Hosea 10:8 (DBY)

Passage

And the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up upon their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us! and to the hills, Fall on us!

Nearby Context

Hosea 10:6 Yea, it shall be carried unto Assyria [as] a present for king Jareb: Ephraim shall be seized with shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.

Hosea 10:7 As for Samaria her king is cut off as chips upon the face of the waters.

Hosea 10:8 And the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up upon their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us! and to the hills, Fall on us!

Hosea 10:9 From the days of Gibeah hast thou sinned, O Israel: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them.

Hosea 10:10 At my pleasure will I chastise them; and the peoples shall be assembled against them, when they are bound for their two iniquities.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "high", "places", "aven", "israel", "shall", "destroyed", "thorn", and "thistle". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "high" and "places", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 7's "As for Samaria her king is cut..." into verse 9's "From the days of Gibeah hast thou...", so "high" and "places" belong inside that flow. In Hosea context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "high" and "places" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.