Hosea 5:1 - Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

Bible Comments

Hear... O priests. This is. call to the priests and others, as Hosea 4:1-5 was also. call to Israel.

judgment is toward you. judgment is denounced upon you.

Mizpah. There were five places with this name: (1) Now Suf (Genesis 31:49; Judges 10:17; Judges 11:11; Judges 11:29; Judges 11:34; Judges 20:1; Judges 20:3; Judges 21:1; Judges 21:6; Judges 21:8). (2) In Moab (1 Samuel 22:3), not identified. (3) The land (or valley) of Moab, now el Bukei'a (Joshua 11:3). (4) In Judah, not identified (Joshua 15:38). (5) In Benjamin, not identified (Joshua 18:26. Jdg 22:1-3. Judges 21:1; Judges 21:5, Jdg 21:8. 1 Samuel 7:5-16; 1 Samuel 10:17. 1Ki 15:22. 2 Kings 25:23; 2 Kings 25:25; 2 Chronicles 16:6; Nehemiah 3:7; Nehemiah 3:15; Nehemiah 3:19; Jeremiah 40:6-15; Jeremiah 41:1-16, and in this passage, Hosea 5:1). Mizpah was. symbol of keeping apart, not of meeting again, as erroneously used to-day. Tabor is on the west of Jordan and not connected with Ephraim; but Tabor means. mound; so that the idolatrous altar may have been called Mizpah, while Tabor was the "mound" of Genesis 31, both belonging to the same district. Hosea is said to have been buried at Mizpah.

Hosea 5:1

1 Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.