Hoseachapter 8
14 verses · Hosea · 755 to 715 BC · The Twelve
He has rejected your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?
Introduction
Hosea, The Twelve, Hosea Overview.
Hosea spoke this chapter in the last years before Samaria fell, about 730 to 725 BC, when Israel was paying heavy tribute abroad and building altars at home. It opens with the alarm a watchman sounded when an army came into view. Its target is the two things that held the kingdom together, its kings and the calf worship of the state. Its hearers were farmers, and the chapter reasons with them from sowing and harvest. Listen for the saying about the wind that became a proverb from this chapter. Listen too for the charge about the law God had written for His people.
Context
- Who
- Israelites paying tribute abroad and offering sacrifices at home
- What
- An alarm sounded over Israel for making kings without God, worshipping the calf of Samaria, buying foreign allies and multiplying altars.
- Where
- The northern kingdom, with the calf of Samaria at the centre of its worship and its envoys sent to Assyria.
- When
- About 730 to 725 BC, in the final years before Samaria's fall, while Israel paid tribute abroad; the date is approximate.
- Why
- To warn the nation that its self-made kings, its state religion and its purchased alliances would bring a harvest of judgment.
Historical context
The horn at the start is a ram's horn used as an air-raid siren. A watchman on a city wall or a hilltop blew it when troops were sighted, and every farmer in the valley knew to run for the walls. Opening a message with that sound told hearers what kind of message it was before a word was spoken.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The calf of Samaria is the state religion. Two centuries earlier the first Jeroboam had set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan so that northerners would not travel to Jerusalem to worship, and the shrines had operated ever since. Hosea's line, a craftsman made it, and it is not God, attacks the one institution that held the kingdom's identity together.
Hiring lovers among the nations describes literal payments. The Bible records Menahem of Israel handing Assyria a thousand talents of silver, raised by a levy on every wealthy man in the land, and Assyrian royal inscriptions independently list Menahem of Samaria among the kings who paid tribute. Israel really was buying friends by the ton.
The wild donkey wandering alone is a picture of the opposite policy, going off by itself, unowned and unprotected. Hosea uses both images because Israel kept trying both, and neither was covenant loyalty.
Significance
They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind became proverb because it names something farmers understood instantly: what you put in the ground decides what comes out of it, and the harvest is always bigger than the sowing.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The most cutting charge is that Israel had multiplied altars for sinning. Religious activity was up. Building was up. And God says he wrote them the great things of his law and they were regarded as a strange thing, the book was there, and nobody read it.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts, and it carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days. This card therefore names no public reading of the chapter and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the twelfth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Ki Tisa 17:1.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries. He is quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY, and every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern. His lemmas, which carry the verse in that translation's wording, are never quoted.
Rashi reads the trumpet of the first verse, after Jonathan, as a charge to the prophet. "The Shechinah says to the prophet: Let the voice of your palate be heard, and call like a shophar" (Rashi on Hosea 8:1:1). The cry of the people at the second verse he rearranges to read, and hears God refusing to heed it (Rashi on Hosea 8:2:2).
At the fourth verse he gives two readings of the verb for setting up princes. In the second "they removed this one from the throne and crowned this one". He supports it from the Masorah, which lists the word as written with a shin and read as a samech (Rashi on Hosea 8:4:1). The calf of Samaria is "the calves in Bethel, where the kings of Israel worship" (Rashi on Hosea 8:5:1). It was made from silver and gold collected from every Israelite, and "this calf came from them like the first calf" (Rashi on Hosea 8:6:1).
The judgment of the chapter carries a promise inside it. At the tenth verse Rashi reads the gathering as redemption: "When the time of their redemption arrives, I will not delay it" (Rashi on Hosea 8:10:2). At the twelfth he reads the written law as constant warning: "I constantly reprimand them through My prophets, and write for them the great things of My Law" (Rashi on Hosea 8:12:1).
The corpus carries five further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Hosea 8:1:1, 8:3:1, 8:8:1 and 8:14:1. The corpus cites Radak on Hosea 8:8:1 the same way.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries thirty-eight rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the second verse it holds Pesikta Rabbati 31:1. On the third verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 15:1, Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 2, Jerusalem Talmud Rosh Hashanah 3:8:2 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations 1:21:1. It holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations 3:17:1, Midrash Tehillim 60:2 and Pesikta DeRav Kahana 15:5 there as well. On the fourth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 28:7, Devarim Rabbah 2:19, Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 7:7:6 and Vayikra Rabbah 33:6.
On the sixth verse it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 16:10:118. On the eighth verse it holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations 2:2:1. On the tenth verse it holds Bava Batra 8a:4, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Batra 1:6, Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 1:5, Pesikta DeRav Kahana 6:3 and Pesikta Rabbati 16:1. It holds Vayikra Rabbah 7:3, Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 479:18, Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 776:14 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 951:28 there as well. On the eleventh verse it holds Sifrei Devarim 65:2.
On the twelfth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 14:10, Ein Yaakov, Gittin 5:29, Gittin 60b:2, Jerusalem Talmud Chagigah 1:8:10, Jerusalem Talmud Peah 2:4:4 and Jerusalem Talmud Peah 2:4:5. It holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Ki Tisa 17:1, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 6:2, Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 34:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Vayera 5:3 there as well. It holds Pesikta Rabbati 5:1, Shemot Rabbah 47:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 404:4 there as well. On the fourteenth verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 5:4:10. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Hosea 8:1:1 to 8:12:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Hosea 8:1:1, 8:3:1, 8:8:1 and 8:14:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Hosea 8:8:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/hosea/8.json, the 38 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion and no Haftarah for this chapter and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The calf of Samaria: a workman made it, it is no god
Hosea 8:1-3
Put the ram’s horn: The chapter opens with an alarm, "Put the ram’s horn to your lips!", because the people "have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law". Israel still says the right words, "O our God, we know You!", while its life has "rejected good".
Hosea 8:1
"Let the trumpet be in your throat, like an eagle over the house of the Lord: because they have transgressed my covenant, and violated my law." LXX: "In their bosom they are like the earth, like an eagle over the house of the Lord: because they have transgressed my covenant, and acted wickedly against my law." This which we have interpreted as "let the trumpet be in your throat," is what is written in Hebrew. Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion have similarly translated it as Alechchac Sophar.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 8:1-4patristic
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Hosea 8:1
“The trumpet to thy mouth! - So God bids the prophet Isaiah, “Cry aloud, spare not, llft up thy voice like a trumpet” Isa 58:1. The prophets, as watchmen, were set by God to give notice of His coming judgments Eze 33:3; Amo 3:6. As the sound of a war-trumpet would startle a sleeping people, so would God have the prophet’s warning burst upon their sleep of sin.”
Hosea 8:1
“I indeed allow, that the Prophet has spoken already, in two places, of the kingdom of Judah, but as it were in passing. He has, it is true, introduced some reproofs and threatening, but so that the distinction was quite clear; and we see that he now goes to the kingdom of Judah, but in the second verse, he names Israel, and yet continues his discourse.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Jerome set the cry in a time of distress, when the enemy comes and Israel cries out to God by the name Israel. Clarke set it beside Matthew 7, where those who know the Lord by word hear that He never knew them. Verse 3 gives the answer.
Hosea 8:2
Israel shalt cry - The rapidity of the eagle’s flight is well imitated in the rapidity of the sentences in this place. My God, we know thee - The same sentiment, from the same sort of persons, under the same feelings, as that in the Gospel of St. Matthew, Mat 7:29: “Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? Then will I profess unto them, I never Knew You.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 8:2
"They will call upon me, (or 'They called upon me') my God, we have known you, Israel." LXX: "They called upon me (or 'They will call upon me'), God, we have known you." At the time of necessity and distress, when captivity will come, they will call upon me and say: "My God, we know you, Israel;" we who are called Israel, we know and recognize you, and we keep the ancient name of Jacob, which pleased you, so that we may be called Israel.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 8:1-4patristic
Israel has rejected good: The name Israel is repeated against the people who claimed it in verse 2. Jerome took the good they rejected as God Himself, the one who is good and does good, and the enemy as the Assyrian. With Him went every other good.
Hosea 8:3
"Israel has rejected the good, the enemy will pursue him." LXX: "because Israel has rejected the good; they persecuted the enemy." To which the Lord responds: "How can you be called Israel, when Israel has rejected the good, that is, the Lord God, whom Israel was named after? Therefore, because Israel has rejected the good, the enemy, that is, the Assyrian, will pursue him and capture him."
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 8:1-4patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 8:3
“Israel--God repeats the name in opposition to their use of it (Ho 8:2). the thing that is good--JEROME translates, "God" who is good and doing good (Ps 119:68). He is the chief object rejected, but with Him also all that is good. the enemy shall pursue him--in just retribution from God.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Hosea 8:3
“But, if we make it to point at the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes by the king of Assyria, we must reckon it is the body of that people which as Israelites, to whom pertained the adoption, the glory, and the covenants, is here called the house of the Lord.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hosea 8:4-6
They set up kings: Verse 4 sets two charges side by side: Israel made kings "but not by Me" and made idols from "their silver and gold". Rulers were chosen the way gods were chosen, without the LORD. Samaria's calf is mocked from its making, "a craftsman made it, and it is not God".
Hosea 8:4
“Israel set up Jeroboam and his successors, whereas God had appointed the house of David as the rightful kings of the whole nation. I knew it not--I approved it not (Ps 1:6). of . . . gold . . . idols-- (Ho 2:8; 13:2). that they may be cut off--that is, though warned of the consequences of idolatry, as it were with open eyes they rushed on their own destruction.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 8:4
“So they did when they revolted from their allegiance to the house of David, and set up Jeroboam, wherein, though they fulfilled God's secret counsel, yet they aimed not at his glory, nor consulted his oracle, nor applied to him by prayer for direction, nor had any regard to his providence, but were led by their own humour and hurried on by the impetus of their own passions.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hosea 8:4
“They have set up kings, but not by me - Properly speaking, not one of the kings of Israel, from the defection of the ten tribes from the house of David, was the anointed or the Lord. I knew it not - It had not my approbation. In this sense the word know is frequently understood. That they may be cut off - That is, They shall be cut off in consequence of their idolatry.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
He has rejected your calf: Matthew Henry turned the question around. Israel in trouble asked how long before God would return in mercy, and here God asks how long before they return to Him in duty.
Hosea 8:5
Your calf has been cast away, Samaria. My fury is against them: how long will they be incapable of purity? Because he is also from Israel: the craftsman made it, and it is not a god: for the calf of Samaria shall become spider's webs." LXX: "Cast away your calf, Samaria: my wrath is kindled against them: how long will they be incapable of purity in Israel? And the craftsman made it, and it is not a god: because your calf, Samaria, was deceiving."
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 8:5-6patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 8:5
“They in trouble cry, How long will it be ere God return to us in a way of mercy? but they do not hear him ask, How long will it be ere they return to God in a way of duty? Here are some particular sins which they are charged with, are convicted of the folly of, and warned of the fatal consequences of, and for which God's anger is kindled against them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Henry thought a calf was set up at Samaria once it became the capital under Ahab, in addition to the calves at Dan and Bethel. Adam Clarke drew the argument from the craftsman. God made all things, the workman included.
Hosea 8:6
“The workman made it; therefore it is not God - As God signifies the supreme eternal Good, the Creator and Upholder of all things, therefore the workman cannot make Him who made all things. This is an overwhelming argument against all idols. Nothing need be added. The workman has made them; therefore they are not God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 8:6
“The calf they worshipped is here called the calf of Samaria, because it is probable that when Samaria, in Ahab's time, became the metropolis of the kingdom, a calf was set up there to be near the court, besides those at Dan and Bethel, or perhaps one of those was removed thither; for those that are for new gods will still be for newer.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind
Hosea 8:7-8
For they sow the wind: Verse 7 gives the chapter's proverb for a policy built on nothing solid: "For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind". The field yields no grain. Verse 8 widens the picture from field to nation, a people "among the nations like a worthless vessel."
Hosea 8:7
“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: standing stalk, there is no grain in it, it shall not make flour: and if it should make any, strangers would devour it. " LXX: "Because they have sown corruption, they shall reap a fall: a handful of corn hath not the beauty of ear; they shall yield no flour; and if it should yield, strangers shall devour it.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 8:7patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 8:7
“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind - “They shall reap,” not merely as “they have sown,” but with an awful increase. They sowed folly and vanity, and shall reap, not merely emptiness and disappointment, but sudden, irresistible destruction. “They sowed the wind,” and, as one seed bringeth forth many, so the wind, “penn’d up,” as it were, in this destructive tillage, should “burst forth again, reinforced in strength, in mightier store and with great violence.” Thus they “reaped the whirlwind,” yea, (as the word means) “a mighty whirlwind”.”
like a worthless vessel: The Hebrews, Jerome said, took the vessel as a chamber pot. The Septuagint made it a useless vessel. Clarke set the verse in the captivity, when Israel is swallowed up among the nations.
Hosea 8:8
"Israel has been devoured, now he has become like an unclean vessel among the nations." The Septuagint translated "unclean" as "useless," the rest likewise. The Hebrews call the unclean vessel, or useless, a chamber pot, which we usually use to receive and discard feces. This uncleanness is compared to idolaters and heretics who mix with the Gentiles, while not guarding the truth of God, and have become vessels of honor, turned into vessels of (( "Al." vas)) insult.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 8:8patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 8:8
“Now shall they be among the Gentiles - They shall be carried into captivity, and there be as a vessel wherein there is no pleasure; one soiled, unclean, infectious, to be despised, abhorred, not used. The allusion is to a rotten, corrupted skin-bottle; a bottle made of goat, deer, or calf hide, still commonly used in Asia and Africa. Some of them are splendidly ornamented.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Hosea 8:9-10
like a wild donkey: Ephraim goes up to Assyria "like a wild donkey on its own" and has "hired lovers", alliance treated as adultery. The nations Ephraim paid for protection become the place where the LORD will "round them up" for judgment. The phrase "the king of princes" points to the king of Assyria.
Hosea 8:9
“For they are gone up to Assyria - The ground of this their captivity is that wherein they placed their hope of safety. They shall be presently swallowed up; “for” they went to Asshur. The holy land being then honored by the spectral presence of God, all nations are said to “go up” to it. Now, since Israel forgetting God, their strength and their glory, went to the Assyrian for help, he is said to “go up” there, where he went as a suppliant.”
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 8:9
“They take a course by themselves, and the effect will be that, like a wild ass by himself, they will be the easier and surer prey to the lion. Note, Man is in nothing more like the wild ass's colt than in seeking for that succour and that satisfaction in the creature which are to be had in God only.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the king of princes: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown name the king of princes as Pul of Assyria, who laid tribute on Israel under Menahem (2 Kings 15:19-22). Israel would diminish under that oppression. The great judgment of Assyria was held back for a time.
Hosea 8:10
“English Version gives good sense: They shall sorrow "a little" at the imposition of the tribute; God suspended yet the great judgment, namely, their deportation by Assyria. the burden of the king of princes--the tribute imposed on Israel (under Menahem) by the Assyrian king Pul, (2Ki 15:19-22), who had many "princes" under his sway (Isa 10:8).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Many altars for sinning; Israel forgot his Maker
Hosea 8:11-13
Ephraim multiplied the altars for sin: n", and by their number "they became his altars for sinning". The LORD wrote "the great things of My law" and Israel treated them "as something strange". He will "remember their iniquity", and the exodus is reversed: "They will return to Egypt."
Hosea 8:11
“Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall indeed be unto him to sin - that is, they shall be proved to him to be so, by the punishment which they shall draw upon him. The prophet had first shown them their folly in forsaking God for the help of man; now he shows them the folly of attempting to “secure themselves by their great shew and pretences of religion and devotion in a false way.” God had appointed “one” altar at Jerusalem. There He willed the sacrifices to be offered, which He would accept.”
the great things of My law: Spurgeon preached his sermon The Bible on this verse, God's complaint against Ephraim. Henry called the things of the law great for the greatness of the God who wrote them. Keeping them is life itself, he said.
Hosea 8:12
“They are things that proclaim the greatness of the Law-maker, and things of great use and great importance to us; they are our life, and our eternal welfare depends upon our observance of them and obedience to them; they will make us great if we make a right use of them; and they are things which God will magnify and make honourable.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 8:12
“This is God’s complaint against Ephraim. It is no mean proof of his goodness, that he stoops to rebuke his erring creatures; it is a great argument of his gracious disposition, that he bows his head to notice terrestrial affairs.”
the LORD does not accept them: As Israel rejected God's law, Barnes wrote, God rejected their sacrifices. Offerings made outside the purpose He gave them counted as mere meat. Matthew Henry added that they sacrificed away from the one altar that sanctified the gift.
Hosea 8:13
“They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of Mine offerings, and eat it; but the Lord accepteth them not - As they rejected God’s law, so God rejected their “sacrifices,” which were not offered according to His law. They, doubtless, thought much of their sacrifices; and this the prophet perhaps expresses by an intensive form ; “the sacrifices of My gifts, gifts,” as though they thought, that they were ever giving. God accounted such sacrifices, not being hallowed by the end for which He instituted them, as mere “flesh.” They “offered flesh” and “ate” it.”
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 8:13
“How should he, when they did not offer their sacrifice upon that altar which alone sanctified the gift, and when they only sacrificed flesh, but not the spiritual sacrifice of a penitent believing heart? Note, Those services only are acceptable to God which are performed according to the rule of his word, and through Jesus Christ, 1 Pet. ii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Israel has forgotten his Maker: r and built palaces" names the root failure beneath every alliance and altar. Judah has "multiplied its fortified cities" for the same security Ephraim sought in Egypt and Assyria. The fire the LORD sends answers that trust, consuming the citadels built to replace Him.
Hosea 8:14
“Israel hath forgotten his Maker - And therefore built temples to other gods. Judah had lost all confidence in the Divine protection, and therefore built many fenced cities. But the fire of God’s anger burnt up both the temples and the fortified cities.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 8:14
“They pretended to know him, and yet forgot him, for they liked not to retain God in their knowledge, when the remembrance of him would give check to their lusts. It was an aggravation of their sin in forgetting God that he was their Maker ( Deut. xxxii. 10 ), as nothing obliges us more to remember him than that he is our Creator, Eccl. xii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Keep studying
People and groups1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Charles Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit, Sermon No. 15: “The Bible” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.