Hosea 5
Good News Translation
5 “Listen to this, you priests! Pay attention, people of Israel! Listen, you that belong to the royal family! You are supposed to judge with justice—so judgment will fall on you! You have become a trap at Mizpah, a net spread on Mount Tabor, 2 a deep pit at Acacia City,[a] and I will punish all of you. 3 I know what Israel is like—she cannot hide from me. She has been unfaithful, and her people are unfit to worship me.”
Hosea Warns against Idolatry
4 The evil that the people have done keeps them from returning to their God. Idolatry has a powerful hold on them, and they do not acknowledge the Lord. 5 The arrogance of the people of Israel cries out against them. Their sins make them stumble and fall, and the people of Judah fall with them. 6 They take their sheep and cattle to offer as sacrifices to the Lord, but it does them no good. They cannot find him, for he has left them. 7 They have been unfaithful to the Lord; their children do not belong to him. So now they and their lands will soon be destroyed.
War between Judah and Israel
8 Blow the war trumpets in Gibeah! Sound the alarm in Ramah! Raise the war cry at Bethaven![b] Into battle, men of Benjamin! 9 The day of punishment is coming, and Israel will be ruined. People of Israel, this will surely happen!
10 The Lord says, “I am angry because the leaders of Judah have invaded Israel and stolen land from her. So I will pour out punishment on them like a flood. 11 Israel is suffering oppression; she has lost land that was rightfully hers, because she insisted on going for help to those who had none to give.[c] 12 I will bring destruction on Israel and ruin on the people of Judah.
13 “When Israel saw how sick she was and when Judah saw her own wounds, then Israel went to Assyria to ask the great emperor for help, but he could not cure them or heal their wounds. 14 I will attack the people of Israel and Judah like a lion. I myself will tear them to pieces and then leave them. When I drag them off, no one will be able to save them.
15 “I will abandon my people until they have suffered enough for their sins and come looking for me. Perhaps in their suffering they will try to find me.”
Footnotes
- Hosea 5:2 Probable text a deep pit at Acacia City; Hebrew unclear.
- Hosea 5:8 This name means “house of evil” or “house of idolatry” and in this passage refers to the city of Bethel, a name which means “house of God.” See also 10.8.
- Hosea 5:11 Probable text those who had none to give; Hebrew command.
Hosea 5
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Impending Judgment on Israel and Judah
5 Hear this, O priests!
Give heed, O house of Israel!
Listen, O house of the king!
For the judgment pertains to you,
for you have been a snare at Mizpah
and a net spread upon Tabor(A)
2 and a pit dug deep in Shittim,[a]
but I will punish all of them.
3 I know Ephraim,
and Israel is not hidden from me,
for now, O Ephraim, you have prostituted yourself;
Israel is defiled.(B)
4 Their deeds do not permit them
to return to their God.
For the spirit of prostitution is within them,
and they do not know the Lord.(C)
5 Israel’s pride testifies against him;
Ephraim[b] stumbles in his guilt;
Judah also stumbles with them.(D)
6 With their flocks and herds they shall go
to seek the Lord,
but they will not find him;
he has withdrawn from them.(E)
7 They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord,
for they have borne illegitimate children.
Now the new moon shall devour them along with their fields.(F)
8 Blow the horn in Gibeah,
the trumpet in Ramah.
Sound the alarm at Beth-aven;
look behind you, Benjamin!(G)
9 Ephraim shall become a desolation
in the day of punishment;
among the tribes of Israel
I declare what is sure.(H)
10 The princes of Judah have become
like those who remove the landmark;
on them I will pour out
my wrath like water.(I)
11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,
because he was determined to go after vanity.[c]
12 Therefore I am like maggots to Ephraim
and like rottenness to the house of Judah.(J)
13 When Ephraim saw his sickness
and Judah his wound,
then Ephraim went to Assyria
and sent to the great king.[d]
But he is not able to cure you
or heal your wound.(K)
14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim
and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I myself will tear and go away;
I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.(L)
15 I will return again to my place
until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face.
In their distress they will beg my favor:(M)
Hosea 5
The Message
They Wouldn’t Recognize God If They Saw Him
5 1-2 “Listen to this, priests!
Attention, people of Israel!
Royal family—all ears!
You’re in charge of justice around here.
But what have you done? Exploited people at Mizpah,
ripped them off on Tabor,
Victimized them at Shittim.
I’m going to punish the lot of you.
3-4 “I know you, Ephraim, inside and out.
Yes, Israel, I see right through you!
Ephraim, you’ve played your sex-and-religion games long enough.
All Israel is thoroughly polluted.
They couldn’t turn to God if they wanted to.
Their evil life is a bad habit.
Every breath they take is a whore’s breath.
They wouldn’t recognize God if they saw me.
5-7 “Bloated by arrogance, big as a house,
they’re a public disgrace,
The lot of them—Israel, Ephraim, Judah—
lurching and weaving down their guilty streets.
When they decide to get their lives together
and go off looking for God once again,
They’ll find it’s too late.
I, God, will be long gone.
They’ve played fast and loose with me for too long,
filling the country with their bastard offspring.
A plague of locusts will
devastate their violated land.
8-9 “Blow the ram’s horn shofar in Gibeah,
the bugle in Ramah!
Signal the invasion of Sin City!
Scare the daylights out of Benjamin!
Ephraim will be left wasted,
a lifeless moonscape.
I’m telling it straight, the unvarnished truth,
to the tribes of Israel.
10 “Israel’s rulers are crooks and thieves,
cheating the people of their land,
And I’m angry, good and angry.
Every inch of their bodies is going to feel my anger.
11-12 “Brutal Ephraim is himself brutalized—
a taste of his own medicine!
He was so determined
to do it his own worthless way.
Therefore I’m pus to Ephraim,
dry rot in the house of Judah.
13 “When Ephraim saw he was sick
and Judah saw his pus-filled sores,
Ephraim went running to Assyria,
went for help to the big king.
But he can’t heal you.
He can’t cure your oozing sores.
14-15 “I’m a grizzly charging Ephraim,
a grizzly with cubs charging Judah.
I’ll rip them to pieces—yes, I will!
No one can stop me now.
I’ll drag them off.
No one can help them.
Then I’ll go back to where I came from
until they come to their senses.
When they finally hit rock bottom,
maybe they’ll come looking for me.”
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson