For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.
For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil - I; that it was I who gave her corn, not the idols, as she thought: the "lovers" alluded to in Hosea 2:5. "She did not know," because she did not wish to know. Her ignorance of God was the fault of her will, which corrupted the understanding. Compare Romans 1:24-28.
And multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal - i:e., of which they made images of Baal (margin, wherewith they made Baal), or at least the plate-covering of them (Hosea 8:4, "Of their silver and their gold have they made them idols"). Baal, or Bel, was the Phoenician sun-god, answering to the female Astarte, the moon-goddess. His worship was brought into Israel by Jezebel, the daughter of the King of Sidon. The name of the idol is found in the Phoenicaian Hannibal, Hasdrubal. Israel borrowed it from the Tyrians.