Text: Hosea 11:8
OT Text Referred to: Deuteronomy 29:23
Subject: like Admah and Zeboyim
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Contrast
Significance: Hosea 11:8 names Admah and Zeboiim — the cities destroyed alongside Sodom and Gomorrah — echoing Deuteronomy 29:23's warning that covenant unfaithfulness would make Israel's land "like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim." But whereas Deuteronomy invokes these cities as a threat of what God will do, Hosea dramatically reverses the logic: "How could I make you like Admah? How could I treat you like Zeboiim?" God's compassion (נִחוּמַי, nichumai) is "stirred" within Him, refusing to execute the very covenant curse Deuteronomy prescribed. This is one of the OT's most striking contrasts — the same God who warned of total destruction now recoils from applying it, grounding His restraint not in Israel's merit but in His own divine nature: "For I am God and not man" (11:9).