Hosea 5:1 Hear you this, O priests; and listen, you house of Israel; and give you ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you… The plain meaning is, that as fowlers and hunters lay snares and nets for birds and beasts on the mountains of Israel; so their priests and rulers, by their erroneous doctrine, fraudulent counsels, subtle edicts, and profane example, and countenancing of sin, deceived the people, and ensnared them to follow idolatry. Doctrine — 1. There is no rank, but they will be found to have guiltiness to lay to heart, in a time when God pleads a controversy with a land. 2. As the Word of God doth reach and oblige all ranks of persons, be in what eminency they will; and as the Lord's faithful servants must preach against the sins of all, without respect of person; so the general overspreading of sin is no way to escape judgments, but rather to hasten them. 3. When God is coming against a people in judgment, it concerns them to be very serious in considering what He saith from His Word; and He will at last force audience and attention from the most stubborn. 4. The Lord's contending with His people by His Word is not an ordinary challenge, as of one displeased only, but the judicial procedure and sentence of the Supreme Judge. 5. God may testify much of His anger against a people, in the teachers and rulers He gives them, as being fit means to ripen them for judgment. 6. Subtle snares and insinuations are more dangerous for drawing men wrong than open violences. 7. It is a great sin in men when they prove a snare to others, or by their insinuations, example, or policy, draw them to sin against God. (George Hutcheson.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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