2. PRIESTS AND PRINCES FAIL
The line followed in this paragraph is almost parallel to that of chapter 4, running out to a prospect of invasion. But the charge is directed solely against the chiefs of the people, and the strictures of Hosea 7:7 ff. upon the political folly of the rulers are anticipated.
"Hear this, O Priests, and hearken, House of Israel, and House of the King, give ear. For on you is the sentence!" You who have hitherto been the judges, this time shall be judged.
"A snare have ye become at Mizpeh, and a net spread out upon Tabor, and a pit have they made deep upon Shittim; but I shall be the scourge of them all. I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me-for now hast thou played the harlot, Ephraim, Israel is defiled." The worship on the high places, whether nominally of Jehovah or not, was sheer service of Ba'alim. It was in the interest both of the priesthood and of the rulers to multiply these sanctuaries, but they were only traps for the people. "Their deeds will not let them return to their God; for a harlot spirit is in their midst, and Jehovah," for all their oaths by Him, "they have not known. But the pride of Israel shall testify to his face; and Israel and Ephraim shall stumble by their guilt-stumble also shall Judah with them." By Israel's pride many understand God. But the term is used too opprobriously by Amos to allow us to agree to this. The phrase must mean that Israel's arrogance, or her proud prosperity, by the wounds which it feels in this time of national decay, shall itself testify against the people-a profound ethical symptom to which we shall return when treating of Repentance. Yet the verse may be rendered in harmony with the context: "the pride of Israel shall be humbled to his face. With their sheep and their cattle they go about to seek Jehovah, and shall not find" Him"; He hath drawn off from them. They have been unfaithful to Jehovah, for they have begotten strange children." A generation has grown up who are not His. "Now may a month devour them with their portions!" Any month may bring the swift invader. Hark! the alarum of war! How it reaches to the back of the land!
"Blow the trumpet in Gibeah the clarion in Ramah
Raise the slogan, Beth-Aven: ‘After thee Benjamin!'"
"Ephraim shall become desolation in the day of rebuke! Among the tribes of Israel I have made known what is certain!"
At this point (Hosea 5:10) the discourse swerves from the religious to the political leaders of Israel; but as the princes were included with the priests in the exordium (Hosea 5:1), we can hardly count this a new oracle.
"The princes of Judah are like landmark-re-movers"-commonest cheats in Israel-"upon them will I pour out My wrath like water. Ephraim is oppressed, crushed is his right, for he willfully went after vanity. And I am as the moth to Ephraim, and as rottenness to the house of Judah." Both kingdoms have begun to fall to pieces, for by this time Uzziah of Judah also is dead, and the weak politicians are in charge whom Isaiah satirized. "And Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his sore; and Ephraim went to Asshur and sent to King Jareb-King Combative, King Pick-Quarrel," a nickname for the Assyrian monarch. The verse probably refers to the tribute which Mena-hem sent to Assyria in 738. If so, then Israel has drifted full five years into her "thick night." "But he cannot heal you, nor dry up your sore. For I, Myself, am like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, I rend and go My way; I carry off and there is none to deliver." It is the same truth which Isaiah expressed with even greater grimness. God Himself is His people's sore; and not all their statecraft nor alliances may heal what He inflicts. Priests and Princes, then, have alike failed. A greater failure is to follow.