Charles Spurgeon Commentary Hosea 11:2

"The more [the prophets] called them, the more they went from them: they sacrificed unto the Baalim, and burned incense to graven images." — Hosea 11:2 (ASV)

As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

The nation of Israel did not fulfill the promise of its youth; it was not faithful to God. The people heard from the lips of Moses the command Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: yet they turned aside continually to the idols of the nations. Have some of us not also, although we have been loved by God, been faithless to him? Can we not look back, with great regret and sorrow, upon our many stumblings and backslidings? If it is so, let us repent of our sin, and never repeat it.

As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

These people only had to be called away, and away they went.

There are some of that sort. You have only to beckon them anywhere. Like a dog that is whistled to, they will follow anybody's call. They leave God for anything, for nothing. These people went and forgot the true God, and burnt incense to graven images.

As they called them, so they went from them;

Such was the perversity of this child-nation, whom God nevertheless loved; yet, though chafed by Jehovah, he went away and refused to obey the divine call. The Israelites in Egypt hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage; and, even after their great deliverance, they were constantly turning aside from the path pointed out by Moses, who urged them to be faithful to their God.

They sacrificed unto Baalim, –

They offered sacrifice to many Baals, first to one and then to another, for men will readily change their idols when they do not know the true God.