Bible Strands
Hosea 12:2
The LORD has a charge to bring against Judah. He will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet pronounces a divine indictment against Judah and Jacob amid their diplomatic overtures to Assyria and Egypt. The speaker is Yahweh, addressing the nation at a moment of covenant breach and political desperation.
The words — רִיב (riv) denotes a formal case at law, while פְקֹד (peqod) signifies a judicial visitation or reckoning. These terms frame the verse as a legal summons followed by measured retribution.
The thread — The indictment motif recurs in Micah 6:2 and Hosea 4:1, where Yahweh formally prosecutes His people. The pattern of divine legal action against covenant violation anchors the prophetic message.
Why it lands — The text declares that Judah and Jacob will face retribution precisely matched to their conduct. It requires the reader to acknowledge that human actions trigger direct, unavoidable 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 Lord hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.
Cross-references
- Micah 6:2 Hear, O mountains, the LORD’s indictment, you enduring foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against His people, and He will argue it against Israel:
- Isaiah 10:6 I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.
- Hosea 4:1 Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a case against the people of the land: “There is no truth, no loving devotion, and no knowledge of God in the land!
- Isaiah 3:11 Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.
- Isaiah 8:7 the Lord will surely bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates—the king of Assyria and all his pomp. It will overflow its channels and overrun its banks.
- Isaiah 10:12 So when the Lord has completed all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the fruit of his arrogant heart and the proud look in his eyes.
- Jeremiah 3:8 She saw that because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well.
- Jeremiah 25:31 The tumult will resound to the ends of the earth because the LORD brings a charge against the nations. He brings judgment on all mankind and puts the wicked to the sword,’” declares the LORD.
- Hosea 2:13 I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she burned incense to them, when she adorned herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers. But Me she forgot,” declares the LORD.
- Hosea 8:13 Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they eat the meat, the LORD does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt.