Bible Strands
Hosea 10:5
The people of Samaria will fear for the calf of Beth-aven. Indeed, its people will mourn over it with its idolatrous priests—those who rejoiced in its glory—for it has been taken from them into exile.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Hosea addresses the northern kingdom of Israel during a period of political treachery and entrenched idolatry, pronouncing imminent judgment for their broken covenants.
The words — יָג֖וּרוּ (ya.Gu.ru) translates literally as "they will be afraid," and אָבַ֨ל ('a.Val) means "it will mourn," capturing the shift from idolatrous celebration to desolation.
The thread — This judgment echoes Hosea 10:4’s promise of judgment springing from false oaths and Hosea 10:6’s declaration that the idol will be carried to Assyria, while the priests referenced parallel those condemned in 2 Kings 23:5.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that trust in manufactured idols yields only fear and mourning, requiring readers to abandon false securities and acknowledge the certainty of divine judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth–aven: 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.
Cross-references
- Hosea 9:11 Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird, with no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.
- 2 Kings 23:5 Josiah also did away with the idolatrous priests ordained by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem—those who had burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.
- Hosea 5:8 Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah; raise the battle cry in Beth-aven: Lead on, O Benjamin!
- Hosea 4:15 Though you prostitute yourself, O Israel, may Judah avoid such guilt! Do not journey to Gilgal, do not go up to Beth-aven, and do not swear on oath, ‘As surely as the LORD lives!’
- Hosea 8:5 He has rejected your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?
- 1 Samuel 4:21 And she named the boy Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” because the ark of God had been captured and her father-in-law and her husband had been killed.
- Hosea 13:2 Now they sin more and more and make for themselves cast images, idols skillfully made from their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. People say of them, “They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves!”
- 2 Kings 10:29 but he did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit—the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.
- 2 Kings 17:16 They abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves two cast idols of calves and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the host of heaven and served Baal.
- 2 Chronicles 11:15 And Jeroboam appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat demons and calf idols he had made.