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Hosea 7:1

When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.

2

And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.

3

They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

4

They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.

5

In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.

6

For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.

7

They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.

8

Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

9

Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.

10

And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all this.

11

Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.

12

When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard.

13

Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.

14

And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me.

15

Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me.

16

They return, but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

Hosea 7:4

7:4 as an oven heated. The leaders of Israel are compared in Hosea 7:4-8 to dough in a heated oven, inflamed with wickedness.

Hosea 7:7

7:7 their kings are fallen. During the period of Hosea’s ministry, he had seen King Zachariah assassinated (II Kings 15:10), then King Shallum (II Kings 15:14), later, King Pekahiah (II Kings 15:25) and finally, King Pekah (II Kings 15:30).

Hosea 7:8

7:8 cake not turned. Ephraim, representing all the northern kingdom (along with Israel’s capital, Samaria—Hosea 7:1) is called “a cake not turned” in the oven, and also “a silly dove without heart” (Hosea 7:11). Hot in wickedness, yet cool toward God, they were trusting in Egypt to save them from Assyria.

Hosea 7:9

7:9 yet he knoweth not. It is sad when leaders have lost their ability to lead, but don’t realize it. Like mighty Samson, who “wist not that the LORD was departed from him” (Judges 16:20), and like Jerusalem collaborating in Christ’s crucifixion because “thou knewest not the time of thy visitation” (Luke 19:44), and like the Laodicean church that “knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:16-17). Professing Christians today need to guard urgently against the tragedy of arrogant ignorance.

Hosea 7:14

7:14 howled upon their beds. This “wailing in their beds” of wickedness, calling for help by their pagan gods, was as futile as that of the prophets of Baal when “they cried aloud” to Baal against Elijah on Mount Carmel (I Kings 18:28).

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