The Meaning of Hosea 8:12 Explained

Hosea 8:12

KJV: I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.

YLT: I write for him numerous things of My law, As a strange thing they have been reckoned.

Darby: I have prescribed unto him the manifold things of my law: they are counted as a strange thing.

ASV: I wrote for him the ten thousand things of my law; but they are counted as a strange thing.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

I have written  to him the great things  of my law,  [but] they were counted  as a strange thing. 

What does Hosea 8:12 Mean?

Verse Meaning

Yahweh had been very specific about His demands in the Mosaic Covenant, but the Israelites treated them as something foreign to their lives. Ironically they had treated God"s laws as foreign, but they had imported foreign idols and practices and followed them. "Ten thousand precepts" looks at the abundant detail that God had provided His people so they would know just what to do, not at the literal number of His commands.

Context Summary

Hosea 8:1-14 - Reaping The Whirlwind
A conqueror was at hand who should subdue and punish the whole nation for taking its own course, irrespective of God, Hosea 8:4-8; for seeking foreign alliances which could bring only oppression in their train, Hosea 8:9-10; and for multiplying altars and fortresses which were destined to be destroyed, Hosea 8:11; Hosea 8:14. The circumstances referred to in this chapter seem to point to the reigns of Menahem and Uzziah, 2 Kings 15:19; 2 Chronicles 26:6-15.
Hosea 8:5 is very striking. Israel had renounced Jehovah for the likeness of a calf, and now in the misfortunes which had overtaken them, their calf had cast them off. What is it that you are putting in the place of God? Power, wealth, the help of influential friends? Sooner or later it will fail you. How different is the One who perpetually encourages us, saying, "I will not fail nor forsake thee," and who promises to carry us to hoar hairs. The persistence with which Israel turned to other lovers left God no option but to put them back into a furnace such as Egypt had been, which would finally burn put their apostasy. Only when we walk before God with a perfect heart are we strong and happy. Once entangle yourself with expedients and alliances, and you lay yourself open to many sorrows. [source]

Chapter Summary: Hosea 8

1  Destruction is threatened both to Israel and Judah for their impiety and idolatry

What do the individual words in Hosea 8:12 mean?

- I have written for him ten thousand the great [things] of My law as a strange thing [But] they were considered
[אכתוב־] (אֶ֨כְתָּב־) ל֔וֹ [רבו] (רֻבֵּ֖י) תּֽוֹרָתִ֑י כְּמוֹ־ זָ֖ר נֶחְשָֽׁבוּ

[אכתוב־]  - 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect, first person common singular
Root: אַבְדָן  
Sense: destruction.
(אֶ֨כְתָּב־)  I  have  written 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect, first person common singular
Root: כָּתַב  
Sense: to write, record, enrol.
ל֔וֹ  for  him 
Parse: Preposition, third person masculine singular
Root: כָּתַב  
Sense: to write, record, enrol.
[רבו]  ten  thousand 
Parse: Number, feminine singular construct
(רֻבֵּ֖י)  the  great  [things]  of 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural construct
Root: רִבֹּוא  
Sense: ten thousand, myriad.
תּֽוֹרָתִ֑י  My  law 
Parse: Noun, feminine singular construct, first person common singular
Root: תֹּורָה  
Sense: law, direction, instruction.
זָ֖ר  a  strange  thing 
Parse: Adjective, masculine singular
Root: זוּר 
Sense: to be strange, be a stranger.
נֶחְשָֽׁבוּ  [But]  they  were  considered 
Parse: Verb, Nifal, Perfect, third person common plural
Root: חָשַׁב 
Sense: to think, plan, esteem, calculate, invent, make a judgment, imagine, count.