English Standard Version
Hosea 5:12
12But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah.
Hosea 5:12 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.
- New International Version (NIV)I am like a moth to Ephraim, like rot to the people of Judah.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Therefore I will be to Ephraim like a moth, And to the house of Judah like rottenness.
- New Living Translation (NLT)I will destroy Israel as a moth consumes wool. I will make Judah as weak as rotten wood.
Context of Hosea 5:12
10The princes of Judah have become like those who move the landmark; upon them I will pour out my wrath like water. 11Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after filth. But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah. 13When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king. But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound. 14For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.
Read all of Hosea 5Hosea 5:12 word by word
וַאֲנִ֥י כָעָ֖שׁ לְאֶפְרָ֑יִם וְכָרָקָ֖ב לְבֵ֥ית יְהוּדָֽה׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Hosea 5:12
- Job 13:28Man wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.
- Isaiah 50:9Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.
- Isaiah 51:8For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool, but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations."
- Proverbs 12:4An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones.
- Jonah 4:7But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered.
Commentaries on Hosea 5:12
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 12Unto Ephraim as a moth - I will consume them by little and little, as a moth frets a garment.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 12Therefore I will be unto Ephraim a moth - Literally, “and I as a moth.” This form of speaking expresses what God was doing, while Ephraim was “willingly following” sin. “And I” was all the while “as a moth.” The moth in a garment, and the decay in wood, corrode and prey upon the substance, in which they lie hid, slowly, imperceptibly, but, at the last, effectually. Such were God‘s first judgments on Israel and Judah; such are they now commonly upon…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 8-15Verses 8-15 The destruction of impenitent sinners is not mere talk, to frighten them, it is a sentence which will not be recalled. And it is a mercy that we have timely warning given us, that we may flee from the wrath to come. Compliance with the commandments of men, who thwart the commandments of God, ripens a people for ruin. The judgments of God are sometimes to a sinful people as a moth, and as rottenness, or as a worm; as these consume the clothes…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 12a moth … decay: Sin can slowly weaken a people at their core, and they may not realize the damage until it is already done.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1212. as a moth--consuming a garment (Job 13:28; Psa 39:11; Is 50:9). Judah ... rottenness--Ephraim, or the ten tribes, are as a garment eaten by the moth; Judah as the body itself consumed by rottenness (Pr 12:4). Perhaps alluding to the superiority of the latter in having the house of David, and the temple, the religious center of the nation [Grotius]. As in Ho 5:13, 14, the violence of the calamity is prefigured by the "wound" which "a lion" inflicts, so…Read the comment
Topics related to Hosea 5:12
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Hosea 5
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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