Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Hosea · About this commentary
A Snare at Mizpah
Hosea 5:1-7
1 “Listen to this, you priests! Listen, house of Israel, and give ear, house of the king! For the judgment is against you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread on Tabor. · WEB
The summons goes to priests and palace together, and the search for God fails because he has moved.
The three addressees are named in order of responsibility: you priests, the house of Israel, and the house of the king. Leadership is prosecuted before the population, as in the previous chapter Hosea 4:6.
The charge uses hunting images. They have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread on Tabor — the people appointed to guide are described as trapping equipment, positioned at real places: Mizpah and Mt Tabor .
Verse 3 states the futility of concealment: I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me. The verb is the book's word for knowledge, used here of God's knowing rather than Israel's ignorance.
Verse 4 is the chapter's diagnosis and it is grim about capacity. Their deeds won't allow them to turn to their God — the deeds themselves have become the obstacle, and the reason is the spirit of prostitution is within them Hosea 4:12. The last clause returns to the refrain: they don't know Yahweh.
Then verse 6, which is the passage's most sobering sentence because the action described is correct. They will go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Yahweh, but they won't find him. Sacrifices brought, the search genuine — and he has withdrawn himself from them.
The book is not describing a people who failed to look. It is describing a people who looked in the place where the apparatus was and found the room empty. Chapter 6 will say what he wanted instead Hosea 6:6, and chapter 5 ends by saying where he went Hosea 5:15.
settled What this mark means