New English Translation
Hosea 5:12
12I will be like a moth to Ephraim, like wood 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.
- English Standard Version (ESV)But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Therefore I will be to Ephraim like a moth, And to the house of Judah like rottenness.
Context of Hosea 5:12
10The princes of Judah are like those who move boundary markers. I will pour out my rage on them like a torrential flood! 11Ephraim will be oppressed, crushed under judgment, because he was determined to pursue worthless idols. I will be like a moth to Ephraim, like wood rot to the house of Judah. 13When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound, then Ephraim turned to Assyria, and begged its great king for help. But he will not be able to heal you! He cannot cure your wound! 14I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a young lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear them to pieces, then I will carry them off, and no one will be able to rescue them!
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 13:28So I waste away like something rotten, like a garment eaten by moths.
- Isaiah 50:9Look, the sovereign Lord helps me. Who dares to condemn me? Look, all of them will wear out like clothes; a moth will eat away at them.
- Isaiah 51:8For a moth will eat away at them like clothes; a clothes moth will devour them like wool. But the vindication I provide will be permanent; the deliverance I give will last.”
- Proverbs 12:4A noble wife is the crown of her husband, but the wife who acts shamefully is like rottenness in his bones.
- Jonah 4:7So God sent a worm at dawn the next day, and it attacked the little plant so that it dried up.
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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