Hosea 8:6-8

The Voice

⁶    This idol is from Israel.
        A craftsman made it; it’s not God!
    Samaria’s calf will be smashed to pieces.

Israel’s harlotry is practiced not only by diplomatic accords with other nations but also by worship of their gods who serve as witnesses to these alliances. Here an idol is fabricated and worshiped by God’s own people. As their ancestors did in the wilderness while Moses was on the mountain with God, they make an image of a calf. They turn from the True God to worship their own creation, a crude imitation of God’s creation. The anger of the Lord is again aroused as it was in the wilderness, and He will crush both the idol and the idol worshipers.

⁷Eternal One: Then these proverbs will come true:
        “Because they sow the wind, they’ll reap the whirlwind.”
        “A shoot without a grain head doesn’t make any flour.”
        “If the shoot does produce, foreigners will devour it!”
⁸    Israel has been devoured by that eagle and strewn among the nations.
        Now it’s like a discarded pot, valuable to no one.