Hosea 8
14 verses
Israel has broken God's covenant and rebelled against His law, sowing wind and reaping whirlwind through their kings, princes, and idols fashioned from silver and gold, including the infamous golden calf of Bethel. The prophet condemns Israel's political independence and foreign alliances as betrayals of exclusive covenant loyalty to God, noting that they have set up kings without divine consent and made princes without God's knowledge. The calf idol, the work of human craftsmen, will be broken in pieces because it is not God—a scathing indictment of idolatry's fundamental futility and its violation of the commandment to worship God alone. Israel's religious observances and sacrifices are worthless before God because they are offered in the context of covenant unfaithfulness and idolatrous worship, illustrating again that external forms of piety mean nothing without genuine devotion. The chapter emphasizes the incompatibility between covenant loyalty to God and the pursuit of political autonomy and syncretistic religious practices.
VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER
1
Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.
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2
Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee.
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3
Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him.
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4
They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.
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5
Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency?
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6
For from Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.
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7
For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.
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8
Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.
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9
For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.
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10
Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes.
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11
Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin.
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12
I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.
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13
They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; but the Lord accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.
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God is faithful in every circumstance.. We bring nothing; He provides everything.. The thread of covenant runs through e...
14
For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.
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