Hosea 5:1-7

Punishment Coming for Israel and Judah

1 1Hear this, O priests! Pay attention, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you; for 2you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon 3Tabor.
2 And 4the revolters 5have gone deep into slaughter, but 6I will discipline all of them.
3 7I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled.
4 8Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For 9the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the LORD.
5 10The pride of Israel testifies to his face;[a] Israel and 11Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt; 12Judah also shall stumble with them.
6 13With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the LORD, 14but they will not find him; 15he has withdrawn from them.
7 16They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD; for they have borne alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.

Hosea 5:1-7 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO HOSEA 5

The design of this chapter is to expose the sins of Israel and of Judah, and to declare the judgment of God upon them for them. Men of all ranks in Israel are summoned to attend to the charge brought against then, and the sentence on them, Ho 5:1. The charge exhibited is, that they were guilty of in, hating men to the slaughter of idolatrous sacrifices, though they had been sufficiently rebuked and corrected, Ho 5:1,2; of both corporeal and spiritual adultery, whereby they were defiled, and which was well known to the Lord, Ho 5:3; of obstinate persistence in impenitence, owing to the efficacy of an unclean spirit in them, and their want of the knowledge of God, Ho 5:4; of open pride, which stared them in the face, and for which they fell into calamities, and Judah with them, and should not be able with all their sacrifices to find favour with God, who had withdrawn himself from them, Ho 5:5,6; also of treacherous dealing with the Lord by their spiritual adultery, and begetting strange children, Ho 5:7; next their punishment is denounced, of which notice was to be given them by the sound of the trumpet, as an alarm of war, or as calling for mourning, Ho 5:8; since Ephraim would become desolate, of which notification had been made among the tribes, Ho 5:9; and wrath would be poured out in great abundance on the princes of Judah, who were very wicked men, Ho 5:10; and Ephraim would be oppressed and broken by the judgment of God, who would be as a moth unto them, and also rottenness to Judah, because they followed the commandments of men, Ho 5:11,12; and, what was still more provoking, when they were sensible of their calamities and distresses, they sought not help from the Lord, but from men that could do them no good; and therefore he threatens to be as a devouring lion to them, Ho 5:13,14; and yet the chapter concludes with a promise of the conversion of these people, after the Lord had dealt with them in an angry manner, Ho 5:15.

Cross References 16

Footnotes 1

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.