Hosea 5:6

They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them. THEY SHALL GO WITH THEIR FLOCKS AND WITH THEIR HERDS - to propitiate Yahweh (Isaiah 1:11). TO SEEK THE LORD; BUT THEY SHALL NOT FIND HIM - because it is slavish fear leads them to seek Him; and because it then shall be too late (; )....

The Prophet here laughs to scorn the hypocrisy of the people, because they thought they had ready at hand a way of dealing with God, which was, to pacify him with their sacrifices. He therefore shows that neither the Israelites nor the Jews would gain any thing by accumulating burnt-offerings, for they could not in this way return into favor with God. He thereby intimates that God requires true repentance, and that he will not be reconciled to men, except from the heart they seek him and consecrate themselves to his service; and not because they offer brute beasts. The faithful, no doubt, expiated their sins at that time by sacrifices, but only typically: for they knew for what end and purpose God had made the law concerning sacrifices, and that was, that the sinner, being reminded by the sight of the victim, might confess himself to be worthy of eternal death, and thus flee to God’s mer...

1-7 The piercing eye of God saw secret liking and disposition to sin, the love the house of Israel had to their sins, and the dominion their sins had over them. Pride makes men obstinate in other sins. And as Judah was treading in the same steps, they would fall with Israel. By dealing treacherously with the Lord, men only deceive themselves. Those that go to seek the Lord with their flocks and their herds only, and not with their hearts and souls, cannot expect to find him; nor shall any speed who do not seek the Lord while he may be found. See how much it is our concern to seek God early, now, while it is the accepted time, and the day of salvation....

Verse Hosea 5:6. _THEY SHALL GO WITH THEIR FLOCKS_] They shall _offer many_ _sacrifices_, professing to _seek_ and be reconciled to the Lord; but they shall not _find him_. As they still retain the spirit of their idolatry, he has withdrawn himself from them....

THEY SHALL GO WITH THEIR FLOCKS - “They had let slip the day of grace, wherein God had called them to repentance, and promised to be found of them and to accept them. When then the decree was gone forth and judgment determined against them, all their outward shew of worship and late repentance shall not prevail to gain admittance for them to Him. He will not be found of them, hear them, nor accept them. They stopped their ears obstinately against Him calling on them, and proffering mercy in the day of mercy: He will now stop His ear against them, crying for it in the Day of Judgment.” Repenting thus late, (as is the case with most who repent, or think that they repent, at the close of life) they did not repent out of the love of God, but out of slavish fear, on account of the calamity which was coming upon them. But the main truth, contained in this and other passages of Holy Scripture w...

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

THEY SHALL GO WITH THEIR FLOCKS AND WITH THEIR HERDS TO SEEK THE LORD,.... Not only the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, to whom Kimchi, Aben Ezra, and Abarbinel, restrain the words; but the ten tribes of Israel also, who, when in distress, and seeing ruin coming upon them, should seek the Lord; seek help from him against their enemies, and the pardon of their sins; seek his face and favour, and to appease his wrath, by bringing a multitude of sacrifices out of their flocks and herds; such a number of them, as if they brought all their flocks and herds with them; but not with true repentance for their sins, nor with faith in the great sacrifice, which legal sacrifices, rightly performed, prefigured. Kimchi refers this to the times of Josiah; but, as it respects Israel as well as Judah, it seems to design some time a little before the ruin of them both: BUT THEY SHALL NOT FIND [HIM]; sh...

PARABLES (NEW TESTAMENT); See Passage (Matthew 5:13). See Passage (Luke 21:29). PARABLES (NEW TESTAMENT); (Matthew 5:13); (Luke 21:29); (Matthew 7:24); (Matthew 7:9); (Matthew 7:16); (Matthew 7:17); ...

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

PRIESTS AND RULERS ARE BRINGING THE NATION TO RUIN. Judgment is declared against (Hosea 5:1 _mg._) [9] the priests and ruling class because they have ensnared the people (by encouraging the mixed cultus) at the sanctuaries Mizpah (in Gilead probably), Tabor and Shittim (Hosea 5:2 corrected text) are mentioned as the scenes of such worship. A spirit of whoredom in the literal sense of the word (_cf. Hosea 4:12_) animates them, and the brazen pride with which they pursue their evil course condemns them. When Israel and Judah fall as fall they must they will seek in vain to propitiate Yahweh with sacrifices from their flocks and herds; He has withdrawn Himself from a generation who are not His, but bastards ...