Hosea 5:11

11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after vanity.

Hosea 5:11 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 5:11

Ephraim [is] oppressed, [and] broken in judgment
Here the prophet again returns to the ten tribes, who were oppressed and broken, either by their own judgments, as the Targum; by the tyranny of their kings, and the injustice of their judges, who looked only for the mammon of unrighteousness; or by the judgment of their enemies, the Assyrians, the taxes they laid upon them, the devastations they made among them, and by whom, at last, they were carried captive; or by the judgments of God upon them; for all the enemy did was by his permission, and according to his will: because he willingly walked after the commandment;
not after the commandment of God, but after the commandment of men, as Aben Ezra; or after the commandment of the prophets of Baal, as Jarchi; or after the commandment of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, as Kimchi, by worshipping the calves at Dan and Bethel he set up there.

Hosea 5:11 In-Context

9 Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of punishment; among the tribes of Israel I declare what is sure.
10 The princes of Judah have become like those who remove the landmark; on them I will pour out my wrath like water.
11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after vanity.
12 Therefore I am like maggots to Ephraim, and like rottenness to the house of Judah.
13 When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king. But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.