Hosea 10:1-15 No King – No Glory in the Land

An empty vine either never bore fruit or has had its fruit stripped away. Hosea explains that Israel did bear fruit at one time, but now it was corrupt fruit.

They used God’s blessings to build altars and images for idolatry. A vine that produces bad fruit is a bad vine. Jesus taught that a tree is known by its fruit. Israel’s fruit showed their spiritual condition.

Earlier, in Hosea 9:10, God said He found Israel “like grapes in the wilderness”. Isaiah 5 uses the same picture: Israel is God’s vineyard planted in a fruitful hill. God cleared the stones, planted the best vine, built a tower, and expected good grapes. Instead, the vineyard produced wild grapes.

Isaiah says God will remove its hedge, break down its wall, and leave it to thorns and briars. He identifies the vineyard plainly: “The vineyard of the LORD is the house of Israel.” Hosea’s “empty vine” is the fulfilment of Isaiah’s warning.

Jesus continues this imagery in John 15.

He’s not inventing new language; He’s identifying Himself with the God who planted Israel. He says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.” Israel could only bear fruit by abiding in God. Jesus now reveals that abiding in Him is abiding in the God who planted the vineyard.

Branches that bear no fruit are taken away; fruitful branches are pruned to bear more.

Without Him, they can do nothing. Branches that refuse Him are cast out and burned. This matches Israel’s history: planted to bear fruit, but cut down when they refused God.

Hosea’s message is that Israel has become an empty vine.

Their fruit is idolatry, their kings are corrupt, their worship is false, and their covenant blessings are ending. God planted them to bear righteousness, but they produced wild grapes. Now the hedge is removed, the vineyard is laid waste, and the nation faces the fire of judgment.

God chose Israel to bear fruit as His covenant people. When they refused, they were cut off from that covenant and from their chosen status.

This is not the standing of the body of Christ.

A believer becomes part of Christ’s body by grace, not by fruit or works, and even a fruitless Christian remains in the body because salvation is not covenant‑based it’s base is grace alone by faith alone.

John 15 can’t be applied to the church as if fruitlessness leads to being cut off from Christ. Jesus is speaking within Israel’s covenant framework — the same covenant Hosea and Isaiah address.

This helps when we get to reading Romans 11.

The branches cut off there are not members of the body of Christ but unbelieving Israel. The root is good and existed before Paul, proving it’s not the mystery church. Hosea’s imagery prepares us for this: Israel is an empty vine, not a fruitful one.

Now, when Hosea 10:1 says, “Israel is an empty vine.” Modern translations often reverse this, calling Israel a “luxuriant vine,” which is the opposite of Hosea’s point. Israel’s fruit was idolatry. They used God’s blessings to build altars and images. A vine that produces corrupt fruit is a corrupt vine.

Hosea 10:2 says,

Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images.

Their heart was divided — they loved prosperity but not God. Jesus taught the same: “You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Israel wavered between two opinions until God declared judgment. Their divided heart made them faulty, and the time of longsuffering ended.

God says He’ll break down their altars and spoil their images. Their false worship will be destroyed.

To Hosea 10:3 now, which says,

For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the LORD; what then should a king do to us?

The removal of the king is part of the judgment.

In Scripture, the vineyard often represents Israel’s political life. When the vine’s cut down, the king’s removed. Israel’s political standing collapses. Hosea had already prophesied in chapter 3 that Israel would be many days without a king, priest, or temple.

Hosea 10 repeats this three times — in verses 3, 7, and 15. The final king, Hoshea, is removed, and no successor rises. The throne itself disappears.

God intends judgment to produce repentance.

Israel will finally confess, “We have no king because we feared not the LORD.” This is an absolutely correct statement. God had continually called them to repent through His prophets and when they refused, He used punishment to bring them to the same truth.

The phrase “We have no king” appears again in John 19:15. When Pilate presented Jesus, Israel cried, “We have no king but Caesar.” They had no king of their own, just as Hosea foretold. Their rejection of God’s rule brought political ruin.

When Hosea prophesies Israel crying out, “We have no king… what then should a king do for us?” he exposes a truth Israel should have known from the beginning: God was their true King. Their human kings had failed, and now, under judgment, they finally admit that a king can’t save them. This goes back to 1 Samuel 8, where Israel first demanded a king. Samuel was grieved, but God told him, “They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” God had ruled Israel through judges He appointed, but the people wanted to be “like the nations.”

God told Samuel to warn them what a king would do: he would take their sons for war, their daughters for his kitchens, their fields and vineyards for his servants, their servants for his work, and a tenth of their produce as tax.

They would cry out because of the king they chose, and God would not hear, because they had rejected Him. Yet Israel insisted, saying in 1 Samuel 18:19, “Nay; but we will have a king over us.”

Saul was anointed, then David, and the monarchy began. But by Hosea’s day, the northern kings were corrupt, and God declared their line finished. The throne itself would be removed.

Hosea 10 shows the people finally recognising the truth after judgment: “We have no king, because we feared not the LORD.” Judgment will teach them what they refused to learn earlier.

God uses two means to produce repentance: He calls through His prophets, and when they refuse, He brings punishment so they’ll confess the truth. Israel now sees that their king can’t help them. Their political vine is cut down; their national strength is gone.

This question — “What should a king do for us?” — is the question they should have asked in 1 Samuel.

A human king can’t replace God.

Earthly kings often exalt themselves as gods because of their power, like Pharaoh, Persian emperors, or Alexander the Great. But God is always above them. When Israel trusted kings instead of God, they lost both.

Paul echoes this in Romans 13: “There is no power but of God.” Authority comes from God, not from human rulers. In Israel, God anointed the rightful kings but Jeroboam was never anointed by God, even though he wielded power. There are righteous kings and wicked kings, but God is the highest authority over all.

Hosea shows that Israel’s governmental authority has failed because it is no longer subject to God.

Any rightful authority must submit to God, just as individuals must. When rulers refuse truth, they can’t do right. This has always been the Christian position, which is why tyrants have persecuted believers who refuse to obey ungodly commands. Romans 13 teaches that true authority is “the minister of God to thee for good.” The ruler bears the sword to punish evil and protect righteousness. When a king lies, spreads falsehood, and refuses God’s law, he becomes a corrupt power. Israel’s kings were no longer executing righteousness, so God removed them.

Hosea 10:4 says,

They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.

Israel “swore falsely” and “made a covenant.”

This refers back to Deuteronomy 29, where Israel entered a covenant with God before entering the land. All Israel — leaders, families, strangers dwelling among them, and future generations — stood before God and swore to be His people.

God warned them not to turn to idols, not to imitate the nations, and not to plant, quote, a “root that beareth gall and wormwood.” If they served other gods, their root would produce bitter fruit. Hosea now says that’s exactly what happened: they broke the covenant, and their fruit has become poison.

Hosea describes judgment “springing up as hemlock,” which is a deadly plant. Judgment should have been a blessing — righteous kings protecting the people and punishing evil. Instead, judgment is now poison because the whole nation’s corrupt.

When the righteous rule, judgment is good; when the wicked rule, judgment destroys. Israel’s kings were supposed to uphold truth, but they became the bitter root. God is cutting them out.

Amos 6:12 uses the same imagery: Israel turned “judgment into gall” and “the fruit of righteousness into hemlock.” What should have been good became deadly.

The king was meant to be a blessing, but Israel turned kingship into corruption. God ordained authority to uphold righteousness, not to sanctify wickedness. When rulers do evil, they are bad fruit, and God removes them.

Then, Hosea 10:5 says,

The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth-aven: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it.

These golden calves were their false gods.

The people and priests rejoiced over them, but now they’ll mourn because “the glory thereof is departed.” This echoes Ichabod who we spoke about last episode, from 1 Samuel 4, when the ark was taken, and the child was named “the glory is departed.”

Israel’s glory was never in gold. The ark was covered in gold, the tabernacle and temple were filled with gold, but the glory was God Himself.

Now, with their idols collapsing and their kings removed, the true glory has departed. Hosea shows that Israel’s covenant, worship, authority, and fruit have all become bitter, and judgment has come because they rejected the only true King.

Israel’s golden calves were a corruption of what God had originally given.

The ark of the covenant had golden cherubim, but those were commanded by God and symbolised His presence.

Israel confused the symbol with God Himself. Once they accepted gold as “holy,” it was easy for Jeroboam to introduce golden calves at Beth‑aven and Gilgal.

These were not in Jerusalem; they were part of Jeroboam’s counterfeit religion. Israel gloried in these idols, but Hosea says their “glory is departed.” Their calves will be taken away, just as Moses once melted the calf and made Israel drink it.

After Moses came down from Sinai and saw the golden calf, Exodus 32:20 says:

And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

This was part of Moses’ immediate judgment on Israel for their idolatry  and forcing the people to drink the dust of the destroyed calf was a sign of their shame and guilt.

God mocks Israel’s idolatry again. The calves will depart and become a gift to Assyria. What they worshipped will be handed over as tribute. This is godly sarcasm—God exposing the emptiness of their false worship.

Hosea 10:6 says,

It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.

The calves will be carried to Assyria “for a present to king Jareb.” Commentators debate the name, king Jareb. The word for Jareb means he will contend; and is not normally a name and no recorded Assyrian king had this name.

Hosea also uses the term symbolically in Hosea 5:13, which we saw when we were there.

The context suggests a title, rather than the actual name of a king, and Hosea’s style supports this.

So the reference could be to “the king who contends / the avenger king,” referring to the Assyrian king who would destroy Israel.

But all that doesn’t change the point, which is simple: their idols will be removed. Israel will mourn over losing what they should never have worshipped.

Their true glory—God Himself—is departing.

Hosea 10:7 reads,

As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water.

Ephraim will receive shame, and Israel will be ashamed of its own counsel and Samaria’s king will be cut off “as the foam upon the water.”

Jude 1:13 explains this image: false teachers are “raging waves… foaming out their own shame.”

Sea foam has no substance; it appears briefly and vanishes. Israel’s kings and idols are just noise without power. They’ll disappear like bubbles on the sea.

Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom, will lose its king and its idols.

Hosea 10:8 says,

The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.

The high places of Aven—the sin of Israel—will be destroyed. Thorns and thistles will grow on their altars, just as Isaiah 5 foretold when God judged His vineyard. Their sacred places will be forgotten and overgrown.

In desperation, they’ll cry, “Mountains, cover us; hills, fall on us.”

Jesus quotes this in Luke 23: women wept for Him, but He said, “Weep for yourselves… for the days are coming” when judgment will fall. Revelation 6 uses the same phrase: the wicked beg the mountains to hide them from “the wrath of the Lamb.”

They would rather die than repent, or they stupidly think mountains can hide them from God.

Hosea’s point is that Israel’s idols, kings, and altars will collapse. Their glory—whether the false glory of golden calves or the true glory of God—has departed.

Judgment is coming, and instead of repenting, they’ll try to hide. Hosea calls them to see the emptiness of their idols, the weakness of their kings, and the certainty of God’s wrath. Only repentance can save them, but they choose to be covered by the mountains instead of mercy.

Hosea 10:9 reads,

 O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them.

Hosea recalls Gibeah to show how far the northern tribes have fallen. In Judges 19–21, a Levite’s concubine was abused and murdered as we’ve seen a couple of time through this study.

in Gibeah, a city of Benjamin. The man cut her body into pieces and sent them to the tribes. Israel gathered, shocked by the wickedness, and demanded Benjamin hand over the guilty men so they could “put away evil from Israel.”

Benjamin refused, choosing to defend the criminals. A civil war followed. Israel sought God each day, and though they lost twice, God told them to go again. On the third day they prevailed, nearly wiping Benjamin out.

Judges 21:6 says, “There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.” Benjamin was reduced to a remnant because of its sin.

Hosea uses this history to expose Israel’s present condition.

In the days of Gibeah, the northern tribes fought against wickedness. Now they are the wicked ones. God hasn’t changed; Israel has.

The same tribes that once executed righteous judgment now commit idolatry and corruption.

They’ve become like the very evil they once destroyed. God asks, in effect, “If I judged Benjamin for its sin, why would I not judge you?” The children of iniquity didn’t win then, and Israel won’t win now.

Hosea 10:10 says,

It is in my desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows.

God desired Benjamin’s chastisement, and now He desires Israel’s. Armies will gather against them, and they’ll be cut off. Hosea 9:9 already said they had “deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah.” The comparison is very deliberate: Israel has become the new Gibeah.

Hosea now uses agricultural imagery: “When they shall bind themselves in their two furrows.” Farming language was normal in ancient life. A furrow is the trench made when ploughing a field. Oxen or heifers were yoked together to pull the plough. Binding themselves in two furrows pictures Israel preparing for judgment, the way a farmer prepares a field. They are lining up for the battle God will bring, just as Israel once lined up against Benjamin. But now Israel is the guilty party, and God’s the one ploughing them under.

This imagery shows how foreign Scripture can feel to modern readers. Farming dominated ancient life, whereas today only a small percentage of people farm. But in Hosea’s world, ploughing, yokes, furrows, and harvests were everyday realities. God uses these images to show that Israel’s sin has produced bitter fruit, and now the field must be judged.

Hosea’s farming imagery continues to show how God will deal with Ephraim in Hosea 10:11, which says,

And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plough, and Jacob shall break his clods.

In ancient farming, a cow could be used for ploughing but also for treading corn. Ploughing was the hardest job. The animal was yoked, muzzled, and forced to drag a plough through hard soil to make furrows. Treading corn was easier. After harvest, grain was laid on the threshing floor, and the ox walked over it to separate kernels from stalks. The law said in Deuteronomy 25:4, “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn,” because the animal could eat while it worked. Treading corn meant lighter labour and constant food. Ploughing meant heavy labour and no eating.

1 Timothy 5:18 also uses this law in relation to the Body of Christ.

Hosea’s point is that Ephraim has lived in ease, enjoying God’s provision, like a heifer treading corn and getting fat.

They used God’s blessings to feed idolatry instead of obedience. Their “fair neck” shows they haven’t had to bear the yoke of hard work. But God now says, “I passed over upon her fair neck; I will make Ephraim to ride.”

He will now put the yoke on them. They’ll no longer tread corn; they’ll plough. Judgment’s going to force them into hard labour. If they’ll not listen in prosperity, God’ll teach them through difficulty.

He adds, “Judah shall plough, and Jacob shall break his clods.” Judah has already been doing the harder work of obedience. But even Judah will face heavier labour.

A clod is a chunk of hardened soil — the tough, compacted dirt that forms when a field has been left unworked for too long.

Breaking clods is the hardest part of ploughing—turning fallow, hard, thorn‑filled ground into usable soil. God’s saying Israel’s spiritual condition is like that unbroken ground. Their hearts are hard, their land is unfruitful, and only severe labour—repentance—can change it.

So in Hosea 10:12, Hosea appeals to them, saying,

Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.

God wants them to plant righteousness so He can give mercy. But they’ve left the field fallow. Their altars and idols have produced no fruit. He says, “Break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD.” The hardest work is repentance—destroying idols, overturning false worship, and returning to God. If they refuse, judgment will plough them instead.

The imagery shows God’s patience and His justice. E

phraim enjoyed ease but rejected God. Now the yoke comes. Judah has worked but will also face discipline. Israel must break up the hardened ground of their hearts. God’s calling them to sow righteousness and reap mercy before the plow of judgment turns their land upside down.

However, the nation is at the point symbolised by Hosea’s child, Lo‑ruhamah — “no more mercy.” Judgment is at the door. Hosea says, “Seek the LORD till he come and rain righteousness upon you.”When God comes, His righteousness will either bless or destroy.

Unlike Israel’s king, who is about to be cut off, God bears the sword righteously. This is the sowing‑and‑reaping principle found throughout Scripture. Paul echoes it in Galatians 6:7: “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

To sow righteousness means returning to God’s law and doing what He commands.

Today, sowing to the Spirit means learning what God says is right for today and obeying it, which today means simply believing in the Gospel of Salvation according to 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.

Sowing to the flesh means doing what seems right in one’s own eyes, just as Israel did in Hosea’s day and in the days of Gibeah.

Hosea’s appeal parallels Acts 3:19–21, where Peter tells Israel: “Repent… that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”

Hosea says, “Seek the LORD till he come.” Peter says the same: repent before Christ returns to rain righteousness. If they refuse, that rain becomes wrath. Hosea’s imagery of yokes and burdens also echoes Jesus’ words to Israel: “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Israel wanted the ease of treading corn, not the hard work of ploughing righteousness.

Jesus calls Israel to follow Him for true blessing, because their own path leads only to judgment.

Hosea 10:13 declares,

Ye have ploughed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.

They trusted in their own way and in their mighty men.

Psalm 33:16 says, “A king is not saved by the multitude of a host; a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.”

Human strength can’t save, as we see throughout the entire Bible. Empires fall not because armies are small, but because they reject righteousness. This comforts the weak: victory belongs to God, not to numbers or power. Israel, however, trusted in military strength and political strategy instead of God.

Psalm 52 describes the same pattern: the mighty man boasts in mischief, loves evil more than good, and trusts in riches rather than God. God will “pluck thee out of the land of the living.”

Hosea says Israel has done exactly this — they’ve planted wickedness, and they’ll reap lies. Deuteronomy 22:9 warned Israel not to sow their vineyard with diverse seeds, lest the fruit be defiled.

Israel is God’s vineyard, yet they’ve mixed righteousness with idolatry. Their fruit is corrupted.

Psalm 52 ends with a contrast: “I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God.”

The righteous flourish because they trust God. Israel doesn’t. They’ve sown wickedness, trusted in mighty men, and eaten lies.

Hosea calls them to break up their fallow ground — the hardened soil of their hearts — and return to the Lord before the plough of judgment arrives.

Hos 10:14 reads,

Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.

Because Israel trusted in its mighty men instead of the Lord, Hosea says a tumult will arise among the people and their fortresses will fall. All the strength they relied on—kings, armies, chariots—will collapse. God reminds them of a past event: “as Shalman spoiled Beth‑arbel.” Though Beth‑arbel appears only here, it was clearly a town decisively destroyed by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria.

2 Kings 17 records this history.

Hoshea, the final king of the northern tribes, reigned in Samaria and “did evil,” even though he wasn’t as wicked as earlier kings. Shalmaneser came against him, and Hoshea became his servant, giving him tribute, probably including the golden calves Hosea mentions. When Hoshea secretly sought help from Egypt and failed to pay tribute, Shalmaneser imprisoned him. After this, Assyria besieged Samaria for three years, conquering town after town. Beth‑arbel was one of them.

Hosea  says, “the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.” This wasn’t God’s action. It was the brutality of the Assyrians, who didn’t serve God and violated His laws. God forbade harming pregnant women in Exodus 21:22–25, but when He withdraws protection, wicked nations act according to their nature. Hosea’s point is that the same destruction Assyria brought to Beth‑arbel will come upon all Israel.

Hosea 10:15 says,

So shall Beth-el do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.

Bethel, with its golden calves and false worship, will draw Assyria down upon them. Their idols won’t save them; they’ll be spoiled and destroyed. Their great wickedness is the cause.

In one morning, the king of Israel will be utterly cut off and that was fulfilled when Hoshea was taken away.

2 Kings 17:20 summarises the judgment: “The LORD rejected all the seed of Israel… delivered them into the hand of the spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.”

God didn’t command Assyria’s cruelty; He simply removed His protection. When Israel rejected Him, He allowed the spoilers to enter.

Hosea’s closing message is clear: Israel trusted in human strength, idols, and kings. They refused mercy, refused repentance, and sowed wickedness. Now they will reap destruction. Their fortresses will fall, their king will be cut off, and the Assyrians will spoil the land. All of this could have been avoided had they trusted in the Lord rather than in the might of men.

Until the next episode, when we move into Hosea chapter 11, may God bless you richly.