Hoshea 5:12

12 Therefore will I be unto Ephrayim like maggots, and to the Bais Yehudah like rottenness.

Hoshea 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.

Hoshea 5:12 In-Context

10 The sarim (princes) of Yehudah were like them that remove the gevul (boundary stone); therefore I will pour out My wrath upon them like mayim.

11 Ephrayim is oppressed and crushed in mishpat (judgment), because he willingly walked after tzav (human statute [Isa 28:10,13]).

12 Therefore will I be unto Ephrayim like maggots, and to the Bais Yehudah like rottenness.

13 When Ephrayim saw his sickness, and Yehudah saw his sores, then went Ephrayim to the Assyrian, and sent to the great king; yet he was not able to heal you, nor cure you of your wound.

14 For I will be unto Ephrayim like a lion, and as a great lion to the Bais Yehudah; I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and there will be no one rescuing.