Hosea 5:2
in Hosea 5The rebels are deep in slaughter; but I will chastise them all.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And the revolters are gone deep in making slaughter; but I am a rebuker of them all.
KJV
And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all.
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This verse in Hosea 5
Commentary
7 notes on this verse"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."
This site's exposition
Hear ye this, O priests
on Hosea 5:1-2
The summons now names three parties together, priests, the house of Israel and the house of the king, judgment reaching every office at once rather than singling out one class. Mizpah and Tabor were places of gathering and even of worship, and the bench reads the snare and net set there as the leaders themselves turning holy ground into a trap for the people they were meant to shepherd. The revolters are profound to make slaughter, going deep into their scheming, though the Lord has been a rebuker of them all, his warnings already given and already refused.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
God himself had been a rebuker of them all by their own consciences and by his providences. Note, Sins against reproof are doubly sinful, Prov. xxix. They had committed whoredom, had defiled their own bodies with fleshly lusts, had defiled their own souls with the worship of idols,
And the revolters are profound to make slaughter,.... The revolters are the king, priests, and people, who had revolted from the true worship and ways of God unto idolatry.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
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.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
And the revolters are profound to make slaughter - Literally, “They made the slaughter deep,” as Isaiah says, “they deeply corupted themselves” Isa 31:6; and our old writers say “He smote deep.” They willed also doubtless to “make it deep,” hide it so deep, that God should never know it, as the Psalmist says of the ungodly, “that the inward self and heart of the worker’s of iniquity is deep,” whereon it follows, that God should “suddenly wound them,” as here the prophet subjoins that God rebuked them. Actual and profuse murder has been already Hos 4:2 mentioned as one of the common sins of Israel, and it is afterward Hos 6:9 also charged upon the priests. Though I have been a rebuker - Literally, “a rebuke,” as the Psalmist says, “I am prayer” Psa 109:4, i. e., “I am all prayer.” The Psalmist’s whole being was turned into prayer. So here, all the attributes of God, His mercies, love, justice, were concentrated into one, and that one, rebuke. Rebuke was the one form, in which they were all seen. It is an aggravation of crime to do it in the place of judgment or in the presence of the judge. Israel was immersed in his sin and heeded not, although God rebuked him continually by His voice in the law, forbidding all idolatry, and was now all the while, both in word and deed, rebuking him.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
for yours is the judgment The judgment of torments is upon you, O house of the king, for you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net on Tabor. On these two mountains they stationed sentries so that Israel would not make the pilgrimage to the Temple.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְשַׁחֲטָ֥ה | veshachatah | and slaughtering | H7819 → | |
| שֵׂטִ֖ים | setim | rebels | H7846 → | |
| הֶעְמִ֑יקוּ | he'miku | they have made deep | H6009 → | |
| וַאֲנִ֖י | vaani | and I | H589 → | 874 times |
| מוּסָ֥ר | musar | [am] discipline | H4148 → | |
| לְכֻלָּֽם׃ | lekhulam | to all of them | H3605 → | 5413 times |
וְשַׁחֲטָ֥הand slaughtering
veshachatahH7819 →
שֵׂטִ֖יםrebels
setimH7846 →
הֶעְמִ֑יקוּthey have made deep
he'mikuH6009 →
וַאֲנִ֖יand I
vaaniH589 →874 times
מוּסָ֥ר[am] discipline
musarH4148 →
לְכֻלָּֽם׃to all of them
lekhulamH3605 →5413 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
Isaiah 29:15Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?”
it leads to
- Ezekiel 8:12
“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are…
- Isaiah 47:10
You were secure in your wickedness; you said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray; you told yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’
- Isaiah 30:1
“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin.
- Psalms 94:7–9
They say, “The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob pays no heed.”
- Psalms 10:11–13
He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He hides His face and never sees.”
- Ezekiel 8:12
Through
Jeremiah 18:18Then some said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the law will never be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the wise, nor an oracle to the prophet. Come, let us…
it leads to
- Psalms 52:2
Your tongue devises destruction like a sharpened razor, O worker of deceit.
- Malachi 2:7
For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts.
- Jeremiah 11:19
For I was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter; I did not know that they had plotted against me: “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit; let us cut him off from…
- Psalms 52:2
About Hosea
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; 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 5:1-2; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.