USB ~ Hosea 5

Guilt of the Religious and Political Leaders

1 Hear this, priests, Pay attention, house of Israel, Household of the king, give ear! a For you are responsible for judgment.† But you have been a snare at Mizpah,† a net spread upon Tabor,

2 a pit dug deep in Shittim. Now I will discipline them all.

3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me: Now, Ephraim, you have practiced prostitution, Israel is defiled.

4 Their deeds do not allow them to return to their God; b For the spirit of prostitution is in them, and they do not know the LORD.

5 The arrogance of Israel bears witness against him; Israel and Ephraim stumble because of their iniquity, and Judah stumbles with them.

6 With their flocks and herds they will go to seek the LORD, but will not find him; c he has withdrawn from them.

7 They have betrayed the LORD, for they have borne illegitimate children; Now the new moon† will devour them together with their fields.

Political Upheavals†

8 Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah! Sound the alarm in Beth-aven: d “Look behind you, Benjamin!”†

9 Ephraim shall become a wasteland on the day of punishment: Among the tribes of Israel I announce what is sure to be.

10 The princes of Judah have become like those who move a boundary line;† e Upon them I will pour out my wrath like water.

11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed by judgment, for he has willingly gone after filth!†

12 I am like a moth for Ephraim, f like rot for the house of Judah.

13 When Ephraim saw his infirmity, and Judah his sore, Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king.† g But he cannot heal you, nor take away your sore.

14 For I am like a lion to Ephraim, like a young lion to the house of Judah; h It is I who tear the prey and depart, I carry it away and no one can save it. i

Insincere Conversion

15 I will go back to my place until they make reparation and seek my presence. In their affliction, they shall look for me. j

Footnotes

†. 5:1 For you…judgment: possibly “for you are called to judgment.”

†. 5:1-2 Mizpah: several places bear this name; the best known is in Benjamin (1 Sm 7:6, 16; 10:17). Perhaps this is a wordplay on mishpat, “justice,” “judgment.” Tabor: the mountain that dominates the valley of Jezreel. Shittim: in Transjordan, where Israel committed its first act of idolatry with the Baal of Peor (9:10; cf. Nm 25). At these three places the leaders had misled the people by an idolatrous cult or by an abuse of justice.

†. 5:7 New moon: normally a feast day of joy (2:13), but, because of infidelity, it will be a day of destruction.

†. 5:8-14 This passage describes political and military conflict between Judah and Israel. Perhaps some allusion is made to the Syro-Ephraimite war of 735-734 B.C., when a coalition of Arameans and Israelites attempted to dethrone the king of Judah (2 Kgs 16:5; Is 7:1-9). Judah repulsed the attempt with the aid of Assyria, and the latter devastated both Aram and Israel.

†. 5:8 A vision of invasion, from Gibeah and Ramah in northern Judah, into Israel.

†. 5:10 Move a boundary line: invasion by Judah (v. 8) is compared to a case of social injustice (Dt 19:14; 27:17; Prv 23:10-11).

†. 5:11 Filth: Ephraim’s reliance on foreign nations and their gods.

†. 5:13 Ephraim went…king: in 738 the Israelite king Menahem had to pay tribute to the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III, whose vassal he became (2 Kgs 15:19-20). Under the threat of the Syro-Ephraimite invasion King Ahaz of Judah also submitted to Tiglath-pileser (2 Kgs 16:7-9). Great king: Heb. melek-yarev; may be a proper name: King Yarev, but unknown; or “the defender king”: irony about the great king of Assyria (see note on 10:6).

5:1 Mi 3:1.
5:4 Jer 13:23.
5:6 Is 55:6; Jer 29:13; Am 5:4-6; 8:12; Jn 7:34.
5:8 Jer 4:5; Jl 2:1.
5:10 Dt 19:14; 27:17.
5:12 Is 50:9.
5:13 2 Kgs 15:19-20; 16:7-9.
5:14 Is 5:29; Am 1:2; 3:12.
5:14 Dt 32:39.
5:15 Jer 29:13; Ps 78:34.