they were well-off, they immediately turned their allegiance and worship to other gods, forgetting the God who had provided for them.
HOSEA 13:7-11
7 “So I will be to them like a lion; like a leopard by the road I will lurk;
8 I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs; I will tear open their rib cage, and there I will devour them like a lion. The wild beast shall tear them.
9 “O Israel, you are destroyed, but your help is from Me.
10 I will be your King; where is any other, that he may save you in all your cities? And your judges to whom you said, ‘Give me a king and princes’?
11 I gave you a king in My anger, and took him away in My wrath.
People tend to forget that while God is a loving and merciful God, He is also a God of judgment who punishes sin to restrain Man’s sinful behavior. Sometimes that judgment can be harsh, especially if He pleads for long periods of time but is ignored.
Sometimes He gives them what they want to show them that what they wanted was actually harmful. He uses the example of king Saul when Israel rejected God as their King and wanted an Earthly king. Israel suffered much under Saul’s rule until God destroyed him and replaced him with king David.
HOSEA 13:12-16
12 “The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is stored up.
13 The sorrows of a woman in childbirth shall come upon him. He is an unwise son, for he should not stay long where children are born.
14 “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O grave, I will be your destruction! Pity is hidden from My eyes.”
15 Though he is fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come; the wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness. Then his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up. He shall plunder the treasury of every desirable prize.
16 Samaria is held guilty, for she has rebelled against her God. They shall fall by the sword, their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child ripped open.
Just as birth pains come suddenly upon a woman, so will Assyria suddenly attack Samaria. Though He will not destroy them completely, He will give their treasures to the Assyrians and deprive them of every good thing.
The brutality of the Assyrians was legendary and they were feared throughout the Middle East. They showed no regard or mercy to women and children, and would rip open the stomachs of pregnant women, letting the unborn fetus fall out before the dying mother’s eyes.
Another terror tactic was to plant tall, sharpened stakes in the ground and impale live prisoners on them, letting the victim’s own weight slowly drive the sharpened point through them. They would also skin captives alive and nail the whole skins to the conquered city’s walls. Carvings depicting both impalement and skinning have been found in the ruins of Nineveh, the destroyed ancient capital of Assyria.
The Babylonians were equally brutal, and as God in His fury prophesied through the prophet Ezekiel of Jerusalem’s coming destruction by Babylon;
EZEKIEL 7:23-24
23 ‘Make a chain, for the land is filled with crimes of blood, and the city is full of violence.
24 Therefore I will bring the worst of the Gentiles, and they will possess their houses; I will cause the pomp of the strong to cease, and their holy places shall be defiled.
HOSEA 14:1-7
1 O Israel, return to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity;
2 Take words with you, and return to the Lord. Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity; receive us graciously, for we will offer the sacrifices of our lips.
3 Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride on horses, nor will we say anymore to the work of our hands, ‘You are our gods.’ For in You the fatherless finds mercy.”
4 “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from him.
5 I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall grow like the lily, and lengthen his roots like Lebanon.
6 His branches shall spread; his beauty shall be like an olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon.
7 Those who dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall be revived like grain, and grow like a vine. Their scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
God pleads for Israel to return to Him. If they do, He will again bless them and cause them to flourish and be a blessing among the nations. Lebanon was famous for its fertile soil and the sweet-smelling cedar forests that once covered the land. Thus God compared an obedient Israel to Lebanon.
HOSEA 14:8-9
8 “Ephraim shall say, ‘What have I to do anymore with idols?’ I have heard and observed him. I am like a green cypress tree; Your fruit is found in Me.”
9 Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.
The time would come when the remnant of Ephraim would repent of their wickedness and would return to the Lord. As He later prophesied through Jeremiah;
JEREMIAH 31:18-20
18 “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself: ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, like an untrained bull; restore me, and I will return, for You are the Lord my God.
19 Surely, after my turning, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck myself on the thigh; I was ashamed, yes, even humiliated, because I bore the reproach of my youth.’
20 Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For though I spoke against him, I earnestly remember him still; therefore My heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord.
God indeed kept His promise of destruction and punishment against the Northern Kingdom, but in His mercy He also spared a remnant to return to the Land.
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