Hosea 11:6

And the sword will fall on their cities,

And will consume their bars,

And devour,

Because of their own counsels.'

So because of their refusal to respond wholly to Him the sword would fall on their cities, and the bars on their gates would be ‘consumed' (broken) so that the gates were no longer safe. The sword would devour them because of the kind of counsel that they followed. This counsel included the assurances of victory by false prophets, and the confident claims of the king's advisers and their own leaders. After all, they might have argued, had not Assyria stopped short of Samaria previously? And would he not do so again when he saw its strength?

The word translated ‘bars' is an unusual one and some have therefore suggested translating as ‘oracle priests' (compare its use in Isaiah 44:25; Jeremiah 50:36), indicating those who advised on warfare through divination. An idolatrous Israel would have seen them as being as effective as bars on the gates.