They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.
They have set up kings, but not by me - not with my sanction (1 Kings 12:31; 1 Kings 11:20). Israel set up Jeroboam and his successor, whereas God had appointed the house of David as the rightful kings of the whole nation. It is true God had said to Jeroboam by Ahijah the prophet, "Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee;" and by Shemaiah had warned Rehoboam that he should "not go up nor fight against the children of Israel: for the thing," said God, "is from me" (2 Kin. 12:24). Yet the separation of the ten tribes was not the less the act of their own and Jeroboam's self-will, without any reference to the will of God. They were made to carry into effect God's will, while they only regarded them own. So subsequently, during the 253 years' continuance of Israel, of the ten families to which their eighteen kings belonged, no family or dynasty came to a close except by a violent death.
They have made princes, and I knew it not - I approved it not (Psalms 1:6, "The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous").
Of their silver and their gold have they made them idols - (Hosea 2:8, "She did not know that I ... multiplied her silver and gold which they prepared for Baal;" Hosea 13:2)
That they may be cut off - i:e., though warned of the consequences of idolatry, as it were with open eyes, they rushed on their own destruction. So Jeremiah 27:10; Jeremiah 27:15; Jeremiah 44:8.