7 But no, the people are like crafty merchants selling from dishonest scales- they love to cheat. 8 Israel boasts, "I am rich! I've made a fortune all by myself! No one has caught me cheating! My record is spotless!" 9 "But I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in Egypt. And I will make you live in tents again, as you do each year at the Festival of Shelters. 10 I sent my prophets to warn you with many visions and parables." 11 But the people of Gilead are worthless because of their idol worship. And in Gilgal, too, they sacrifice bulls; their altars are lined up like the heaps of stone along the edges of a plowed field. 12 Jacob fled to the land of Aram, and there he earned a wife by tending sheep. 13 Then by a prophet the Lord brought Jacob's descendants out of Egypt; and by that prophet they were protected. 14 But the people of Israel have bitterly provoked the Lord, so their Lord will now sentence them to death in payment for their sins.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Hosea 12:7-14
Commentary on Hosea 12:7-14
(Read Hosea 12:7-14)
Ephraim became a merchant: the word also signifies a Canaanite. They carried on trade upon Canaanitish principles, covetously and with fraud and deceit. Thus they became rich, and falsely supposed that Providence favoured them. But shameful sins shall have shameful punishments. Let them remember, not only what a mighty prince Jacob was with God, but what a servant he was to Laban. The benefits we have had from the word of God, make our sin and folly the worse, if we put any slight upon that word. We had better follow the hardest labour in poverty, than grow rich by sin. We may form a judgment of our own conduct, by comparing it with that of ancient believers in the like circumstances. Whoever despises the message of God, will perish. May we all hear his word with humble, obedient faith.