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Hos_10:8 The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.
Ver. 8. The high places also of Aven, &c.] Sept. the altars, ab Alto dicta ( áîåú whence Bùìïé ). Of Aven, for Bethaven (whereof before), a place so hateful now, that God loathes at large to mention it; he even cuts off the head of it, as he had threatened to do by the altars, Hos_10:2. So Jeconiah degenerating is Coniah, &c.
The sin of Israel] That damning sin of idolatry here committed, that wickedness with a witness, which makes God abhor places as well as persons, and turns them into sin as it were. "What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem," Mic_1:5.
Shall be destroyed] Thus, man’s sin brings destruction upon the creatures. It is as poison in a glass, that causeth the glass to be broken, and cast upon the dunghill. The vessels that held the sin offering, if made of earth, they were to be broken; if of brass, or other metals, to be purged with fire; as one day the earth and visible heavens also shall be for the defilement that man’s sin hath set upon them.
The thorn and the thistle shall come upon their altars] There shall be nil nisi solitude in terris, aegritudo in animis, &c. {See Trapp on "Hos_9:6"}
They shall say to the mountains, Cover us] This they shall say out of the sense and terror of God’s just judgments driving them to desperation. - tellus prius ima dehiseat, &c. Aristides commendeth Themistocles for this, that he never was so perplexed by any evil occurrence as to wish that the earth would swallow him up quick, or to pronounce the dead happy. Rivet well observeth here that Judea, as it was full of hills and rocks, so they were wont to dig themselves therein caves and dens, wherein to hide in time of danger. To these David often repaired, and so secured himself from Saul. And to these he alludeth when he calleth God his rock, Psa_18:2, and the rock of his refuge, Psa_94:22. And of these places of security Josephus writeth, describing the form of them (Antiq. 1. 14, cap. 26; B. J. i. 26). Now when they were in those holes of the hills, and were distressed by the enemy there, what wonder though they said to the mountains, Fall upon us, cover us, bury us alive, crush us to pieces, grind us to powder, rather than that we fall into the bloody fingers of these merciless monsters, who will put us haply to a lingering death, kill us piece meal, as Tiberius did those, he was angry with (Sueton.); and as the cannibals of America, when they take a prisoner, feed upon him alive, and by degrees, to the unutterable aggravation of his horror and torment. Our Saviour foretold his disciples, that at the last destruction of Jerusalem men should cry out to the mountains on this manner; and so shall the antichristian rout also do one day, Rev_6:16. They that would not worship the Lamb shall find him a lion; those that would not cast away their transgressions, but faced the heavens, shall run into the rocks to hide them; those that would not aspire to eternity shall despair of mercy; those that would not lift up their eyes to the everlasting mountains, from whence comes help, shall now in vain tire the deaf mountains, with Hide us, help us. Now what can the mountains do more than give an echo to such Help us; for they need help also; the wrath of God is upon the creature.