Hos 8 | TNotes | STEP | 8:1 Sound the alarm: The ram’s horn trumpet ( shofar ) called the people to worship (Ps 98:6 ); it was also (as here) the signal for battle (2 Sam 20:1 ). God was sending an enemy , the Assyrians, to execute his judgment on Israel. • revolted against my law: God’s law (Hebrew torah ) is much more than the sum of the individual laws in the Pentateuch. It represents the totality of God’s instruction to his people through his words and his deeds. Loving fulfillment of the Torah was Israel’s part of the covenant. They had broken God’s commandments, and they had turned aside from their covenant relationship with the Lord.

8:1 ^a Sound the alarm: The ram’s horn trumpet (shofar) called the people to worship (Ps 98:6 ^b); it was also (as here) the signal for battle (2 Sam 20:1 ^c). God was sending an enemy, the Assyrians, to execute his judgment on Israel.

• revolted against my law: God’s law (Hebrew torah) is much more than the sum of the individual laws in the Pentateuch. It represents the totality of God’s instruction to his people through his words and his deeds. Loving fulfillment of the Torah was Israel’s part of the covenant. They had broken God’s commandments, and they had turned aside from their covenant relationship with the Lord.
8:3 ^d Jesus tells us that God alone is good (Mark 10:18 ^e). God is the source of every good thing, yet Israel rejected him.
8:4 ^f appointed kings without my consent: The Israelites quickly disposed of one king and appointed another if they thought it might save their nation (see 7:7 ^g). They did all of this without consulting their true king, the Lord.
Summary for Hos 8:5-6: 8:5-6 ^h this calf: When Jeroboam I (931–910 BC), the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel, ascended the throne, he established places of worship in the cities of Dan and Bethel so that the people would not travel to the Temple in Jerusalem, the capital of the southern kingdom. At each site, he erected a gold calf for the people to worship (1 Kgs 12:26-30 ⁱ).
8:7 ^j When Hosea proclaimed divine judgment, the punishment fit the crime (see study note on 4:10). Through their idolatry and political intrigue, the Israelites had planted the seeds of their own destruction (see Gal 6:7 ^k).
8:9 ^l Like a wild donkey: Hosea compared Israel’s worship of the Canaanite fertility gods to an animal in heat that was desperate to mate (see Jer 2:23-24 ^m).
8:10 ⁿ I will now gather them together: Although God sometimes promises to gather his people for deliverance (Zech 10:8-10 ^o), here the Lord would gather them for judgment (Joel 3:11 ^p).
8:11 ^q Israel has built many altars: As Israel’s idolatry increased, her religious activities increased in an attempt to take away sin; instead, these rites only increased her sin.
8:13 ^r I do not accept their sacrifices: See 6:6 ^s; Isa 1:10-17 ^t; Amos 5:21-24 ^u; Mic 6:6-8 ^v.

• They will return to Egypt, the place of slavery (Deut 28:68 ^w). God’s dealings with Israel did not end with judgment. The divine purpose of judgment was to restore Israel to the status they had when they came out of Egypt, so that they could experience a new beginning (see Hos 2:14-15 ^x).
8:14 ^y Israel has forgotten its Maker: See 2:13 ^z.

• God’s judgment is often described as fire sent upon the royal palaces and fortresses (see Amos 1:4 ^aa, 7 ^ab).