Hosea 4:5

5 And thou shalt fall today, and the prophet also shall fall with thee: in the night I have made thy mother to be silent.

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.


FOOTNOTES:

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

Hosea 4:5 In-Context

3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth in it shall languish with the heat of the field, and with the fowls of the air: yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be gathered together.
4 But yet let not any man judge: and let not a man be rebuked: for thy people are as they that contradict the priest.
5 And thou shalt fall today, and the prophet also shall fall with thee: in the night I have made thy mother to be silent.
6 My people have been silent, because they had no knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject thee, that thou shalt not do the office of priesthood to me: and thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.
7 According to the multitude of them, so have they sinned against me: I will change their glory into shame.
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