Hosea 5:12

12 But I [am] like a maggot to Ephraim and like rottenness to the house of Judah.

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 have become like those who remove a 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 filth.

12 But I [am] like a maggot to Ephraim and like rottenness to the house of Judah.

13 And [when] Ephraim saw his illness, and Judah his wound, Ephraim went to Assyria, he sent to the great king. But he was unable to cure you and heal your wound.

14 Because I [will be] like a lion to Ephraim and like a fierce strong lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear and I will go; I will carry off, and there is no one who delivers.