Hosea 8:12
in Hosea 8Though I wrote for them the great things of My law, they regarded them as something strange.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I wrote for him the ten thousand things of my law; but they are counted as a strange thing.
KJV
I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.
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This verse in Hosea 8
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The New Park Street Pulpit, Sermon No. 15: “The Bible” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) (1855)
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.
This site's exposition
Ephraim multiplied the altars for sin
on Hosea 8:11-13
Ephraim "multiplied the altars for sin", 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."
This site's exposition
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.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
I will write to him many of my laws, which are regarded as alien: they will offer sacrifices, they will slaughter meats and eat, and the Lord will not receive them." LXX: "I will write to them a multitude: their rightful altars have been regarded as foreign. Because if they sacrifice and eat meat, the Lord will not accept them:" which I had previously given through Moses. But what profit is there in writing further, since he has despised those which he previously received?
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
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.
I have written to him the great things of my law,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
great things of . . . law-- (De 4:6, 8; MAURER not so well translates, "the many things of My law." my law--as opposed to their inventions. This reference of Hosea to the Pentateuch alone is against the theory that some earlier written prophecies have not come down to us. strange thing--as if a thing with which they had nothing to do.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The New Park Street Pulpit, Sermon No. 15: “The Bible” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) (1855)
proposed
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. He might, if he pleased, wrap himself with might as with a garment; he might put the stars around his wrist for bracelets, and bind the suns around his brow for a coronet; he might dwell alone, far, far above this world, up in the seventh heaven, and look down with calm and silent indifference upon all the doings of his creatures; he might do as the heathens supposed their Jove did, sit in perpetual silence, sometimes nodding his awful head to make the fates move as he pleased, but never taking thought of the little things of earth, disposing of them as beneath his notice, engrossed with his own being, swallowed up within himself, living alone and retired; and I, as one of his creatures, might stand by night upon a mountain-top, and look upon the silent stars and say, “Ye are the eyes of God, but ye look not down on me; your light is the gift of his omnipotence, but your rays are not smiles of love to me. God, the mighty Creator, has forgotten me; I am a despicable drop in the ocean of creation, a sear leaf in the forest of beings, an atom in the mountain of existence. He knows me not; I am alone, alone, alone.” But it is not so, beloved. Our God is of another order. He notices every one of us; there is not a sparrow or a worm but is found in his decrees. There is not a person upon whom his eye is not fixed. Our most secret acts are known to him. Whatsoever we do, or bear, or suffer, the eye of God still rests upon us, and we are beneath his smile—for we are his people; or beneath his frown—for we have erred from him. Oh! how ten-thousand-fold merciful is God, that, looking down upon the race of man, he does not smite it our of existence.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
I have written to him the great things of my law - I have as it were inscribed my laws to them, and they have treated them as matters in which they had no interest.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
I have written to him the great things of My law - Literally, “I write.” Their sin then had no excuse of ignorance. God had written their duties for them in the ten commandments with His own hand; He had written them of old and “manifoldly” , often repeated and in divers manners. He wrote those manifold things “to them” (or “for them”) by Moses, not for that time only, but that they might be continually before their eyes, as if He were still writing. He had written to them since, in their histories, in the Psalms. His words were still sounding in their ears through the teaching of the prophets. God did not only give His law or revelation once for all, and so leave it. By His providence and by His ministers He continually renewed the knowledge of it, so that those who ignored it, should have no excuse. This ever-renewed agency of God He expresses by the word, “I write,” what in substance was long ago written. What God then wrote, were “the great things of His law” (as the converted Jews, on the day of Pentecost speak of “the great” or “wonderful things of God” ) or “the manifold things of His law,” as the Apostle speaks of “the manifold wisdom of God” Eph 3:10, and says, that “God at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets” Heb 1:1. They were counted as a strange thing by them - These “great,” or “manifold things of God’s law,” which ought to have been continually before their eyes, in their mind and in their mouth Deu 6:7-9, they, although God had written them for them, “counted as a strange thing,” a thing quite foreign and alien to them, with which they had no concern. […]
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
I write for them I constantly reprimand them through My prophets, and write for them the great things of My Law, but they are considered a strange thing.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
For Ephraim has increased Therefore, I will humble them with the burden of the king and the princes.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֶ֨כְתָּב | ʾekhtov- | I wrote | H3789 → | |
| ל֔וֹ | lo | for him | H3789 → | |
| רֻבֵּ֖י | ribov | [the] numerous things of | H7230 → | 149 times |
| תּֽוֹרָתִ֑י | torati | law my | H8451 → | 219 times |
| כְּמוֹ־ | kemov- | like | H3644 → | 143 times |
| זָ֖ר | zar | a strange [thing] | H2114 → | 77 times |
| נֶחְשָֽׁבוּ׃ | nechshavu | they are regarded | H2803 → |
אֶ֨כְתָּבI wrote
ʾekhtov-H3789 →
ל֔וֹfor him
loH3789 →
רֻבֵּ֖י[the] numerous things of
ribovH7230 →149 times
תּֽוֹרָתִ֑יlaw my
toratiH8451 →219 times
כְּמוֹ־like
kemov-H3644 →143 times
זָ֖רa strange [thing]
zarH2114 →77 times
נֶחְשָֽׁבוּ׃they are regarded
nechshavuH2803 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Romans 7:12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.
it leads to
- 1 Timothy 1:8
Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it legitimately.
- Psalms 119:137
Righteous are You, O LORD, and upright are Your judgments.
- Psalms 19:7–12
The Law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is trustworthy, making wise the simple.
- Romans 7:14
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
- Psalms 119:172
My tongue sings of Your word, for all Your commandments are righteous.
- 1 Timothy 1:8
Through
Nehemiah 9:26But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies.
it leads to
- 1 Kings 14:9
You have done more evil than all who came before you. You have proceeded to make for yourself other gods and molten images to provoke Me, and you have flung Me behind your back.
- Judges 2:11–12
And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.
- 1 Kings 14:9
Through
Ezekiel 20:11And I gave them My statutes and made known to them My ordinances—for the man who does these things will live by them.
it leads to
- Romans 10:5
For concerning the righteousness that is by the law, Moses writes: “The man who does these things will live by them.”
- Romans 10:5
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Hosea
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit, Sermon No. 15: “The Bible” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Hosea 8:12; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.