Hosea 8:14

A fresh reason for the -swallowing up" of which the prophet has spoken (Hosea 8:8) Israel's worldliness and self-dependence.

buildeth temples It seems doubtful however whether Hosea would have laid such stress on the wickedness of many temples and many altars (see Hosea 8:11). More probably -temples" should be palaces (the primitive meaning of the Assyrian cognate is -great house"), in which case for -palaces" at the close of the verse we had better substitute castles. It is not so much the -palaces" and the -castles" themselves as the worldliness and the tyranny of those who lived in them that Hosea denounces.

but I will send a fire Referring to both Israel and Judah. Remarkably enough, we find these words repeated seven times in Amos as a refrain to as many denunciations (Amos 1:4 to Amos 2:5). It seems hardly likely that so original a prophet should have quoted these words; perhaps they were a well-known prophetic commonplace.