Hos. 7.1-16 gives us a picture of the many sins of Israel alone, and the punishments for them. God wanted to bless them but he has too many complaints against them.
v 1…When I would heal Israel (attempt to heal their corruption), the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered (became known), and the evil deeds of Samaria (the capital city); for they deal falsely (no one could trust anyone else). The thief enters in (the houses), bandits (robbers) raid outside (no traveler was safe).
v 2…And they do not consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness (known and recorded in the Sefer Zikaron or “Book of Remembrance”). Now their deeds are all around them (hedging them in like a wall); they are before my face (he can’t ignore them).
v 3…With their wickedness they made the king glad (criminals made the king happy, showing corruption reached to the top), and the princes with their lies.
v 4…They are all adulterous like an oven heated by the baker, who ceases to stir up the fire from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened (the adulterous/idolatrous desires of the people was so “hot” it was like a baker’s oven that didn’t need any more fuel on it until the fermenting process of the bread was finished).
v 5…On the day of our king (his birthday or the day of his coronation) the princes become sick with the heat of wine (drunk), he (the king) stretched out his hand with scoffers (became familiar with them).
v 6…For their hearts (desires) are like an oven (he continues the metaphor from v 4- they were ready for any evil to be performed) as they approach their plotting (lie in wait for an opportunity for adultery, rebellion against the king, murder, etc); their baker smolders all night (he puts wood in his oven and goes to sleep), in the morning it burns like a flaming fire (his oven has heated enough for him to start baking. In like manner, the evil in a man’s heart is hot like an oven, it rests devising how to accomplish their evil, and in the morning they are ready to carry it out).
v 7…All of them are hot like an oven (burn with eagerness to cause trouble) and they consume their rulers (their sin came back on their own heads. The furnace of Nebuchadnezzar devoured not only what was put into it, but also those who started the fire-Dan 3.22).
v 8…Ephraim mixes himself with the nations (learned their ways and customs, which Yehovah told them not to do-Jer 10.2; Lev 18.23, 20.23-26; Deut 4.15-19, 7.26, 12.29-32, 18.9; Isa 2.6, 30.22, 40.18; Psa 106.35; Col 2.8; Gen 35.1-2; Josh 23.6-7; Judges 9.27). Ephraim has become a cake not turned (burned and useless on one side, making the whole cake inedible. One side looked good, but underneath it was useless).
v 9…Strangers devour his strength (Assyria demanded tribute and it drained their treasury, and people were also taken-2 Kings 15.19, 29), yet he does not know (was aware of his condition) gray hairs (a sign of approaching death or national destruction) are sprinkled on him, yet he does not know (being void of wisdom he is oblivious to all the signs).
v 10…Though the pride of Israel testifies against them (they would not repent), yet they have neither returned to the Lord (Yehovah) their God (Elohim) nor have they sought him, for all this (hardened).
v 11…So Ephraim has become like a silly dove without heart (too foolish to notice the snare of the fowler); they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria (not knowing they were jumping out of the pan into the fire-this also alludes to the instruction later on during the birth-pains for the Jews not to flee to Europe or Russia).
v 12…When they go (for help and aid), I will spread my net over them (like a fowler-he will use foreigners to carry out his will as his instruments); I will bring them down like the birds of the sky (pulling them into the net of exile). I will chastise them in accordance with the proclamation to their assembly (according to all he has said through the prophets to the congregation about their destruction).
v 13…Woe to them, for they have strayed from me (forsaking Yehovah and his Torah)! Destruction is theirs, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me (against the Torah, they believed they were “free from the law” and Yehovah’s revelation of himself there).
v 14…And they do not cry to me from their heart when they wail on their beds (with their idolatrous prayers; they were howling dogs because it does not come from the heart); for the sake of grain and new wine they assemble themselves (at their pagan altars calling upon God and other gods for help to fill their stomachs), they turn away from me.
v 15…Although I trained and strengthened their arms (by instruction in the Torah; how to be strong spiritually, which brings a blessing), yet they devise evil against me (by being ungrateful and by rejecting the truth and turning to idols in rebellion).
v 16…They turn (for help to Egypt and Assyria) but not upward (to the Most High in his Temple in Jerusalem), they are like a deceitful bow (it looked good but broke when it was bent, or it was warped, so it missed the mark, which is what the word “chata” or sin means. It is an archery term); their princes will fall by the sword because of the rage of their tongue (their blasphemy against God; blasphemy is calling something holy, or has a kedusha, when it doesn’t; or saying something does not have a kedusha when it does). This will be their derision (their fall will cause those who they sought help from to laugh and mock them) in the land of Egypt.
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