It is in my desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows.
It is in my desire that I should chastise them - expressing God's strong inclination to vindicate His justice against sin, as being the infinitely holy God (Deuteronomy 28:63, "As the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good ... so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought"). Compare Isaiah 1:24; Ezekiel 5:13, "I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted."
And the people shall be gathered against them - foreign invaders "shall be gathered against them."
When they shall bind themselves in their two furrows - image from two oxen plowing together side by side, in two contiguous furrows: so the Israelites shall join themselves, to unite their powers against all dangers; but it will not save them from my destroying them (Calvin). Their "two furrows" may refer to their two places of setting up the calves, their ground of confidence, Dan and Bethel. Pusey explains it, 'they bind themselves, and Satan binds them to their sin. In unity, in nothing else, they will bind themselves, and plow like two oxen together, adding furrow to furrow, joining on line to line of sin.' Or, the two divisions of the nation, Israel and Judah, "in their two furrows" -
i.e., in their respective two places of habitation: Hosea 10:11, which specifies the two, favours this view. Henderson prefers the Qeri' (Hebrew margin) reading х lishteey (H8147) 'ªownotaam, instead of 'eeynowtaam], 'for their two iniquities;'-namely, the two calves; or the double transgression,
(1) Forsaking the true God-a sin special to Israel;
(2) Choosing idol-gods (Jeremiah 2:13); and translates, 'when they are bound' in captivity.
The English version is best, as the image is carried out in Hosea 10:11, "I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride: Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods;" only it is perhaps better to translate, 'the people (the invaders) binding them,' etc. - i:e., making them captives; and so Hosea 10:11 alludes to the yoke being put on the neck of Ephraim and Judah.