1 Hear this, ye priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ear, O house of the king: for this judgment is for you; for ye have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.
He taketh up all of them with the hook, he catcheth them in his net, and gathereth them into his drag; therefore he rejoiceth and is glad: therefore he sacrificeth unto his net, and burneth incense unto his drag; for by them his portion is become fat, and his meat dainty. Shall he therefore empty his net, and not spare to slay the nations continually?
Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel: Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel, and rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee; and thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do only that which is right in my sight; but thou hast done evil above all that were before thee, and hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back: therefore behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone. Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat, and him that dieth in the field shall the fowl of the heavens eat; for Jehovah hath spoken. And thou, arise, go to thine own house; when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die. And all Israel shall mourn for him, and they shall bury him; for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something good toward Jehovah the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam. And Jehovah shall raise up for himself a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day; and what? ... even now. And Jehovah will smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he will root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their Asherahs, provoking Jehovah to anger. And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, wherewith he has sinned, and made Israel to sin.
As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away as a bird, -- no birth, no pregnancy, no conception! For even should they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, [that] not a man [remain]: for woe also to them when I shall have departed from them! Ephraim, as I saw [him], was a Tyre planted in a beautiful place; but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the slayer. Give them, Jehovah -- what wilt thou give? -- give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them: because of the wickedness of their doings, I will drive them out of my house, I will love them no more: all their princes are rebellious. Ephraim is smitten: their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit; yea, though they should bring forth, yet will I slay the beloved [fruit] of their womb. My God hath rejected them, because they hearkened not unto him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies. They all practise adultery, as an oven heated by the baker: he ceaseth from stirring [the fire] after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened. In the day of our king, the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine: he stretched out his hand to scorners.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; for thou hast rejected knowledge, and I will reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me; seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children. As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me: I will change their glory into shame.
Thus saith Jehovah: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people who enter in through these gates. Thus saith Jehovah: Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor; and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place. For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in through the gates of this house kings sitting in the place of David upon his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, -- he, and his servants, and his people. But if ye will not hear these words, I have sworn by myself, saith Jehovah, that this house shall become a waste. For thus saith Jehovah concerning the house of the king of Judah: Thou art a Gilead unto me, the summit of Lebanon: verily I will make thee a wilderness, cities not inhabited. And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons; and they shall cut down the choice of thy cedars, and cast [them] into the fire. And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus unto this great city? And they shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of Jehovah their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.
And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet saying, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of David thy father: Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah, but hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, like the fornications of the house of Ahab, and also hast slain thy brethren, thy father's house who were better than thyself: behold, Jehovah will smite with a great stroke thy people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy substance, and thyself with sore sicknesses, with a disease of thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day.
Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to take possession of it. And thou shalt speak unto him saying, Thus saith Jehovah: Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him saying, Thus saith Jehovah: In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall the dogs lick thy blood, even thine. And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, mine enemy? And he said, I have found [thee]; because thou hast sold thyself to do evil in the sight of Jehovah. Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab every male, and him that is shut up and left in Israel; and I will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Hosea 5
Commentary on Hosea 5 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 5
The scope of this chapter is the same with that of the foregoing chapter, to discover the sin both of Israel and Judah, and to denounce the judgments of God against them.
The more generally these things are expressed of so much the more general use they are for our learning, and particularly for our admonition.
Hsa 5:1-7
Here,
Hsa 5:8-15
Here is,