Hosea 8

This chapter belongs to the section of Hosea, beginning in chapter 4, that brings charges against the northern kingdom of Israel and pronounces judgment upon it. Hosea 7 rebuked Ephraim's diplomacy, which wavered between Egypt and Assyria, as well as the corruption of the royal court. This chapter continues with a call to sound the trumpet in alarm and then addresses, in turn, the nation's failures in kingship, idolatry, foreign policy, and sacrifice.

Outline

• Verses 1–3 God commands that the trumpet be sounded and warns that the enemy will swoop down upon the house of the LORD like an eagle. Israel, having transgressed the covenant and the law, will cry out, "My God, we know thee," yet it has already "cast off the thing that is good."
• Verses 4–6 The people are charged with setting up kings and princes (high officials) without God and with making idols of silver and gold. "The calf of Samaria" was made by a workman; it is therefore not God and "shall be broken in pieces."
• Verses 7–10 The image "they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind" describes the outcome of a futile course. Israel is rebuked as being among the nations like a vessel in which there is no pleasure, and as having gone up to Assyria alone like a wild donkey, hiring lovers for a price.
• Verses 11–13 Ephraim built many altars, but those altars became places that led to sin. The written law was counted as something foreign, and God takes no pleasure in their offerings. Therefore it is said that "they shall return to Egypt."
• Verse 14 Israel forgot its Maker and built palaces (KJV "temples"), and Judah multiplied fortified cities. God declares that He will send a fire upon those cities.

Key Verses

• Hosea 8:7 "They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind." This is the chapter's central image: whoever sows what is empty reaps a greater calamity. A separate article, Hosea 8:7, treats this verse.
• Hosea 8:4 "They have set up kings, but not by me." This verse indicts political rule that has departed from God.
• Hosea 8:13 "The LORD accepteth them not." This verse illustrates the prophetic theme of rejecting sacrifice offered without the heart.

People and Places

• Israel and Ephraim: In this chapter both names refer to the northern kingdom. Ephraim was the leading tribe of the northern kingdom.
• Samaria: The capital of the northern kingdom, used here as a name representing the nation as a whole.
• Assyria: The great power on which northern Israel relied and to which it paid tribute.
• Egypt: The land of bondage before the Exodus. The statement that they will "return" there is read as a warning that the history of salvation is being reversed.
• Judah: The southern kingdom, which shares in the judgment in verse 14.

Points for Reflection

• The calf of Samaria is commonly interpreted as the golden calves that Jeroboam set up at Bethel and Dan after the division of the kingdom (1 Kings 12:28–29). Some also read it alongside the golden calf incident of Exodus 32.
• Many interpreters see verse 4 against the background of the successive usurpations of the throne recorded in 2 Kings 15. Other views hold that the verse criticizes the institution of monarchy itself, or that it criticizes the northern kingdom's monarchy for having departed from the Davidic dynasty.
• Interpretations of "the house of the LORD" in verse 1 are divided: some take it to mean the temple, while others take it to mean God's people or land.
• The critique of sacrifice in verse 13 follows the same line of thought as Hosea 6:6. Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6 in Matthew 9:13 and Matthew 12:7. The principle of sowing and reaping in verse 7 is often read together with Galatians 6:7–8 (see Galatians 6:8–10).
• The expression "I will send a fire" in verse 14 resembles the judgment oracles of Amos, such as Amos 2:5. The warnings of this chapter culminate in the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel.

In the Korean Church

The expression in verse 7, "they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind," is frequently cited in sermons on the consequences of sin or on the theme of reaping what one sows.