Jerome : Their heart is divided; now they shall perish: he shall break down their idols, he shall lay waste their altars." LXX: "They have divided their hearts: now shall they perish: he shall break down their altars, he shall distress their statues." The Hebrews hand down a similar story, confirming their suspicion with the authority of Scripture: captivity did not come until both kings and peoples alike adored golden calves and were united in impiety. The last king of the ten tribes was Hoshea, about whom it is written (4 Kings 17) that indeed he did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel who were before him, in whose ninth year Salmanazar, king of the Assyrians, captured the people of Israel, and led them into the Assyrians, and made them dwell near the river Gozan in the cities of the Medes. Therefore, it is asked why they were not captured under the worst kings, but under him who had begun to turn in some way to better things? To which they add these things: at first the people excused themselves, saying, "We obey the commands of the kings, nor can we resist their tyranny; we worship calves which we are compelled to adore." But in the days of Hosea the same king commanded that the calves should not be worshiped with such zeal, but that whoever wished should go to Jerusalem and offer sacrifice there to God; to this, they say, the people objected. And this is what he says now: "their heart is divided," that is, the heart of the king and the people, and with no excuse remaining, now they will perish and be delivered to eternal captivity; for as soon as the people dissented from the king, destruction came. And what follows: "He himself will break their images," speaks about God: "And he shall destroy their altars," not because God himself did this with his own hand, but because his will was fulfilled through his enemies. The hearts of heretics are divided among themselves and they resist each other's opinions, which they do not deny, while they feel different. Hence they will be dispersed, and the Lord will break or dig out their images, or altars, which they invented in their own hearts, and will destroy the titles by which each is called by their own names, and they called their names over their lands, so they may not be said to belong to Christ's Church, but to those of this or that. — Commentary on Hosea 10:2