Hoseachapter 5
15 verses · Hosea · 755 to 715 BC · The Twelve
For I am like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them to pieces and then go away. I will carry them off where no one can rescue them.
Introduction
Hosea, The Twelve, Hosea Overview.
Hosea spoke this chapter between about 735 and 732 BC, when Damascus and Samaria tried to force Jerusalem into an alliance against Assyria. His hearers were Israelites and Judeans on opposite sides of a war between brothers. The chapter addresses priests, people and royal house together, and it places the southern kingdom under the same charge as the northern. Its places are real shrines and border towns on the roads between the two capitals. Listen for the pictures of God's judgment, which move from the slow to the sudden. Listen as well for where the wounded nation turns for help, and for the last thing God says He will do.
Context
- Who
- Israelites and Judeans on opposite sides of a war between brothers
- What
- A judgment spoken against priests, people and royal house, in which Israel and Judah are both found guilty and the northern kingdom turns to Assyria for a cure.
- Where
- The shrines and border towns between Samaria and Jerusalem, among them Mizpah, Tabor, Gibeah, Ramah and Beth-aven.
- When
- About 735 to 732 BC, around the Syro-Ephraimite war; the date follows the events the chapter reflects and is approximate.
- Why
- To show both kingdoms that their true wound was their broken covenant with God, which no foreign king could heal.
Historical context
Mizpah, Tabor, and Shittim were not random names. Each was a well-known site with a shrine or a memory attached, and each sat where travellers passed, which is why the picture is of a snare and a net spread on a hill. The men supposed to guard the people were trapping them at the very places people went to worship.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The politics behind this chapter are documented outside the Bible. Assyria under Tiglath-Pileser III was pushing west and demanding tribute. Israel and Damascus formed a coalition to resist and tried to force Judah to join, invading when Ahaz refused. Ahaz then appealed to Assyria for help, and Assyrian records confirm both the tribute and the campaign that followed, in which Assyria stripped away Israel's northern territory and deported its people.
That appeal is what the chapter is mocking. Both kingdoms, wounded, run to the same doctor: the great king of Assyria. The Hebrew title used for him plays on a word for contending or quarrelling, and it is the last address on earth that could heal anything, since Assyria was the wound.
The images for God's judgment are slow ones on purpose. Moth and dry rot do not strike; they work quietly inside cloth and timber for years until the thing falls apart when it is handled. Then the image switches to a lion, which is not slow at all.
Significance
To hearers in the middle of a war with their own relatives, the verdict was that both sides were guilty and both sides were treating the symptom. The wound was not Damascus or Samaria or Jerusalem. It was the covenant.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The chapter ends with God withdrawing to his place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek his face. In a world where every nation assumed its god was obliged to fight for it, the idea that the LORD would simply leave and wait was the most frightening thing in the chapter.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts, and it carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days. This card therefore names no public reading of the chapter and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the fifth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Beshalach 25:2. Under the sixth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Ha'Azinu 4:1.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries. He is quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY, and every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern. His lemmas, which carry the verse in that translation's wording, are never quoted.
Rashi reads the snare at Mizpah and the net on Tabor as a guard on the roads. "On these two mountains they stationed sentries so that Israel would not make the pilgrimage to the Temple" (Rashi on Hosea 5:1:1). At the second verse he reports Sanhedrin 102a. The Torah commands the pilgrimage to Jerusalem at the feasts. The kings decreed death for anyone who went, and "Hence, they went deeper than I" (Rashi on Hosea 5:2:1).
The third verse he reads through Seder Olam, chapter 22. Until Hoshea the son of Elah the people blamed their kings for keeping them from the feasts. "This one arose and abolished the sentries; yet they did not go up. Therefore, they were exiled" (Rashi on Hosea 5:3:1). The month that consumes them at the seventh verse he names in three words, "The month of Av" (Rashi on Hosea 5:7:2).
At the ninth verse Rashi reports Rabbi Abahu in the name of Rabbi Yose bar Chanina. When the ten tribes went into exile and Benjamin and Judah did not, the ten said God had favoured the dwellers of His palace. The reply is "God forbid, there is no favoritism, but their measure of sin was not yet full". When Judah sinned it went into exile too, and the ten tribes had no answer left. Rashi names Lamentations Rabbah, Proem 6 as the source (Rashi on Hosea 5:9:2).
At the tenth verse Rashi weighs the plain reading, that the princes of Judah were stealing fields, and states his difficulty with it. The Hebrew says like those who remove the landmark, and a plain charge of theft would have left out the word like (Rashi on Hosea 5:10:1). At the last verse God will "withdraw from them and return to the heaven" (Rashi on Hosea 5:15:1).
The corpus carries three further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Hosea 5:1:1, 5:3:1 and 5:4:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 80:1, Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 2:6:13 and Shemot Rabbah 15:23. On the second verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:70, Jerusalem Talmud Avodah Zarah 1:1:4 and Sanhedrin 102a:3. On the third verse it holds Midrash Tehillim 14:8 and Seder Olam Rabbah 22:1. On the fourth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sukkah 5:8, Ein Yaakov, Sukkah 5:12 and Sukkah 52b:4.
On the fifth verse it holds Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introduction to Halakhic Midrashim, Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael 100 and Jerusalem Talmud Kiddushin 1:7:3. It holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Amalek 1:6 and Midrash Tanchuma, Beshalach 25:2 there as well. On the sixth verse it holds Ein Yaakov, Yevamot 12:3, Midrash Tanchuma, Ha'Azinu 4:1 and Midrash Tehillim 10:11. On the seventh verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Kiddushin 4:3, Ein Yaakov, Kiddushin 4:3 and Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 10:5:4. On the eighth verse it holds Berakhot 56b:11, Ein Yaakov, Rosh Hashanah 4:6 and Rosh Hashanah 32b:2.
On the ninth verse it holds Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 6 and Midrash Tehillim 76:1. On the tenth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 13:4, Eikhah Rabbah 1:3 and Eikhah Rabbah 2:8. On the eleventh verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 100:2, Bereshit Rabbah 16:6 and Devarim Rabbah 2:25. On the twelfth verse it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Vayera 5:3. On the thirteenth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:14, Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 11:12 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations 5:6:1. On the fifteenth verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 34:7, Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 24 and Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 25.
On the undefined verse it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 5:3. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Hosea 5:1:1 to 5:15:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Hosea 5:1:1, 5:3:1 and 5:4:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/hosea/5.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion and no Haftarah for this chapter and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A snare at Mizpah and a net spread on Tabor
Hosea 5:1-2
The summons names the priests, the "house of Israel" and the "royal house" together, so the judgment reaches every office at once. Mizpah and Tabor were places of gathering and of worship, and the leaders have "been a snare at Mizpah, a net spread out on Tabor".
Hosea 5:1
"Hear these things, O priests, and attend, O house of Israel, and O house of the king, give ear; for judgment is for you. For you have become a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor, and victims on high have been turned aside into the depths." LXX: "Listen to these things, priests, and attend, House of Israel, and House of the King, perceive with your ears, for judgment belongs to you, since you have become a snare for speculation, and like a net spread out over Italy, those who capture it have established a hunt."
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 5:1-2patristic
4 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Hosea 5:1
“Hear ye this, O ye priests - God, with the solemn threefold summons, arraigns anew all classes in Israel before Him, not now to repentance but to judgment. Neither the religious privileges of the priests, nor the multitude of the people, nor the civil dignity of the king, should exempt any from God’s judgment. The priests are, probably, the true but corrupted priests of God, who had fallen away to the idolatries with which they were surrounded, and, by their apostasy, had strengthened them.”
Hosea 5:1
“Hear ye this, O priests,.... Though idolatrous ones, who called themselves priests, and were reckoned so by others, though not of the tribe of Levi, but such as Jeroboam had made priests, or were their successors; and there might be some of the family of Aaron and tribe of Levi, that might continue in the cities of Israel, and who gave in to the idolatrous worship of those times.”
Hosea 5:1
“But before I pursue farther the subject of the Prophets something must be said of the words. When he says, To you is judgment, some explain it, "It is your duty to do judgment," to maintain government, that every one may discharge his own office; for judgment is taken for rectitude; the word mspht, mesgepheth, means a right order of things.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Hosea 5:1
“Note, Those that allure and entice men to sin, however they may pretend friendship and good-will, are to be looked upon as snares and nets to them, and their hands as bands, Eccl. vii. But to those whom they could not seduce into sin they were as a net and a snare to bring them into trouble.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
deep in slaughter: Clarke pictured the rebels as hunters digging deep pits, the same trap as the snare at Mizpah and the net on Tabor. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the depth as the cunning of Jeroboam, who set up calves to keep Israel from Jerusalem. The LORD answers with chastisement.
Hosea 5:2
“The revolters are profound to make slaughter - Here may be a reference to the practice of hunters, making deep pits in the ground, and lightly covering them over, that the beasts, not discovering them, might fall in, and become a prey. Though I have been a Rebuker - “I will bring chastisement on them all.” As they have made victims of others to their idolatry, I will make victims of them to my justice.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 5:2
“From the antithesis (Ho 5:3), "not hid from me," I prefer explaining, profoundly cunning in their idolatry. Jeroboam thought it a profound piece of policy to set up golden calves to represent God in Dan and Beth-el, in order to prevent Israel's heart from turning again to David's line by going up to Jerusalem to worship.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Hosea 5:3-5
I know all about Ephraim: m", and Ephraim's prostitution is the unfaithfulness the book's opening chapters showed in one marriage. "Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God", for "a spirit of prostitution is within them". "Israel’s arrogance testifies against them", and "even Judah stumbles with them."
Hosea 5:3
"And I am skilled in all of them, and I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me: for now Ephraim has committed fornication, Israel is contaminated: they will not give their thoughts, to turn again to their God, for the spirit of fornication is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord." LXX: "For I am your master: I have known Ephraim, and Israel has not departed from me; for now Ephraim has fornicated, Israel is defiled.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 5:3-4patristic
3 more voices on this verse
Hosea 5:3
“I know Ephraim - There is much emphasis on the “I.” It is like our, “I have known,” or “I, I, have known.” God had known him all along, if we may so speak. However deep they may have laid their plans of blood, however they would or do hide them from man, and think that no eye seeth them, and say, “Who seeth me? and who knoweth me? I, to whose eyes all things are naked and opened Heb 4:13, have all along known them, and nothing of them has been hid from Me.”
Hosea 5:3
“Nay, the piercing eye of God saw the spirit of whoredom that was in the midst of them, their secret inclination and disposition to those sins, the love they had to their sins, and the dominion their sins had over them, how much they were under the power of a spirit of whoredom, that root of bitterness which bore all this gall and wormwood, that corrupt and poisoned fountain.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hosea 5:3
“It was always foremost of the tribes of the northern kingdom. For four hundred years in early history, it, with Manasseh and Benjamin, its two dependent tribes, held the pre-eminence in the whole nation. Ephraim is here addressed as foremost in idolatry.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
a spirit of prostitution: Barnes placed this spirit of prostitution within the soul, where will and judgment live, holding Israel until the strength of God drives it out. Jerome traced it to the first Jeroboam and his idols. The people followed him willingly.
Hosea 5:4
“First the king [Jeroboam I] chose to play the whore away from the worship of God, wishing to adore golden calves. And the people followed him willingly—with equal zeal they accomplished equal ungodliness. They do not return to the Lord, for they found what they were looking for, and the spirit of whoredom—which according to the apostle "works in the sons of distrust"6—holds their hearts captive. As long as it governs, they will not know the Lord. In fact, they forgot their Creator.… They—whoever advances in ruin—do not have thoughts of penitence.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 1:5patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 5:4
“They will not frame their doings ... - They were possessed by an evil spirit, impelling and driving them to sin; “the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them,” i. e., in their very inward self, their center, so to speak; in their souls, where reside the will, the reason, the judgment; and so long as they did not, by the strength of God, dislodge him, they would and could not frame their acts, so as to repent and turn to God.”
arrogance testifies against them: The arrogance of Israel testifies to its face, and Jerome records that the Hebrew word was also read as injury. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown set this word later than 4:15, when Judah was only warned. Now Judah stumbles with Israel and Ephraim.
Hosea 5:5
"And the pride of Israel shall answer in his face: and Israel and Ephraim shall fall in their iniquity: Juda shall also fall with them." LXX: "And the injury of Israel will be humbled before him: and Israel and Ephraim will be weakened in their iniquities, and Judah will also be weakened with them." The word "Gaon" is interpreted by Septuagint and Symmachus as "injury," by Aquila and Theodotion as "pride."
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 5:5patristic
3 more voices on this verse
Hosea 5:5
“And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face,.... Or, "does" or "shall answer to his face" (h); contradicts him, convicts him, and fills him with shame; the pride of his heart, and of his countenance, and which appears in all his actions, and which is open and manifest to all, shall stare him in the face, and confound him; even all the sinful actions done by him in a proud and haughty manner, in contempt of God and of his laws, shall fly in his face, and fill him with dread and horror.”
Hosea 5:5
“Or, "in his face," as in Isa 3:9. Judah . . . shall fall with them--This prophecy is later than Ho 4:15, when Judah had not gone so far in idolatry; now her imitation of Israel's bad example provokes the threat of her being doomed to share in Israel's punishment.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Hosea 5:5
“Their pride kept them from repenting of their iniquity, and therefore they shall fall in it. Note, Those that are not humbled for their sins are likely to perish for ever in their sins. It is added, Judah also shall fall with them in her iniquity.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hosea 5:6-7
to seek the LORD: They come "with their flocks and herds to seek the LORD, but they do not find Him". The offerings come without the return that verse 4 says their deeds prevent. "They have been unfaithful to the LORD", so "Now the New Moon will devour them".
Hosea 5:6
"In their flocks and herds they will go to seek the Lord, but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn Himself from them. They have transgressed against the Lord, for they have produced illegitimate children. Now the month and its parts will devour them." LXX: "When they go with sheep and calves seeking the Lord, but shall not find him, he hath withdrawn himself from them. Because they have forsaken the Lord, and have brought up strange children, their rust shall devour them and their portions."
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 5:6-7patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 5:6
“Nor shall those speed who do not seek the Lord while he may be found, for there is a time when he will not be found. They shall not find him, for he has withdrawn himself; he will not be enquired of by them, but will turn a deaf ear to their sacrifices. See how much it is our concern to seek God early, now while the accepted time is, and the day of salvation.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
unfaithful to the LORD: The Hebrew for unfaithful means to cover, and so to deceive. Barnes notes its use for a wife unfaithful to her husband, as at Jeremiah 3:20, and here the illegitimate children follow. The LORD speaks as a husband wronged by his house.
Hosea 5:7
“They have dealt treacherously - Literally, “have cloaked,” and so, acted deceitfully. The word is used of treachery of friend toward his friend, of the husband to his wife, or the wife husband. “Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord” Jer 3:20. God, even in His upbraiding, speaks very tenderly to them, as having been in the closest, dearest relation to Himself.”
Blow the trumpet: I will be like a moth to Ephraim
Hosea 5:8-10
Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah: The alarm sounds across Benjamin, "Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah", for an invasion the prophet already sees coming. "Ephraim will be laid waste on the day of rebuke". The princes of Judah are "like those who move boundary stones", a crime Deuteronomy curses.
Hosea 5:8
“Blow the horn in Gabaa, trumpet in Rama: howl at Bethaven after your back, O Benjamin: Ephraim shall be in desolation in the day of rebuke, among the tribes of Israel have I made known the truth." LXX: "Blow the trumpet on the hills, sound on the high places," "proclaim it in the house." ὢν: "Benjamin's mind has failed, Ephraim has become desolate in the days of reproof, in the tribes of Israel I have shown faithfulness." Ephraim and Israel and Judah shall each month, or the rust with its parts, devour.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 5:8-9patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 5:8
“Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah - Gibeah and Ramah were cities of Judah, in the tribe of Benjamin. After thee, O Benjamin - An abrupt call of warning. “Benjamin, fly for thy life! The enemy is just behind thee!” This is a prediction of the invasion of the Assyrians, and the captivity of the ten tribes.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
on the day of rebuke: Ephraim stands for all the tribes of the north, and Wesley set the day of rebuke at the siege of Shalmaneser. Barnes read laid waste as one waste, a land that fell once for all. The LORD proclaims it among the tribes of Israel as certain.
Hosea 5:9
“Ephraim shall be desolate - It shall not be lightly rebuked, nor even more grievously chastened; it shall not simply be wasted by famine, pestilence, and the sword; it shall be not simply desolate, but a desolation, one waste, in the day of rebuke, when God brings home to it its sin and punishment. Ephraim was not taken away for a time; it was never restored.”
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 5:9
“Ephraim - The whole kingdom of the ten tribes. Rebuke - When Salmaneser shall besiege, sack and captivate all thy cities, rebuked for their sins. Of Israel - To the house of Israel openly.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Hosea 5:9
“Note, The destruction of impenitent sinners is a thing which shall surely be; it is not mere talk, to frighten them, but it is an irrevocable sentence. And it is a mercy to us that it is made known to us, that we have timely warning given us of it, that we may flee from the wrath to come.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
move boundary stones: Jerome placed the charge after the fall of Ephraim, when the princes of Judah rejoiced at the ruin of Israel. Gill read the boundary stones as every bound of right and wrong, and he cites the law at Deuteronomy 19:14. The fury poured out like water falls on Judah.
Hosea 5:10
"The leaders of Judah have become like those who remove a boundary; upon them I will pour out my wrath like water." LXX: "The leaders of Judah have become like those who move boundary lines. I will pour out my rage on them like a flood, raging and swift." After the captivity of Ephraim and Israel, and their land became desolate, the leaders of Judah who should have wept and encouraged their people to turn away from idolatry, lest they suffer similarly, began to rejoice and be happy that their land was opened wide for them to possess.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 5:10patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 5:10
“The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound,.... Or landmark, which to do was contrary to the law, Deu 19:14; and has always been reckoned a heinous sin among all nations, and is only done by such who have no regard to right and wrong, and by them secretly; and such were the kings, princes, and nobles of Judah; they secretly committed the grossest iniquities, yea, were abandoned to their vile lusts, and could not be contained within any bounds.”
Hosea 5:11-13
Ephraim is oppressed: Ephraim is "crushed in judgment, for he is determined to follow worthless idols", most likely the calves Jeroboam set up at Dan and Bethel. The LORD is "like a moth to Ephraim, and like decay to the house of Judah". When Ephraim saw his sickness he "turned to Assyria".
Hosea 5:11
"Ephraim endures slander, broken in judgement, because he started to follow after filth." LXX: "Ephraim oppressed his adversary, trampled justice, because he began to pursue vain things." If Ephraim is wicked, and because of his wickedness he will be destroyed, how can it now be said: "Ephraim endures slander, broken in judgement?" For he who endures slander is also broken, his judgement oppressed unjustly, especially when a just cause is stated for which he was given up to captivity. For it follows: 'since he began to leave behind filth', that is, behind the idols which are compared to filth.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 5:11patristic
3 more voices on this verse
Hosea 5:11
“Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment - Literally, “crushed in judgment.” Holy Scripture, elsewhere also, “combines” these same two words, rendered “oppressed” and “crushed,” in speaking of man’s oppression by man. Ephraim preferred man’s commands and laws to God’s; they obeyed man and set God at nought; therefore they should suffer at man’s hands, who, while he equally neglected God’s will, enforced his own.”
Hosea 5:11
“Note, Nothing gives greater advantage to a mastiff-like tyranny, that is fierce and furious, than a spaniel-like submission, that is fawning and flattering. Thus is Ephraim oppressed and broken in judgment, that is, he is wronged under a face and colour of right. Note, It is a sad and sore judgment upon any people to be oppressed under pretence of having justice done them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hosea 5:11
“Ephraim - The ten tribes are by seditions, civil wars, unjust sentences, and bloody conspiracies eaten up already. After the commandment - To forbear going to the temple, and to worship the calves at Daniel and Bethel, as Jeroboam the son of Nebat commanded.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
like a moth to Ephraim: Barnes read the moth as God at work in secret while Ephraim followed its worthless idols. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown set the moth and decay against the lion of verse 14, slow ruin against sudden violence. A moth eats cloth and decay eats wood.
Hosea 5:12
"And I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like rottenness to the house of Judah." LXX: "And I am like a tribulation to Ephraim, and like a stimulus to the house of Judah." In the Hebrew language "moth" is called "Recob" for "rot and decay"; one of which consumes clothes and the other wood: for which the LXX translated as "turbulence", which is "disorder" or "turbulence", and "stimulus". And it should be noted that the moth pertains to Ephraim, and the rottenness to the house of Judah.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 5:12patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 5:12
“Therefore I will be unto Ephraim a moth - Literally, “and I as a moth.” This form of speaking expresses what God was doing, while Ephraim was “willingly following” sin. “And I” was all the while “as a moth.” The moth in a garment, and the decay in wood, corrode and prey upon the substance, in which they lie hid, slowly, imperceptibly, but, at the last, effectually. Such were God’s first judgments on Israel and Judah; such are they now commonly upon sinners.”
Hosea 5:12
“As in Ho 5:13, 14, the violence of the calamity is prefigured by the "wound" which "a lion" inflicts, so here its long protracted duration, and the certainty and completeness of the destruction from small unforeseen beginnings, by the images of a slowly but surely consuming moth and rottenness.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
They ran to Assyria, who could not heal their wound
sent to the great king: The Septuagint, as Jerome records, keeps the title as a name, King Jareb, and Barnes rendered it an avenging king or a king who pleads. Barnes took the sickness as decay from within and the wound as blows from outside. The king they courted became their destroyer.
Hosea 5:13
"And Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his band: and Ephraim went to the Assyrian, and sent to the avenging king: and he shall not be able to heal you, neither shall he be able to take off the band from you." LXX: "And Ephraim saw his weakness, and Judah his pain, and Ephraim went to the Assyrians, and sent ambassadors to king Jareb, and he will not be able to free you, nor will he make an end of your pain." Embassies are not held in Hebrew.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 5:13patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 5:13
“When Ephraim saw his sickness - Literally, “And Ephraim saw,” i. e., perceived it. God proceeds to tell them, how they acted when they felt those lighter afflictions, the decline and wasting of their power. The “sickness” may further mean the gradual inward decay; the “wound,” blows received from without. And sent to king Jareb - Or, as in the English margin “a king who should plead, or, an avenging king.” The “hostile king” is, probably, the same Assyrian Monarch, whom both Israel and Judah courted, who was the destruction of Israel and who weakened Judah.”
Hosea 5:13
“Those who repent not that they have offended God by their sins are loth to be beholden to him in their afflictions, but would rather seek relief any where than with him. And what is the consequence?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hosea 5:14-15
like a lion to Ephraim: The picture turns from slow decay to sudden attack: "I am like a lion to Ephraim". Then "I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face", and "in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me". That line leads into the plea of 6:1.
Hosea 5:14
"For I am like a lioness of Ephraim, and like a lion's cub to the house of Judah." LXX: "For I am like a panther to Ephraim, and like a lion in the house of Judah." When they go to Assyria and send to the avenging or the revenger king, who will not be able to heal them; nor to undo the bound chain, I will show that with me opposing, all human help is vain: for I will be like a lioness to Ephraim, and like a lion's whelp to the house of Judah.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 5:14patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 5:14
“Note, If less judgments prevail not to do their work, it may be expected that God will send greater. Christ is sometimes a lion of the tribe of Judah, here he is a lion against that tribe. See what God will do to a people that are secure in sin: Even I will tear.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hosea 5:14
“For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion - He who would thus strengthen himself by Outward help against God’s chastisements, challenges, as it were, the Almighty to a trial of strength. So then God, unwilling to abandon him to himself, changes His dealings, and , “He who had heretofore, in His judgments, seemed but as a tender moth or a weak worm,” now shows forth His resistless power, imaged by His creatures in whom the quality of power is most seen.”
return to My place: The lion of verse 14 goes back to its place after it tears, and Barnes read the return of the LORD the same way. God is in every place, and he withdraws by taking away every token of his presence and help. Jerome's rendering reads until you fail.
Hosea 5:15
"I will take and go, and I will take away and there is no one who can deliver: going I will return to my place until you fail and seek my face." LXX: "And I will snatch, and go and take away, and there will be no one who can deliver: I will go and return to my rightful place until they are destroyed and seek my face."
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 5:15patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 5:15
“I will go and return to My place - As the wild beast, when he has taken his prey, returns to his covert, so God, when He had fulfilled His will, would, for the time, withdraw all tokens of his presence. God, who is wholly everywhere, is said to dwell “there,” relatively to us, where he manifests Himself, as of old, in the tabernacle, the temple, Zion, Jerusalem. He is said to “go and return,” when He withdraws all tokens of His presence, His help, care, and providence.”
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.