There may be a play on words in the phrase shameful thing,
which is the translation of bosheth, a substitute name for Baal.1 All that past generations had worked for, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters,
had been devoured and wasted away by the worship of false gods, especially Baal.
This may point back to Israel’s childhood as a nation when the Lord called them out of Egypt into the land. Taking part in Baal worship had only made the nation poorer and worse off in the land. As the covenant promised, instead of experiencing the Lord’s blessing in the land they had experienced his curse because of their foolish unfaithfulness.2 For Israel, true repentance means acknowledging the destructive consequences of worshipping other gods.
24 “But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.