Sowing the Wind, Reaping the Storm
They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. The complaint is self-made religion and self-made politics: kings appointed without our Father, a calf a craftsman made, altars multiplied for sinning, allies bought abroad, and Israel already swallowed among the nations like a pot nobody wants.
8 1Put the trumpet to your lips! An eagle swoops over my house, because they have broken my covenant and rebelled against my law. 2To me they cry, "My Father! We know you—we, Israel!" a a v2 Israel cries out claiming to know the Father even while rejecting his ways—words of intimacy from a heart turned away. 3Israel has rejected what is good; an enemy will pursue him. 4They set up kings, but not from me; they appointed princes, and I knew nothing of it. With their silver and gold they made themselves idols, only to be cut off. 5I have rejected your calf, Samaria; my anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence? 6For this calf is from Israel; a craftsman made it—it is not God. The calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces. 7They sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; it yields no flour. And if it were to yield, foreigners would swallow it down. 8Israel is swallowed up; now they are among the nations like a pot no one wants. 9For they have gone up to Assyria—a wild donkey wandering off alone. Ephraim has hired itself out to lovers. b b v9 'Lovers' are the foreign nations Israel paid for military protection — Hosea's running metaphor of Israel as an unfaithful wife chasing after other partners. 10Even though they hire allies among the nations, now I will gather them up. And they will soon writhe under the burden of the king of princes. c c v10 'The king of princes' is the Assyrian emperor — the great overlord above all vassal kings — whose tribute burden Israel would soon bear. 11Because Ephraim multiplied altars for sinning, they have become altars for sinning to him. 12Though I wrote out for him the countless things of my law, they were treated as something strange. 13As for the sacrifices they offer me, they sacrifice meat and eat it, but I take no delight in them. Now I will remember their guilt and punish their sins; they will return to Egypt. 14Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities. But I will send fire on his cities, and it will devour Judah's strongholds.
