Albert Barnes Commentary Hosea 11:6

"And the sword shall fall upon their cities, and shall consume their bars, and devour [them], because of their own counsels." — Hosea 11:6 (ASV)

And the sword shall abide on his cities - Literally, it “shall light, shall whirl” down upon them. It shall come with violence upon them as a thing whirled with force, and then it shall alight and abide, to their destruction; as Jeremiah says, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, a grievous whirlwind; it shall fall grievously (literally, whirl down) on the head of the wicked (Jeremiah 23:19).

As God said to David, after the murder of Uriah, Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house (2 Samuel 12:10), so it was with Israel, whose kings were inaugurated by bloodshed. By God’s appointment, “blood will have blood.” Their own sword first came down and rested upon them; then the sword of the Assyrian. So after they had killed the Holy One and the Just, the sword of the Zealots came down and rested upon them, before the destruction by the Romans.

And shall consume his branches - that is, his mighty men. It makes no difference whether the mighty men are so called, by metaphor, from the “branches of” a tree, or from the “bars” of a city, made out of those branches. Their mighty men, so far from escaping because of their might, should be the first to perish.

And devour them, because of their own counsels - Their counsels, wise according to this world’s wisdom, were without God, against the counsels of God. Their destruction then would come from their own wisdom, as it is said, Let them fall by their own counsels (Psalms 5:10). Job also says, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong (Job 5:13);

that is, it is the complete contrary of what they intend or plan. They make their plans, as they think, cautiously, yet an unseen power whirls their scheme onward and precipitates it. It is also written, And his own counsel shall cast him down (Job 18:7); and, as stated previously, Israel shall be ashamed through his own counsels (Job 10:6). Hoshea’s conspiracy with So, which was intended as his support against Assyria, brought Assyria against him and led his people into captivity.