\\INTRODUCTION TO HOSEA 5\\

The design of this chapter is to expose the sins of Israel and of
Judah, and to declare the judgment of God upon them for them. Men of
all ranks in Israel are summoned to attend to the charge brought
against then, and the sentence on them, \\#Ho 5:1\\. The charge exhibited
is, that they were guilty of in, hating men to the slaughter of
idolatrous sacrifices, though they had been sufficiently rebuked and
corrected, \\#Ho 5:1,2\\; of both corporeal and spiritual adultery,
whereby they were defiled, and which was well known to the Lord,
\\#Ho 5:3\\; of obstinate persistence in impenitence, owing to the
efficacy of an unclean spirit in them, and their want of the knowledge
of God, \\#Ho 5:4\\; of open pride, which stared them in the face, and
for which they fell into calamities, and Judah with them, and should
not be able with all their sacrifices to find favour with God, who had
withdrawn himself from them, \\#Ho 5:5,6\\; also of treacherous dealing
with the Lord by their spiritual adultery, and begetting strange
children, \\#Ho 5:7\\; next their punishment is denounced, of which
notice was to be given them by the sound of the trumpet, as an alarm of
war, or as calling for mourning, \\#Ho 5:8\\; since Ephraim would
become desolate, of which notification had been made among the tribes,
\\#Ho 5:9\\; and wrath would be poured out in great abundance on the
princes of Judah, who were very wicked men, \\#Ho 5:10\\; and Ephraim
would be oppressed and broken by the judgment of God, who would be as a
moth unto them, and also rottenness to Judah, because they followed the
commandments of men, \\#Ho 5:11,12\\; and, what was still more
provoking, when they were sensible of their calamities and distresses,
they sought not help from the Lord, but from men that could do them no
good; and therefore he threatens to be as a devouring lion to them,
\\#Ho 5:13,14\\; and yet the chapter concludes with a promise of the
conversion of these people, after the Lord had dealt with them in an
angry manner, \\#Ho 5:15\\.