Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.
Woe unto them! for they have fled from me - as birds from their nest (Proverbs 27:8; Isaiah 16:2).
From me - who both could and would have healed them (Hosea 7:1), had they applied to me.
Though I have redeemed them - from Egypt and their other enemies (Micah 6:4).
Yet they have spoken lies against me - (Psalms 78:36; Jeremiah 3:10). Pretending to be my worshippers, when they all the while worshipped idols (Hosea 7:14; Hosea 12:1); also defrauding me of the glory of their deliverance, and ascribing it and their other blessings to idols. The I and the they are in the Hebrew emphatic. "I redeemed them:" their requital was, 'they spoke lies against me' (Calvin).