Biblion Bible Commentary
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They Do Not Cry to Me from the Heart
Hosea 7:13-16
13 Woe to them! For they have wandered from me. Destruction to them! For they have trespassed against me. Though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against me. · WEB
The distinction the passage draws is between howling and praying, and what they assemble for is grain.
Verse 13 pairs two cries of grief with two charges: woe to them! For they have wandered from me. Destruction to them! For they have trespassed against me. And then a clause that states the frustrated intention again — though I would redeem them — followed by what blocks it: they have spoken lies against me Hosea 7:1.
Verse 14 is the passage's real subject and its distinction is exact. They haven't cried to me with their heart, but they howl on their beds.
Both halves describe noise. The howling is real distress, made in private, at night — nobody is accused of faking it. What it is not is directed. The book has already recorded a model prayer that said all the right things and evaporated by mid-morning Hosea 6:3–4; here the sound is genuine and has no addressee.
And the next clause names what they do gather for: they assemble themselves for grain and new wine. Corporate action exists; it is organized around the commodities the wife in chapter 2 credited to her lovers Hosea 2:5.
Verse 15 records the injury from God's side in the plainest terms the chapter uses: though I have taught and strengthened their arms, yet they plot evil against me. Strength given, and turned around.
And verse 16 gives the last image: they are like a faulty bow. A bow that will not shoot straight is not merely weak — it is dangerous to the archer, and it cannot be aimed. It is also the third weapon image in the book, after the bow broken in the valley Hosea 1:5 and the bow broken out of the land in peace Hosea 2:18.
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