Hosea 6:5

"Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth."

The tense of the verbs "hewed" and "slain" which appear in English as the past perfects could be considered prophetic, according to the Hebrew idiom of prophecy in which a future event, revealed as coming to pass, was referred to in the past perfect tense, being considered as certain to occur as if it had already happened. John Mauchline and others so construe the verb tenses in this verse;[11] this would translate into English thus:

Therefore, I will hew them by the prophets,

I will slay them by the words of my mouth,

And my judgments will go forth as the light.

Both meanings are inherent in the verse itself. Of course, God had already "hewn" and "slain" with reference to his chosen people, and the prophets and their messages were the instruments through which this was done. If the reference is only to what is past, then it still stands as an example of what God will continue to do to his rebellious children; and if the passage is prophetic and pertains to the future, then the certainty of its fulfillment is attested by the examples provided by God's past actions. Inasmuch as Israel and Judah at this time were both yet standing, and in the light of the approaching doom and captivity for both, it is perhaps better to take the verbs here as prophetic past tense, pertaining to the future.

"By the words of my mouth ..." Note the power attributed here to the Word of God. As Myers said, "The Word of God had within it the power to carry out the intention of the Creator."[12] "The oracles not only inform, but inaugurate and execute the judgment of which they tell."[13]