7:1,2God sees and knows everything. We, like Israel, often forget this. Thoughts like “No one will ever know,” or “No one is watching” may tempt us to try to get away with sin. If you are facing difficult temptations, you will be less likely to give in if you remind yourself that God is watching. When faced with the opportunity to sin, remember that God sees everything.
Life Application Study BibleHoseaChapter 7
Hosea 7
New Living Translation · Life Application Study Bible · Original pages: 1414, 1415
A few verse numbers on this page were hard to read in the scan and are marked with a dotted underline — compare with the original page image if in doubt.
7Hosea 7
2Its people don't realizethat I am watching them.Their sinful deeds are all around them,and I see them all.
3The people entertain the king with their wickedness,and the princes laugh at their lies.
4They are all adulterers,always aflame with lust.They are like an oven that is kept hotwhile the baker is kneading the dough.
5On royal holidays, the princes get drunk with wine,carousing with those who mock them.
6Their hearts are like an ovenblazing with intrigue.Their plot smolders* through the night,and in the morning it breaks out like a raging fire.
7Burning like an oven,they consume their leaders.They kill their kings one after another,and no one cries to me for help.
8“The people of Israel mingle with godless foreigners,making themselves as worthless as a half-baked cake!
9Worshiping foreign gods has sapped their strength,but they don’t even know it.Their hair is gray,but they don’t realize they're old and weak.
10Their arrogance testifies against them,yet they don't return to the LORD their Godor even try to find him.
11“The people of Israel have become like silly, witless doves,first calling to Egypt, then flying to Assyria for help.
12But as they fly about,I will throw my net over themand bring them down like a bird from the sky.I will punish them for all the evil they do.*
13“What sorrow awaits those who have deserted me!Let them die, for they have rebelled against me.I wanted to redeem them,but they have told lies about me.
14They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts.Instead, they sit on their couches and wail.They cut themselves,* begging foreign gods for grain and new wine,and they turn away from me.
15I trained them and made them strong,yet now they plot evil against me.
16They look everywhere except to the Most High.They are as useless as a crooked bow.Their leaders will be killed by their enemiesbecause of their insolence toward me.Then the people of Egyptwill laugh at them.
Israel Harvests the Whirlwind
8 1“Sound the alarm!The enemy descends like an eagle on the people of the LORD,for they have broken my covenant
Textual footnotes
- in the assembly.
- 7:1 Hebrew Ephraim, referring to the northern kingdom of Israel; also in 7:8, 11.
- 7:6 Hebrew Their baker sleeps.
- 7:12 Hebrew /I will punish them because of what was reported against them
- 7:14 As in Greek version; Hebrew reads They gather together.
Life Application Notes 7 notes
7:6“Their hearts are like an oven blazing with intrigue” refers to the lust for power and intrigue that was burning in these leaders’ hearts. Three Israelite kings were assassinated during Hosea’s tifetime—Zechariah, Shallum, and Pekahiah (2 Kings 15:8-26). The kings’ foreign relations and domestic lives were ruined because they ignored God and his word.
7:8The people of Israel had intermarried with foreign people and had picked up their evil ways. When we spend a lot of time with unbelievers, either professionally or socially, we can easily pick up their attitudes and begin to imitate their actions. Beware of the influence they may have on you. Instead of drifting into bad habits, see if you can have a positive influence and point these people to God.
7:10Arrogance (pride) keeps a person from turning to God because arrogance claims no need of heip from anyone, human or divine. Pride intensifies all our other sins because we cannot repent of any of them without first giving up our pride.
7:11Israel’s King Menahem had paid Assyria to support him in power (2 Kings 15:19, 20); King Hoshea turned against Assyria and went to Egypt for help (2 Kings 17:4). Israel's kings went back and forth, allying themselves with different nations when they should have allied themselves with God.
7:16Acrooked bow is unreliable. Its arrows miss the target, and its owner would be quite vulnerable in battle. Life without God is as unreliable as a crooked bow. Without God's direction, our thoughts are filled with lust, cheating, selfishness, and deceit. As long as we are warped by sin, we will never reach our true potential.
7:16People look everywhere except to God for happiness and fulfillment, pursuing possessions, recreation, and relationships. In reality, only God can truly satisfy the deep longings of the soul. Look first to heaven, to the Most High God. He will meet your spiritual needs, not all your materialistic wants.