Book of Hosea
Compiled by WD Kemner December 2025
Chapter 5
God’s Calling out the sins of Israel
1 Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.
Mizpah - the mountainous part of Gilead. East of Jordan. Tabor was the traditional mountain site of the Transfiguration.
Idea is that of being the one that attracts the sinner. Snagging them with your offers into your net.
2 And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all.
3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled.
Ephraim used as a reference to the Northern tribe in the way Judah is used of the Southern tribe.
They were both the largest tribes in their kingdoms and thus the leaders came from.
4 They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD.
5 And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them.
6 They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them.
7 They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions.
8 Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Beth-aven, after thee, O Benjamin.
Bethaven – mentioned in previous chapter
9 Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.
10 The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.
11 Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment.
12 Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.
Jeroboam’s commandment regarding worshipping the golden calf. (1Kings)
Moth and termites. Moths destroy garments and termites eat away wood. Laying dormant until the rotten is revealed.
That was descriptive of both Israel and Judah.
13 When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.
14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.
King Jareb = Tiglath-pileser who punished both Ephraim and Judah (“Pul” of 2Kings 15:19 and 16)
Hosea 5:15
15 I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.
God would “leave them” and return to “His home” UNTIL they return to seeking His face.
God’s presence would indeed leave the temple. Why should the temple to the Most High be shared with anything?
While in “captivity” in Babylon they would begin to seek God’s face.