Albert Barnes Commentary Hosea 10:13

"Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies; for thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men." — Hosea 10:13 (ASV)

You have plowed wickedness – They not only did not do what God commanded, but they did the exact contrary. They cultivated wickedness. They broke up their fallow ground, yet to sow, not wheat, but tares. They did not leave it even to grow of itself, although even so, on the natural soil of the human heart, it yields a plentiful harvest; but they bestowed their labor on it, plowed it, sowed, and as they sowed, so they reaped an abundant increase of it. "They brought their wrongdoings to a harvest, and laid up as in provision the fruits of it." Iniquity and the results of iniquity were the gain of all their labor.

Of all their toil, they will have no fruits except the iniquity itself: "By the plowing, sowing, eating the fruits, he marks the obstinacy of incorrigible sinners, who begin badly, go on to worse, and in the worst come to an end. Then also, when the corrupted soul labors with the purpose of a sinful deed, and resolves in its innermost thoughts how it may bring the ungodly will into effect, it is like one plowing or sowing. But when, having completed the work of iniquity, it exults that it has done evil, it is like one reaping. When it has further broken out to such an extent that in pride of heart it defends its sins against the law of God that prohibits them, and goes on unconcerned in impenitence, he is like one who, after harvest, eats the stored-up fruits."

You have eaten the fruit of lies – They had been full of lies (Hosea 4:1–2; Hosea 7:3); they had lied against God by hypocrisy (Hosea 5:7; Hosea 6:7; Hosea 7:16; Hosea 10:4) and idolatry; they had spoken lies against Him (Hosea 7:13) by denying that He gave them what He bestowed on them, and ascribing it to their idols (Hosea 2:5, Hosea 2:12). All iniquity is a lie. Such then would be the fruit which they tasted, on which they fed. It would not profit, nor satisfy them. It would not merely be empty, as in the case of those who are said to feed on ashes (Isaiah 44:20), but hurtful.

As Isaiah says, they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web; he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed, breaketh out into a viper (Isaiah 59:4–5).

"Gain deceives, lust deceives, gluttony deceives; they yield no true delight; they satisfy not, they disgust; and they end in misery of body and soul."

"Bodily delights," says a father, "when absent, kindle a vehement longing; when obtained and eaten, they satiate and disgust the eater. Spiritual delights are distasteful when unknown; when possessed, they are longed for; and the more those who hunger after them feed on them, the more they are hungered for."

"Bodily delights please when untasted; when tasted, they displease. Spiritual delights, when untasted, are considered cheap; when experienced, they please."

"In bodily delights, appetite generates satiety, and satiety, disgust. In spiritual delights, appetite produces satiety, and satiety, appetite. For spiritual delights increase longing in the soul while they satisfy."

"For the more their sweetness is perceived, so much the more is that known which is loved more eagerly. Unpossessed, they cannot be loved, because their sweetness is unknown."

Because you did trust in your way – Your way," i.e., not God’s. They forsook God’s way and followed ways of wickedness and misbelief. While displeasing God, they trusted in the worship of the calves and in the help of Egypt and Assyria, making flesh their arm, and departing from the living God. As long as a man mistrusts his sinful ways, there is hope for his conversion amidst any depths of sin. When he trusts in his ways, all entrance is closed to the grace of God. He is as one dead; he not only justifies himself but is self-justified. There is nothing in him, neither love nor fear, that can be awakened.