Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

13:1 there was trembling. The idea seems to be that at one time Ephraim's word commanded respect.

13:2 who offer human sacrifice. Child sacrifice was a part of Baal worship (Isa. 57:5). kiss calves. Kissing is a way of paying homage (1 Kings 19:18). The excavations at Ashkelon have uncovered an example of calf worship in a sanctuary from the sixteenth century b.c. A small, solid bronze calf was discovered, and around it were remains of a pottery shrine that housed the calf. Calf worship, of course, was a problem throughout the history of Israel (see Exodus 32; 1 Kings 12).

13:3 The similes of mist, dew, chaff, and smoke liken Israel's end to vapors that quickly dissipate.

13:4-5 But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt. In contrast to fleeting vapors, this is a solemn statement that rehearses Ex. 20:2. The passing work of the craftsmen who make idols (Hos. 13:2) stands in vivid disparity to the God who sustained Israel in the land of drought by his devoted care.

13:6 but when they had grazed. Their devotion in the wilderness diminished with prosperity (cf. 2:8; 10:1-2).

13:7-8 a lion . . . a leopard . . . a bear. Hosea's contemporary (and fellow prophet to the northern kingdom) Amos also depicts Israel as the prey of wild beasts, an image of God's judgment (Amos 3:12; cf. Hos. 5:14).