Hosea 5:11
in Hosea 5Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, for he is determined to follow worthless idols.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Ephraim is oppressed, he is crushed in judgment; because he was content to walk after man’s command.
KJV
Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment.
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This verse in Hosea 5
Commentary
8 notes on this verse"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.
This site's exposition
Ephraim is oppressed
on Hosea 5:11-13
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".
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
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.
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.
Ephraim is oppressed, and broken in judgment,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
broken in judgment--namely, the "judgment" of God on him (Ho 5:1). walked after the commandment--Jeroboam's, to worship the calves (2Ki 10:28-33). Compare Mic 6:16, "the statutes of Omri," namely, idolatrous statutes.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Walked after the commandment - Jeroboam’s commandment to worship his calves at Dan and Beth-el. Many of them were not forced to do this, they did it willingly.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
like those who remove the landmark As a person who attaches the landmark of his neighbor, so did they hasten to grasp the ways of Israel, their colleagues, the kings. Therefore, “upon them will I pour My wrath like water.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
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
9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עָשׁ֥וּק | ʾashuk | [is] oppressed | H6231 → | |
| אֶפְרַ֖יִם | ʾefrayim | Ephraim | H669 → | 180 times |
| רְצ֣וּץ | retzutz | [is] crushed of | H7533 → | |
| מִשְׁפָּ֑ט | mishpat | judgment | H4941 → | 422 times |
| כִּ֣י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| הוֹאִ֔יל | hoil | he was determined | H2974 → | |
| הָלַ֖ךְ | halakh | he walked | H1980 → | 1546 times |
| אַחֲרֵי־ | ʾacharei- | after | H310 → | 715 times |
| צָֽו׃ | tzav | a command | H6673 → |
עָשׁ֥וּק[is] oppressed
ʾashukH6231 →
אֶפְרַ֖יִםEphraim
ʾefrayimH669 →180 times
רְצ֣וּץ[is] crushed of
retzutzH7533 →
מִשְׁפָּ֑טjudgment
mishpatH4941 →422 times
כִּ֣יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
הוֹאִ֔ילhe was determined
hoilH2974 →
הָלַ֖ךְhe walked
halakhH1980 →1546 times
אַחֲרֵי־after
ʾacharei-H310 →715 times
צָֽו׃a command
tzavH6673 →
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
2 Kings 15:29In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, and he took the people…
it leads to
- 1 Chronicles 5:26
So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria (that is, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria) to take the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh into exile. And…
- 2 Kings 17:6
In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the…
- Joshua 20:7
So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.
- 1 Chronicles 5:26
Through
Micah 6:16You have kept the statutes of Omri and all the practices of Ahab’s house; you have followed their counsel. Therefore I will make you a desolation, and your inhabitants an object of contempt; you…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 51:51
“We are ashamed because we have heard reproach; disgrace has covered our faces, because foreigners have entered the holy places of the LORD’s house.”
- Isaiah 25:8
He will swallow up death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the LORD has spoken.
- Jeremiah 7:24
Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.
- 1 Kings 16:25–33
But Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD and acted more wickedly than all who were before him.
- Jeremiah 51:51
Through
Deuteronomy 28:33A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 5:17
They will devour your harvest and food; they will consume your sons and daughters; they will eat up your flocks and herds; they will feed on your vines and fig trees. With the sword…
- Jeremiah 5:17
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Hosea
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on 9 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 5:11; 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.