Hosea 5:1 - Meaning and Application

Here, all people of every rank are called to answer for what is charged against them (Hosea 5:1). “Hear this, you priests,” whether they were true priests in holy office, as in Judah, or, as some think, the false priests of the calves. “Listen, house of Israel, and pay attention, house of the king,” for all of them helped bring about the nation’s guilt, and all of them would share in its judgments.

If the holiness of the priesthood or the dignity of the royal family could not keep them from sin, neither could it keep them from God’s wrath. If priests and princes sin like everyone else, their rank will not excuse them. They will suffer like everyone else. And the common people could not say they were only misled by their leaders. They would be judged together with them, and neither their low status nor their large number would spare them.

God’s own knowledge stands as witness against them. “I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me” (Hosea 5:3). They had not known the Lord, but the Lord knew them fully, even their hidden character and secret sins. When people refuse to know God, that does not keep God from knowing them. When he brings them to account, he will prove their guilt from his own knowledge, so there will be no use in pleading innocent.

Very serious charges are brought against them. They had been clever and diligent in leading others either into sin or into trouble: “You have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread on Tabor” (Hosea 5:1). These were like hunters’ traps laid to catch game on those mountains. In the days when calf worship was set up in Israel, the supporters of that idolatry used every trick they could to draw people into it and win over those who first disliked it. Those who tempt others into sin, even while claiming friendship, are really snares and nets to them (Ecclesiastes 7:26).

If they could not lure people into sin, they used their schemes to bring trouble on them. Some think they even posted spies along the roads, especially on Mizpah and Tabor, when people were traveling to the solemn feasts at Jerusalem. They watched for anyone who still wanted to worship God faithfully, then reported them so they could be punished. In that way they did the devil’s work, troubling those they could not corrupt.

They were also very crafty and very cruel in carrying out their plans. “The rebels are deep in slaughter” (Hosea 5:2). People who have turned away from God’s truth are often the most cunning and savage persecutors of those who still hold to it. Nothing satisfies them except bloodshed, and they seem deeply skilled in evil. This shows the terrible depth of Satan’s work through his agents, especially those who have fallen far from God (Isaiah 31:6).

What made this worse was the many warnings they had already received. “I have been a rebuker of them all.” The prophet had repeatedly called out their evil ways. He had spoken plainly to everyone, and had not spared either the priests or the king’s house. God himself had also rebuked them through their consciences and by his dealings with them. Sins done against repeated warning are doubly sinful (Proverbs 29:1).

They had also committed sexual sin and idolatry. They defiled their bodies with fleshly lusts and their souls with idol worship (Hosea 5:3). God saw this, even though they tried to hide it and make it look harmless. More than that, he saw the spirit of whoredom in them, the inner pull toward such sins. He saw their love for evil and how powerfully sin ruled them. That corrupt spirit was the root that brought forth all this bitterness and poison.

They had no desire to come into real fellowship with God. The spirit of whoredom had led them away from him, and now it kept them wandering further and further from him (Hosea 5:4). They did not know the Lord, and they did not want to know him. They even avoided that knowledge, because it would trouble their sinful lives. So they would not shape their lives to return to their God. This showed plainly that they did not know him rightly.

They refused to turn back to the Lord, even though he was their covenant God, the one they had been named for and were bound to serve. They would not return to his worship after turning aside from it. They would not even prepare themselves to seek him. They would not think carefully about their ways or bring their minds into a serious frame. It is true that we cannot turn to God by our own power without his special grace, but we can use our abilities and the common help of his Spirit to prepare ourselves to seek him. Those who will not do this are to blame for their own hardness. They perish because they choose to perish. And to those who do prepare themselves, further grace will not be lacking (2 Chronicles 12:14).

Their sin was marked by open pride and insolence (Hosea 5:5). “The pride of Israel testifies to his face,” meaning it openly proves that he has rebelled against God and his rule. The spirit of whoredom showed itself in the flashy and showy worship they loved, just as a harlot is known by her clothing (Proverbs 7:10). A woman’s immodest dress reveals what she is. Or the meaning may be their proud resistance to the prophets God sent, and to the message those prophets brought (Jeremiah 43:2). It may also mean their haughty, scornful treatment of their brothers and those under them. In either case, their pride stood against them and showed that they were not living as God’s people. It also justified God in the humbling judgments he brought on them. Their proud look testified against them, as in Isaiah 3:9. They had the kind of proud face that the Lord hates.

They had turned from God to idols and raised their children in idolatry (Hosea 5:7). In that way, they dealt treacherously against the Lord, like a wife who breaks the marriage covenant, leaves her husband, and lives in adultery with another man. So those who commit spiritual idolatry, whether their god is money or their appetite, are treacherous toward the Lord. They break their promises to him and frustrate what he rightly expects from them.

Willful sinners are treacherous people. The verse says, “They have begotten strange children,” meaning their children were estranged from God and taught false worship. They were a false family, like children of adultery (John 8:41), and God would not acknowledge them. Those who truly deal treacherously with God are not only those who turn away themselves, but also those who train their children in evil ways.

Very sad things are announced as their punishment. In general, “Judgment is toward you” (Hosea 5:1). God is coming to confront them and to show his anger against their sins. When judgment is coming, it is time to listen.

In particular, they will fall in their guilt. This follows from their pride, which was standing against them to their face (Hosea 5:5). So Israel and Ephraim will fall in their iniquity. Pride leads to a fall. Those who lift themselves up will be brought low. They will not only fall, but fall in their sin, which is the saddest kind of fall. Their pride kept them from repenting, and so they will fall because of the very sins they refused to turn from. Those who are not humbled for their sins are likely to perish in them. Judah also will fall with them in her iniquity. The ten tribes were carried away to Assyria for their idolatry, and later the two tribes were carried away to Babylon for following their bad example. The first fall was final, but Judah’s fall would later be followed by restoration. Judah had the temple and the priesthood, but those would not protect them. If they sinned with Israel and Ephraim, they would fall with them.

They will also fail to find God’s favor when they pretend to seek it (Hosea 5:6). They will go with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord, but in vain, because they will not find him. This seems to speak mainly of Judah, when they had fallen into sin and were sinking deeper in it. When they fell into sin, they still sought the Lord, but they did not seek him alone, so he would not be found by them. They kept up the outward show of worship at the feasts, bringing flocks and herds, but their hearts were not right with him. Since they were not wholly for God, he would not accept them. We find him only when we seek him with our whole heart, not when our hearts are divided between God and idols (Ezekiel 14:3).

When they saw ruin coming, they would then try to seek the Lord in distress, hoping to calm his anger with burnt offerings and sacrifices. But it would be too late to turn back wrath once the decree had gone out. Even Josiah’s reform did not turn away God’s wrath (2 Kings 23:25, 26). Those who go with sacrifices only, and not with heart and soul, cannot expect to find God. His favor cannot be bought with many offerings. And those who do not seek the Lord while he may be found will not succeed, because there is a time when he will not be found. He will have withdrawn himself, and he will not listen to their sacrifices. This shows how important it is to seek God early, now, while the accepted time and the day of salvation last.

They and everything they have will be swallowed up. They dealt treacherously against the Lord, and thought they could strengthen themselves by alliances with foreign powers and false worship. But now a month will devour them with their portions, meaning their estates and inheritances, or their idols, which they chose as their share instead of God. Those who make an idol of the world, by taking it for their portion, will perish with it.

A month will devour them, a fixed but short time. When God’s judgments begin, they quickly finish the work. One month will be enough. A body can be weakened by a month of sickness, and a kingdom can be ruined by a month of war. God said, “Three shepherds I cut off in one month” (Zechariah 11:8). God’s judgments can move very fast against a sinful people. A month can destroy more, and more possessions, than many years can repair.