What Does Hosea 5:2 Mean in the King James?
And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse sets violence that has gone deep beside correction that reaches everyone: what sinks below sight is still addressable.
THE MEANING
The verse names violence that has become deep-set, reaching toward slaughter. Yet correction addresses everyone; what lies deep is not beyond its reach.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that harm becomes untouchable once it is hidden or deeply rooted.
THE ROOT
עָמְקוּ
ʿāmeqû
GROWS FROM
עמק
To be deep or to make deep.
The Hebrew verb pictures the revolters as going deep, so “profound” carries a sense of descent beneath the surface. The same root can name depth itself, linking hiddenness with the place where this violence takes hold.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāmōq: Deep.
עָמֹק
This adjective gives the quality carried by the verse’s verb: the violence is deep-set, not merely intense.
ʿōmeq: Depth.
עֹמֶק
This noun makes depth a place or condition; Proverbs 20:5 uses the same root for counsel hidden like deep water.
לְשַׁחֲטָה
ləshaḥăṭāh
GROWS FROM
שחט
To slaughter, to kill by slaughter.
“slaughter” in this verse is ləshaḥăṭāh. The depth here leads toward bodily killing; it is not a vague inner failure. The root keeps the violence concrete and severe.
ALSO GROWS
shāḥaṭ: To slaughter.
שָׁחַט
This verb names the act toward which the passage says the revolters go deep.
nishḥaṭ: Was slaughtered.
נִשְׁחַט
The same root can name the one subjected to the violence, keeping the harmed body in view.
מוּסָר
mûsār
GROWS FROM
יסר
To discipline, chasten, or correct.
The word translated “rebuker” is musar, discipline or correction. The line presents correction itself as reaching them all, answering the depth of the violence with something that still addresses the whole field.
ALSO GROWS
yāsar: To discipline or chasten.
יָסַר
The verb names the act of correction behind the word musar.
mûsār: Discipline, correction, instruction.
מוּסָר
This noun carries the corrective force in the verse: the violence is met by discipline that extends to all.
THE PATTERN
What is hidden in depth remains exposed to the reach of God’s sight.
He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death.Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.THE THREAD
Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.Both verses use the root עמק (ʿ-m-q), meaning “deep.” Proverbs uses depth for counsel hidden within a person; Hosea uses it for the revolters’ descent into slaughter, making the same word-root carry both concealment and what lies beneath it.
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