Hosea 5:12

12 Therefore I am like a moth to Efrayim and like rottenness to the house of Y'hudah.

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 Y'hudah are like men who move boundary stones; I will pour my fury out upon them like water.

11 Efrayim is oppressed, crushed by the judgment, because he deliberately sought out futility.

12 Therefore I am like a moth to Efrayim and like rottenness to the house of Y'hudah.

13 When Efrayim saw his sickness and Y'hudah his wound, Efrayim went to Ashur and sent envoys to a warring king; but he can't heal you or cure your wound.

14 For to Efrayim I will be like a lion, and like a young lion to the house of Y'hudah - I will tear them up and go away; I will carry them off, and no one will rescue.