Hosea 8:14

"For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and builded palaces; and Judah multiplied fortified cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the castles thereof."

"For Israel hath forgotten his Maker ..." This is a reference to God as the creator of the human race in general, also to the fact of God's special intervention in the creation of the nation of Israel.

Critics intent upon plastering up the Bible with their own varieties of scissors and paste jobs sometimes attempt to delete this verse because of its reference to Judah; but Judah belongs here. That portion of Israel was not very far behind the northern kingdom in their apostasy; and it would be but a relatively short time before Judah also would suffer from the heel of the invader and the reduction to captivity already determined for Ephraim. Nor is this the only time that Judah appears in the prophecy, being never very far out of view in everything that Hosea wrote. There is no textual evidence whatever of any such thing as a gloss here. Mays indicated that "no confident argument" can sustain allegations of any such thing.[27]

"And builded palaces ..." This may not be a reference merely to spacious and luxurious dwellings; for, "The word translated palaces may equally well mean temples."[28] The Hebrew word literally means "great houses" or "great house," and was usually applied either to the residence of a king or to the temple of some god. If the latter is meant, it would indicate that Israel had entrenched and fortified paganism in their land with an elaborate system of magnificent buildings dedicated to pagan deities.

Answering the objection of some critics to the effect that this verse is "in the style of Amos," Hindley inquired, "Why should Hosea not have caught a phrase from the older prophet of Israel?"[29]

The mention of castles and fortified cities speaks of a people relying upon themselves rather than upon God. Also, in the case of Israel there seems to have been an inordinate glorying in such human achievements, as attested by the long and tedious records of the Kings and Chronicles of the Old Testament. Again from Hindley, "Human achievement is not always to the glory of God."[30]