Bible Strands
Hosea 14:8
O Ephraim, what have I to do anymore with idols? It is I who answer and watch over him. I am like a flourishing cypress; your fruit comes from Me.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses Ephraim (Israel) in a declaration of restoration following a period of judgment, shifting from covenant litigation to covenant provision.
The words — אֶפְרַ֕יִם ('ef.Ra.yim) = O Ephraim and עֲצַבִּ֑ים ('a.tza.Bim) = idols. The text juxtaposes the covenant people with the objects they have abandoned for false security.
The thread — The motif of God as the source of life and shelter runs through Hosea 14:7, where the people will dwell in His shade and grow grain, and Isaiah 41:19, where God plants trees in the wilderness. James 1:17 reinforces the principle that every good gift originates from God alone.
Why it lands — The verse demands a concrete transfer of reliance from manufactured idols to the living God who alone provides sustenance and protection. It requires the reader to acknowledge that spiritual fruit and security are received, not achieved.
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
Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.
Cross-references
- Job 34:32 Teach me what I cannot see; if I have done wrong, I will not do it again.’
- James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.
- Isaiah 41:19 I will plant cedars in the wilderness, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees. I will set cypresses in the desert, elms and boxwood together,
- Isaiah 55:13 Instead of the thornbush, the cypress will grow, and instead of the brier, the myrtle will spring up; this will make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign, never to be destroyed.”
- Luke 15:20 So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
- Philippians 2:13 For it is God who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose.
- 1 Peter 4:3 For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.
- Job 33:27 Then he sings before men with these words: ‘I have sinned and perverted what was right; yet I did not get what I deserved.
- Isaiah 60:13 The glory of Lebanon will come to you—its cypress, elm, and boxwood together—to adorn the place of My sanctuary, and I will glorify the place of My feet.
- John 1:16 From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace.