Bible Strands
Hosea 10:10
I will chasten them when I please; nations will be gathered against them to put them in bondage for their double transgression.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks through Hosea to Israel, pronouncing judgment immediately after recalling their entrenched rebellion since Gibeah (Hosea 10:9).
The words — The Hebrew phrase בְּאַוָּתִי (be-'a.va.T/i) fuses the preposition "at" with "my desire," literally yielding "at my desire" or "when I please." The verb אֶסְרֵם ('e.so.Re/m) conveys God's deliberate act of disciplining the people.
The thread — The text's pattern of timed divine chastisement and gathered nations runs through Hosea 4:9 and Ezekiel 5:13, where God's wrath is spent against rebellious people. Jeremiah 16:16 similarly records God sending nations to catch His people.
Why it lands — The verse states that national bondage results directly from accumulated iniquity, not arbitrary punishment. It requires readers to accept that divine discipline follows God's sovereign timing and demands sober acknowledgment of personal and corporate guilt.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 5:13 And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the LORD, in My zeal have spoken.
- Jeremiah 16:16 But for now I will send for many fishermen, declares the LORD, and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill, even from the clefts of the rocks.
- Hosea 4:9 And it shall be like people, like priest. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.
- Deuteronomy 28:63 Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and multiply, so also it will please Him to annihilate you and destroy you. And you will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.
- Isaiah 1:24 Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: “Ah, I will be relieved of My foes and avenge Myself on My enemies.
- Jeremiah 15:6 You have forsaken Me, declares the LORD. You have turned your back. So I will stretch out My hand against you and I will destroy you; I am weary of showing compassion.
- Jeremiah 21:4 this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will turn against you the weapons of war in your hands, with which you are fighting the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the wall, and I will assemble their forces in the center of this city.
- Ezekiel 16:37 therefore I will surely gather all the lovers with whom you found pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose you before them, and they will see you completely naked.
- Ezekiel 16:42 So I will lay to rest My wrath against you, and My jealousy will turn away from you. Then I will be calm and no longer angry.
- Ezekiel 23:9 Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, the Assyrians for whom she lusted.