Hosea 12:9–13:3

12:9–11 The last section ended with Ephraim’s assertion, “I am rich” (v. 8). This section begins with an emphatic, “I am the LORD your God.” The Lord’s presence and greatness eclipses and deflates Ephraim’s self-aggrandizing pronouncements. God declares himself to be Yahweh, their God since Egyptian days. In their days before any claim to greatness, they were nomads, tent dwellers. The Feast of Tabernacles (“the appointed feast”) celebrated this, but it now also serves as a warning. In response to their self-importance, God will reduce Israel to again being a nation of nomads.

Ephraim has spoken rebelliously (v. 8) claiming to be autonomously responsible for their prosperity and beyond Yahweh’s censure. In contrast, Yahweh spoke to the prophets of old (v. 10). He multiplied visions, while Ephraim multiplied falsehood (v. 1). In the literal idiom, God put parables “in the hand” of the prophets (v. 10). In verse 7, false balances are “in” Ephraim’s “hand.”¹ Thus Yahweh is three times compared with Ephraim, demonstrating both God’s loving care and patience and Ephraim’s disdain and evil.

Various other regions besides Ephraim also are cited in order to force the realization that the indictment is against the whole land (v. 11). The Hebrew word for Gilead’s “iniquity” was probably pronounced the same as the word for Ephraim’s “wealth” in verse 8. They see wealth and power; God sees guilt and punishable idolatry.

Gilgal (v. 11) was the first city occupied by Joshua, and was the staging area for the conquest. To mention it here invites comparisons to this earlier period. In Gilgal, illegal altars were as common as stones piled in “furrows of the field” (cf. 10:4).

12:12–14 The first verse of this section recites another piece of sacred history. After deceiving his father, Jacob fled to stay with Laban, for whom he worked fourteen years for Rachel by guarding sheep (Genesis 29). In a similar way, the Lord tended to Israel (by means of a prophet) and also did so in a foreign land, bringing Israel up from there. The last word in Hosea 12:13 is the same as the last word in the Hebrew of 12:12 (“guarded”). Jacob kept sheep, and his descendants were kept by Yahweh.

No doubt the “prophet” that Hosea has in mind here (v. 13) is Moses. But why does he use this cryptic reference to an unnamed prophet instead of specifying Moses as the prophet who brought Israel up from Egypt? Hosea seems to be stressing the similarities between Israel at the time of the exodus and Israel in his own day. As God brought the nation from bondage in the days of Egypt through a prophet, so now he has sent his prophet to them for their good, to save them from being enslaved again and taken to a new Egypt—Assyria. Hosea is then the new Moses to this new generation.

What is Ephraim’s response? He has irritated and exasperated his Lord to the point where nothing is left except bloodguilt and reproach (v. 14). The people celebrate Jacob in their ceremonies and call themselves his descendants, but the God of Jacob will no longer guard Ephraim as he did their patriarch. Instead, he will “repay” them. The Hebrew term translated “repay” is shub, the same word that elsewhere carries the sense of “turn, return.” Since Israel will not return (shub) to the Lord (v. 6), the Lord will return (shub) Israel’s reproach back onto the nation (v. 14).

13:1–3 “Ephraim” and “Israel” refer to the same religio-political entity throughout the book (5:3–9; 7:1; 8:8–9; 10:6; etc.), and 13:1 should be read in the same way. The first part of verse 1 is difficult to translate. The ESV faithfully renders the current Hebrew text, but it is not clear why Ephraim’s speech would result in trembling. There was never a time in which Ephraim as a tribe was highly regarded. The book of Judges treats the tribe as dangerously foolish, hotheads who are not around when work needs to be done but who complain later that they were left out. Thus some have proposed a very slight change that would result in the speaker of the verse being God: “When [God] spoke, Ephraim trembled. . . . He [God] was exalted in Israel.”²

The phrase “through Baal” can also be read as “in Baal”—i.e., at Baal-peor, the paradigmatic site of Israel’s great rebellion.³ Twenty-four thousand Israelites died there (Num. 25:1–9). While Ephraim may have at first revered God, this quickly turned to rejection of him, leading to grave consequences.

If history repeats itself, what sort of death awaits the nation of Israel? The kingdom will fail and the people will be disseminated throughout the earth. This is the death awaiting them. They will be cut down to a nomadic existence, fading away into nonexistence.

Since Baal-peor, they have added idol to idol and made themselves onerous (Hos. 12:2). Human sacrifice seems to be in view here. This may explain further the motif of death in 13:1: the people continue to die due to idolatry.

Because of this sort of sin, Israel will die as a nation. Four images in rapid succession signify Israel’s shortened lifespan (v. 3). They are like dew at daybreak—and will evaporate into nothing by midmorning. Like mist or smoke, they will disappear as if they had never been. Just as the smallest breeze blows away chaff (agricultural dust), so it will be with Ephraim.

There is no hope in these verses. The people have made their choice. Between Baal, the calf, and innumerable idols, they have refused to follow the lead of God’s prophet. Thus he will not save them when the time of judgment comes.