Hosea 10

Israel was a spreading vine that produced fruit for itself. The more fruit it produced, the more altars it built. The better its land yielded, the finer it made its sacred stone pillars.

1Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.

NoteSacred stone pillars were upright standing stones set up at a place of worship to mark it as holy ground; they were a normal feature of Canaanite religion and were repeatedly banned in Israel's law. The word translated 'spreading' can also mean 'luxuriant' or, as the King James took it, 'empty', the Hebrew root suggests a vine running wild and putting all its strength into itself.

2Their hearts are false, and now they must carry their guilt. The LORD will break down their altars and smash their sacred stone pillars.

2Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images.

3Soon they will say, "We have no king, because we did not respect the LORD. And what could a king do for us anyway?"

3For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the LORD; what then should a king do to us?

4They say a lot of words. They swear oaths they do not mean and make agreements on them. So justice springs up like poisonous weeds in the plowed rows of a field.

4They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.

NoteThe 'agreements' are most likely political treaties, Israel's rulers in this period swore alliances with Egypt and Assyria and broke them. The image in the second half is deliberately jarring: legal verdicts sprout like a rank poisonous weed in the neat furrows a farmer has just plowed. The King James 'hemlock' stands for a bitter or poisonous plant; the exact species is uncertain.

5The people of Samaria will be afraid for the calf idol at Beth-aven. Its people will mourn over it, and so will the priests who served it and were glad about its splendor, because that splendor has been taken away from it.

5The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it.

NoteSamaria was the capital city of the northern kingdom, called Israel or Ephraim, as distinct from the southern kingdom of Judah with its capital Jerusalem. Beth-aven means 'house of wickedness' or 'house of nothing'; it is Hosea's mocking nickname for Bethel, whose name means 'house of God'. The calf was a golden bull-calf image set up at Bethel by King Jeroboam when the northern tribes broke away, so that his people would not travel south to Jerusalem to worship.

6The idol itself will be carried off to Assyria as tribute for the great king. Ephraim will be covered with shame, and Israel will be ashamed of the plan it chose.

6It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.

NoteAssyria was the dominant empire of the day, based in what is now northern Iraq; smaller kingdoms bought its protection with tribute, and it deported the populations of states it conquered. The King James 'king Jareb' treats the Hebrew as a personal name; it is more probably a title or a pun, 'the great king' or 'the king who contends', and no Assyrian king named Jareb is known. Ephraim was the largest tribe of the north, and prophets often use its name for the whole northern kingdom.

7As for Samaria, her king is swept away like a twig floating on the surface of the water.

7As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water.

8The hilltop shrines of Aven, which are Israel's sin, will be destroyed. Thorns and thistles will grow up over their altars. Then the people will say to the mountains, "Cover us!" and to the hills, "Fall on us!"

8The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.

NoteHilltop shrines were open-air worship sites, usually on high ground, with an altar, a stone pillar and often a sacred pole or tree. 'Aven' here is a shortened form of Beth-aven, the mocking name for Bethel in verse 5. Calling on the mountains to fall on you is a cry for a quick death rather than capture, the same words are quoted later in Luke 23:30 and Revelation 6:16.

9O Israel, you have been sinning since the days of Gibeah, and there you have stayed. Did the battle at Gibeah not catch up with those wicked men?

9O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them.

NoteGibeah was a town in Benjamin, the site of an atrocity described in Judges 19–21: a traveling woman was gang-raped and killed there, and the resulting war nearly wiped out the tribe of Benjamin. Hosea treats it as the point where Israel's corruption began. The second half of the verse is ambiguous in Hebrew and can be read either as a statement ('the battle did not overtake them') or as a question expecting the answer yes, as the plain rendering takes it.

10I will punish them when I choose. Nations will be gathered against them, and they will be tied up for their double sin.

10It is in my desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows.

NoteThe Hebrew behind 'their double sin' is uncertain; the King James read the same consonants as 'their two furrows', an image from plowing, while other ancient copies point to 'their two wrongs' or 'their double guilt'. 'Tied up' or 'bound' refers to being yoked like an animal or fettered like a prisoner of war.

11Ephraim is a well-trained young cow that likes to tread out the grain. But I will put a yoke on her smooth neck. I will harness Ephraim; Judah will plow, and Jacob will break up the hard ground.

11And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.

NoteTreading out grain was the easy job: an ox walked loose over the cut stalks on a threshing floor to separate the grain, and by law it was not to be muzzled, so it could eat as it worked. Plowing was the hard job, done under a yoke. The point of the contrast is a shift from light work to heavy labor. 'Jacob' is another name for Israel, taken from the ancestor of the twelve tribes.

12Plant righteousness for yourselves, and harvest a crop of faithful love. Break up your unplowed ground. It is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and rains righteousness down on you.

12Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.

NoteThe word rendered 'faithful love' is Hebrew *hesed*, the loyalty owed within a binding relationship: it covers kindness, steadfastness and keeping faith, and no single English word carries all of it. 'Unplowed ground' translates 'fallow ground': land left uncultivated long enough to harden and grow over, which has to be broken up before it can take seed.

13You have plowed wickedness and harvested injustice. You have eaten the fruit of lies. You trusted in your own way and in your many strong soldiers.

13Ye 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.

14So the roar of battle will rise against your people, and all your strongholds will be wrecked, the way Shalman wrecked Beth-arbel on the day of battle, when mothers were smashed to pieces along with their children.

14Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman spoiled Betharbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.

NoteNeither Shalman nor Beth-arbel can be identified with certainty; Hosea is citing an atrocity his hearers would have remembered, as we might name a recent massacre. Shalman may be a shortened form of the Assyrian royal name Shalmaneser, or a Moabite king known from Assyrian records. Killing mothers and children when a town fell was standard practice in ancient warfare and is named here as the horror it was.

15This is what will be done to you, Bethel, because your wickedness is so great. When the day dawns, the king of Israel will be completely cut off.

15So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.

NoteBethel, whose name means 'house of God', was the northern kingdom's chief shrine and the home of the calf image of verse 5. Some ancient copies read 'house of Israel' here instead. 'When the day dawns' translates a phrase that can mean either at daybreak or, more loosely, in a single morning: that is, suddenly and completely.