Hosea 5:8

8. The danger signal is to be given. Cornet (or, horn)… trumpet The two words are synonymous here; ordinarily they designate two different instruments. The former is the curved horn of a cow or ram which seems to have been used in early Israel chiefly, if not exclusively, for secular purposes: to give signals in war, to warn of approaching danger, to announce important public events, etc. When its sound was heard everyone was expected to drop work and take his place in the ranks. In later times it appears to have been used also for sacred purposes. The trumpet is long and straight, made of metal; it is rarely mentioned as being used for secular purposes, and seems to have been primarily a sacred instrument; it is pictured on Jewish coins, and representations of it were placed on the Arch of Titus. (Compare article “Trumpet” in Hastings’s Dictionary of the Bible, and the richly illustrated article “Music” in the Encyclopaedia Biblica.)

Gibeah… Ramah… Beth-aven On the last see Hosea 4:15. As a religious center, to which people crowded in great numbers, Beth-el would be a most appropriate place in which to sound the warning. The two other places, as their names indicate Gibeah, hill; Ramah, height were situated on elevations, and for this reason were well adapted for giving signals. The former is Gibeah of Benjamin or of Saul (1 Samuel 13:2; 1 Samuel 11:4), now Tel-el-Ful; the latter, a little to the north, was the home of Samuel (1 Samuel 15:34), now er-Ram. His summons to sound the alarm would seem to indicate that the prophet expected a foreign invasion, but the literal interpretation must not be pressed.

After thee, O Benjamin As in Judges 5:14, where LXX. reads a different text, G.A. Smith suggests that this may have been an ancient battle cry of Benjamin, and he renders 8b, “Raise the slogan, Beth-aven: ‘After thee, Benjamin!’” R.V., by rendering “behind thee,” seems to imply another conception, that of a call of warning to Benjamin: “The enemy is already behind thee.” LXX. reads, “Let Benjamin tremble,” which gives excellent sense and is probably original.