Hosea 5:1

Under the figure of God's bringing a lawsuit against Israel and prosecuting his charges against them, this chapter is a continuation of the same theme; and the terminology of a court of law is present again and again. There is the pronouncement of "judgment" (Hosea 5:1), and the "pride of Israel" is said to "testify" against them (Hosea 5:5).

In Hosea 5:1-7, the whole people, along with their priests and their rulers are indicted and charged with idolatry (whoredom), ignorance of God, pride, arrogance, and treachery against God, and with rearing a whole generation of wicked and godless offspring.

Hosea 5:8-15 relate the severe terms of the "sentence" imposed upon them by the true God. There shall be war and strife (Hosea 5:8); Ephraim shall be made a desolation (Hosea 5:9); God's wrath shall be poured out upon them (Hosea 5:10); Ephraim (Israel) shall be crushed in judgment because he followed men and not God (Hosea 5:12); Ephraim will seek human remedies for his ills, but will be frustrated, because it is actually God who is his enemy; God will be like a lion in seizing Israel as a prey; and then God will withdraw himself from Israel until they seek him earnestly (Hosea 5:13-15).

Hosea 5:1

"Hear this, O ye priests, and hearken, O house of Israel and give ear, O house of the king; for unto you pertaineth the judgment; for ye have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor."

The specific mention of the priests and the house of the king should not be construed as limitive, but as inclusive; for it is the whole nation, including the priests and the rulers, who are arraigned and judged in this chapter. The snare at Mizpah and the net upon Tabor were indeed the devices of the priests and the secular government; but the whole people were guilty, "the house of Israel."

"O ye priests ..." All efforts to classify these evil religious leaders as being, in any sense, priests of God, are frustrated in the fact of their being: (1) illegitimate, not belonging to the tribe of Levi, from which alone it was lawful for God's priests to be ordained; (2) imported from Sidon by Jezebel, enemies of God by definition, and devoted utterly to the old Bull-god of the Sidonians and Canaanites; and (3) constantly engaged in the promulgation of the licentious rites deeply rooted in their inherent paganism.

"The snare ... and the net ..." Not much is known of Mizpah and Tabor, except that both were wooded mountain tops, and therefore, in all probability prominent sites where the vulgar fertility rites of paganism were enthusiastically practiced. Barnes was of the opinion that the prophet selected these two places for specific mention because "they were probably centers of corruption, or special scenes of wickedness."[1] Indeed, the text affirms this, since it is unbelievable that Hosea was merely speaking of catching birds and small game in the type of traps mentioned here. No, it was the people who were being entrapped and snared; and the old sexual orgies of paganism were traps and snares enough to accomplish this!

If the New English Bible is followed in Hosea 5:2, then there are three place-names in this opening statement. Myers identified them thus:

Tabor is, of course, Mount Tabor, at the northern end of the plain of Esdraelon (Judges 4:6), Mizpah was probably the one in Gilead (Judges 10:17); Shittim was the site of the Israelite camp before crossing the Jordan, about a dozen miles northeast of Jericho (Joshua 2:1).[2]

"O house of Israel ..." Although the primary application of this is to the Northern kingdom, or Ephraim; in this chapter, it is all of Israel, including Judah. "Judah too, being guilty, shall be punished; nor shall Assyria, whose aid they both sought, save them."[3]

"O house of the king ..." It is not possible to identify exactly which king of Israel is meant by this; but, as Keil said, it was, "Probably Zechariah or Menahem; possibly both, since Hosea prophesied in the reigns of both."[4]