Hosea 5:12

12 I will destroy Ephraim as a moth destroys clothing. I will destroy the nation of Judah as rot destroys wood.

Hosea 5:12 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 5:12

Therefore [will] I [be] unto Ephraim as a moth
Which eats garments, penetrates into them, feeds on them privately, secretly, without any noise, and gradually and slowly consumes them; but at last utterly, that they are of no use and profit: this may signify the various things which befell the ten tribes in the reigns of Zachariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah, which secretly and gradually weakened them; and the utter consumption of them in the times of Hoshea by Shalmaneser: and to the house of Judah as rottenness;
as rottenness in the bones, ( Proverbs 12:4 ) ; which can never be got out or cured; or as a worm that eats into wood, as Jarchi interprets it; and gets into the very heart of a tree, and eats it out: thus the Lord threatens the house of Judah, or the two tribes, with a gradual, yet thorough, ruin and destruction.

Hosea 5:12 In-Context

10 The leaders of Judah are like those who move boundary markers. I will pour my fury on them like water.

11 Ephraim is oppressed--crushed by punishment, because its people are determined to chase idols.

12 I will destroy Ephraim as a moth destroys clothing. I will destroy the nation of Judah as rot destroys wood.

13 "When Ephraim saw that he was sick and when Judah saw his own wounds, Ephraim went to Assyria to ask the great king for help. But the king couldn't cure them or heal their wounds.

14 I will be like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the nation of Judah. I will carry [them] off, and no one will rescue [them].