‘Hear this, O you priests,
And listen, O house of Israel,
And give ear, O house of the king,
For to you pertains the judgment,
For you have been a snare at Mizpah,
And a net spread on Tabor.'
The call comes to priests, people and royal house to listen to what YHWH has to say. All are involved. The word rendered ‘judgment' can mean either ‘justice, the carrying out of what is right' or ‘judgment' in our normal use of the term. Thus some see ‘to you pertains justice' as a reminder to them, and especially to the royal house and the priests, that it was their responsibility to ensure the maintenance of justice and the carrying out of what was right, something which they had failed to do in the religious sphere where they had rather set a snare and a trap for the people. Others see ‘to you pertains judgment' as indicating that all Israel, including its leadership, is to be judged by YHWH. Either interpretation is possible, but it may well be that Hosea had both ideas in mind because if they have not carried out what is right, (and have as a result been a snare to Israel) they are certainly liable to judgment. In a country like Israel's ‘carrying out what is right' would include doing so religiously as well as in ‘secular' life. Thus it included the need to keep the religion of the people pure.
But instead of encouraging what was right they have been like bird hunters on Mizpah and Tabor, (two eminences where there would be many birds available to be hunted), setting snares and traps for the people by leading them astray. All the males who heard Hosea would probably have had memories of hunting for birds, and setting snares for them, in the mountains, and would have been able to picture the helpless birds struggling in the hands of their captors. It was a salutary thought that this was what they were like themselves. Furthermore Tabor was in the far north west of the country, and if the Mizpah (fortress, watchtower) was the well known Mizpah of Gilead in Transjordan, the two might well have been seen as including within their compass the whole of Israel on both sides of the Jordan, including all Israel in the indictment as a consequence.
Tabor was a mountain conjoining the northern tribes of Issachar, Zebulun and Naphtali in the north west, north of the Valley of Jezreel, thus bringing into account the distant tribal areas. Mizpah (fortress, watchtower, and therefore a popular name for a town), was a name given to a number of towns. Most well known (certainly to us) was the Mizpah which was one of the centres where Samuel carried out his official duties, (the others being Bethel and Gilgal - 1 Samuel 7:16). This was in the territory of Benjamin in the central highlands. It was where the army gathered in the days of the Judges (Judges 20:1; Judges 20:3; Judges 21:1; Judges 21:5; Judges 21:8; 1 Samuel 7:5-6). But there were also a number of other Mizpahs including a well known Mizpah in Gilead in Transjordan (Judges 10:17; Judges 11:11; Judges 11:29; Judges 11:34 and possibly Joshua 13:26).
Other have argued that Tabor and Mizpah were mentioned because they were cultic centres where Baalism flourished, and it may well be true that they were cultic centres, for most towns would probably have been cultic centres, in the same way as such centres proliferated on the mountains. But that is not to be seen as the main reason for their mention here, for as cultic centres they were nothing exceptional. They were presumably mentioned, either because they were well known places for snaring birds, or because they represented the whole of Israel, or both.