Bible Strands
Hosea 10:2
Their hearts are devious; now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will break down their altars and demolish their sacred pillars.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Hosea addresses Israel at a moment when agricultural prosperity has directly fueled the expansion of their pagan worship infrastructure. He pronounces this declaration immediately after describing how increased harvests led to more altars and sacred pillars.
The words — חָלַ֥ק (cha.Lak) literally means “slippery,” describing the people’s divided loyalty, while יַעֲרֹ֣ף (ya.'a.Rof) means “he will break,” forecasting the LORD’s physical demolition of their altars.
The thread — The text’s warning against divided worship aligns with Elijah’s challenge in 1 Kings 18:21, the promised removal of carved images in Micah 5:13, and James 4:4’s declaration that friendship with the world is hostility toward God.
Why it lands — The text states that devious hearts will necessarily bear guilt and face the destruction of self-made religious structures. It requires the reader to abandon compromised loyalty and accept that divine judgment targets the physical manifestations of idolatry.
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
Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 18:21 Then Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him. But if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people did not answer a word.
- Micah 5:13 I will also cut off the carved images and sacred pillars from among you, so that you will no longer bow down to the work of your own hands.
- James 4:4 You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.
- Zephaniah 1:5 those who bow on the rooftops to worship the host of heaven, those who bow down and swear by the LORD but also swear by Milcom,
- Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
- James 1:8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
- Revelation 3:15 I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other!
- 1 Samuel 5:4 But when they got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD, with his head and his hands broken off and lying on the threshold. Only the torso remained.
- Isaiah 44:18 They do not comprehend or discern, for He has shut their eyes so they cannot see and closed their minds so they cannot understand.
- Jeremiah 43:13 He will demolish the sacred pillars of the temple of the sun in the land of Egypt, and he will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.’”