Hosea 10:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

This situation can be seen as a visible sign of God's mercy, allowing the wicked to remain unpunished for a time while anticipating their repentance. However, they persisted in their folly, compounding their sins, adding the worship of the calves to their high places. By offering sacrifices to demons on the mountains and hills while revering the vain, they likely believed they would achieve lasting prosperity, feeling invincible against their foes. This kind of delusion is characteristic of those misled. After the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem, when they fled to Egypt, the prophet Jeremiah urged them to abandon idol worship, hoping for divine mercy from the God who saves. Yet they claimed their misfortunes resulted from ceasing to adhere to their ritual practices and neglecting to honor false deities. In response to this, it is stated, 'And all the men of understanding answered Jeremiah, saying, The word which thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken...' They resolved to carry out every word that came from their mouths, expressing gratitude to the queen of heaven and offering her libations, as had been done by their forefathers, kings, and leaders in the cities of Judah and Jerusalem, believing this would ensure abundance and protection from calamity. However, upon stopping their offerings to the queen of heaven, they faced poverty and death by sword and fire (Jeremiah 44:15-18). Thus, Jeremiah rebukes the Israelites for their empty words and misguided optimism. He points out regarding the hills that they think by serving the idols there, they will secure lasting happiness and unfailing benefits, believing that sorrows will not touch them if they honor these figures. Yet, they are deceived, having misjudged their situation; war has descended upon them—the children of unrighteousness—and through this, they will come to know the bitterness of their immorality. Who will bring about this awakening? The greatest host of enemies will be gathered against them, and the calamities of warfare will come as they are punished for their two transgressions. Jeremiah clearly identifies these transgressions: 'Heaven was terrified at this, and trembled greatly, saith the Lord, for two evils have my people done: they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewn out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water' (Jeremiah 2:12-13).

From the moment that Benjamin heinously and brutally destroyed the Levite's wife in the city of Gibeah, all of Israel has sinned against Me—not for avenging the affront or cleansing the wrong with blood, but for hastening to fight, as a response to his wife’s suffering, while neglecting the sacrilege done against God. They overlooked that in the house of Micah, they worshipped the ephod and teraphim as idols. Thus, there the Israelites remained, ceasing to follow the paths of the Lord.

Consequently, warfare or captivity will not reach them as they anticipate, for in Gibeah they believed they were justified in pursuing the sons of wickedness; but I shall, says the Lord, bring them to account as per My will and assemble against them a multitude of nations. They have committed two transgressions: avenging a man, while ignoring the grievance against their God.

They sinned first through the idols of Micah, then through the golden calves erected by Jeroboam. One might also identify the two calves in Samaria, at Dan and Bethel, as two evils, for as Jeremiah states, "Two evils have My people committed: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jeremiah 2:13). Through these two iniquities, they violated the two commandments contained in the Decalogue, which declare: I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before Me (Exodus 20:2-3).

The Septuagint translates hills as heights. From the time of the hills, Israel has sinned, having abandoned the mountains of the Church to descend to the hills and valleys of heresy, mistakenly believing they possessed greater wisdom than the Church by seeking what they thought to be higher truths. There they remained, entrenched in error.

Some interpret the following words, "We shall not mourn for them on the hill of war," as indicating that since they have birthed the sons of wickedness and turned from the Church to inhabit the hills, when persecution strikes, conflict will not ensue against them, as the adversary will refuse to fight his own. Others argue that since Israel has sinned from the height of sin and can no longer walk rightly, should not conflict befall them there? Should not the children of the Church rise against them to vanquish them through the actions of the sons of wickedness? If these wicked ones are defeated and taken captive, they will no longer sustain such progeny.

At the same time, the Lord assures His judgement and correction, as following the victory over the false teachers, their misguided followers will rally against them. They will witness their punishment for two iniquities: abandoning the Church, the Source of the Lord, and creating for themselves broken cisterns, errant beliefs that cannot contain the true water— the doctrine of the Savior and the sacrament of baptism.