Hosea 7:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Yet, they proved deceitful—rebelling and turning against Me, the God who had granted them abundant blessings. Their path of deception was ‘nothing’ because a crafted image made from material substance was ultimately void. If they had created something greater, their transgression might have had some rationale. However, this can never be compared to God; it is merely a jest, a void, and thus there is no valid excuse for their straying, resulting in them leading themselves into emptiness. Moreover, they were ‘like a bow drawn tight,’ unwilling to repent, and they did not recognize the gravity of what led them into such disgrace and folly. It is worth noting that others, in their interpretations, read it as ‘they were like a bow turned inside out,’ suggesting that Israel repeated a similar error. Like a bow, they were meant to be aimed at their foes, striking heavily against those who conspired to attack them; yet, they ignored the arrows of their own bows, inflicting harm upon themselves. Indeed, after offending God in these various ways, what else were they doing but crafting instruments of their own destruction? Nevertheless, the aforementioned words can also be interpreted differently, if one wishes. The God of all drew Israel as His bow, battling against the dominion of evil and countering the falsehood of idolatry; for among all the nations on earth, Israel alone adhered to the commandments of the law, rejecting idol worship and dedicating itself to the true, sovereign Lord. Yet they strayed from that commitment; instead of fulfilling their obligation, they turned their weaponry against God in honor of idols. Consequently, they became like a bow drawn against God, shooting arrows in the wrong direction.

A similar fate befell Sodom and Gomorrah, which, as Ezekiel describes, were consumed by gluttony and luxury, prioritizing only indulgence. The LXX's depiction suggests they cleaved for wheat and wine, akin to the prophets of Baal who, in the presence of Elijah, mutilated themselves while imploring for rain (1 Kings 18). To emphasize their animalistic nature, it is not merely stated they ate, but rather that they chewed, which indicates their departure from the Lord. I taught them, I empowered them, yet they raised their heads against Me—not out of power to harm their Creator, but in scheming every form of evil they could devise. Just as in the beginning, prior to My calling of Abraham and later through Moses and Aaron, they were unyoked and ignorant of the Law, mingled among the nations, so they have returned to that state. Now, liberated from all chains, they have been cast into the abyss, becoming a deceitful bow—a bow that the Lord aimed at their foes, yet they turn against their God, launching arrows of blasphemy. Consequently, their rulers, who led the people astray, will be struck down by the sword due to the wildness of their tongues—their audacity in declaring golden calves as deities and their actions in the Promised Land imitating the idolatries learned in Egypt, worshiping the Apis bull and honoring other idols.

Just as they mocked the Lord in the wilderness after leaving Egypt, exalting the golden idols as their gods (Exodus 32:4) and longing for the pots of meat from Egypt (Exodus 16:3), they succumbed to desires for wheat and wine and the false ordinances of Christ's body and blood. As the Gospel states, unless a grain of wheat dies in the soil, it remains solitary (John 12:24), and likewise He proclaims, I am the true vine (John 15:1), and unless you drink of My blood, you have no life in you (John 6:53). Because of these cravings for grain and wine, heretics cleave into factions, erecting separate shelters within their homes, or isolating themselves from the Church’s body, feigning a quest for understanding the Law of God. In doing so, they have abandoned the Lord who instructed them within the Church and granted them strength against their adversaries. However, they engage in evil against the Lord, fabricating impious heresies, reverting to a condition of godlessness and being unbound, or returning to emptiness—not in the sense of ceasing to exist, but as in comparison to Him who instructed Moses with the words, Tell the people of Israel, I Am Who I Am (Exodus 3:14). Those who think contrary to the Lord are regarded as nonexistent, as is indicated in Esther's narrative, particularly in the LXX translation: You will not betray Thy scepter, thou who art not (Esther 4:17)—this surely points to idols. If God embodies truth, then whatever contradicts truth can only be deception and thus categorized as non-existent. This definition fits heretics, who, despite being immersed in Holy Scriptures, launch assaults against the Lord of the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel, acting as a deceptive bow. A bow becomes treacherous when it harms its archer, striking the one who wields it, or like a bow drawn taut, perpetually poised for conflict, seeking the destruction of its listeners. Thus, their leaders, embodying the heresiarchs, face judgment from the Lord's sword due to the folly of their words, which have blasphemed God, perpetuating the same behaviors within their false congregation as they did in the secular Egypt of this age. Indeed, the rationale of heretics and pagans converges, as both reject the authority of Scripture in favor of human reasoning.