Hosea 7

When I set out to heal Israel, the guilt of Ephraim was uncovered, and the crimes of Samaria came into the open. They practice deceit. Thieves break into houses, and bands of robbers raid in the streets.

1When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.

NoteEphraim, Israel, and Samaria all name the same thing here: the northern kingdom. After Solomon's death the nation split in two, and the northern half kept the name Israel; Ephraim was its largest tribe and stood for the whole; Samaria was its capital city. Hosea preached to this northern kingdom in its last decades, before Assyria destroyed it in 722 BC.

2They never stop to think that I remember every evil thing they do. Now their own deeds surround them on every side. They are right in front of my face.

2And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.

3They make the king happy with their evil, and they please the officials with their lies.

3They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

4They are all adulterers. They are like an oven heated by a baker, who stops stirring the fire from the time he kneads the dough until it has risen.

4They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.

NoteCalling them adulterers works on two levels in Hosea. Literal sexual misconduct is meant, but the book's running comparison is of the bond between the LORD and Israel as a marriage, so that turning to other gods counts as unfaithfulness by a spouse. Both senses are in play whenever the word appears. The oven is a clay or stone dome with a fire built inside it. Once heated, it holds its heat, so between kneading the dough and the dough rising the baker can leave the fire alone and it stays hot on its own.

5On the day of our king, the officials made themselves sick with jars of wine, and he reached out his hand to men who mock.

5In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.

Note"The day of our king" seems to be a fixed royal occasion, most likely the anniversary of his accession or a court festival, though the text does not say which. Reaching out or joining hands was a public gesture sealing an agreement or declaring friendship. The king clasps hands with the very men who are mocking him.

6They get their hearts ready like an oven while they lie in wait. Their baker sleeps all night long, and in the morning the oven blazes like a roaring fire.

6For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.

NoteThis verse is one of the hardest in the book. The Hebrew consonants can be read as "their baker sleeps," which the King James follows, or with a small change as "their anger smolders", the two Hebrew words look nearly identical. Either way the picture is the same: something is left burning low overnight and flares up at dawn.

7All of them are as hot as an oven, and they eat up their own rulers. All their kings have fallen. Not one of them calls out to me.

7They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.

Note"They eat up their own rulers" points to real events. In Hosea's lifetime the northern kingdom went through a run of assassinations: four of its last kings were murdered by the men who then took their thrones, in the space of about twenty-five years.

8Ephraim mixes himself in with the other nations. Ephraim is a flat cake that was never turned over.

8Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

Note"Mixes himself in" is the ordinary Hebrew word for stirring flour into oil, which is why the baking image follows straight on. What it describes is the northern kingdom entangling itself with foreign powers by treaty and adopting their ways. Flat bread was baked on a hot stone or griddle and had to be flipped. Left unturned it comes out charred underneath and still raw on top, useless either way.

9Foreigners eat up his strength, and he does not notice it. Gray hairs are showing here and there on him, and he does not know it.

9Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.

NoteGray hair here is a sign of strength quietly draining away with age. The point of the image is that it happens gradually enough that the man himself does not notice.

10Israel's pride speaks against him to his own face. Even so, they do not come back to the LORD their God, and they do not look for him, in spite of all this.

10And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all this.

Note"Speaks against him" is courtroom language: pride stands up as a witness giving evidence against Israel in a trial.

11Ephraim is like a dove, easily fooled and with no sense at all. They call out to Egypt, then they go running to Assyria.

11Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.

NoteThe dove was proverbial for fluttering about in a panic without direction. The two destinations are the great powers of the day: Egypt to the southwest and Assyria to the northeast. Israel's kings tried to survive by playing one against the other, near the end, King Hoshea was paying tribute to Assyria while secretly sending envoys to Egypt for help.

12When they go, I will spread my net over them. I will bring them down like birds out of the sky. I will punish them, just as their assembly has been told.

12When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard.

NoteBird catchers spread a large net over a flock feeding on the ground and pulled it shut, taking the whole flock at once. The last clause is obscure in Hebrew. It has been read as "as their assembly has been told" (that is, according to warnings already announced publicly) and also as "when I hear them flocking together," continuing the bird image. The ambiguity is in the original.

13How terrible for them, because they have run away from me! Ruin is coming to them, because they have rebelled against me. I would set them free, but they tell lies about me.

13Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.

Note"Set them free" translates a word meaning to buy someone back, paying a price to release a relative from slavery or debt. Used of God and Israel it normally recalls the escape from slavery in Egypt.

14They do not cry out to me from their hearts, even when they wail on their beds. They gather together for grain and new wine, and they turn against me.

14And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me.

NoteWailing on beds is the posture of formal mourning or of loud pleading in distress. The next line is another textual crux. The traditional Hebrew reads "they gather themselves"; ancient manuscripts and versions differ, and many read "they gash themselves", cutting one's own skin was a mourning custom and also a way of getting a god's attention in the fertility rites of the region. Grain and new wine, the freshly pressed juice of the harvest, are what such rites were meant to secure.

15I was the one who trained their arms and made them strong, and yet they keep planning harm against me.

15Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me.

NoteTraining and strengthening the arms is military language: teaching a man to handle weapons and draw a bow. It sets up the failed bow in the next verse.

16They turn, but not to the Most High. They are like a bow that shoots crooked. Their officials will fall by the sword because of their raging talk, and for this they will be laughed at in the land of Egypt.

16They return, but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

NoteA bow that shoots crooked is one that has warped or gone slack, so the arrow flies wide however carefully it is aimed (the archer cannot rely on it. Hebrew idiom calls it a "bow of deceit," a bow that lets you down. The phrase behind "not to the Most High" is uncertain. It can mean they turn to something other than God, or simply that they turn but not upward) that is, to no purpose at all. Egypt is named because that is where they had gone looking for help; the mockery comes from the very allies they courted.