Hosea 2:10

in the sight of her lovers Note here that the prophet seemsto admit the real existence of the Baalim. Seems, but only seems; for in Hosea 4:12 he describes the popular oracles as -stocks," and in Hosea 14:3 he describes it as folly to say -to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods," Hosea's language here is probably poetically free, just as in Psalms 96:4 a psalmist declares that Jehovah is -to be feared above all gods" ("elôhîm), though he adds in Hosea 2:5 that -all the gods of the nations are but "elîhîm-nothings" or -not-gods." The later prophets are more emphatically monotheistic (see Introduction, part v., and comp. on Hosea 1:10).