Hosea 10:4 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

They have spoken words Mere empty words; swearing falsely in making a covenant This may be spoken either of their breaking their solemn covenant with God, (see Hosea 5:7,) or of their treachery toward their kings, against whom they had formed several conspiracies: see 2 Kings 15:10; 2 Kings 15:14; 2Ki 15:25; 2 Kings 15:30. Thus judgment Divine vengeance; springeth up as hemlock, &c. Destructive calamities, inflicted by the righteous judgment of God, will necessarily abound, as hemlock does in the furrows of a field. Bishop Horsley renders the verse, Negotiate, (or, talk words,) swear false oaths, ratify a treaty; nevertheless judgment shall sprout up, like hemlock over the ridges of the field. Which version he paraphrases thus: “Negotiate alliances with one power after another; make a treaty with the Assyrians; bind yourselves to it with an oath; break your oath, and make a new alliance with the Egyptian. In spite of all measures of crooked policy, all acquisitions of foreign aid and support, judgment is springing up.”