“And I will visit on her the days of the Baalim, to which she burned incense, when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me,” says YHWH.'

And Israel will have visited on her (in judgment) all the times when she had decked herself up in her splendour for the Baals, on ‘the days of the Baalim' (the days of religious celebration), and had burned incense to them and had gone after them and had forgotten YHWH. Note the contrast between ‘the days of the Baalim' here and the ‘day of Jezreel' in Hosea 1:11. Both were days of celebration, but in what a different context.

So the message of judgment on Israel is laid on without mercy. Because of her past behaviour Israel is doomed. She has no way of escape. Her only hope can be that once her punishment has been full meted out God may yet show compassion on her. But that would not be for a long time. Sin once it has matured brings forth death.

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