Instead of remembering God gratefully and shaping their lives in accordance with His abundant favor toward them, the people were filled with pride and forgot their Maker. The more this world’s goods are sought and prized, the more is God, the great Giver of all good, forgotten. This was the aggravation of Israel’s sin that the prophet so often called to the nation’s attention (see chs. 2:5; 4:7; 10:1).

 On God’s rich pasture of love and goodness His people waxed full. Ephraim is like a domestic work animal (see on ch. 10:11) which, in a too-luxuriant pasture, becomes headstrong and unmanageable.