Bible Strands
Hosea 11:7
My people are bent on turning from Me. Though they call to the Most High, He will by no means exalt them.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks through the prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel, pronouncing judgment at the moment the sword is about to destroy their cities and gates. The declaration follows the immediate threat of military ruin and precedes the divine lament over withheld compassion.
The words — The Hebrew תְלוּאִים (te.lu.'Im) literally means "[is] hung up," describing the people's suspended state of fixed rebellion. The phrase יִקְרָאֻהוּ יַחַד (yik.ra.'U./hu Ya.chad) records them calling on the Most High together, yet the text states He will by no means exalt them.
The thread — This dynamic of empty invocation appears in Jeremiah 8:5, where the people cling to deceit and refuse to return, and in Amos 5:4 and Amos 5:14, which command seeking God to live rather than treating His name as a ritual guarantee.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that ritual invocation cannot override deliberate rebellion. It requires the reader to abandon the assumption that calling on God substitutes for turning from apostasy.
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
And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 8:5 Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return.
- Amos 5:4 For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live!
- Amos 5:14 Seek good, not evil, so that you may live. And the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be with you, as you have claimed.
- Psalms 78:57 They turned back and were faithless like their fathers, twisted like a faulty bow.
- Psalms 81:11 But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me.
- Proverbs 14:14 The backslider in heart receives the fill of his own ways, but a good man is rewarded for his ways.
- Jeremiah 3:6 Now in the days of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree to prostitute herself there.
- Jeremiah 3:11 And the LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than unfaithful Judah.
- Hosea 7:16 They turn, but not to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword for the cursing of their tongue; for this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.
- Hosea 11:2 But the more I called Israel, the farther they departed from Me. They sacrificed to the Baals and burned incense to carved images.