Hosea 5:12

12 Therefore I will be unto Ephraim as a moth and to the house of Judah as rottenness.

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 princes of Judah were like those that move the boundaries; therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.

11 Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment because he wanted to walk after commandments.

12 Therefore I will be unto Ephraim as a moth and to the house of Judah as rottenness.

13 And Ephraim shall see his sickness and Judah his wound; then Ephraim shall go to the Assyrian and shall send to King Jareb; yet he shall not be able to heal you, nor cure you of your wound.

14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion and as a young lion to the house of Judah; I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and there shall be no one left to escape.