Hosea 8:7

They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind - As the husbandman reaps the same kind of grain which he has sown, but in far greater abundance, thirty, sixty, or one hundred fold; so he who sows the wind shall have a whirlwind to reap. The vental seed shall be multiplied into a tempest so they who sow the seed of unrighteousness shall reap a harvest of judgment. This is a fine, bold, and energetic metaphor.

It hath no stalk - Nothing that can yield a blossom. If it have a blossom that blossom shall not yield fruit; if there be fruit, the sower shall not enjoy it, for strangers shall eat it. The meaning is, the labors of this people shall be utterly unprofitable and vain.

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind - "They shall reap," not merely as "they have sown," but with an awful increase. They sowed folly and vanity, and shall reap, not merely emptiness and disappointment, but sudden, irresistible destruction. "They sowed the wind," and, as one seed bringeth forth many, so the wind, "penn'd up," as it were, in this destructive tillage, should "burst forth again, reinforced in strength, in mightier store and with great violence." Thus they "reaped the whirlwind," yea, (as the word means) "a mighty whirlwind". But the whirlwind which they reap doth not belong to "them;" rather they belong to it, blown away by it, like chaff, the sport and mockery of its restless violence.

It hath no stalk - If their design should for the time seem to prosper, all should be but empty show, disappointing the more, the more it should seem to promise. He speaks of three stages of progress. First, the seed should not send forth the grain with the ear; "it hath no stalk or standing corn;" even if it advanced thus far, still the ear should yield no meat; or should it perchance yield this, the enemy should devour it. Since the yielding fruit denotes doing works, the fruit of God's grace, the absence of the "standing corn" represents the absence of good works altogether; the absence of the "meal," that nothing is brought to ripeness; the "devouring" by "the enemy," that what would otherwise be good, is, through faulty intentions or want of purity of purpose, given to Satan and the world, not to God. : "When hypocrites make a shew of good works, they gratify therewith the longings of the evil spirits. For they who do not seek to please God therewith, minister not to the Lord of the field, but to "strangers." The hypocrite, then, like a fruitful but neglected "ear," cannot retain his fruit, because the "ear" of good works lieth on the ground. And yet he is fed by this very folly, because for his good works he is honored by all, eminent above the rest; people's minds are subject to him; he is raised to high places; nurtured by favors. But "then" will he understand that he has done foolishly, when, for the delight of praise, he shall receive the sentence of the rebuke of God."

8:7 Sown the wind - A proverbial speech to denote lost labour.Whirlwind - A tempest, which destroyeth all that is in its way; an emblem of the wrath of God. No stalk - All your dependance on idols, and foreign assistance, will be as seed that bear neither stalk nor bud.No meal - Or suppose it produced stalk and bud, yet the bud shall be blasted, and never yield meal.