Hosea 4:15

offend Rather, become guilty, viz. by participation in Israel's idolatry.

come not ye unto Gilgal Gilgal was one of the chief seats of the idolatrous worship of the north, see Hosea 9:15; Hosea 12:11; Amos 4:4; Amos 5:5. But which of the Gilgals (see Smith's Bibl. Dict.) is meant? The Jewish commentators are agreed that it was the famous Gilgal -in the east border of Jericho" where Joshua pitched his camp for the first time after crossing the Jordan (Joshua 4:19), and later on -the true centre of the whole people" (Ewald, History of Israel, iii. 29). Probably they are right. No doubt, we should have expected this Gilgal to have belonged to Judah, but the natural boundary of the two kingdoms was not the historical one; -those places which their past history had rendered most sacred or memorable Bethel, Gilgal, Jericho were incorporated in the northern kingdom" (Ewald, Hist.iv. 3).

neither go ye up to Beth-aven A Beth-aven near Bethel is mentioned Joshua 7:2; 1 Samuel 13:5, but this Beth-aven, -house of vanity", or -of wickedness", is a keenly sarcastic substitute for the desecrated name Bethel, -house of God" (see Hosea 10:5; Hosea 10:8, and comp. Amos 4:4; Amos 5:5; 1 Kings 12:29-33). -Go ye up", because Bethel was situated on the slopes of a hill, comp. 1 Samuel 10:3, -going up to the Elohim (i.e. the sacred place) to Bethel."

nor swear, The Lord liveth Hosea may mean to say that the oath -As Jehovah liveth" has been so profaned by the Israelites of the north that he wishes to see it abolished. It is more likely however (considering Deuteronomy 10:20; Jeremiah 4:2) that he deprecates oaths by the Jehovahs of Gilgal and Bethel oaths which in the mind of the swearer are connected with idolatrous symbols of Jehovah, precisely as Amos denounces those who say, -As thy God, O Dan, liveth", and -As thy God, O Beer-sheba, liveth" (Amos 8:14, corrected partly from the Sept.).