Their hearts are devious; now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will break down their altars and demolish their sacred pillars.
Parallel translations
- WEB Their heart is divided. Now they will be found guilty. He will demolish their altars. He will destroy their sacred stones.
- KJV Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images.
- NKJV Their heart is divided; Now they are held guilty. He will break down their altars; He will ruin their sacred pillars.
- NASB Their heart is deceitful; Now they must suffer for their guilt. The Lord will break down their altars And destroy their memorial stones.
- NLT The hearts of the people are fickle; they are guilty and must be punished. The Lord will break down their altars and smash their sacred pillars.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Their heart is divided, so now they bear their guilt; God will break down their altars and ruin their idolatrous pillars.
Overview
Israel's loyalty is split between the LORD and idols, and such a divided heart is itself guilt before God. Therefore He will tear down the very altars and pillars they trusted. The verse exposes the impossibility of serving God halfheartedly and anticipates the call to undivided devotion, for one cannot serve two masters.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- 1 Kgs 18:21Then Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him. But if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people did not answer a word.
- Mic 5:13I will also cut off the carved images and sacred pillars from among you, so that you will no longer bow down to the work of your own hands.
- Jas 4:4You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.
- Luke 16:13No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
- Jas 1:8He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
- Rev 3:15–16I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other!
- Zeph 1:5those who bow on the rooftops to worship the host of heaven, those who bow down and swear by the LORD but also swear by Milcom,
- Matt 6:24No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
- Hos 7:8Ephraim mixes with the nations; Ephraim is an unturned cake.
- Hos 8:5–6He has rejected your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?
- Hos 13:16Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.
- Isa 44:18They do not comprehend or discern, for He has shut their eyes so they cannot see and closed their minds so they cannot understand.
- 1 Sam 5:4But when they got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD, with his head and his hands broken off and lying on the threshold. Only the torso remained.
- Hos 10:5–8The people of Samaria will fear for the calf of Beth-aven. Indeed, its people will mourn with its idolatrous priests—those who rejoiced in its glory—for it has been taken from them into exile.
- Jer 43:13He will demolish the sacred pillars of the temple of the sun in the land of Egypt, and he will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.’”
- Zech 13:2And on that day, declares the LORD of Hosts, I will erase the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered. I will also remove the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land.
- 1 Jn 2:15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
- 2 Th 2:11–12For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
God's relentless love for an unfaithful bride dramatizes the gospel: 'Out of Egypt I called my son' is fulfilled in Jesus, who redeems an adulterous people at his own cost.
How Hosea 10:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.