Hosea 8

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¹Put the ram’s horn to your lips! An eagle looms over the house of the LORD, because the people have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law. ✦ ²Israel cries out to Me, “O our God, we know You!” ✦ ³But Israel has rejected good; an enemy will pursue him. ✦ ⁴They set up kings, but not by Me. They make princes, but without My approval. With their silver and gold they make themselves idols, to their own destruction. ✦ ⁵He has rejected your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence? ✦ ⁶For this thing is from Israel—a craftsman made it, and it is not God. It will be broken to pieces, that calf of Samaria. ✦ ⁷For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up. ✦ ⁸Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like a worthless vessel. ✦ ⁹For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey on its own. Ephraim has hired lovers. ✦ ¹⁰Though they hire allies among the nations, I will now round them up, and they will begin to diminish under the oppression of the king of princes. ✦ ¹¹Though Ephraim multiplied the altars for sin, they became his altars for sinning. ✦ ¹²Though I wrote for them the great things of My law, they regarded them as something strange. ✦ ¹³Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they eat the meat, the LORD does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt. ✦ ¹⁴Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; Judah has multiplied its fortified cities. But I will send fire upon their cities, and it will consume their citadels. ✦

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Where this chapter connects

Hos 10 ·7 Deut 28 ·6 2 Kgs 15 ·5 2 Kgs 17 ·5 Amos 1 ·5 Hos 7 ·5 Hos 2 ·5 Hos 9 ·4

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 8 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.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Hosea videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Hosea 8YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Hosea 8David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on HoseaMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Hosea 8Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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