Hosea 5:12

12 I will destroy Israel as a moth consumes wool. I will make Judah as weak as rotten 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 have become like thieves. So I will pour my anger on them like a waterfall.

11 The people of Israel will be crushed and broken by my judgment because they are determined to worship idols.

12 I will destroy Israel as a moth consumes wool. I will make Judah as weak as rotten wood.

13 “When Israel and Judah saw how sick they were, Israel turned to Assyria— to the great king there— but he could neither help nor cure them.

14 I will be like a lion to Israel, like a strong young lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces! I will carry them off, and no one will be left to rescue them.