Chapter eight describes Jehovah’s punishments on Israel because of their forsaking of Him.
Like an eagle the enemy would come against the house of Jehovah, because they had trespassed Jehovah’s covenant— Jehovah’s binding of Israel in His holy requirements and righteous terms—and because they had transgressed against Jehovah’s law—Jehovah’s regulating of Israel according to what He is: love, light, holiness, and righteousness (8:1).
Israel had cast off what is good, and the enemy would pursue him (v. 3).
They had set up kings but not by Jehovah. They had set up princes, but Jehovah did not acknowledge it (v. 4a). They had their own way of setting up an authority, and Jehovah objected to it.
With their silver and gold they made idols for themselves, that they might be cut off (v. 4b).
Verse 5a says, “Your calf has cast you off, O Samaria; / My anger burns against them.” Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, and her “calf” was an idol, a golden calf image (cf. 1 Kings 12:28; Exo. 32:4). This idol cast Israel off, and Jehovah’s anger burned against them.
Verse 5b goes on to say, “How long will they be incapable of innocence?” Here to be incapable of innocence means to be incapable of not making idols. Israel lacked the capacity not to make idols; that is, they were very capable and active in making idols. Thus, Hosea was asking when they would lose their capacity to make idols, when they would no longer be able to make idols. The situation of humankind today is the same. Human beings may not be capable of understanding the Bible or of knowing God, but they are very capable in making many things their idols.
Hosea 8:6 says, “For from Israel is this! / A workman made it; / Thus it is no God. / The calf of Samaria / Will be shattered to pieces.” One day God will come in to shatter that idol to pieces.
In making idols they had sown wind and would reap a whirlwind (v. 7a). Because of the whirlwind, they would be lacking in food. For this reason, verse 7b continues, “It has no stalk; should there be a sprout, / It will not produce flour; / If so be that it does produce, / Strangers will swallow it up.”
Israel had been swallowed up and had become among the nations like a vessel in which no one takes pleasure (v. 8). For they had gone up to Assyria like a wild ass alone by itself. Ephraim had hired lovers (v. 9). Though they had hired such among the nations, Jehovah would gather them for their punishment, and they would begin to be diminished because of the burden of the king of the princes (v. 10). Today there is a little nation in Palestine with Jerusalem as its center, but what nation takes pleasure in Israel?
Because Ephraim had multiplied altars, altars would be multiplied to him for sin (v. 11).
Jehovah wrote for Ephraim the ten thousand things of His law, but they were considered a strange thing (v. 12). This means that Ephraim, the kingdom of Israel, did not care for God’s law. No matter how many items God wrote, Ephraim did not care for them.
As for the sacrifices of Jehovah’s offerings, they sacrificed flesh and ate it, but Jehovah had no delight in them. He would remember their iniquity and would punish their sins, and they would return to Egypt (v. 13).
Israel had forgotten his Maker and had built palaces, and Judah had multiplied fortified cities. But Jehovah would send fire into his cities, and it would devour its palaces (v. 14).
The minor prophets spoke concerning the evils, the rottenness, and the corruption of Israel, but Israel was stubborn and would not listen to them. Eventually, God was forced to send Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army as the fire to judge, to punish, and to chastise His rebellious and apostate people.