The Geneva Bible Translation Notes, [1599], at sacred-texts.com
(a) God encourages the Prophet to signify the speedy coming of the enemy against Israel, which was once the people of God.
Israel shall (b) cry unto me, My God, we know thee.
(b) They will cry like hypocrites, but not from the heart, as their deeds declare.
They have set up (c) 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.
(c) That is, Jeroboam, by whom they sought their own liberty, and to obey my will.
Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast [thee] off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long [will it be] ere they attain to (d) innocency?
(d) That is, upright judgment and a godly life.
(e) For from Israel [was] it also: the workman made it; therefore it [is] not God: but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.
(e) Meaning the calf was invented by themselves, and by their fathers in the wilderness.
For they have (f) sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.
(f) Showing that their religion has but a show, and in itself is but vanity.
For they are gone up to Assyria, a (g) wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.
(g) They never cease, but run to and fro to seek help.
Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the (h) burden of the king of princes.
(h) That is, for the king and the princes will lay upon them: and by this means the Lord brings them to repentance.
I have written to him the great things of my law, [but] they were counted as a (i) strange thing.
(i) In this way the idolaters consider the word of God as strange with regard to their own invention.
They sacrifice flesh [for] the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat [it; but] the (k) LORD accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.
(k) Saying that they offer it to the Lord, but he accepts no service which he himself has not appointed.