Hosea 5:2

And the revolters are profound to make slaughter,.... The revolters are the king, priests, and people, who had revolted from the true worship and ways of God unto idolatry.

And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all. And the revolters - apostates.

The revolters; all those that have cast off the law of God, both in matters of religion and civil government. Are profound; dig deep to hide their counsels, or have taken deep root since their apostasy from God, and revolt from the house of David. To make slaughter: all their religion is but a butchering of cattle, no sacrifice to God; or, which is worse, a murdering of men. Though I, Hosea, have been a rebuker; a preacher, who ill the name and word of God have sharply inveighed against their brutish religion and their bloody slaughters. Of them all: none that have been guilty have escaped the reproof; I have declaimed against idolatrous priests and bloody usurpers, such as were in those times, Shallum, Menahem, and Pekah.

Hosea 5:2 And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I [have been] a rebuker of them all.Ver. 2. And the revolters are profound to make slaughter] They lay their nets and snares deep, and lie down upon the ground, that they may take the silly birds that dread no danger. He "croucheth and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall into his strong paws," Psalms 10:10. He studies the devil’ s depths, Revelation 2:24; poisonous and pestilent policies, Machiavellian mysteries of mischief. His head is a forge and fountain of wicked wiles: he hath store and strength of strange traps and trains, frauds and fetches, to draw in and deceive the silly simple. That these seducers were deeply revolted, Isaiah 31:6, they had deeply corrupted themselves, Hosea 9:9, they sinned not common sins; as Korah and his accomplices died not a common death. They made great slaughter of men’ s souls, and of their bodies too, that refused to yield to them. Craft and cruelty seldom sundered in seducers: as some write of the asp that he never wanders alone, without his companion with him; and as those birds of prey and desolation, Isaiah 34:16, it is said that none of them lack their mate. The devil lendeth them his seven heads to plot, and his ten horns to push and gore, &c. Though I have been a rebuker to them all] Heb. a correction ( ξερψ). Understand it either to be the prophet, that he had dealt plainly with them, and done his utmost to reclaim them, yet they refused to be reformed, hated to be healed; We would have cured Babylon, but she would not be cured: or else of God, that he had both by words and scribes rebuked their superstitions, but nothing had wrought upon them. They "were tormented with the wrath of God, but repented not to give him the glory," Revelation 16:9. Corripimur, might they say, sed non corrigimur; plectimur, sed non flectimur. See how God complains of this stubbornness, Jeremiah 6:28-30, and learn to tremble at his rebukes, to profit by his chastisements, lest a worse thing befall us. "The just Lord is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame," Zephaniah 3:5. There are those who take the words passively, and render them thus, Ego vero illis omnibus castigationi sum, I have been rebuked or corrected by them all. See the like, Lamentations 3:13, and in the Psalms often: I am a reproach to mine enemies: Thou makest us a reproach to all that are round about us, &c. So the prophet here may seem to complain, as Jeremiah did after him, that he was "born a man of contentions, that all the people cursed him," that he was a common byword and but mark: that they sharpened their tongues against him and flew in his face.

(2) Are profound to make slaughter.—Ewald, followed recently by Nowack, is right in interpreting the Heb. text as meaning, “The apostates have gone deep in iniquity.” In the last clause the Authorised version is again incorrect. Render, But I (i.e., Jehovah) am chastisement to them all. The deceivers and deceived shall alike perish.

Verse 2. The revolters are profound to make slaughter] Here may be a reference to the practice of hunters, making deep pits in the ground, and lightly covering them over, that the beasts, not discovering them, might fall in, and become a prey. Though I have been a Rebuker] "I will bring chastisement on them all." As they have made victims of others to their idolatry, I will make victims of them to my justice. Some have thought that as many as wished to depart from the idolatrous worship set up by Jeroboam, were slaughtered; and thus Jeroboam the son of Nebat MADE Israel to sin.

2. And the revolters are profound to make slaughter] The expressions used have a most un-Hebraic cast, and what can the ‘slaughter’ refer to? There is nothing at all in the context to suggest that the slaying of sacrifices is meant (as many after St Jerome have supposed), and it is very harsh to understand it as a fresh image for the priests’ abuse of their position. It is better to render (changing a Teth into a Tβv), The apostates are gone deep in corrupting (comp. Hosea 9:9). The ancient versions already found the passage obscure. The Septuagint (and similarly the Peshito) renders δ (sc. τὸδίκτυον) οἱἀγρεύοντεςτὴνθήρανκατέπηξαν. Possibly they had had a somewhat different text. Certainty is unattainable, and another plausible and easy emendation deserves at least a mention, from its suitableness to the context, And the pit of Shittim they have made deep. Having been a station of the camp under Moses and Joshua (Numbers 25:1; Joshua 3:1; Joshua 5:1), it is probable, though unproved, that Shittim contained one of the popular shrines or holy places. though I have been a rebuker of them all] Lit., ‘and I am chastisement for them all’; comp. Psalms 109:4 A.V., ‘I give myself unto prayer’ (lit., ‘I am prayer’). This however is very harsh, and it is simpler to transpose two letters and render, and there is no correction for any of them.

And the revolters are profound to make slaughter - Literally, “They made the slaughter deep,” as Isaiah says, “they deeply corupted themselves” Isaiah 31:6; and our old writers say “He smote deep.”

2. And the revolters are profound to make slaughter — R.V., “And the revolters are gone deep in making slaughter.” For the last three words margin suggests “in corruption,” which is to be preferred,