The Mystery of Ephraim

The Prophecy of Hosea is primarily to the house of Ephraim. Being the chief tribe of the ten tribes, often Ephraim is used in place of Israel when it is referring to northern ten tribes. Elsewhere on this site Ephraim has been established as the United States. So although Hosea may refer to situation in his time, the encoded message of Ephraim and Israel is specially meant primarily for the United States and secondarily its European allies.

Hosea 5

¹ “Hear ye this, O priests! And hearken, ye house of Israel! And give ye ear, O house of the king! For judgement is against you, because ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor. — Hear ye this, O priests, the spiritual leaders of the people; and hearken, ye house of Israel, the family of the ten tribes as such; and give ye ear, in paying most careful attention, O house of the king, as the temporal rulers of the nation; for judgment is against you, it is intended all of them, to strike them down in due time.

² And the revolters are deep in slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all.

³ I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from Me; for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled. — I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me…. though Ephraim may cover their designs from other nations, and seek deep to hide their counsel from them, and make plausible pretenses for what they do, and put on an appearance of good democracy; yet God, who knows Ephraim and their hearts cannot be deceived.

⁴ “They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God; for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord.

⁵ And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face; therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them. — the way this verse is phrased, it seems like Ephraim will fall first, then Judah will fall also; which is true with historical records: Judah also fell into idolatry, and were guilty of the same crimes as Israel, so should be involved in the same punishment, though not at the same time; for the Babylonish captivity, in which Judah was carried captive, was many years after Israel was carried captives by the Assyrians; which were about 135-150 years before Judah.

⁶ They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord, but they shall not find Him; He hath withdrawn Himself from them.

⁷ They have dealt treacherously against the Lord, for they have begotten strange children. Now shall a month devour them with their portions.

⁸ “Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah! Cry aloud at Bethaven! After thee, O Benjamin! — according to the Targum, the words are directed to the prophets, “O ye prophets, lift up your voice like a trumpet” to declare to the house of Israel their sins and transgressions, and the punishment that would be inflicted on them for them; or it may be, this is a call of the people to fasting, mounting, and lamentation, as in Joel 2:1.

⁹ Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke; among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be. — the country of the ten tribes shall be laid desolate, the inhabitants of them destroyed either by the sword, or famine, or pestilence, and the rest carried captives, as they were by Shalmaneser; and again in the “days afar off” – our time, of the Lord’s rebuke and chastisement.

¹⁰ The princes of Judah were like them that remove the landmarks; therefore I will pour out My wrath upon them like water. — Judah will also go down, following Ephraim, as history recorded them.

¹¹ Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment. — as the Targum says; by the tyranny of their kings, and the injustice of their judges, who looked only for the mammon of unrighteousness.

¹² Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness. — will I be unto Ephraim as a moth…. which eats garments, penetrates into them, feeds on them quietly, secretly, and gradually consumes them; but at last utterly, they are just of no use left. 

¹³ “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to King Jareb. Yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound. — then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, looking for assistance from the heathens instead of consulting the Lord; again, Ephraim is recorded first, Judah following behind in going down; its significance could be prophetic.

¹⁴ For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah; I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him. — I, even I, will tear and go away, as a lion withdrawing to his den; I will take away, and none shall rescue him, for with the Lord’s merciful presence removed, there is no hope of deliverance.

¹⁵ I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge their offense and seek My face; in their affliction they will seek Me early.” — this is flashing forward, as if it is a Second Coming, where redemption becomes available again, but the house of Israel will have to go into captivity; for a period of 190 years? On reflection they were in Egypt for about 210 years, so cheers; this coming captivity is 20 years shorter.

— and those who consistently break the Law of Moses (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28) in their Judgement shall be more than horsewhipped! They would suffer by the sword, by famine, by pestilence and spending years in captivity to reflect; that is “till they acknowledge their offense and seek My face;” and repent (for more see Ezekiel 4 – 390/40 Years and A Sword from the South!)

Hosea 6

There is a great gap in time in between from their detestable filthy and abominable stage in chapter 5 to one where the house of Israel would be ready to accept God’s new spirits, statues and judgments in chapter 6 below; in fact in the book of Ezekiel, it flashes from chapter 2 to chapter 37.

¹ Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. — it’s very prophetic, rather historical as Rashi comments; he smites, and He will bind us up: Heb. It is a present tense. He smites us, and He will bind us up.

² After two days will He revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. — as a thousand years is to God a single day (II Peter 3:8), rising on the third day is to God rising on the third millennium; from around 740 BC when the Assyrians began taking those three tribes east of the Jordan:

And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the halftribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the River Gozan unto this day, I Chronicles 5:26.

Flashing forward into the third millennium will bring the scene to our time, when the house of Israel will be revived; the United States gained independence on July 4, 1776 and grew into a great united nation; but toward the end, preceded by 190 years of captivity for the house of Israel and 40 years for the house of Judah (Ezekiel 4).

³ Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord; His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

⁴ “O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. — O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee?…. or, the Lord having observed the effect and consequence of of his leaving his people for a long time under afflictions and in distress; namely, their thorough conversion to him in the latter day; until the third day, until the third millennium.

⁵ Therefore have I hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth; and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. — Rashi: Because I have hewed by the prophets: Heb. עַל-כֵּן. Because I hewed My words upon them through the prophets, but they did not take heed, therefore…

— the Targum says it clearer:,“because I admonished them by the message of my prophets, and they returned not, I will bring upon them those that slay, because they have transgressed the word of my will.”

⁶ For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. — a parallel verse in I Samuel 15:22 says “And Samuel said, “Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”

— and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings; which were reckoned the greatest and most excellent sacrifices; but knowledge of God is preferred to them; not just knowing the laws of Moses as a lawgiver, judge, and consuming fire, but how to execute them justly and at times where situations require, mercifully;

— to have a form and shell of godliness, but to deny its substance, is the essence of hypocrisy.

⁷ But they like Adam have transgressed the covenant; there have they dealt treacherously against Me. — in the covenant they entered into, and then breaking it by offering sacrifices to idols, under a pretense of offering them to God, was dealing treacherously against him.

⁸ Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.

⁹ And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder on the way by consent; for they commit lewdness.

¹⁰ I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel; there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled. — I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel…. idolatry, starting with the calves set up at Dan and Bethel, which God saw with abhorrence and detestation.

¹¹ Also, O Judah, he hath set a harvest for thee, when I returned My people from captivity.

— Israel is always mentioned first, followed by Judah, who didn’t have the wisdom to take the warning seriously, hence they, too, will go into captivity after Israel has gone into captivity for 150 years. Another 40 years to add towards 190 years in total (Ezekiel 4).

~ by Joel Huan on October 8, 2021.

Posted in Minor Prophets