8:1 Sound the alarm: The ram’s horn trumpet (shofar) called the people to worship (Ps 98:6); it was also (as here) the signal for battle (2 Sam 20:1). God was sending an enemy, the Assyrians, to execute his judgment on Israel. • revolted against my law: God’s law (Hebrew torah) is much more than the sum of the individual laws in the Pentateuch. It represents the totality of God’s instruction to his people through his words and his deeds. Loving fulfillment of the Torah was Israel’s part of the covenant. They had broken God’s commandments, and they had turned aside from their covenant relationship with the Lord.

8:13 I do not accept their sacrifices: See 6:6; Isa 1:10-17; Amos 5:21-24; Mic 6:6-8. • They will return to Egypt, the place of slavery (Deut 28:68). God’s dealings with Israel did not end with judgment. The divine purpose of judgment was to restore Israel to the status they had when they came out of Egypt, so that they could experience a new beginning (see Hos 2:14-15).