Bible Strands
Hosea 5:2
The rebels are deep in slaughter; but I will chastise them all.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses the priests, the house of Israel, and the royal house immediately after declaring judgment for their role as a snare and net at Mizpah and Tabor. He speaks this declaration while confronting their ongoing rebellion and spiritual defilement.
The words — The Hebrew שֵׂטִים (se.Tim) denotes "rebels," and הֶעְמִיקוּ (he'.Mi.ku) literally means "they have made deep," describing how the rebels intensify their violent actions. The term מוּסָר (mu.Sar) translates to "discipline," indicating God's direct response to their conduct.
The thread — The text describes rebels deepening their slaughter before God declares He will discipline them all. This pattern of concealed rebellion meeting divine judgment runs through Isaiah 29:15, where those who dig deep to hide their plans face the Lord, and Hosea 6:9, where priests murder like raiders.
Why it lands — The passage states that rebellion cannot evade detection and that God will actively discipline every participant. It requires a reader to accept that spiritual defilement and violent rebellion provoke direct, unfiltered judgment rather than evasion.
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
And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 29:15 Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?”
- Hosea 9:15 All their evil appears at Gilgal, for there I hated them. I will drive them from My house for the wickedness of their deeds. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious.
- Hosea 6:9 Like raiders who lie in ambush, so does a band of priests; they murder on the way to Shechem; surely they have committed atrocities.
- Psalms 64:3 who sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their bitter words like arrows,
- Psalms 140:1 For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Rescue me, O LORD, from evil men. Protect me from men of violence,
- Isaiah 1:5 Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted.
- Jeremiah 5:3 O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.
- Jeremiah 6:28 All are hardened rebels, walking around as slanderers. They are bronze and iron; all of them are corrupt.
- Jeremiah 11:18 And the LORD informed me, so I knew. Then You showed me their deeds.
- Jeremiah 18:18 Then some said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the law will never be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the wise, nor an oracle to the prophet. Come, let us denounce him and pay no heed to any of his words.”