Hosea 12:11

The ruin of two famous centres of idolatry, representing together the entire northern kingdom.

Is there iniquity, &c. More probably, If Gilead is (given to) idolatry, mere vanity shall they (the Gileadites) become, i.e. apostacy from Him who is the only source of life leads to sure destruction; -they that make the idols become like unto them." The town of Gilead has already been singled out for reprobation in Hosea 6:8-9. For the historical fulfilment of the prophecy, see 2 Kings 15:29 -in the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, and took … Gilead and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria" (compare Tiglath-Pileser's own account of his expedition against Philistia in b.c. 734; G. Smith, Eponym Canon, p. 123, Schrader, The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament, on 2 Kings 15:29).

they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal Or, as it might well be stated in the margin, -in Heap-town" (see next note). They affront Jehovah by sacrificing at idolatrous shrines, especially at Gilgal (see on Hosea 4:15). So the Targum. Others, by a slight emendation, -they sacrifice to the bullocks in Gilgal", i.e. to the steer-gods; but there is no parallel for such a use of the word -bullocks." St Jerome's -bobus immolantes" is an ungrammatical rendering of our present text (see his note).

yea, their altars are as heaps, &c. Rather, so then their altars shall he as stone-heaps, i.e. like heaps of stones which a careful husbandman has gathered out of his ploughed field (comp. Micah 1:6). The idiom employed (lit., -also their altars" &c.) indicates the correspondence between cause and effect, a sin and its retribution (comp. Isaiah 66:3 b, Isaiah 66:4 a); the tense is the prophetic perfect. There is a paronomasia in Gilgal (as if -Heap-town", comp. Joshua 4:20), and gallim(-heaps"); the very name of Gilgal seems to suggest its impending fate. Some think the name -Gilead" is also included in the paronomasia, but in spite of the apparent support of Genesis 31:47-48, this is not the more natural view of Hosea's language. At most, there is a play upon the similarity of sound in Gilead and Gilgal; not upon any supposed similarity of meaning.