Bible Strands
Hosea 5:6
They go with their flocks and herds to seek the LORD, but they do not find Him; He has withdrawn Himself from them.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet Hosea addresses Israel, Ephraim, and Judah during a period of entrenched arrogance and collective spiritual failure. He announces that their religious actions are futile because God has actively withdrawn from them.
The words — לְ/בַקֵּ֥שׁ (le./va.Kesh) means to seek, paired with יִמְצָ֑אוּ (yim.Tza.'u) meaning they will find, which together frame a failed pursuit. The text states they physically bring livestock to worship but conclude they cannot locate Yahweh.
The thread — This pattern of rejected seeking appears in Proverbs 1:28, where the arrogant call and receive silence, and in John 7:34, where Jesus declares that those who oppose Him will look for Him but cannot find Him. Both passages mirror Hosea’s declaration that divine withdrawal follows persistent rebellion.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that external religious ritual cannot compensate for a severed relationship. It requires the reader to accept that God's absence is a direct response to unaddressed iniquity, not a temporary delay.
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
They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 1:28 Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will earnestly seek me, but will not find me.
- John 7:34 You will look for Me, but you will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
- Micah 6:6 With what shall I come before the LORD when I bow before the God on high? Should I come to Him with burnt offerings, with year-old calves?
- Proverbs 15:8 The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.
- Isaiah 1:11 “What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
- Jeremiah 7:4 Do not trust in deceptive words, saying: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’
- Lamentations 3:44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud that no prayer can pass through.
- Ezekiel 8:6 “Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what they are doing—the great abominations that the house of Israel is committing—to drive Me far from My sanctuary? Yet you will see even greater abominations.”
- Exodus 10:9 “We will go with our young and old,” Moses replied. “We will go with our sons and daughters, and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the LORD.”
- Exodus 10:24 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, “Go, worship the LORD. Even your little ones may go with you; only your flocks and herds must stay behind.”