Hosea 4:5

5 You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you. So I will destroy your mother—

Hosea 4:5 in Other Translations

5 Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.

5 You shall stumble by day; the prophet also shall stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your mother.

5 So you will stumble in broad daylight, and your false prophets will fall with you in the night. And I will destroy Israel, your mother.

5 You stumble around in broad daylight, And then the prophets take over and stumble all night. Your mother is as bad as you.

5 And thou shalt stumble in the day, and the prophet also shall stumble with thee in the night; and I will destroy thy mother.

5 During the day you stumble, and during the night the prophets stumble with you. So I will destroy your mother, [the nation of Israel].

5 You will stumble by day; the prophet will also stumble with you by night. And I will destroy your mother.

5 You trip and fall day and night. And the prophets fall down along with you. So I will destroy your nation. She is the one who gave birth to you.

Hosea 4:5 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 4:5

Therefore shall thou fall in the day
Either, O ye people, everyone of you, being so refractory and incorrigible; or, O thou priest, being as bad as the people; for both, on account of their sins, should fall from their present prosperity and happiness into great evils and calamities; particularly into the hands of their enemies, and be carried captive into another land: and this should be "in the day", or "today" ^F18; immediately, quickly, in a very short time; or in the daytime, openly, publicly, in the sight of all, of all the nations round about, who shall rejoice at it; or in the day of prosperity, while things go well, amidst great plenty of all good things, and when such a fall was least expected: and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night:
or the false prophets that are with you, as the Targum, and so Jarchi; either with you, O people, that dwell with you, teach you, and cause you to err; or with thee, O priest, being of the same family, as the prophets, many of them, were priests; now these should fall likewise into the same calamities, as it was but just they should, being the occasion of them: and this should be in the night; in the night of adversity and affliction, in the common calamity; or in the night of darkness, when they could not see at what they stumbled and fell, and so the more uncomfortable to them; or as the one falls in the day, the other falls in the night; as certainly as the one falls, so shall the other, and that very quickly, immediately, as the night follows the day: and I will destroy thy mother;
either Samaria, the metropolis of the nation; or the whole body of the people, the congregation, as the Targum, and Kimchi, and Ben Melech, being as a mother with respect to individuals; and are threatened with destruction because the corruption was general among prophets, priests, and people, and therefore none could hope to escape.

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 (Mwyh) "hodie", Munster, Montanus, Drusius, Tarnovius, Rivet; "hoc tempore", Pagninus. So Kimchi and Ben Melech.

Hosea 4:5 In-Context

3 Because of this the land dries up, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea are swept away.

4 “But let no one bring a charge, let no one accuse another, for your people are like those who bring charges against a priest.

5 You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you. So I will destroy your mother—

6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.

7 The more priests there were, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful.

Cross References

• 1. S Ezekiel 7:19; S Ezekiel 14:7
• 2. S Hosea 2:2