Hosea 10:14 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Hosea 10:14
Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman spoiled Betharbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.
uproar (as of rushing) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
arise
וְקָ֣אםve.Kam
H6965
to rise (in various applications · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
people
בְּעַמֶּךָ֒be.'a.me.Kha
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
fortresses
מִבְצָרֶ֣יךָmiv.tza.Rei.kha
H4013
a fortification · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
spoiled
יוּשַּׁ֔דyu.Shad
H7703
properly · verb, hophal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Shalman
שַֽׁלְמַ֛ןshal.Man
H8020
Shalman · proper noun, a man's name
spoiled
כְּשֹׁ֧דke.Shod
H7701
violence · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
Beth-arbel
בֵּ֥יתbeit
H1009
Beth-Arbel · proper noun, a place name
day
בְּי֣וֹםbe.Yom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
battle
מִלְחָמָ֑הmil.cha.Mah
H4421
a battle (i.e. the engagement) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
mother
אֵ֥ם'em
H517
a mother (as the bond of the family) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
pieces
רֻטָּֽשָׁהru.Ta.shah
H7376
to dash down · verb, pual perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
children
בָּנִ֖יםba.Nim
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Hosea 13:16 Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces,…
2 Kings 18:9-10 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser k…
Habakkuk 1:10 And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust…
Genesis 32:11 Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother…
2 Kings 17:16 And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all…
2 Kings 18:33 Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
2 Kings 19:11-13 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?
Isaiah 13:16-18 Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Hosea 10:9–end
Here, I. They are put in mind of the sins of their fathers and predecessors, for which God would now reckon with them. It was told them (Hos 9:9) that they had corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah, and here (Hos 10:9), O Israel! thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah. Not only the wickedness that was committed in that age is revived in this, and reacted, a copy from that original, but the wickedness that was committed in that age has been continued in a constant series and succession through all the intervening ages down to this; so that the measure of iniquity had been long in filling; and still there had been made additions to it. Or, "Thou has sinned more than in the days of G…
tumult--a tumultuous war.
among thy people--literally, "peoples": the war shall extend to the whole people of Israel, through all the tribes, and the peoples allied to her.
Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel--that is, Shalmaneser, a compound name, in which the part common to it and the names of three other Assyrian kings, is omitted; Tiglath-pileser, Esar-haddon, Shar-ezer. So Jeconiah is abbreviated to Coniah. Arbel was situated in Naphtali in Galilee, on the border nearest Assyria. Against it Shalmaneser, at his first invasion of Israel (Kg2 17:3), vented his chief rage. God threatens Israel's fortresses with the same fate as Arbel suffered "in the day (on the occasion) of the battle" then wel…
Shall a tumult arise - The enemy shall soon fall upon thy people, and take all thy fortified places.
As Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel - Some think that this refers to Jerubbaal, or Gideon's victory over Zalmunna, general of the Midianites; see Jdg 7:8. Others think that an allusion is made here to the destruction of Arbela, a city of Armenia, by Shalmaneser, here called Shalman; and this while he was only general of the Assyrian forces, and not yet king. I think the history to which this refers is unknown. It seems that it was distinguished by some remarkable ferocities.
The mother was dashed in pieces upon her children - But when, where, how, and by whom, still remain unknown. Conjecture in su…
The Church Fathers
"Because you trusted in your ways: tumult shall arise among your people because of the multitude of your strong ones, and all your fortifications shall be laid waste. Just as Salman was devastated in his own house, he who was judging Baal on the day of the battle, when a mother was dashed upon her children, so has Bethel done to you because of the malice of your wickedness." LXX: "Because you trusted in your chariots, in the multitude of your strength, destruction shall arise in your people, and all your fortified walls shall go away; just as the princes of Salman from the house of Jerobaal on the days of battle, who dashed a mother upon her children, so I will do to you, the house of Israel, because of your malice." Therefore, you have eaten the fruit of lies, and in all your plans, your false hope deceived you. Because you trusted, O Ephraim, in your ways of idolatry: for these are your ways, and in the multitude of your strong ones, you do not have hope in God, but in the strength of armies. Therefore there shall arise a tumult among thy people, which in Hebrew is called Saon, that is, the "sound" and "roaring" of an howling army; whereby, with their cry, all thy fortifications shall be laid waste, and those things which thou didst esteem as defenced and secure, shall be opened to thy enemies, and so shall be wasted, as Salmana, prince of the Madianites, was wasted and broken, who was slain by the house of Jerobaal (Judges 8). Doubtless it signifies Gedeon, who, for that he destroyed the temple of Baal, and cut down the grove, could not be revenged, received the surname of Jerobaal, that is, "let Baal revenge himself." As Salmana slew the children before their mothers' faces, so there shall they slay thy sons, O Ephraim, yea, and thou thyself shalt be compelled to be slain. We search where it is written that Salmana killed her mother over her children: we read in the book of Judges, Gideon speaking to the chief of Midian: 'As your sword has made many mothers childless, so will your mother be childless among women.' (Judges 8) Therefore Salmana was devastated by Jerobaal, whom some think was the son of Nabath Jeroboam, who led ten tribes, and was devastated, as is contained in Hebrew, by Arbel, which also means "Jerobaal," but in a shorter and more expressive language: thus has Bethel done to you, O Israel, from the face of your malice, in which you…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Bearbel — (house of God’s court), named only in (Hosea 10:14) as the scene of a sack and massacre by Shalman.
Harrow — (Heb. harits), a tribulum or sharp threshing sledge; a frame armed on the under side with rollers or sharp spikes (2 Sam. 12:31; 1 Chr. 20:3). Heb. verb sadad, to harrow a field, break its clods (Job…
Shalman — An Assyrian king (Hos. 10:14), identified with Shalmaneser II. (Sayce) or IV. (Lenormant), the successor of Pul on the throne of Assyria (B.C. 728). He made war against Hoshea, the king of Israel,…
Beth-Arbel · A city spoiled by Shalman — A city spoiled by Shalman
Fortresses · Often: Spoiled — Often: Spoiled
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people,.... Because of their wickedness and vain confidence, the Assyrian army should invade them; which would cause a tumultuous noise to be made throughout the tribes in all cities and towns, a cry, a howling, and lamentation; especially among fearful and timorous ones as women and children; who would be thrown into a panic at hearing the news of a powerful foreign enemy entering their country, and laying waste all before them; a voice of clamour, as Jarchi observes, crying, flee, flee:
and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled; the strong holds, in which they put their confidence for safety; everyone of these should be taken and demolished by the en…
Hosea 10:14-15
14. Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman spoiled Betharbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.
14. Et (vel, ideo, copula enim illativam particulam valet, ideo) surget tumultus in populis tuis; et unaquaeque munitionum tuarum vastabitur, secundum vastationem Salman Beth-arbel: in die proelii mater super filios allidetur.
15. So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.
15. Secundum (hoc modo) faciet vobis Bethel a facie malitiae, malitiae vestrae: in aurora pereundo peribit rex Israel.
The Prophet he…
"And tumult will arise against thy peoples, and all thy fortifications are laid waste, as Shalman laid Beth-Arbeel waste in the day of the war: mother and children are dashed to pieces. Hos 10:15. Thus hath Bethel done to you because of the wickedness of your wickedness: in the morning dawn the king of Israel is cut off, cut off." קאם with א as mater lect. (Ewald, 15, e), construed with ב: to rise up against a person, as in Psa 27:12; Job 16:8. שׁאון, war, tumult, as in Amo 2:2. בּעמּיך: against thy people of war. The expression is chosen with a reference to rōbh gibbōrı̄m (the multitude of mighty men), in which Israel put its trust. The meaning, countrymen, or tribes, is restricted to the…
When Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel: This event is not mentioned elsewhere in the Bible or in other available sources, but it was evidently well known to Hosea’s audience.
Rashi on Hosea 10:14
And a tumult shall rise in your peoples i.e., a voice shouting, “Flee! Flee!”
as the plunder of a peaceful people by an ambush Like plunderers who come upon a tranquil people suddenly with an ambush, for they did not beware of them to flee from before them, and they plunder everything.
an ambush Heb. בֵּית אַרְבֵּאל. Jonathan renders: a place of ambush (בֵּית מַאֲרָב), and the “aleph” “lammed” are superfluous. Comp. יִזְרְעֶאל, which is not the name of a city, e.g., (above 2: 24) “And they shall answer Jezreel,” and he called it with the expression of a name. Here, too, he called it as a sort of name. In this manner, Menahem (Machbereth Menahem p. 34) classified it, but Dunash (Teshuvoth D…
