Book of Hosea Chapter 7 Vs. 6

WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES 

For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire. Hos. 7:6

For they have... He gives the reason of their bursting out into open mischief; it was ever stored up within. They made ready: (literally, brought near), their heart. Their heart was ever brought near to sin, even while the occasion was removed at a distance from it. The oven is their heart; the fuel, their corrupt affections, and inclinations, and evil concupiscence, with which it is filled.

like an oven... Like an oven have they made their hearts with their intriguing. All night their anger sleepeth in the morning it blazes like a flame of fire.

their baker sleepeth... Their own evil will and imagination, which stirs up whatever is evil in them. The prophet then pictures how, while they seem for a while to rest from sin. It is but while they lie in wait; still, all the while, they made and kept their hearts ready, full of fire for sin and passion. Any breathing-time from actual sin was no real rest; the heart was still on fire.

in the morning... Right early, as soon as the occasion came, it burst forth. So, the evil concupiscence in these men's hearts, made hot like an oven, rests all night, devising mischief on their beds. Either against the chastity of their neighbors’ wives, or against the lives of others, they bear an ill will to. Particularly against their judges and their kings (as Hos. 7:7); seems to intimate. And in the morning this lust of uncleanness or revenge is all in a flame, and ready to execute the wicked designs contrived (see Mic. 2:1).

They have turned their hearts over to sinful lust. Lust feeds upon itself and gets hotter and hotter. The lust of this sort springs into action, when it breaks forth in flame.

The NIV rendering, their passion smolders, which has some external support, requires a slight emendation of the Hebrew. The Masoretic text reads, their baker sleeps (cf. KJV). The latter, while certainly more difficult, is not impossible since it is similar in thought to Hos. 7:4 and carries along the comparison of their hearts to an oven. One might paraphrase Hos. 7:6 When they approach the king their hearts, like an oven, contain a fire. Just as the fire burns lowly while the baker is inactive, so their scheme remains a secret. But when their time for action comes, the destructive plot is realized, just as a fire in an oven blazes forth when the time for baking arrives.