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They promise to do many things,
but they never do what they promise.
They make useless agreements.
So people accuse each other in the courts.
They are like weeds that grow in a farmer's field.
The people who live in Samaria will be afraid.
They will worry about their image of a calf at Beth Aven.[a]
They will weep because it will go away from them.
The priests who serve the idol will cry too.
They know that an enemy will take away their great and beautiful idol.
Assyria's army will carry the idol away.[b]
It will be a gift to give honour to Assyria's great king.
Ephraim's people will feel ashamed.
They will be sorry that they trusted in their wooden idol.

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Footnotes

  1. 10:5 People worshipped a gold calf at Bethel. Hosea calls Bethel ‘Beth Aven’. Bethel means ‘House of God’ but Beth Aven means ‘House of wicked things’.
  2. 10:6 Assyria's army will take the idol away when they win the war.

They make many promises,
    take false oaths(A)
    and make agreements;(B)
therefore lawsuits spring up
    like poisonous weeds(C) in a plowed field.
The people who live in Samaria fear
    for the calf-idol(D) of Beth Aven.[a](E)
Its people will mourn over it,
    and so will its idolatrous priests,(F)
those who had rejoiced over its splendor,
    because it is taken from them into exile.(G)
It will be carried to Assyria(H)
    as tribute(I) for the great king.(J)
Ephraim will be disgraced;(K)
    Israel will be ashamed(L) of its foreign alliances.

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Footnotes

  1. Hosea 10:5 Beth Aven means house of wickedness (a derogatory name for Bethel, which means house of God).