NOTES for Hos 8:1-14
Today's reading again turns to the theme of Israel's apostasy, and here the threat of the country's defeat and the people's scattering is stated directly (vv. 7-8). It is worth noting that the threat of military defeat and absorption of the Northern Kingdom by the rapidly growing Assyrian Empire was quite real at that time, and although nothing of the sort happened during Hosea's lifetime, soon after his death the Kingdom of Israel was in fact destroyed and its population scattered throughout the territory of that enormous empire.
This scattering, according to the prophet's testimony, was not an accidental event; it clearly became the consequence of a whole chain of spiritual events. It all began when God's people rejected God and the Torah (the Law), in essence ceasing to be God's people despite all their declarations and ostentatious religiosity (vv. 1-3). It would seem that in such a situation repentance and conversion would have been the most natural and logical step, but nothing of the kind occurs. Understanding that with their chosen way of life they can expect no support from God, the inhabitants of the country begin to arrange things for themselves according to their own human laws and notions (v. 4); and this, it appears, concerned both spiritual and religious life ("the calves") and social and political life.
It should be noted that the laws of the Northern Kingdom, judging by everything we know about them, corresponded little to the norms of the Torah, and the religious policy of that state's authorities essentially encouraged the paganism characteristic of the majority of its population. The result of this choice was that Israel indeed almost ceased to differ from the nations around it, at least in matters of spiritual life. And then God leaves it to the mercy of its historical fate, which, given the military and political situation then taking shape in the Near East, was bound to be very sad.
Of course, the attraction of both the authorities and the people to paganism was due in no small measure to the fact that many associated it either with the benefits of civilization or with military and political power. It is no surprise that these many people hoped to attain both by securing the support of foreign gods (vv. 10-14). And then God steps aside, letting His people drink to the full of what had seemed so attractive from a distance. Under God's protection, even the pagan world, cruel and merciless in essence, could seem reasonable and beautiful to the Jews: they saw it not in itself, but as part of God's world, in which everything is beautiful. But once God stepped aside, all the beauty of paganism disappeared, and the evil with which it was permeated, like the whole fallen world, came crashing down upon them, leaving them completely defenseless. Then it became clear that without God Israel is nothing, that wiping it from the face of the earth costs nothing, and that all its prosperity and security had been provided by its God, whom the country's inhabitants, alas, so often forgot.