Hosea 10:5 (YLT)

Passage

For the calves of Beth-Aven fear do inhabitants of Samaria, Surely mourned on account of it hath its people, And its priests on account of it leap about, Because of its honour, for it hath removed from it,

Nearby Context

Hosea 10:3 For now they say: We have no king, Because we have not feared Jehovah, And the king--what doth he for us?

Hosea 10:4 They have spoken words, To swear falsehood in making a covenant, And flourished as a poisonous herb hath judgment, on the furrows of a field.

Hosea 10:5 For the calves of Beth-Aven fear do inhabitants of Samaria, Surely mourned on account of it hath its people, And its priests on account of it leap about, Because of its honour, for it hath removed from it,

Hosea 10:6 Also it to Asshur is carried, a present to a warlike king, Shame doth Ephraim receive, And ashamed is Israel of its own counsel.

Hosea 10:7 Cut off is Samaria! Its king <FI>is<Fi> as a chip on the face of the waters.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "calves", "beth-aven", "fear", "inhabitants", "samaria", "surely", "mourned", and "account". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "calves" and "beth-aven", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 4's "They have spoken words To swear falsehood..." into verse 6's "Also it to Asshur is carried a...", so "calves" and "beth-aven" belong inside that flow. In Hosea context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "calves" and "beth-aven" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.