Hosea 8:14

For Israel hath forgotten his Maker,.... The Creator and Preserver of everyone of them, and who had raised them up to a state and kingdom, and had made them great and rich, and populous, and bestowed

For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.

Israel; the ten revolted idolatrous tribes. Hath forgotten; the same with , which see; or ,6. Either remembers not at all, or it is without love, thankfulness, and consideration what becomes him towards God. His Maker; who made, who preserved, who advanced them, and gave them all those privileges wherein they excel other nations; who brought them out of Egypt, &c. Buildeth temples; the word will bear palaces, or towers. It is like their idol temples were magnificent, that they might boast of them, and strong like towers, that they might for need garrison and fortify them, and trust in their strength in a day of war and trouble. Judah hath multiplied fenced cities; on like designs and motives doth Judah multiply strong holds, fortifying against threatened judgments, making flesh their arm, whilst their heart (as at this time of Ahaz’ s reign and apostacy) did depart from the living God. Send a fire upon his cities; bring an enemy upon them that shall besiege them in their cities, and burn them, which was effected by Nebuchadnezzar and his armies about one hundred and thirty years after. It shall devour the palaces; the stately palaces of their princes and nobles in their cities, these shall be burnt too. Judah hath imitated Israel, and made himself like to Israel in sin, and God will make them like in sufferings; the fire which their sin hath kindled shall consume both.

Hosea 8:14 For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.Ver. 14. For Israel hath forgotten his maker] Not more his factor than his benefactor, as, 1 Samuel 12:6, the Lord made Moses and Aaron, i.e. he advanced them to that honour in his Church. So our Saviour is said to have made twelve, when he ordained them to the apostleship, Mark 3:14. And the apostle saith of Israel, that God exalted the people, when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, Acts 13:17, sc. to the privilege of his peculiar people, the possession of the promised land, the custody of his oracles and services, &c., besides the many benefits and deliverances wrought for them. All which they are said to have forgotten: 1. Because they laid them not to heart, see Isaiah 57:11, they saw not God in them; 2. Because their lives were not answerable; they walked not worthy of such a God; but said (in effect), "We are delivered to do all these abominations," Jeremiah 7:10. God challengeth remembrance, and well he may, Ecclesiastes 12:1, for he hath created us for his glory, Isaiah 43:7, he hath formed us, yea, he hath made us (as it followeth there, and all that we might remember him): the word (made) is used for a degree of grace after creation. Those that are his workmanship, his artificial facture (ποιημα), created in Christ Jesus (who is the beginning of this creation of God, Revelation 3:14) unto good works, Ephesians 2:10, if ever they should forget God (which is the character of a wicked man, Psalms 50:22); if they should forsake God that made them, and lightly esteem tha Rock of their salvation, Deuteronomy 32:15, as Solomon did the Lord that had appeared unto him twice; if they should not prefer him above their chief joy, or make him ascend above the head of their joy (as the Hebrew hath it, Psalms 137:6), and set him over all, as Pharaoh did Joseph (causing sun, moon, and stars to do obeisance to him), I mean, all their natural, moral, temporal, and spiritual abilities to be subject and serviceable to him; he would have an unanswerable action against them, and both heaven and earth Would have cause to blush at their disingenuity and unthankfulness. Let it ever be remembered, that of all things God cannot abide to be forgotten. And buildeth temples] To God, no doubt; and yet, because they worshipped him not in his own way they are said to have forgotten him: so do Papists in all their structures, vowed presents, and memories (as they call them). In King Stephen’ s time here, notwithstanding all the miseries of war, there were more Abbeys built than in a hundred years before. But who required those things at their hands? Christus opera nostra non tam actibus quam finibus pensat (Zanchius).

(14) Temples.—The word here used for temple is used sixty times for Jehovah’s temple. The building of these temple-palaces was a distinct sin against the unity of the Godhead. Judah hath multiplied fenced cities.—Referred to by Sennacherib, in the inscription relating to the campaign of 701 B.C. “Forty-six of his (Hezekiah’s) strong cities, fortresses . . . I besieged, I captured.” These were erected by Uzziah and Jotham (2 Chronicles 26:10; 2 Chronicles 27:4). With the allusions to Israel’s temples (palaces) compare Amos 3:11; Amos 3:15.

Verse 14. Israel hath forgotten his Maker] And therefore built temples to other gods. Judah had lost all confidence in the Divine protection, and therefore built many fenced cities. But the fire of God's anger burnt up both the temples and the fortified cities.

14. A fresh reason for the ‘swallowing up’ of which the prophet has spoken (Hosea 8:8)—Israel’s worldliness and self-dependence. buildeth temples] It seems doubtful however whether Hosea would have laid such stress on the wickedness of many temples and many altars (see Hosea 8:11). More probably ‘temples’ should be palaces (the primitive meaning of the Assyrian cognate is ‘great house’), in which case for ‘palaces’ at the close of the verse we had better substitute castles. It is not so much the ‘palaces’ and the ‘castles’ themselves as the worldliness and the tyranny of those who lived in them that Hosea denounces. but I will send a fire …] Referring to both Israel and Judah. Remarkably enough, we find these words repeated seven times in Amos as a refrain to as many denunciations (Amos 1:4 to Amos 2:5). It seems hardly likely that so original a prophet should have quoted these words; perhaps they were a well-known prophetic commonplace.

For Israel hath forgotten his Maker - God was his Maker, not only as the Creator of all things, but as the Author of his existence as a people, as He saith, “hath he not made thee, and established thee?” Deuteronomy 32:6.

6. From Israel was it also [“is even this”] — What? Evidently the calf of Hos 8:5. In its establishment Jehovah had no part; it is the work of Israel; therefore the former has cast it off.