Book of Hosea: Chapter 5

Chapter 5 continues with the Lord pointing out Israel's sins and what the consequences would be for those sins.

Verses 1-2

The priests are compared to nets and snares used for hunting, and the mountains named (Mizpah and Tabor) were famous for for hunting. A "revolter" was someone who drove an animal into a camouflaged pit to catch it. All of these scenarios describe hunter and prey situations and the Lord is putting the priests in this same category. The priests were spiritually killing their prey.

Verse 6

This is a very sad verse that shows the consequences of ignoring the Lord. If we've done something (like Israel) to cause the Lord to withdraw Himself from us, we may have a situation where we will seek Him and not find Him. Only through a mighty change of heart and true repentance would we be able to find Him again.

Verse 7

The "strange" children in this verse refer to those ungodly children born of wicked Israel. They do not know the Lord and He does not know them. Obviously He knows them but the scripture means that they arw wicked and not His people.

Verses 10-11 (Landmark example pictured above)

The princes (or rulers) of Judah were likened to "them that remove the bound". For the explanation of this phrase see Deuteronomy 27:17.  During that time in Israel, property boundaries were marked by using landmarks. These could either be natural landmarks or man made landmarks. An evil practice in the day was called removing the bound. This would be the equivalent of moving the fence that separates you and your neighbor closer to them, making your own property bigger. This was considered the same as stealing. The Lord was saying that the princes and rulers of Judah were altering the spiritual boundaries involving the worship of Himself. The rulers were condoning and encouraging the worship of baal and other false gods and goddesses, making it confusing for many to know what was right and what was wrong. Just like a moved boundary would be confusing for some to know what belongs to who. However, the Northern Kingdom of Ephraim is specifically pointed out in verse 11 because they willingly walked after these false commandments, making their punishment more severe.

Verse 13

The Lord gave the reminder that at one point Ephraim tried to pay tribute to the Assyrians (Tiglath-Pileser III) but it only worsened the problem. The Lord says "yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound". When the root of the problem is sin (sometimes we may think the problem is something else) the only person to go to is the Lord.