8:11 In rebellion against Yahweh's covenant the Israelites had also built many altars. They built them to offer many sin offerings, but since God had not authorized these altars they became places for sinning rather than places for being forgiven.
8:12 Yahweh had been very specific about His demands in the Mosaic Covenant, but the Israelites treated them as something foreign to their lives. Ironically they had treated God's laws as foreign, but they had imported foreign idols and practices and followed them. "Ten thousand precepts"looks at the abundant detail that God had provided His people so they would know just what to do, not at the number of His commands.
8:13 They offered the sacrifices prescribed in the Law, but the Lord looked at them only as meat; they had no sacrificial value to Him.60He took no delight in them because the people mixed their sacrifices with rebellion. Consequently He would call them into judgment for their sins and punish them. He would send them back to Egypt where they used to live as slaves before He redeemed them in the Exodus (cf. 9:3). The Lord meant that He would send them to an Egypt-like place, which Assyria proved to be (cf. 11:5; Deut. 28:68).
"In the deliverance from Egyptian bondage Israel had experienced God's grace. Having spurned that grace, she would return to slavery."61
8:14 Both Israel and Judah had forgotten that Yahweh had made her what she had become. Instead of continuing to trust and obey Him, the people had put their confidence in their own ability to provide for themselves. This attitude of self-reliance manifested itself in their building palaces and fortified cites as places of prominence and protection. Palaces and fortified cites are not wrong in themselves, but in this context, set against remembering Yahweh, they were expressions of self-trust. As judgment the Lord would burn down their palaces and fortified cities. He would remove the objects of their confidence and teach the people their personal inadequacy. Tiglath-Pileser III did this when he destroyed Samaria and the other Israelites cities, and Sennacherib did it when he attacked all the fortified cities of Judah (2 Kings 17:6; 18:13).
To summarize, five types of sin stand out in this section as reasons for Israel's punishment. Israel had usurped Yahweh's sovereign authority to lead the nation (v. 4). Israel had worshipped idols (vv. 4-6). Israel depended on foreign treaties rather than God (vv. 9-10). Israel had adopted and perpetuated a corrupt cult (system of worship, vv. 5, 6, 11, 13). And Israel arrogantly disregarded Yahweh's Law (vv. 1-3, 5, 12, 14).
