Hosea5chapter 5

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.”

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.”

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.”

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

“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.”

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.”

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.”

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?”

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.”

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.”

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.”