Reflections on Hosea 10

Hosea 10 (Contemporary English Version)


1. You were a healthy vine covered with grapes. But the more grapes you grew, the more altars you built; the better off you became, the better shrines you set up for pagan gods.
   
2. You are deceitful and disloyal. So you will pay for your sins, because the LORD will destroy your altars and images.
   
3. "We don't have a king," you will say. "We don't fear the LORD. And what good are kings?"
   
4. Israel, you break treaties and don't keep promises; you turn justice into poisonous weeds where healthy plants should grow.
   
5. All who live in Samaria tremble with concern for the idols at sinful Bethel. The idol there was the pride of the priests, but it has been put to shame; now everyone will cry.
   
6. It will be taken to Assyria and given to the great king. Then Israel will be disgraced for worshiping that idol.
   
7. Like a twig in a stream, the king of Samaria will be swept away.
   
8. The altars at sinful Bethel will be destroyed for causing Israel to sin; they will be grown over with thorns and thistles. Then everyone will beg the mountains and hills to cover and protect them.
   
9. Israel, you have never stopped sinning since that time at Gibeah. That's why you will be attacked at Gibeah.
   
10. Your sins have doubled, and you are rebellious. Now I have decided to send nations to attack and put you in chains.
    
11. Once you were obedient like a calf that loved to thresh grain. But I will put a harness on your powerful neck; you and Judah must plow and cultivate the ground.
    
12. Plow your fields, scatter seeds of justice, and harvest faithfulness. Worship me, the LORD, and I will send my saving power down like rain.
    
13. You have planted evil, harvested injustice, and eaten the fruit of your lies. You trusted your own strength and your powerful forces.
    
14. So war will break out, and your fortresses will be destroyed. Your enemies will do to you what Shalman did to the people of Beth-Arbel-- mothers and their children will be beaten to death against rocks.
    
15. Bethel, this will be your fate because of your evil. Israel, at dawn your king will be killed.
    

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Hosea has alluded to a previous gross sin in Israel, both in chapter 9 and now in this chapter, to which I should give attention. Hosea 9:9 says, "They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their guilt; He will punish their sins." Now, in 10:9 we are told, "Israel, you have sinned since the days of Gibeah; they have taken their stand there. Will not war against the unjust overtake them in Gibeah?" What is this sin in the 'days of Gibeah' to which Hosea alludes? The account of this sin is found in Judges chapter 19. In short, a Levite, traveling with his servant and a concubine, stopped over in Gibeah to spend the night. Some bisexual men, referred to in the Judges passage as "perverted men of the city," came to the house and insisted that the owner of the house send out the Levite and his servant so they could have sex with them. The owner pleaded with them not to do this "No, don't do this evil," but they insisted. Ultimately, they took the concubine and had sex with her all night and she returned to the house at daylight and died on the doorstep. Judges 19:30 concludes the account with the words, "Everyone who saw it said, "Nothing like this has ever happened or been seen since the day the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt to this day." It is this sin to which Hosea refers when he says in 10:9, "Israel, you have sinned since the days of Gibeah" It is as if that event in Gibeah was the beginning of a downward spiral for Israel.

Evidently similar activity was going on in Hosea's day that rivaled that sin in Gibeah. It would be in Gibeah where war was to overtake Israel. Verse 10 speaks of Israel's two crimes which seems to be a reference to that occurrence in Gibeah and what was happening in Hosea's day. Both of the same nature. This perversion in Israel and God's judgment of it is too obvious not to mention this same perversion in our own day.

In addition to this sin, Hosea also keeps referring to Israel's sin of crediting what God has given them to other gods. This is the point in verse 1, "The more his fruit increased, the more he increased the altars. The better his land produced, the better they made the sacred pillars." As Israel's fruit increased the more she worshiped these other gods as if they had provided the increase. Furthermore, Israel no longer had respect for the Lord nor respect for the agreements she made with other people. They took false oaths when making an agreement and the result was an outbreak of lawsuits. Anything sound familiar about this?

The result of Israel's sin was war, defeat, and exile. Their beloved idols would be carried off to Assyria, their king would disappear, and they would become so distressed with what was happening to them that they would cry out for the hills to fall on them. Verses 13 and 14 serve as a good summary, both of the sin and the punishment, "You have plowed wickedness and reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in your large number of soldiers, the roar of battle will rise against your people, and all your fortifications will be demolished in a day of war, like Shalman's destruction of Beth-arbel. Mothers will be dashed to pieces along with their children."