Hosea 5:12
in Hosea 5So I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like decay to the house of Judah.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Therefore am I unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.
KJV
Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.
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This verse in Hosea 5
Commentary
9 notes on this verse"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.
This site's exposition
Ephraim is oppressed
on Hosea 5:11-13
Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment because he willingly walked after the commandment, a phrase the bench reads as walking after a human command, most likely Jeroboam's calf worship instituted at Dan and Bethel, chosen willingly rather than forced upon the people. The Lord himself will be as a moth to Ephraim, a slow and hidden decay, and as rottenness to Judah, the same corruption working more visibly in the south, judgment described as an internal wasting rather than a single blow. When Ephraim saw his sickness he ran to Assyria and to king Jareb for a cure, the historical alliances Hoshea and earlier kings struck with Assyria named as the fact behind the figure, and the verdict is blunt: he could not heal or cure the wound, since the remedy for covenant unfaithfulness was never a foreign treaty.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
Just as the moth consumes clothing and decay or dry-rot consumes wooden things (which both occur over a long time), in the same manner God, giving a place of penitence over a long time to the ten tribes and then afterward to the two tribes—summoning to salvation those who treasure for themselves wrath for the day of wrath—becomes like a moth or rot.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
): I will be (that is, my providences shall be) unto Ephraim as a moth; nay (as it might better be supplied), they are unto Ephraim as a moth, for it is such a sickness as Ephraim now sees,
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
A moth - Moths leisurely eat up our clothes; so God was then, and had been, from Jeroboam's death, weakening the ten tribes. As rottenness - Secretly consuming them.
Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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.
Unto Ephraim as a moth - I will consume them by little and little, as a moth frets a garment.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
and like decay A worm which eats the wood and pulverizes it.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַאֲנִ֥י | vaani | and I | H589 → | 874 times |
| כָעָ֖שׁ | khaash | [am] like <the> moth | H6211 → | |
| לְאֶפְרָ֑יִם | leefrayim | to Ephraim | H669 → | 180 times |
| וְכָרָקָ֖ב | vekharakav | and like <the> rottenness | H7538 → | |
| לְבֵ֥ית | leveit | to [the] house of | H1004 → | 2046 times |
| יְהוּדָֽה׃ | yehudah | Judah | H3063 → | 819 times |
וַאֲנִ֥יand I
vaaniH589 →874 times
כָעָ֖שׁ[am] like <the> moth
khaashH6211 →
לְאֶפְרָ֑יִםto Ephraim
leefrayimH669 →180 times
וְכָרָקָ֖בand like <the> rottenness
vekharakavH7538 →
לְבֵ֥יתto [the] house of
leveitH1004 →2046 times
יְהוּדָֽה׃Judah
yehudahH3063 →819 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Proverbs 12:4A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown, but she who causes shame is like decay in his bones.
it leads to
- Proverbs 31:10–25
A wife of noble character, who can find? She is far more precious than rubies.
- Proverbs 14:30
A tranquil heart is life to the body, but envy rots the bones.
- Proverbs 14:1
Every wise woman builds her house, but a foolish one tears it down with her own hands.
- Proverbs 21:19
Better to live in the desert than with a contentious and ill-tempered wife.
- Proverbs 19:13–14
A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping.
- Proverbs 31:10–25
Through
Isaiah 51:8For the moth will devour them like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool. But My righteousness will last forever, My salvation through all generations.”
it leads to
- Isaiah 51:6
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth below; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and its people will die like…
- Job 4:19
how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Isaiah 50:9
Surely the Lord GOD helps Me. Who is there to condemn Me? See, they will all wear out like a garment; the moths will devour them.
- Isaiah 51:6
About Hosea
Who and where
2 names in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Hosea 5:12; Jerome, COMMENTARY ON HOSEA 2:5; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.