Verse Lens · Concise explanation

Hosea 7:3 Explained in Context

Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.

Selected verse

Verse 3. They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

This verse describes wickedness and lies pleasing king and princes.

Read It With

  • Hosea 7:1-7

Read Hosea 7:3 with 7:1-7. This verse describes wickedness and lies pleasing king and princes. The complete unit establishes this movement: Israel's healing is obstructed by theft, raids, public lies, intoxicated court celebration, and oven-like conspiracy that consumes judges and kings while no one calls to God.

Why This Verse Appears Here

The unit brings covenant failure into Samaria's royal court and shows destructive desire becoming a self-feeding political fire. Within that movement, this verse describes wickedness and lies pleasing king and princes.

Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation

“make the king glad”

In plain language: win royal approval through wrongdoing and deception

describes wickedness and lies pleasing king and princes. Leaders who reward deceit make falsehood a court culture.

Why it matters: The wording identifies this verse's distinct contribution to the complete unit.

How certain? strong

What Remains True

Leaders who reward deceit make falsehood a court culture.

How It Can Shape Life

  • Protect truth-tellers and prevent flattery from controlling decisions.

Continue in Context

The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.

Read Hosea 7:1-7 — Healing Exposes a Court Heated by Lies, Intoxication, and Conspiracy
Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? strong

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.

Exact location: Hosea 7:1-7, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open source ↗

hebrew text and morphology

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Hosea

Open Scriptures

Open Scriptures, release 2.2

Supports: Masoretic Hebrew, morphology, syntax, names, wordplay, repetitions, and the base text for translation questions.

Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Hos.xml, 7:1-7

Open source ↗

translation and translator notes

NET Bible: Hosea with translators' notes

Biblical Studies Press

Biblical Studies Press, 2006

Supports: Verse-level translation, textual, grammatical, historical, rhetorical, and uncertainty notes.

Exact location: NET Bible Hosea PDF, printed pp. 1685, translation and notes on 7:1-7

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