Mountains and Hills: The Use of Hosea 10:8 in Luke 23:30

When one is reading the New Testament, it’s always extremely important to take special notice when a writer or speaker is quoting the Old Testament. Most of the time, he or she (Luke 1:50, 53) is pointing to the overall passage and its contents and context. Often, the writer or speaker is using that passage as an example to explain what is currently happening in a given situation. Such quotations, references, and allusions are a means of interpretation. It is in this way that Jesus quotes Hosea 10:8.

In the 23^rd chapter of the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus has been sentenced to death by crucifixion by Roman prefect Pontius Pilate (vv. 20-24). Roman soldiers are leading Jesus to the place where he is to be crucified (vv. 26-33). As Jesus is being led, a group of women are lamenting his punishment. Jesus responds to them,

“Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (NASB, vv. 28-31).

This last sentence is important.

“For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (v. 31)

The proverb that Jesus is making is that green kindling is far more difficult to burn than dry wood. Burning dry, dead wood is quick and easy. He is looking at these women lamenting his situation and saying, if the Romans do this to me though they believe I am innocent, what do you think they will do to you who they will believe are guilty. There are several references in Luke’s book that the Roman authorities thought Jesus was innocent (Luke 23:4, 14-15, 22, 47). In these references, I don’t believe the primary purpose is to make the historic case that his crucifixion was a self-evident travesty of justice. Rather, I think Luke is making the case that if the Romans will heap this amount of brutality on one who they know is innocent of rebellion, what sort of evils will they inflict upon Israel if it is guilty of rebellion?

While the most important role Jesus held in his earthly ministry was that of Messiah (the Christ, the King of Israel), he was also a self-proclaimed prophet (Luke 4:24; 7:16, 39; 9:19; 13:33; 24:19) calling God’s people back in repentance (Luke 13:1-5). Jesus rightly saw that the current path Israel was on was leading them to a confrontation with Rome – a confrontation they would lose and would lead to their ultimate destruction. The people of Israel were embracing the eye-for-an-eye retributive violence of the Maccabees in hopes that God would once again intervene with such methods and defeat gentile enemies. Jesus completely rejected such methods, teaching a way of submission (Luke 9:48), forgiveness (Luke 17:3-4; 23:34), love of enemies (Luke 6:27-28, 35), and turn-the-other-cheek justice (Luke 6:29). This was a methodology that he himself fully embraced all the way to the cross (Luke 22:51). Jesus urged the people to abandon their way and embrace his, warning that destruction was coming (Luke 11:50; 12:5, 35-48, 54-59; 13:6-8, 24-30, 34-35; 14:8-11; 17:26-37; 19:12-27, 46; 20:9-18; 21:10-36). It is in this vein that Jesus could point back to the Old Testament Scriptures that predicted the judgments on God’s people by the pagan Assyrians and Babylonians and warn, “It’s about to happen again.” Here Jesus is quoting from Hosea 10:8:

“Then they will say to the mountains, ‘Cover us!’ And to the hills, ‘Fall on us!’”

The context of this verse in Hosea is an Old Testament prediction of the punishment by God for Israel’s sins – a punishment that came to fruition for both Kingdoms (in 720 BCE for Israel and in 587 BCE for Judah). Note the following verses of this passage:

Their heart is faithless; Now they must bear their guilt. (10:2)

…

Surely now they will say, “We have no king,

For we do not revere the Lord.

As for the king, what can he do for us?” (10:3; cf. John 19:15)

…

At dawn the king of Israel will be completely cut off. (10:15)

In context, Luke is saying that many in Israel have rejected their rightful King (Luke 9:51-56; 10:13-15; 22:71; 23:2, 5, 18-23, 35, 39) and that judgement is coming upon them as it did in the times of Hosea.

The crucifixion of Jesus is multi-faceted, accomplishing many tasks at once, including the defeat of evil, the forgiveness of sins, an example of true discipleship (Luke 9:23; 14:27), and an enacted parable. In this latter aspect, Jesus was - as Christ, the full embodiment of Israel - enacting the destruction of Israel by Rome, going before his people, taking on the full weight of its evil for his followers and showing, this is what will happen to those who don’t repent or turn from their incorrect ways. To those who do repent, Jesus told them to run away from the approaching doom (Luke 21:20-24). He said that when they see Jerusalem surrounded by enemies to flee to the mountains (Luke 21:21). John picks up this same idea in his prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the Apocalypse. The people hide themselves in the caves and mountains (Revelation 6:15). In 6:16, John even references the same Hosea 10:8 to this effect, showing commonality with Jesus’ understanding of the coming destruction in 70 CE.

                Therefore, I submit that Jesus, Luke, and John used Hosea 10:8 as an explanation and warning to their contemporaries about the coming destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans during the Roman-Jewish War. In particular, Jesus uses it in the context of saying, “You’ve rejected your rightful King and his way of being the people of God. Your current way is leading to conflict with Rome and ultimate destruction. If the Romans do this to me (one they believe is innocent), the brutality they will do to those recognized as guilty of rebellion will be even more severe. Repent.”