HOSEA - CHAPTER 5
A
Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough
Copyright
2001 James Melough
5:1.
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.”
God’s addressing the priests,
the people, and the king, makes it clear that the whole nation, from the
highest to the lowest, was guilty: the idolatry wasn’t confined to just one
section of society. Having exhausted God’s patience, they were now to
experience His judgment.
The reference to snare and net
(instruments used in the capture of animals and birds), is the declaration of
the truth that as these traps brought death to the creatures snared and
netted, so would her idolatry bring death to Israel, that death coming in the
form of captivity in Assyria; for Judah, in the Babylonian captivity; and to a
later generation of both, in the Diaspora of AD 70. These judgments, however,
are but foreshadowings of the more terrible Tribulation judgments yet to
envelop, not just Israel, but the whole world.
The mention of Mizpah in the
south, and meaning watch-tower; and of Tabor in the north, and meaning
thou wilt purge, declare that the evil had spread over the whole land
like a plague. Both appear to have been centers where the evil was
particularly rampant. The meanings of the names remind us that God, from His
“watch-tower” in heaven, takes note of all that men do, and in His own perfect
time will purge evil.
According to Jewish tradition
it was in the vicinity of these two places that assassins lurked and killed
those going up to Jerusalem to worship Jehovah.
5:2.
“And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a
rebuker of them all.”
“... profound to make
slaughter” is literally that they were deeply involved in making or causing
slaughter, i.e., by encouraging the people in their idolatry, these rebellious
priests had provoked the anger of God so that He would come in in judgment and
slaughter them, using the Assyrians as His instrument.
Rebuker is associated with the
idea of chastisement, warning, instruction; but the reference in verse one to
the priests as being like hunters of the people, has led some translators to
see the same figure here, so that they have translated the phrase as, “But I
am the one who is the hunter and all of you shall be my prey,” - Phillips, for
example.
5:3.
“I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou
committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled.”
In using a tribal name as well
as the national, God is declaring that He knows every individual as He does
also the whole nation. The spiritual defilement of the nation was the result
of the spiritual and literal adultery of the individuals comprising it. So is
it with every corporate body, whether it be a local church or a nation, it
reflects the character of its people.
5:4.
“They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of
whoredoms is in the midst of them, and thy have not known the Lord.”
It was their evil doings that
kept them enclosed in idolatry, and prevented them from returning unto God,
and they would not give up their evil. They were possessed by the spirit of
idolatry so that it governed every phase of their lives, and shut them off
from the knowledge of Jehovah.
5:5.
“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.”
The Jerusalem Bible translates
the first clause as, “The arrogance of Israel is his own accuser,” while the
Lamsa translation renders it, “The pride of Israel shall be humbled before his
presence.” Both are true, for Israel was indeed arrogant, sinning brazenly
against God, but she was about to be humbled, as will all who refuse to repent
and avail themselves of His mercy. The continued use of the double name
Israel and Ephraim emphasizes that the nation and every guilty individual
within it would be destroyed by the judgment of the Lord.
The brief mention of Judah’s
fall also is the reminder that all things are known to God. Even though
Judah’s judgment might be postponed to give her opportunity to repent, because
her sin had not yet reached the magnitude of Israel’s, He Who knows the end
from the beginning, knew that she would fail to profit by Israel’s
destruction, and would go on to merit the same condemnation and judgment.
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.”
Upon discovering, that in
spite of all their offerings to the Baalim, their harvests were still being
blighted, and their flocks and herds diminished, they would try offering
sacrifices to Jehovah again, but it would be too late. Hypocritical
ritualistic worship is abhorrent to God. They had exhausted His patience, and
all the offerings they might bring would not placate Him. It is a terrible
thing for either man or nation to provoke God and reject mercy so long that He
ceases to offer it; to refuse to listen to Him until He will no longer listen
to them.
5:7.
“They have dealt treacherously against the Lord: for they have begotten
strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions.”
Not only had their promiscuity
produced many illegitimate children literally, but their failure to teach
their children the knowledge of God had caused those children to grow up
neither knowing nor caring about Him, with the result that judgment was
imminent: it could fall within as short a time as a month, bringing ruin to
them and their fields.
5:8.
“Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Beth-aven
(Bethel), after thee, O Benjamin.”
“Blow the cornet,” means to
sound the alarm or battle cry. Gibeah means a hill; and Ramah, the
height; and to cry at Beth-aven house of vanity or emptiness means
to sound an alarm or raise the battle cry there. It is instructive to note
that the other name of Beth-aven was Bethel, meaning house of God.
Their wickedness had turned the house of God into the house of vanity or
emptiness.
“... after thee, O Benjamin”
means literally “the enemy is after you, O Benjamin,” or, “... make Benjamin
to tremble,” or, “... Benjamin is confounded.” This conveys a double
warning. Benjamin meaning son of the right hand was the warrior tribe,
and if the foe caused him to tremble, there was no hope that the other
tribes would be able to deliver themselves. And the second warning lies in
the fact that Benjamin was associated with Judah.
Together they constituted the
southern part of the nation which hadn’t yet incurred the anger of Jehovah,
but clearly the day was coming when they too would make themselves the objects
of His wrath, and they would be delivered into the hand of Babylon in spite of
having had the warning of seeing the ten northern tribes, Israel, carried
captive by the Assyrians.
Christendom’s judgment will be
the more terrible by virtue of having had the warning of Israel’s captivity in
Assyria; Judah’s, in Babylon; and the dissolution and scattering of the whole
nation again in AD 70.
5:9.
“Ephraim shall be desolate (laid waste) in the day of rebuke (punishment):
among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.”
For the significance of
Ephraim see comments on 4:17. Israel had no excuse when God’s judgment fell,
for she had been well warned, but had chosen to ignore the warning.
Christendom also has been warned, and has ignored the warning, but to our
shame we who are believers must admit that the warning has come largely from
the Bible which men won’t read today, rather than from the fearless call from
us in the gospel calling on men and women to repent and flee from the wrath to
come, saving themselves by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. That
same Bible which warns sinners to repent and prepare themselves to meet God,
also warns us that our failure to fearlessly warn them will result in our
suffering loss when we stand before the Lord at His judgment seat.
5:10.
“The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will
pour out my wrath upon them like water.”
God’s foreknowledge of Judah’s
failure to learn from the experience of Israel is announced here again, her
guilt being compounded by her failure to see in the coming Assyrian captivity
of Israel, the assurance that similar judgment would fall upon her if she
repeated her sister’s sin.
The reference to Judah’s being
like one who removed the bound (the boundary marker of a neighbor’s field) in
order to extend the size of his own field, is a striking figure of the brazen
perversion of God’s Word which would make wrong right, and right wrong, see
e.g., Mal 1:2,6-7, “”I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein
hast thou loved us.... O priests that despise my name, and ye say, Wherein
have we despised thy name? .... Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and
ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee?” and 2:17, “Ye have wearied the Lord
with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every
one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in
them....”
Judah would repeat Israel’s
sin. She would remove the Divine prohibition in order accommodate her own
evil activity, for that is exactly what Israel had done by making the worship
of Baal just as pure as the worship of Jehovah, thus reducing Him to the level
of being just another “god,” and making Him a liar when He had explicitly
forbidden the worship of anyone or anything else.
Christendom too has made
herself a land thief. She too has brazenly removed God’s boundary between
right and wrong in order to accommodate her evil activity, but for her too a
day of judgment is coming.
The likening of His judgment
to overwhelming waters is common in Scripture, see, e.g., Ps 42:7; 69:1-2,
14-15; 88:6-7, 16-17, where the same figure is used to describe the outpouring
of His wrath against Christ when He took our guilty place at Calvary.
Some believe that the
reference to Judah as being like those who remove landmarks, refers to their
seizure of territory in the northern kingdom after Israel had been carried
into captivity in Assyria.
5:11.
“Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked
after the commandment (man’s commandment?).”
While some translations make
Ephraim to be the one who is oppressed and broken, the more accurate seem to
be those which take him to be the oppressor and the perverter of right
judgment, for clearly his own judgment had not yet occurred.
“... after the commandment” is
translated by some as “after man’s commandment,” but others understand it to
mean vanity or filth, so that the translation would be “he (Ephraim) walked
after filth or vanity.”
5:12.
“Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as
rottenness.”
The activity of the moth
destroys garments, but since garments are one of the biblical symbols of
righteousness, the truth being declared here is that Ephraim’s idolatry, and
his involvement in all its accompanying evil, would insidiously destroy his
righteousness, and expose him to the judgment of God.
The rottenness mentioned here
is that caused by a worm; and like that caused by the moth, it goes on
silently and unseen, the owner of the house, like the owner of the garment,
being unaware of the damage until too late. As Ephraim (the ten tribes), and
Judah continued in evil so would God continue to act towards them: little by
little, and without their even being aware of it, He would bring them slowly
but surely to complete destruction.
Literally, continual careful
inspection of garment and house would have detected the damage before it
became irreparable, and so is it in the spiritual realm, hence the need to
examine our lives daily in the light of God’s Word, and to put away that,
which ignored, will bring spiritual ruin, and eternal loss at the Bema, see 1
Cor 11:31-32, “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But
when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be
condemned with the world.”
Some have seen in the
destruction of Israel under the figure of a moth; and that of Judah, under the
figure of a worm, the swiftness and nearness of Israel’s judgment, and the
slower but equally certain judgment of Judah.
5:13.
“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.”
This seems to refer to what is
recorded in 2 Ki 15. When Menahem king of Israel was invaded by Assyria he
gave Pul the Assyrian king a thousand talents of silver, not only to withdraw,
but also to help him Menahem maintain control of Israel.
Jareb is unknown as the name
of any king, but its meaning let him contend indicates that it may have
been simply a general term used to describe the militancy of the Assyrian
rulers.
Then in 2 Ki 16 we learn that
when besieged by Rezin king of Syria, and by Pekah king of Israel, Ahaz king
of Judah used treasure from the temple to pay Tiglath-pilezer king of Assyria
to aid him.
The Assyrian, however, while
delivering Israel and Judah from each other, couldn’t deliver them out of
God’s hand.
5:14.
“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.”
God’s warning continues to
include Judah as well as Israel. As a lion kills its prey and carries it off,
so would He carry off Israel to Assyria, and later, Judah to Babylon, where
that disobedient generation would die, their places being taken by a new
generation from which, in a day still future but now near, He will yet bring a
repentant remnant back to Himself, and establish them in their own land as an
undivided nation, to enjoy the blessings of the Millennium.
5:15.
“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.”
Many insist that “acknowledge
their offence” ought to be “till they bear their punishment.”
Heaven is undoubtedly the
place to which God has returned, but it must be noted that though a remnant
eventually returned to the land from Assyria and Babylon, they have not yet
acknowledged their offence, and sought God’s face. They have, in fact,
compounded their guilt by the one sin which makes their idolatry look trivial
by comparison. In spite of their failure to acknowledge their sin, God in
grace and mercy beyond human comprehension, sent His Son to die to make
atonement for their many sins, but they rejected that Son, mocked Him, spat on
Him, abused Him, and finally stood taunting Him while He died on the cross to
which they had persuaded the Romans to nail Him! But even that didn’t exhaust
God’s mercy. He was willing to attribute their act to ignorance, and pardon
them if they would but repent, see Ac 3:17, but their response was to kill
Stephen also, with the result that in AD 70 God again cast them out of their
land, scattering them among the hated Gentiles where they have remained for
two thousand years. During that time He has hidden Himself from them, and has
been calling out from the Gentiles a people for Himself, to be the bride of
that Son Whom Israel crucified. That outcalling is almost complete, and the
moment surely very near when that bride will be taken up to heaven, following
which there will be the seven year era of the Tribulation, the judgments of
which will do what past judgments haven’t: lead Israel to repentant
confession, and saving faith in that same Son Whom their fathers rejected and
crucified. That repentant remnant will then be led into the enjoyment of the
millennial earth.
What a prolonged judgment
Israel has compelled by her stubborn refusal to repent! Those long centuries
of suffering, however, are as nothing compared to the eternal torment in the
unquenchable flame of the lake of fire, which awaits those who die also
unrepentant.
[Hosea 6]