Hosea 10

Hosea 10 is the tenth chapter of the Book of Hosea in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.^[1][2] This chapter contains the prophecies spoken by the prophet Hosea son of Beeri, that was uttered between Shalmaneser's first and second invasions of Israel, in which Israel is reproved and threatened for their impiety and idolatry, and exhorted to repentance (Compare Hosea 10:14; also Hosea 10:6, referring to Hoshea's calling So of Egypt to his aid; also Hosea 10:4, 13).^[3] It is a part of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets.^[4][5]

Text

• The original text is written in Hebrew language.
• This chapter is divided into 15 verses.

Textual versions

Some most ancient manuscripts containing this chapter in Hebrew language:

• Masoretic Text (10th century)
• Dead Sea Scrolls: (2nd century BC)^[6][7]
  • 4Q82 (4QXII^g): extant: verses 1‑6, 8‑14^[6]

Ancient translations in Koine Greek:

• Septuagint (3rd century BC)
• Theodotion version (~AD 180)

Structure

NKJV groups this chapter into:

• Hosea 10:1-15 = Israel’s Sin and Captivity

Verse 8

The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed:

the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars;

and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us;

and to the hills, Fall on us.^[8]

• "The high places also of Aven": By "Aven" is generally understood "Beth-aven", that is, "Bethel"; but some take the word as an appellative, and thus bamoth-aven would signify the "high places of iniquity." These unlawful places of sacrifice and unholy places of iniquity are further characterized by the appositional "the sin of Israel." By constructing and frequenting such places Israel had primarily and grievously sinned. By sacrificing to and worshipping even Jehovah on these high places instead of in Jerusalem, the only legal place for Divine service under the Law, their national sin in the matter of worship began; subsequently, however, things became worse, and these high places became scenes of most abominable idolatries and shamelessly sinful practices. Those places - one and all - are in the words before us doomed to destruction.^[9]
• "They shall say to the mountains, Cover us": So terrible shall be the calamity, that men shall prefer death to life (Luke 23:30; Revelation 6:16; 9:6). Those very hills on which were their idolatrous altars (one source of their confidence, as their "king," Hosea 10:7, was the other), so far from helping them, shall be called on by them to overwhelm them.^[3]

Verse 14

Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people,

and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled,

as Shalman spoiled Betharbel in the day of battle:

the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.^[10]

• "As Shalman spoiled - (or wasted) Beth-Arbel in the day of battle": "Shalman" is, no doubt, "Shalmaneser king of Assyria," who came up against Hoshea, early in his reign, "and he became a servant to him and brought him a present 2 Kings 17:3. Shalman" being the characteristic part of the name, the prophet probably omitted the rest, on the ground of the rhythm. "Beth-Arbel" is a city, which the Greeks, retaining, in like way, only the latter and characteristic half of the name, called Arbela. It was about fifteen miles West of Nazareth, and ten miles from Jezreel . Beth-Arbel must accordingly have lain somewhere in the middle of the valley of Jezreel. Near this Arbela, then, Israel must have sustained a decisive defeat from Shalmaneser. For the prophet does not say only, that he "spoiled Beth-Arbel," but that he did this "in a day of battle." Here Hosea, probably in the last years of his life, saw the fulfillment of his own earlier prophecy; and "God brake the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel" Hosea 1:5.^[11]
• "the mother was dashed in pieces with her children": women big with child, or having their children in their arms, had no mercy shown them, but were destroyed together; so it had been at Arbel, and would be again in Israel, which was dreadful to think of: according to Kimchi and Ben Melech, Arbel was the name of a great man in those days, whose family, meant by beth or a house, was thus cruelly destroyed.^[12]

See also

• Related Bible parts: Hosea 6, Hosea 7, Hosea 8, Hosea 9, Luke 23, Revelation 6

Notes and references

Bibliography

External links

Jewish

• Hosea 10 Hebrew with Parallel English
• Hosea 10 Hebrew with Rashi's Commentary

Christian

• Hosea 10 English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate