Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.[13]
Charles Ellicott's commentary argues that "Empty in the English version is wrong, being inconsistent with what follows" and suggests "luxuriant" as a preferable translation.[14] Many more recent translations than the King James Version have adopted this usage.[15]
Verse 8
The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed:
the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars;
"The high places also of Aven": The name "Aven": generally considered an abbreviation of "Beth-aven", that is, "Bethel"; but when the word is taken as an appellative, "bamoth-aven" would signify the "high places of iniquity" for idol sacrifices to fit the characterization of "the sin of Israel."[17]
"They shall say to the mountains, Cover us": describing a terrible calamity, that people would prefer death to life (Luke 23:30; Revelation 6:16; 9:6). Those hills where the idolatrous altars once stood as one source of their confidence for help, beside their "king" (Hosea 10:7), will be called on by the people to fall on them.[5]
Verse 12
It is noteworthy that Aramaic translations of the book of Hosea include an instruction to "light a lamp" in preface to the line "it is time to seek the LORD."[18][19]
Verse 14
Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people,
and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled,
as Shalman spoiled Betharbel in the day of battle:
the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.[20]
"Shalman": generally identified with "Shalmaneser king of Assyria," who made king Hoshea, early in his reign, to be "a servant" and "brought him a present" (2 Kings 17:3).[21] Another identification is with "Shalman" who was listed in the Summary Inscription Seven of the Assyrian King Tiglath-Pileser III (r. about 745 to 727 BCE) as a tributary king of Moab, Salamanu (r. circa 750 to 740 BCE).[22]André Lemaire, a French historian and philologist notable for his work on the Mesha Stele, supports the identification of Shalman as the king of Moab, because it fits his analysis of another Moabite inscription found in 2003 (currently housed at the Israel Museum) that may in fact describe the wider setting of the battle of Beth-Arbel as it contains notable parallels to the Mesha Stele and describes a victory over the neighboring Ammonite kingdom. Shmuel Ahituv, the first epigraphist to analyze the artifact, suggests that the Moabite invasion of Ammon occurred during the reign of Israel's king Jeroboam II, who was mentioned in Hosea 1:1.[22] Lemaire identifies this Moabite king as King Salamanu/"Shalman" from the Assyrian tribute list, which fits a wider picture for Hosea 10:14.[22]
"Beth-Arbel": Jewish commentators, Kimchi and Ben Melech, suggest that Arbel was the name of a great man in those days, whose family (referred to by the word "beth" or "a house") was reported to be destroyed in this verse.[23] It is generally identified as a city which later called "Arbela" by the Greeks; one suggested location places it about 15 miles west of Nazareth, and 10 miles from Jezreel, thus it should lay somewhere in the middle of the valley of Jezreel, and can be linked to the fulfillment of Hosea's earlier prophecy that "God brake the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel" (Hosea 1:5).[21] Another suggested location places it in northeast Israel (perhaps in the land of Gilead), east of the Jordan River with the likely contender the modern Jordanian city of Irbid, in the northwest corner of Jordan, because Irbid was known to the ancient Greeks as "Arbela".[22] The later identification places it in the territory of ancient kingdom of Ammon which would fit the history of a king of Moab in the 2003 Moabite inscription, who attacked Ammon during the time of Jeroboam II and possibly took Beth-Arbel in the invasion.[22]
