Hosea 13:10

Thy king. The questions in this verse show clearly that the kings of Israel’s own choice (see on ch. 8:4) could not give help to the nation. The reason the Israelites gave for requesting a king was that he might judge them and go out before them to fight their battles (1 Sam 8:19, 20). Their fear of what hostile nations might do to them presented a crisis which they felt only a king could adequately meet. In the crisis now before them — the threat of Assyrian invasion — the Lord asks, “Where is now the king that will lead them to the defense of all their cities and their fortresses, and give them victory? Where are the judges and the princes who will act as deliverers from danger?” The answer is, of course, that such powerful helpers are not to be found.

If we confine the import of the words “thy king” to the northern kingdom, the reference here is to Israel’s choice of Jeroboam I, in order to rid themselves of the pressure of Rehoboam’s taxes (1 Kings 12:12-20). However, the use of the term “judges” and the wording of the people’s request suggest that this passage refers to Israel’s mistake in demanding a king in the first place (see 1 Sam 8:5) rather than to the northern kingdom’s rejection of Rehoboam and its selection of Jeroboam.