Hosea 5:8

Blow ye the cornet … the trumpet A usual direction on the approach of an invading army; see Hosea 8:1; Jeremiah 4:5; Jeremiah 6:1. Previously to the captivity the cornet and the trumpet were probably different names for the same instrument, as the Law (Numbers 10:1-10; Numbers 31:6) prescribes the use of the silver trumpet (khaçôçerah) in cases when, according to the prophetic and historical books, the cornet or shôfârwas used. In writings of post-Captivity origin (Psa 98:6; 1 Chronicles 15:28; 2 Chronicles 15:14) they appear to represent different instruments, or rather slightly different varieties of the same instrument. The Mishna tells us that the shôfârwas sometimes straight, sometimes curved, and this difference would of course involve a difference of note. We may help ourselves to form an idea of the Hebrew trumpets by representations of the Egyptian (see Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 11. 260, &c.).

Gibeah … Ramah Both towns were situated on eminences, and therefore well adapted for signals of alarm; both apparently belonged to Judah. Gibeah (lit. -a hill") is -Gibeah of Benjamin" (1 Samuel 13:2; 1 Samuel 14:16), or -Gibeah of Saul" (1 Samuel 11:4); the Ramah (lit. -height") is the same where Samuel dwelt (1 Samuel 15:34). Both probably belonged at this time to Judah (see 1 Kings 15:21; Isaiah 10:29). Taking in Bethel, the cities are those from which the signal of alarm could be heard in both kingdoms.

after thee, O Benjamin Rather, behind thee, O Benjamin; this is the cry of warning which the men of Beth-aven or Bethel (a border-town between Benjamin and Ephraim) are to send on to the Benjamites. Understand either -the sword rages", or more simply -be on thy guard." Sept. however renders (from a different text?), ἐξέστη Βενιαμίν, -Benjamin is distraught."

It is worth noticing that Hosea (the prophet of the tribes which proudly claimed the name of Israel) does not mention Jerusalem. To have mentioned the capital of Judah would perhaps have led him to widen his range of thought too much. But under the name -Benjamin" he has been thought to hint obscurely at Jerusalem, for -the boundary between Judah and Benjamin ran at the foot of the hill on which the city stands, so that the city itself was actually in Benjamin" (Fergusson, in Smith's Bible-Dictionary, 1. 983).