What is the meaning of Hosea 10:5? The people of Samaria • Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom, represents the whole nation. Hosea has already addressed them directly: “Your calf, O Samaria, has provoked My anger” (Hosea 8:5). • Their spiritual condition is exposed—rather than fearing the LORD (Proverbs 1:7), they will be gripped by dread because their man-made security is about to vanish. Will fear for the calf of Beth-aven • “Beth-aven” (“house of wickedness”) is Hosea’s ironic name for Bethel, where Jeroboam set up the golden calf (1 Kings 12:28-29). • Instead of reverent awe toward God, the people tremble for an idol. Jeremiah describes a similar misplaced fear: “Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, just as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel” (Jeremiah 48:13). • Fear here exposes the emptiness of idolatry—when the idol is threatened, its worshipers panic. Indeed, its people will mourn over it • Their grief echoes Micah’s lament: “All this is because of Jacob’s transgression” (Micah 1:5). They sorrow not over sin but over losing the object of sin. • Judges 18:24 gives an Old Testament parallel: “You have taken my gods that I made… what else do I have?”. Their mourning proves their hearts are tied to the calf, not to the covenant. With its idolatrous priests • The special term for these priests appears in 2 Kings 23:5, where Josiah “did away with the idolatrous priests.” They wore black robes and led the nation into calf worship. • Zephaniah 1:4 shows God’s view: “I will stretch out My hand against Judah… and I will cut off every remnant of Baal and the name of the idolatrous priests.” Hosea foresees the same judgment. Those who rejoiced in its glory • They once celebrated the calf’s “glory,” but Psalm 106:19-20 reminds us, “They made a calf at Horeb… they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox that eats grass.” • Amos 8:14 pictures this misplaced boasting: “As surely as your god lives, O Dan… the people will fall, never to rise again.” The joy of idolatry always turns to shame when God acts. For it has been taken from them into exile • Assyria will seize both the idol and the idolaters. Hosea’s next verse spells it out: “The calf itself will be carried to Assyria as tribute to the great king” (Hosea 10:6). • 2 Kings 15:29 records the historical fulfillment when Tiglath-Pileser captured Galilee and Gilead; 2 Kings 17:6 describes the final deportation. • Once the idol is gone, the nation that trusted it is powerless, fulfilling Isaiah 46:2: “Their idols are on beasts and livestock… they themselves go into captivity.” summary Hosea 10:5 paints a vivid picture of Israel’s misplaced devotion. The people of Samaria, their priests, and all who once reveled in the calf at Beth-aven will be seized with dread, grief, and ultimate loss when God removes their idol and sends them into exile. The verse exposes the folly of trusting anything but the living God: what we worship will either save us or fail us, and only the LORD endures. |
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