CHAPTER 5 Nov. 8 
Judgments against the Priests and the House of Israel 
Listen to this, you priests! Listen, house of Israel, and give ear, house of the king! For the judgment is against you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread on Tabor. 2The rebels are deep in slaughter; but I discipline all of them. 3I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me; for now, Ephraim, you have played the prostitute; Israel is defiled. 4Their deeds won’t allow them to turn to their God; for the spirit of prostitution is within them, and they don’t know Yahweh. 5The pride of Israel testifies to his face. Therefore Israel and Ephraim will stumble in their iniquity, Judah also will stumble with them. 6They will go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Yahweh; but they won’t find Him- He has withdrawn Himself from them. 7They are unfaithful to Yahweh; for they have begotten foreign children. Now the new moon will devour them with their fields.  8Blow the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah! Sound a battle cry at Beth Aven, behind you, Benjamin! 9Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel, I have made known that which will certainly be. 10The princes of Judah are like those who remove a landmark. I will pour out My wrath on them like water. 11Ephraim is oppressed, he is crushed in judgment; because he is obsessed in his pursuit of idols. 12Therefore I am to Ephraim like a moth, and to the house of Judah like rottenness. 13When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to king Jareb: but he is not able to heal you, neither will he cure you of your wound. 14For I will be to Ephraim like a lion, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear in pieces and go away; I will carry off, and there will be no one to deliver. 15I will go and return to My place, until they acknowledge their offence, and seek My face. In their affliction they will seek Me earnestly.

Commentary

5:7 The way Hosea’s final child is called Lo-ammi was because “you are not My people” (1:9). This suggests that although Hosea did presumably have sexual relations with Gomer, these children were not actually conceived from him- i.e. she was continuing her relations with other men; her conception of the children is said to have been “shameful” (2:5) because they were the result of her prostitution (2:4). He calls them “her children”. Gomer appears to reason in 2:4 that the children were her lovers’ payment to her for her sexual services. And in the parallel relationship between God and Israel, Israel were unfaithful to Yahweh and “begotten foreign children” (Hos. 5:7), whilst at the same time claiming to keep the sacrifices and Sabbaths of the Law (Hos. 5:6,7; 2:11). This would confirm that Gomer acted as Hosea’s wife, assuring him of her faithfulness, in the same way as the sacrifices and Sabbaths were intended to reflect Israel’s exclusive faithfulness to Yahweh. Our unfaithfulness to God is this painful for Him.