Hos 10 | EE | STEP | ‘Israel is like a vine that has plenty of fruit. But Israel became more and more rich, and so the people built more altars. Their land became better and better. So they could build special stones that they could worship.

Hosea 10

Because the people were rich, that caused them to worship idols

1 ‘Israel is like a vine that has plenty of fruit.

But Israel became more and more rich,
and so the people built more altars.
Their land became better and better.
So they could build special stones that they could worship.

2 Their minds are not honest.

But now they must understand that they have done wrong things.
The LORD will destroy their altars.
He will destroy their special stones.

3 Soon these people will say, “We have no king.

We do not worship the LORD in a true way.
But if we had a king, he could not do anything for us.”

4 They promise to do many things. But what they say is not true.

They agree about things with other countries.
People do not agree with each other in courts.
These things are like weeds that have poison.
Weeds that are growing in a field will soon grow into plants.

5 The people who live in Samaria will be afraid.

They will cry because their idol at Beth Aven has gone.
Their very bad priests will cry too.
They were very happy with their beautiful idol.
But now someone will carry the idol away.

6 Assyria’s people will carry the idol away.

It will be a gift for the king of Assyria.
Ephraim‘s people will feel very sad.
They will be very sorry that they worshipped their idol.

7 God will destroy Samaria and he will kill Samaria’s king.

He (the king) will be like a piece of wood that water carries away.

8 God will destroy these high places at Aven.

These are places where Israel’s people have sinned.
Weeds will grow on their altars.
Then the people will say to the mountains, “Hide us!”
They will say to the hills, “Fall on us!”’, God says. ^{▼▼10:8 Verse 1 A vine is a plant that grapes grow on.} ^{▼▼10:8 Verse 5 People worshipped at Beth Aven. They worshipped a gold bull. Beth Aven was Hosea’s name for Bethel. Beth Aven means ‘House of Very Bad Things’. Bethel means ‘House of God’.} ^{▼▼10:8 Verse 6 Assyria will take the idol away when they win the war.} ^{▼▼10:8 Verse 7 King Hoshea was put in a prison in 723 BC (2 Kings 17:4).} ^{▼▼10:8 Assyria destroyed Samaria in 722 BC. Nobody built it again.}

God will punish the people in Israel because of their sin

9 ‘Israel’s people, you have sinned since the time of Gibeah.

You have continued to sin since then.
But those very bad people at Gibeah had a war.

10 I (God) will punish these very bad people.

Countries will join together to attack them.
They will put the people from Israel in prisons because of their very bad sins.

11 Ephraim‘s people are like a young cow that someone has taught.

They are like a cow that loves to walk on grain.
But I decided to be like someone who puts a yoke on the cow’s beautiful neck.
I wanted to show Ephraim‘s people the right way
so they could work hard.
I wanted Judah’s people to be like a farmer who breaks up the ground.
Jacob‘s people, too, must be like that.

12 If a farmer plants good plants, those plants will grow.

A farmer may have some ground that he has not used for more than a year.
He should dig that ground to make it not so hard.
You should be like that farmer.
You should start to do the right things and the good things.
Then the LORD will show his love to you.
Do these things because it is time for you to look for the LORD.
When he comes, he will cause good to things come down on you like rain!

13 But you are like someone who planted very bad things.

Bad plants grow.
And you are in trouble.
You have said things that are not true. So you have had the results of this.
But you believed that you could help yourselves.
And you believed that your soldiers would help you.
That is why bad things have happened to you.

14 Your people will hear the noise of war.

Your enemies will destroy your strong places.
It will be like the time that King Shalman destroyed Betharbel city in war.
At that time, people killed mothers with their children.

15 The same thing will happen to you at Bethel.

That is because you did so many very bad things.
When that day begins, the king of Israel will die.’ ^{▼▼10:15 Verse 9 Hosea writes again about what he said in 9:9. Israel’s people sinned very badly at the time of Gibeah. They were not able to stop doing this sin.} ^{▼▼10:15 Verse 11 God wanted people to know him in the best way, like Jacob.} ^{▼▼10:15 Verse 12 The Hebrew word for ‘love’ means a love that never stops. This can be a love for another person or for God. The same thought is in 6:6.} ^{▼▼10:15 Verse 14 We do not know about the events at Betharbel. We also do not know about Shalman. But very bad things happened in war then.}