Hosea 8:1

After this general announcement the prophet proceeds to call attention to the imminence of the judgment (Hosea 8:1), to describe the terror that will befall Israel (Hosea 8:2), and to point out the futility of the appeal for deliverance (Hosea 8:3).

Set the trumpet to thy mouth Literally, to thy palate the horn. Palate is equivalent to mouth (as in Job 8:7; Proverbs 5:3, etc.). On horn see on Hosea 5:8. The appeal is to the watchman to give the signal of alarm because the enemy is approaching (compare Amos 3:6). The second exclamation is, literally, “As an eagle against the house of Jehovah.” The thought is evidently that the enemy, on account of whose approach the signal is to be sounded, is coming with the swiftness of an eagle, or vulture (see on Micah 1:16). Wellhausen suggests to read without any change in the consonants apart from a different division “for” or “because” an eagle (comes against the house of Jehovah), instead of “as” an eagle; thus bringing out the causal relation existing between the first and the second clauses. G.A. Smith adds the pertinent comment, “Where the carcass is, there are the eagles gathered together.” As already suggested, the enemy is undoubtedly the Assyrian (compare Jeremiah 49:22; Ezekiel 17:3).

House of Jehovah Not as commonly, the temple, but, as in Hosea 9:15, the land of Israel. A similar expression, house of Omri, equivalent to land of Omri, is found in the Assyrian inscriptions. 1b sums up the accusations against Israel, thus supplying the reasons for the advance of the executioner.

Covenant Since it stands in parallelism with law it is probably equivalent to ordinance (Jeremiah 11:6); these ordinances were based on the covenant established between Jehovah and Israel at Mount Sinai.

Law See on Hosea 4:6. The impending doom will drive the people to Jehovah, temporarily at least; in their calamity they will cry unto Jehovah.