The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror for the calves of Beth Aven; for its people will mourn over it, Along with its priests who rejoiced over it, for its glory, because it has departed from it.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror for the calves of Beth Aven; for its people will mourn over it, Along with its priests who rejoiced over it, for its glory, because it has departed from it.

  • KJV 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.

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    The inhabitants of Samaria shall be in dread for the calves of Beth-aven; for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof shall tremble for it, for its glory, because it is departed from it.

View more translations →

Cross-references (17)

Passages linked to Hosea 10:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Hosea 9:11 As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird. There will be no birth, no one with child, and no conception.
  • 2 Kings 23:5 He got rid of the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the army of the sky.
  • Hosea 5:8 “Blow the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah! Sound a battle cry at Beth Aven, behind you, Benjamin!
  • Hosea 4:15 “Though you, Israel, play the prostitute, yet don’t let Judah offend; and don’t come to Gilgal, neither go up to Beth Aven, nor swear, ‘As Yahweh lives.’
  • Hosea 8:5-6 Let Samaria throw out his calf idol! My anger burns against them! How long will it be until they are capable of purity? For this is even from Israel! The workman made it, and it is no God; indeed, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.
  • 1 Samuel 4:21-22 She named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” because God’s ark was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband. She said, “The glory has departed from Israel; for God’s ark has been taken.”
  • Hosea 13:2 Now they sin more and more, and have made themselves molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, ‘They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves.’
  • 2 Kings 10:29 However, Jehu didn’t depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin, the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan.
  • 2 Kings 17:16 They abandoned all the commandments of Yahweh their God, and made molten images for themselves, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served Baal.
  • 2 Chronicles 11:15 He himself appointed priests for the high places, for the male goats, and for the calves which he had made.
  • Zephaniah 1:4 I will stretch out my hand against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place: the name of the idolatrous and pagan priests,
  • Acts 19:27 Not only is there danger that this our trade come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be counted as nothing and her majesty destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worships.”
  • Revelation 18:11-19 The merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise any more: merchandise of gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet, all expensive wood, every vessel of ivory, every vessel made of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble; and cinnamon, incense, perfume, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, sheep, horses, chariots, and people’s bodies and souls. The fruits which your soul lusted after have been lost to you. All things that were dainty and sumptuous have perished from you, and you will find them no more at all. The merchants of these things, who were made rich by her, will stand far away for the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, she who was dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls! For in an hour such great riches are made desolate.’ Every ship master, and everyone who sails anywhere, and mariners, and as many as gain their living by sea, stood far away, and cried out as they looked at the smoke of her burning, saying, ‘What is like the great city?’ They cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had their ships in the sea were made rich by reason of her great wealth!’ For she is made desolate in one hour.
  • Joshua 7:2 Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, “Go up and spy out the land.” The men went up and spied out Ai.
  • Judges 18:24 He said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone away! What more do I have? How can you ask me, ‘What ails you?’ ”
  • 1 Kings 12:28-32 So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look and behold your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” He set the one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. This thing became a sin; for the people went even as far as Dan to worship before the one there. He made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi. Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar. He did so in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made, and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.
  • 2 Chronicles 13:8 “Now you intend to withstand the kingdom of Yahweh in the hand of the sons of David. You are a great multitude, and the golden calves which Jeroboam made you for gods are with you.

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

↑ Top

Explain this verse (19 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain I shall first briefly touch on what I have…

I shall first briefly touch on what I have mentioned in reading over the text; that is, that some interpreters expound this verse of the exile of the people. The word גור, gur, signifies to be banished: and it means also to fear; but the context, as we shall see, will not allow it to be taken here in the sense of being banished. Some render the other word שכן, shecan, to dwell, but they are mistaken. The Prophet simply means that the inhabitants of Samaria were now glorying in their calves, (for the calves we know, were in Dan and Bethel,) but that in a short time the Lord would strike them with terror, and the cause we shall see hereafter.

I now come to show the real meaning of the prophet The inhabitants of Samaria, he says shall fear, because of the calves of Bethaven. The Prophet derides the folly of the people of Israel in worshipping calves, and in thinking that the whole hope of safety was included in them. How so? “They are constrained” he says, “to weep for the exile of their calf; so far is it from being able to bring them any aid, that the citizens of Samaria in vain deplore its captivity.” By way of contempt, he calls the calves, heifers. He might have used the masculine gender; but the whole of the verse glances at the madness of the people of Israel, because they were so grossly delirious in their superstitions, and yet were wholly insensible. Then the inhabitants of Samaria shall fear for the calves of Bethaven, because idolaters, when they see some danger to their idols, tremble, and would gladly bring aid; and this very fear betrays their stupidity and madness. For why do not the gods help themselves, instead of expecting help from mortals? We now understand the design of the Prophet.

Read full note →

But he says, They will mourn over it The number is here changed. He had said, “because of the heifers;” and now he expresses the kind by putting down a relative of the masculine gender ו, vau . He therefore returns to “calves,” and afterwards uses the singular number; for there was one only at Bethaven, the other was at Dan. But we have already shown why the Prophet called them heifers.

Its people, he says, shall mourn for it, yea, even the priests also. Some think that כמרים, camerim, priests were called by this terms because they put on black vestments in celebrating their rites; for the word “kemer” means black; but this is a vain conjecture: and the Rabbis, as it often appears, are very bold in their figments; for they regard not what is true, but only make conjectures, and wish that whatever comes to their minds to be counted as oracular; nor do they regard history, but advance without reason what pleases them. Another explanation of the word may be adduced, and one in my judgement more probable; for the word signifies also to ring again or to resound; and the priests, we know, made, in performing their services, great noises and howling; as Elijah says

‘Cry aloud, for your Baal is perhaps asleep,’ (1 Kings 18:27.)

If their conjecture is allowable, I would rather say that they were called by this word on account of the noise they made. But I leave the thing undecided. It was, however, a name commonly in use, as it appears from other places. For by this name כמרים, camerim were those new priests called, whom Josiah took away, as it is related in 2 Kings 23. But whether they had this name from their noises, or the black colour of their vestments, it is still certain that they were the priests of false gods.

The Prophet now says, that the priests also shall mourn, for the verb אבל, abel, is to be repeated. He afterwards adds, יגילו על-כבודו, igilu ol-cabudu; the relative, who, is wanting — who exult, but it is to be understood after כמרים, who exult for it. But why should they mourn? They shall mourn for its glory, because it had departed: they shall now begin to mourn, because the glory of the calf had passed away from it. Here the Prophet teaches that the glorying, by which hypocrites deceive themselves, will not be permanent; for the Lord will surely lead them, as we shall see, to sudden and unexpected shame. He then says that there would be mourning for the calves among the citizens of Samaria. They indeed thought that the kingdom was well fortified, for they had erected temples in their borders, to be, as it were, their fortresses. They hence imagined themselves to be safe from every incursion of enemies. The Prophet says, “Nay, they shall mourn for their calf.” How so? Truly its own people shall mourn for it. He goes farther, and calls all its worshipers, the people of the calf: and we know that the whole kingdom of Israel was implicated in that superstition. Yea, he says, even the priests, who exult for it, shall mourn. Why? Because its glory shall depart from it. It now follows —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain When the calf shall be carried away.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Hos 10:5 The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The citizens who dwelt yet safe in Samaria, but…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Because of the calves - Because they had sinned…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 5. The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear] According…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Hos 10:5. The inhabitants of Samaria — That is,…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of -…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain The kine of Bethaven. The golden calves of Jeroboam,…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain fear because of the calves--that is, shall fear for…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 5. The judgment will produce consternation. Will the “calves”…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 5. shall fear because of the calves of Beth-aven]…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (5) It is hard to express the sarcastic force…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear Because of the…
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the…
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Hos_10:5. People] of the calf and idolatrous priests shall…
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 10:5-6 Israel’s gold calf idol (see 8:5-6) would become…

↑ Top

Share