New Living Translation
Hosea 5:12
12I will destroy Israel as a moth consumes wool. I will make Judah as weak as rotten wood.
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
10“The leaders of Judah have become like thieves. So I will pour my anger on them like a waterfall. 11The people of Israel will be crushed and broken by my judgment because they are determined to worship idols. I will destroy Israel as a moth consumes wool. I will make Judah as weak as rotten wood. 13“When Israel and Judah saw how sick they were, Israel turned to Assyria— to the great king there— but he could neither help nor cure them. 14I will be like a lion to Israel, like a strong young lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces! I will carry them off, and no one will be left 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 13:28I waste away like rotting wood, like a moth-eaten coat.
- Isaiah 50:9See, the Sovereign Lord is on my side! Who will declare me guilty? All my enemies will be destroyed like old clothes that have been eaten by moths!
- Isaiah 51:8For the moth will devour them as it devours clothing. The worm will eat at them as it eats wool. But my righteousness will last forever. My salvation will continue from generation to generation.”
- Proverbs 12:4A worthy wife is a crown for her husband, but a disgraceful woman is like cancer in his bones.
- Jonah 4:7But God also arranged for a worm! The next morning at dawn the worm ate through the stem of the plant so that it withered away.
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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