View Hosea 8 in the note window.
Almost every verse of this chapter speaks both the sins and punishment
of Israel, ver. 1 - 14.
1: Set the trumpet - The Lord here commands the prophet to publish,
as by sound of trumpet, that which God will bring upon apostate Israel.
He - The king of Assyria. As an eagle - Swift, hungry, surmounting
all difficulties. House of the Lord - The family of Israel, the
Israelites church.
2: Shall cry - But not sincerely.
4: They - Israel. Kings - Shallum, Menahem, Pekah, and
Hosea. Not by me - Not by my direction. Knew it not - Did
not approve of it.
5: Thy calf - The chief idol set up in Samaria.
Cast thee off - Hath provoked God to cast thee off.
Against them - Idols, and idol worshippers.
How long - How long will it be, ere they repent and reform?
6: From Israel - By their invention. It - Both the idol and the
worshippers of it.
7: Sown the wind - A proverbial speech to denote lost labour.
Whirlwind - A tempest, which destroyeth all that is in its way; an
emblem of the wrath of God. No stalk - All your dependance on idols,
and foreign assistance, will be as seed that bear neither stalk nor bud.
No meal - Or suppose it produced stalk and bud, yet the bud shall be
blasted, and never yield meal.
9: Gone up - Israel is like a wild ass. A wild ass - Stubborn,
wild, untamed. Alone - Solitary, where is no path or tract; so they
were in their captivity.
10: Gather them - I will assemble them together, that they may be
taken and destroyed together. A little - For a while before their final
captivity. The burden - The tribute laid on them by the king.
11: Altars - Those which they shall find in Assyria.
To sin - Shall be the occasion of his greater guilt and punishment.
12: Written - By Moses first, by other prophets afterwards.
But they were counted - Israel looks on them, as nothing to them.
13: They shall return - Many shall fly from the Assyrian into
Egypt.
14: Temples - Idol temples. Devour the palaces - This was fulfilled
when all the cities of Judah and Israel were laid in ashes by the
king of Assyria.
