8:1 The Lord commanded Hosea to announce coming judgment by telling him to put a trumpet to his lips. The blowing of the shophar announced that an invader was coming (cf. 5:8). Israel's enemy would swoop down on the nation as an eagle attacking its prey (cf. 5:14; Deut. 28:49). The "house of the LORD"refers to the people of Israel, His household. The reason for this judgment was Israel's transgression (overstepping) of Yahweh's covenant (the Mosaic Covenant) and his rebellion against His Law (the Mosaic Law; cf. 7:13).
8:2 The Israelites claimed that they acknowledged (knew) the authority of their God, but their transgressions and rebellion proved that they did not (cf. 4:1, 6; 5:4).
8:3 Because Israel had rejected the good (i.e., the Lord's moral and ethical requirements), an enemy would pursue him (cf. Deut. 28:45).
8:4 One example of Israel's rebellion was the setting up of kings and other leaders without consulting Yahweh.
"Yahweh alonedetermines who can be king either by charismatic gifts or by direct revelation through a prophet. He giveskings to the nations (e.g., 1 Kgs 19:15-16); they do not decide who their kings will be. . . . The king was Yahweh's representative or regent, not the people's choice."57
The making of idols was another example of rebellion. The result of this rebellion was that God would cut Israel off (separate Israel from its land and people).
8:5 The Lord rejected the calf idol that had come to mark Israelite worship since Jeroboam I first set up images of calves in Dan and Bethel (1 Kings 12:28-30).58He also said His anger burned against the Israelites because of this idolatry. He despaired that they persisted in uncleanness by asking rhetorically how long they would be incapable of innocence (purity).
8:6 From Israel, of all people, had come the pagan idol. A human craftsman had fashioned it, so the idol was not the true God (cf. Isa. 40:18-20; 44:9-20). When Jeroboam I originally presented these idols to the people of Israel, he said, "Behold your gods, O Israel"(1 Kings 12:28; cf. Exod. 32:4). These idols, represented here as the calf of Samaria, would be broken to pieces demonstrating the impotence of the gods.
8:7 Normally farmers sowed seed and reaped grain, but Israel had sowed the wind, something foolish and worthless (cf. Job 7:7; Prov. 11:29; Eccles. 1:14, 17), namely, idolatry. Consequently instead of reaping something beneficial and nourishing he would reap a whirlwind, something equally vain but also destructive. Sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind may have been a proverb in Israel.59The literal seed the Israelites sowed would grow up but not produce any grain, only bare stalks without heads. If the land did yield some grain, strangers would confiscate it and the Israelites would not benefit from it.
