Passage

Hosea 10.5-6

Book: Hosea · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

3. Surely now shall they say, We have no king; for we fear not Jehovah; and the king, what can he do for us? 4. They speak vain words, swearing falsely in making covenants: therefore judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.

5. The inhabitants of Samaria shall be in terror for the calves of Beth-aven; for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced over it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it. 6. It also shall be carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.

As for Samaria, her king is cut off, as foam upon the water. 8. The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us. (Hosea 10:3-8, ASV)

WEB

3. Surely now they will say, “We have no king; for we don’t fear Yahweh; and the king, what can he do for us?” 4. They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants. Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

5. The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror for the calves of Beth Aven; for its people will mourn over it, Along with its priests who rejoiced over it, for its glory, because it has departed from it. 6. It also will be carried to Assyria for a present to a great king. Ephraim will receive shame, and Israel will be ashamed of his own counsel.

Samaria and her king float away, like a twig on the water. 8. The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle will come up on their altars. They will tell the mountains, “Cover us!” and the hills, “Fall on us!” (Hosea 10:3-8, WEB)

KJV

3. For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the LORD; what then should a king do to us? 4. They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.

5. The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it. ^{the priests: or, Chemarim} 6. It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.

As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water. ^{the water: Heb. the face of the water} 8. The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us. (Hosea 10:3-8, KJV)

YLT

3. For now they say: We have no king, Because we have not feared Jehovah, And the king, what doth he for us? 4. They have spoken words, To swear falsehood in making a covenant, And flourished as a poisonous herb hath judgment, on the furrows of a field.

5. For the calves of Beth-Aven fear do inhabitants of Samaria, Surely mourned on account of it hath its people, And its priests on account of it leap about, Because of its honour, for it hath removed from it, 6. Also it to Asshur is carried, a present to a warlike king, Shame doth Ephraim receive, And ashamed is Israel of its own counsel.

Cut off is Samaria! Its king [is] as a chip on the face of the waters. 8. And destroyed have been high places of Aven, the sin of Israel. Thorn and bramble go up on their altars, And they have said to hills, Cover us, And to heights, Fall upon us. (Hosea 10:3-8, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: YHWH speaking through Hosea son of Beeri (1:1). Most scholars trace the oracles to Hosea himself, while many hold that the book received its final shape later in Judah, where it was preserved after Samaria fell
Audience: the northern kingdom of Israel, often called Ephraim after its leading tribe
Location: Samaria, the capital, and Beth-aven, Hosea's mocking name for Bethel ("house of iniquity" in place of "house of God"; compare 4:15; Amos 5:5)
Time period: c. 750-722 BC, from the last years of Jeroboam II through the dynastic chaos that followed to the eve of Samaria's fall to Assyria (1:1; 2 Kings 15-17)
Literary context: the oracle on Israel's king and calf (10:1-8), which ends with the cry to the mountains, "Cover us" (10:8), later echoed in Luke 23:30 and Revelation 6:16.

Theological reading

"The inhabitants of Samaria shall be in terror for the calves of Beth-aven; for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced over it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it." (Hosea 10:5, ASV)

The calf of Bethel. Jeroboam I set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan to keep the northern tribes from going up to Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:28-29). Two centuries later the Bethel calf is still the center of the state cult, and Hosea predicts its end. The word for its priests here is kemarim, the term used for idolatrous priests (2 Kings 23:5; Zephaniah 1:4), not the ordinary word for priest.

A god that is carried. The calf does not save its worshippers; it is itself loaded up and "carried unto Assyria for a present" to the king. The people mourn for their god instead of the god protecting the people. Isaiah makes the same point about Babylon's idols, which have to be carried and cannot carry (Isaiah 46:1-2).

King Jareb. The phrase also appears in 5:13. Many interpreters read the Hebrew melek yareb as "the great king", by a slightly different division of the consonants, which matches the standard Assyrian royal title. On either reading the recipient is the Assyrian overlord, and Ephraim is "ashamed of his own counsel": the policy that sought security from Assyria ends by sending Israel's god there as tribute.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

None of the words in this verse has its own lexicon entry yet.

Quoted in

Concepts:

Biblical Prophecy

Passages:

Hosea 10.5

Notes

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Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.