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Selected Verse: Hosea 10:14 - King James

Verse	Translation	Text
Ho 10:14	King James	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.

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
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 well-known, though not mentioned elsewhere (compare Kg2 18:34). This event, close on the reign of Hezekiah, shows the inscription of Hosea (Hos 1:1) to be correct.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

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 well-known, though not mentioned elsewhere (compare Kg2 18:34). This event, close on the reign of Hezekiah, shows the inscription of Hosea (Hos 1:1) to be correct.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people - Literally, "peoples." Such was the immediate fruit of departing from God and trusting in human beings and idols. They trusted in their own might, and the multitude of their people. That might should, through intestine division and anarchy, become their destruction. As in the dislocated state of the Roman empire under the first emperors, so in lsrael, the successive usurpers arose out of their armies, armies , "the multitude of their mighty ones," in whom they trusted. The "confused noise" of "war" should first "arise in" the midst of their own "peoples." They are spoken of not as one, but as many; "peoples," not, as God willed them to be, one people, for they had no principle of oneness or stability, who had no legitimate succession, either of kings or of priests; who had "made kings, but not through" God. Each successor had the same right as his predecessor, the right of might, and furnished an example and precedent and sanction to the murderer of himself or of his son. All thy fortresses shall be spoiled - Literally, "the whole of thy fortresses shall be wasted." He speaks of the whole as one. Their fenced cities, which cut off all approach, should be one waste. They had forsaken God, their "fortress and deliverer," and so He gave up their fortresses to the enemy, so that all and each of them were laid waste. The confusion, begun among themselves, prepared for destruction by the enemy. Of this he gives one awful type. As Shalman spoiled - (or wasted) Beth-Arbel in the day of battle "Shalman" is, no doubt, "Shalmaneser king of Assyria," who came up against Hoshea, early in his reign, "and he became a servant to him and brought him a present Kg2 17:3. Shalman" being the characteristic part of the name , the prophet probably omitted the rest, on the ground of the rhythm. "Beth-Arbel" is a city, which the Greeks, retaining, in like way, only the latter and characteristic half of the name, called Arbela . Of the several cities called Arbela, that celebrated in Grecian history, was part of the Assyrian empire. Two others, one "in the mountain-district of Pella" , and so on the East side of Jordan, the other between Sepphoris and Tiberias , (and so in Naphthali) must, together with the countries in which they lay, have fallen into the bands of the Assyrians in the reign of "Tiglath-pileser," who "took - Gilead and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali" Kg2 15:29, in the reign of Pekah. The whole country, East of Jordan, being now in the hands of Shalmaneser, his natural approach to Samaria was over the Jordan, through the valley or plain of Jezreel. Here was the chief wealth of Israel, and the fittest field for the Assyrian horse. Over the Jordan then, from where Israel itself came when obedient to God, from where came the earlier instruments of God's chastisements, came doubtless the host of Shalmaneser, along the "great plain" of Esdraelon. "In that plain" also lay an "Arbela," "nine miles from Legion" . Legion itself was at the Western extremity of the plain, as Scythopolis or Bethshean lay at the East . It was about fifteen miles West of Nazareth , and ten miles from Jezreel . Beth-Arbel must accordingly have lain somewhere in the middle of the valley of Jezreel. Near this Arbela, then, Israel must have sustained a decisive defeat from Shalmaneser. For the prophet does not say only, that he "spoiled Beth-Arbel," but that he did this "in a day of battle." Here Hosea, probably in the last years of his life, saw the fulfillment of his own earlier prophecy; and "God brake the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel" Hos 1:5. The mother was dashed to pieces on the children - It was an aggravation of this barbarity, that, first the infants were dashed against the stones before their mother's eyes, then the mothers themselves were dashed upon them. Syrians Kg2 8:12, Assyrians , Medes Isa 13:16, Babylonians Psa 137:8-9, used this barbarity. India has borne witness to us of late, how pagan nature remains the same. It may be that, in the name "Betharbel," the prophet alludes to the name "Bethel." : As "Betharbel," i. e., "the house," or it may be the idolatrous "temple of Arbel," rescued it not, but was rather the cause of its destruction, so shall Bethel. The holy places of Israel, the memorials of the free love of God to their forefathers, were pledges to "them," the children of those forefathers, that, so long as they continued in the faith of their fathers, God the Unchangeable, would continue those same mercies to them. When they "turned" Bethel, "the house of God," into Bethaven, "house of vanity," then it became, like Betharbel, literally, "house of ambush of God," the scene and occasion of their desolation.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people - Literally, "peoples." Such was the immediate fruit of departing from God and trusting in human beings and idols. They trusted in their own might, and the multitude of their people. That might should, through intestine division and anarchy, become their destruction. As in the dislocated state of the Roman empire under the first emperors, so in lsrael, the successive usurpers arose out of their armies, armies , "the multitude of their mighty ones," in whom they trusted. The "confused noise" of "war" should first "arise in" the midst of their own "peoples." They are spoken of not as one, but as many; "peoples," not, as God willed them to be, one people, for they had no principle of oneness or stability, who had no legitimate succession, either of kings or of priests; who had "made kings, but not through" God. Each successor had the same right as his predecessor, the right of might, and furnished an example and precedent and sanction to the murderer of himself or of his son.

All thy fortresses shall be spoiled - Literally, "the whole of thy fortresses shall be wasted." He speaks of the whole as one. Their fenced cities, which cut off all approach, should be one waste. They had forsaken God, their "fortress and deliverer," and so He gave up their fortresses to the enemy, so that all and each of them were laid waste. The confusion, begun among themselves, prepared for destruction by the enemy. Of this he gives one awful type.

As Shalman spoiled - (or wasted) Beth-Arbel in the day of battle "Shalman" is, no doubt, "Shalmaneser king of Assyria," who came up against Hoshea, early in his reign, "and he became a servant to him and brought him a present Kg2 17:3. Shalman" being the characteristic part of the name , the prophet probably omitted the rest, on the ground of the rhythm. "Beth-Arbel" is a city, which the Greeks, retaining, in like way, only the latter and characteristic half of the name, called Arbela .

Of the several cities called Arbela, that celebrated in Grecian history, was part of the Assyrian empire. Two others, one "in the mountain-district of Pella" , and so on the East side of Jordan, the other between Sepphoris and Tiberias , (and so in Naphthali) must, together with the countries in which they lay, have fallen into the bands of the Assyrians in the reign of "Tiglath-pileser," who "took - Gilead and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali" Kg2 15:29, in the reign of Pekah. The whole country, East of Jordan, being now in the hands of Shalmaneser, his natural approach to Samaria was over the Jordan, through the valley or plain of Jezreel. Here was the chief wealth of Israel, and the fittest field for the Assyrian horse. Over the Jordan then, from where Israel itself came when obedient to God, from where came the earlier instruments of God's chastisements, came doubtless the host of Shalmaneser, along the "great plain" of Esdraelon. "In that plain" also lay an "Arbela," "nine miles from Legion" . Legion itself was at the Western extremity of the plain, as Scythopolis or Bethshean lay at the East .

It was about fifteen miles West of Nazareth , and ten miles from Jezreel . Beth-Arbel must accordingly have lain somewhere in the middle of the valley of Jezreel. Near this Arbela, then, Israel must have sustained a decisive defeat from Shalmaneser. For the prophet does not say only, that he "spoiled Beth-Arbel," but that he did this "in a day of battle." Here Hosea, probably in the last years of his life, saw the fulfillment of his own earlier prophecy; and "God brake the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel" Hos 1:5.

The mother was dashed to pieces on the children - It was an aggravation of this barbarity, that, first the infants were dashed against the stones before their mother's eyes, then the mothers themselves were dashed upon them. Syrians Kg2 8:12, Assyrians , Medes Isa 13:16, Babylonians Psa 137:8-9, used this barbarity. India has borne witness to us of late, how pagan nature remains the same.

It may be that, in the name "Betharbel," the prophet alludes to the name "Bethel." : As "Betharbel," i. e., "the house," or it may be the idolatrous "temple of Arbel," rescued it not, but was rather the cause of its destruction, so shall Bethel. The holy places of Israel, the memorials of the free love of God to their forefathers, were pledges to "them," the children of those forefathers, that, so long as they continued in the faith of their fathers, God the Unchangeable, would continue those same mercies to them. When they "turned" Bethel, "the house of God," into Bethaven, "house of vanity," then it became, like Betharbel, literally, "house of ambush of God," the scene and occasion of their desolation.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
"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 older language of the Pentateuch. The singular יוּשּׁד refers to כּל, as in Isa 64:10, contrary to the ordinary language (cf. Ewald, 317, c). Nothing is known concerning the devastation of Beth-Arbeel by Shalman; and hence there has always been great uncertainty as to the meaning of the words. Shalman is no doubt a contracted form of Shalmanezer, the king of Assyria, who destroyed the kingdom of the ten tribes (Kg2 17:6). Bēth-'arbē'l is hardly Arbela of Assyria, which became celebrated through the victory of Alexander (Strab. Isa 16:1, Isa 16:3), since the Israelites could scarcely have become so well acquainted with such a remote city, as that the prophet could hold up the desolation that befel it as an example to them, but in all probability the Arbela in Galilaea Superior, which is mentioned in 1 Maccabees 9:2, and very frequently in Josephus, a place in the tribe of Naphtali, between Sephoris and Tiberias (according to Robinson, Pal. iii. pp. 281-2, and Bibl. Researches, p. 343: the modern Irbid). The objection offered by Hitzig, - viz. that shōd is a noun in Hos 9:6; Hos 7:13; Hos 12:2, and that the infinitive construct, with ל prefixed, is written לשׁדד in Jer 47:4; and lastly, that if Shalman were the subject, we should expect the preposition את before בּית, - is not conclusive, and the attempt which he makes to explain Salman-Beth-Arbel from the Sanscrit is not worth mentioning. The clause "mother and children," etc., a proverbial expression denoting inhuman cruelty (see at Gen 32:12), does not merely refer to the conduct of Shalman in connection with Beth-arbel, possibly in the campaign mentioned in Kg2 17:3, but is also intended to indicate the fate with which the whole of the kingdom of Israel was threatened. In Kg2 17:16 this threat concludes with an announcement of the overthrow of the monarchy, accompanied by another allusion to the guilt of the people. The subject to כּכה עשׂה is Beth-el (Chald.), not Shalman or Jehovah. Bethel, the seat of the idolatry, prepares this lot for the people on account of its great wickedness. עשׂה is a perf. proph.' and רעת רעתכם, wickedness in its second potency, extreme wickedness (cf. Ewald, 313, c). Basshachar, in the morning-dawn, i.e., at the time when prosperity is once more apparently about to dawn, tempore pacis alluscente (Cocc., Hgst.). The gerund נדמה adds to the force; and מלך ישׂ is not this or the other king, but as in Kg2 17:7, the king generally, i.e., the monarchy of Israel.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

"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 older language of the Pentateuch. The singular יוּשּׁד refers to כּל, as in Isa 64:10, contrary to the ordinary language (cf. Ewald, 317, c). Nothing is known concerning the devastation of Beth-Arbeel by Shalman; and hence there has always been great uncertainty as to the meaning of the words. Shalman is no doubt a contracted form of Shalmanezer, the king of Assyria, who destroyed the kingdom of the ten tribes (Kg2 17:6). Bēth-'arbē'l is hardly Arbela of Assyria, which became celebrated through the victory of Alexander (Strab. Isa 16:1, Isa 16:3), since the Israelites could scarcely have become so well acquainted with such a remote city, as that the prophet could hold up the desolation that befel it as an example to them, but in all probability the Arbela in Galilaea Superior, which is mentioned in 1 Maccabees 9:2, and very frequently in Josephus, a place in the tribe of Naphtali, between Sephoris and Tiberias (according to Robinson, Pal. iii. pp. 281-2, and Bibl. Researches, p. 343: the modern Irbid). The objection offered by Hitzig, - viz. that shōd is a noun in Hos 9:6; Hos 7:13; Hos 12:2, and that the infinitive construct, with ל prefixed, is written לשׁדד in Jer 47:4; and lastly, that if Shalman were the subject, we should expect the preposition את before בּית, - is not conclusive, and the attempt which he makes to explain Salman-Beth-Arbel from the Sanscrit is not worth mentioning. The clause "mother and children," etc., a proverbial expression denoting inhuman cruelty (see at Gen 32:12), does not merely refer to the conduct of Shalman in connection with Beth-arbel, possibly in the campaign mentioned in Kg2 17:3, but is also intended to indicate the fate with which the whole of the kingdom of Israel was threatened. In Kg2 17:16 this threat concludes with an announcement of the overthrow of the monarchy, accompanied by another allusion to the guilt of the people. The subject to כּכה עשׂה is Beth-el (Chald.), not Shalman or Jehovah. Bethel, the seat of the idolatry, prepares this lot for the people on account of its great wickedness. עשׂה is a perf. proph.' and רעת רעתכם, wickedness in its second potency, extreme wickedness (cf. Ewald, 313, c). Basshachar, in the morning-dawn, i.e., at the time when prosperity is once more apparently about to dawn, tempore pacis alluscente (Cocc., Hgst.). The gerund נדמה adds to the force; and מלך ישׂ is not this or the other king, but as in Kg2 17:7, the king generally, i.e., the monarchy of Israel.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
As Shalman - Probably Salmaneser. Beth - arbel - It was a city of Assyria, and gave name to a country or region in part of Assyria.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]

As Shalman - Probably Salmaneser. Beth - arbel - It was a city of Assyria, and gave name to a country or region in part of Assyria.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
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 such a case must be useless.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826

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 such a case must be useless.

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