Bible Strands
Hosea 10:8
The high places of Aven will be destroyed—it is the sin of Israel; thorns and thistles will overgrow their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Hosea addresses the northern kingdom of Israel, announcing the coming destruction of Samaria and its cultic centers following prolonged rebellion.
The words — The text highlights בָּמ֣וֹת (ba.Mot, "high places") and אָ֗וֶן ('A.ven, "wickedness"), noting that Israel's altars will be overrun by ק֣וֹץ (Kotz, "thorns") and וְ/דַרְדַּ֔ר (ve./dar.Dar, "thistles").
The thread — The desperate plea to mountains and hills to fall on them appears in Luke 23:30 and Revelation 6:16, where figures seek refuge from judgment, while Isaiah 2:19 describes fleeing to caves from the terror of the Lord.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that idolatrous worship yields only ruin, leaving its practitioners with nowhere to hide from divine reckoning.
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
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.
Cross-references
- Revelation 6:16 And they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.
- Luke 23:30 At that time ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’
- Isaiah 2:19 Men will flee to caves in the rocks and holes in the ground, away from the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty, when He rises to shake the earth.
- 1 Kings 12:28 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves and said to the people, “Going up to Jerusalem is too much for you. Here, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
- Isaiah 32:13 and for the land of my people, overgrown with thorns and briers—even for every house of merriment in this city of revelry.
- Hosea 9:6 For even if they flee destruction, Egypt will gather them and Memphis will bury them. Their precious silver will be taken over by thistles, and thorns will overrun their tents.
- Amos 8:14 Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria and say, ‘As surely as your god lives, O Dan,’ or, ‘As surely as the way of Beersheba lives’—they will fall, never to rise again.”
- Deuteronomy 9:21 And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I cast it into the stream that came down from the mountain.
- 1 Kings 13:2 And he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, “O altar, O altar, this is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David, and upon you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and human bones will be burned upon you.’”
- 1 Kings 13:34 And this was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its extermination and destruction from the face of the earth.