Hosea 5:12

Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness. THEREFORE WILL I BE UNTO EPHRAIM AS A MOTH - consuming a garment (; ; ). AND TO THE HOUSE OF JUDAH AS ROTTENNESS. Ephraim, or the ten tribes, are as a garment eaten by the moth; Judah as the body itself consumed by rottenness (Proverbs 5:12, "She that maketh ashamed is (to her husband) as rottenness in his bones"). Perhaps alluding to the superiority of the latter in having the house of David and the temple, the religious center of the nation (Grotius). As in...

God now denounces punishment in common on the two kingdoms; but he speaks not as before, he says not that his fury would be like a deluge, to overwhelm and drown the people. What then? He compares himself to little worms which gnaw wood and consume cloths; or he compares himself to rottenness; for, as we have said, the second word is to be so taken, as רקב, _rekob, _is properly rottenness, and is derived from רקב, _rekab, _to rot;” it is then rottenness or putrescence. But as I have said, some would render it, “a grub;” and there is a probable reason for this, because he first mentioned moth; and these two, moth and grub (24), would be more suitable to each other, than moth and rottenness. However, the meaning of the Prophet is by no means obscure, and that is, that the Lord would by a slow corrosion consume both the people; that though he would not by one onset destroy

8-15 The destruction of impenitent sinners is not mere talk, to frighten them, it is a sentence which will not be recalled. And it is a mercy that we have timely warning given us, that we may flee from the wrath to come. Compliance with the commandments of men, who thwart the commandments of God, ripens a people for ruin. The judgments of God are sometimes to a sinful people as a moth, and as rottenness, or as a worm; as these consume the clothes and the wood, so shall the judgments of God consume them. Silently, they shall think themselves safe and thriving, but when they look into their state, shall find themselves wasting and decaying. Slowly, for the Lord gives them space to repent. Many a nation; as well as many a person, dies of a consumption. Gradually, God comes upon sinners with lesser judgments, to prevent greater, if they will be wise, and take warning. When Israel and Judah...

Verse Hosea 5:12. _UNTO EPHRAIM AS A MOTH_] I will consume them by little and little, as a moth frets a garment....

THEREFORE I WILL BE UNTO EPHRAIM A MOTH - Literally, “and I as a moth.” This form of speaking expresses what God was doing, while Ephraim was “willingly following” sin. “And I” was all the while “as a moth.” The moth in a garment, and the decay in wood, corrode and prey upon the substance, in which they lie hid, slowly, imperceptibly, but, at the last, effectually. Such were God’s first judgments on Israel and Judah; such are they now commonly upon sinners. He tried, and now too tries at first, gentle measures and mild chastisements, uneasy indeed and troublesome and painful; yet slow in their working; each stage of loss and decay, a little beyond that which preceded it; but leaving long respite and time for repentance, before they finally wear out and destroy the impenitent. The two images, which He uses, may describe different kinds of decay, both slow, yet the one slower than the othe...

EXPOSITION HOSEA 5:1 HEAR YE THIS, O PRIESTS; AND HEARKEN, YE HOUSE OF ISRAEL; AND GIVE YE EAR, O HOUSE OF THE KING. The persons here addressed comprise all the estates of the realm—priests, people, and princes. The house of Israel is the northern kingdom; and the house of the king is the members of the king's family, of his court and of his government. Thus the rulers and the ruled, the spiritual teachers and the taught, are comprehended in this address. Neither priestly office, nor popular power, nor princely dignity was to be exempted. But, though all are summoned to give audience, the heads of the people, the men of light and leading, are first arraigned. FOR JUDGMENT IS TOWARD YOU, as the clause is correctly rendered; not, "it devolves on you to maintain judgment," as some understand it. It had, indeed, been the province o

THEREFORE [WILL] I [BE] UNTO EPHRAIM AS A MOTH,.... Which eats garments, penetrates into them, feeds on them privately, secretly, without any noise, and gradually and slowly consumes them; but at last utterly, that they are of no use and profit: this may signify the various things which befell the ten tribes in the reigns of Zachariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah, which secretly and gradually weakened them; and the utter consumption of them in the times of Hoshea by Shalmaneser: AND TO THE HOUSE OF JUDAH AS ROTTENNESS; as rottenness in the bones, Proverbs 12:4; which can never be got out or cured; or as a worm that eats into wood, as Jarchi interprets it; and gets into the very heart of a tree, and eats it out: thus the Lord threatens the house of Judah, or the two tribes, with a gradual, yet thorough, ruin and destruction....

VANITY; meaning of word, (_ See Scofield) - (Ecclesiastes 1:2). _ VEIL; of Tabernacle, type, (_ See Scofield) - (Exodus 26:31). _ VEIL; of Temple, rent, (_ See Scofield) - (Matthew 27:51). _ VENGEANCE; day of, defined, (_ See Scofield) - (Isaiah 61:2). _ VICTORIES; spiritual, secret of, (_ See Scofield) - (Joshua 6:5). _ VIRGINS; wise and foolish, parable, ...

CHAPTER 5:1-6:3 The Message to the Priests, the People, and the Royal House Judgment, Affliction and the Future Return _ 1. The message of rebuke (Hosea 5:1) _ 2. The judgment announced (Hosea 5:8) 3. The future return and the blessing (Hosea 6:1) Hosea 5:1. The first verse shows who is addressed: the priests, the house of Israel and the house of the King. Judgment was in store for them, for Mizpah and Tabor, the places of hallowed memory, had been turned by their idolatrous worship into a snare. An old and interesting tradition among the Jews states that at Mizpah the apostates waited for those Israelites who

Here the immoral cultus is no longer the subject, but the inner moral corruption of the state and its leaders. The parallelism of Judah and Ephraim in this section is remarkable, but seems to be original. [10] Judah's political leaders are specially singled out as examples of fraudulent dealing, and shall incur the Divine wrath. N. Israel (Ephraim) also suffers oppression, the whole social fabric is rotten, because the people have wilfully followed after vanity (_mg.)._ Internal decay has set in in both kingdoms (after the death of Uzziah and Jeroboam II) (Hosea 5:10). Too late both peoples recognise the desperate case of the body politic, and resort to Assyria for aid (king Jareb, _i.e._ king Pick-quarrel, [11] is a nickname for the king of Assyria), but without avail; Yahweh Himself is their adversary (Hosea 5:13