Hosea 10:8

The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us. THE HIGH PLACES ALSO OF AVEN - i:e., Beth-aven. THE SIN - i:e., the occasion of sin (; , "This thing (the calves at Dan and Bethel respectively) became a sin"). AND THEY SHALL SAY TO THE MOUNTAINS, COVER US - so terrible shall be the calamity, that men shall prefer death to life (; ; ). Those very hills on which were...

We see how much the Prophet dwells on one thing: but, as I have already said, there was need of a strong hammer to beat this iron; for the hearts of the people were iron, or even steel. This hardness could not then be broken except with violence. This is the reason why the Prophet goes on with his threatening and places before their eyes in so many forms the vengeance of God; of which it would have been enough for him briefly to remind them, had they not been so perverse. And first he says, _The high places of Aven have perished, _or _shall perish_. He now calls Bethel Aven, as he called it before Bethaven. We have stated the reason for changing the name. Jeroboam might indeed have disguised the worship, which he had profanely introduced by this pretext, that God had appeared in that place to holy Jacob, and we know its name was given to it by God: but in the meantime, as the people had...

1-8 A vine is only valuable for its fruit; but Israel now brought no fruit to perfection. Their hearts were divided. God is the Sovereign of the heart; he will have all, or none. Were the stream of the heart wholly after God, it would run strongly, and bear down all before it. Their pretences to covenant with God were false. Even the proceeding of justice was as poisonous hemlock. Alas, how empty a vine is the visible church even at this day! But all earthly prosperity is but a collection of bubbles, soon destroyed like foam upon the water. Sinners will in vain seek shelter from that Judge, whom they now despise as a Saviour....

Verse Hosea 10:8. _THE HIGH-PLACES_] Idol temples. _OF AVEN_] Beth-aven. _THE THORN AND THE THISTLE SHALL COME UP ON THEIR ALTARS_] Owing to the uncultivated and unfrequented state of the land, and of their places of idol worship, the people being all carried away into captivity. "And they shall say to the mountains, Cover us, And to the hills, Fall on us." "This sublime description of fear and distress our Lord had in view, Luke 23:30, which may be a reference, and not a quotation. However, the _Septuagint_, in the _Codex Alexandrinus_, has the same order of words as occurs in the evangelist. The parallelism

THE HIGH PLACES OF AVEN - that is, of vanity or iniquity. He had before called “Bethel, house of God,” by the name of “Bethaven, house of vanity;” now he calls it “Aven, vanity” or “iniquity,” as being the concentration of those qualities. Bethel was situated on a “hill,” the “mount of Bethel,” and, from different sides, people were said to “go up” (Joshua 16:1; 1 Samuel 13:2; above Hosea 4:13; Genesis 35:1; Judges 1:22; 1 Samuel 10:3;...

EXPOSITION The concluding thought of the last chapter is the commencing one of this; while the sad subject of Israel's guilt being resumed continues in the first section (Hosea 10:1) of the chapter, and that of their punishment in the second section (Hosea 10:9), with a solemn caution to make a better use of the future than they had clone of the past. HOSEA 10:1 ISRAEL IS AN EMPTY VINE. The comparison of Israel to a vine is frequent; but the epithet _boqeq _is variously rendered; (1) as "empty." Thus Aben Ezra explains it as "empty in which there is no strength to bring forth fruit, nor fruit;" and thus also Kimchi explains it: "An empty vin

THE HIGH PLACES ALSO OF AVEN,.... Bethel, which is not only as before called Bethaven, the house of iniquity; but Aven, iniquity itself; the high places of it were the temple and altars built there for idolatrous service, which were usually set on hills and mountains: THE SIN OF ISRAEL SHALL BE DESTROYED; that is, which high places are the sin of Israel, the occasion of sin unto them; and where they committed sin, the sin of idolatry, in worshipping the calves; these should be thrown down, demolished, and no longer used: THE THORN AND THE THISTLE SHALL COME UP ON THEIR ALTARS; lying in ruins, these shall grow upon them, the people and priests being carried captive that used to sacrifice upon them; but now they shall lie deserted by them, being destroyed by the enemy: AND THEY SHALL SAY TO THE MOUNTAINS, COVER US; AND TO THE HILLS, FALL ON US; not that the high places and altars shall...

CHAPTER 9:10-11:11 RETROSPECT, ISRAEL'S FAILURE AND RUIN _ 1. Israel once beloved, now fugitive wanderers (Hosea 9:10) _ 2. Their guilt and punishment (Hosea 10:1) 3. Exhortation and rebuke (Hosea 10:12) 4. The mercy of a merciful God (Hosea 11:1) Hosea 9:10. Like a wayfaring man who finds grapes and figs in the desert and delights in them, so the Lord found Israel in the desert and they were His pleasure when He led them out of Egypt. But they requited His love by going after Baal-peor, one of the filthiest gods of heat

GOD'S ANNIHILATING JUDGMENT ON THE MIXED CULTUS. With the land's abounding prosperity Israel has multiplied altars in the service of the mixed cultus; these Yahweh will destroy (Hosea 10:1 f.) Their puppet-kings they shall find utterly impotent (Hosea 10:3), and their idle, lying words, which never result in performance, shall yield a bitter crop of judgment (Hosea 10:4,? a gloss). Samaria (_i.e._ the northern kingdom) shall find the calves of Beth-Aven (Bethel, _cf._ Hosea 4:15; Hosea 5:8 *) a source of terror rather than of help, their glory departed, and the idols them

SIN. Hebrew. _chata._ App-44. Put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Adjunct), App-6, for the idols associated with it. Compare Deuteronomy 9:21; 1 Kings 12:30. THE THORN AND THE THISTLE. Ref to Pentateuch (Genesis 3:18). This combination of words occurs only in these two places. "Thorns" is found in Exodus 22:6, &c.; "thistles", Hebrew. _darda,_ only here, and Genesis 3:18. Compare Hosea 9:6. MOUNTAINS. Such was Beth-el in the hill