This warning confronted the tribe of Ephraim, or perhaps all Israel, and the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
5:8 Blowing trumpets in cities announced the coming of an invader. Throughout Israel's towns the sentries would blow alarms: in Gibeah and Ramah in northern Judah and in Beth-aven (Bethel) in southern Israel. Throughout the territory of Benjamin, which was home to all these towns at one time or another, news of war would come. Rather than leading Ephraim into battle, as the tribe of Benjamin did in Deborah's day (Judg. 5:14), the invader would pursue Benjamin as it did Ephraim. Benjamin should have been particularly watchful because of its close geographical proximity to Israel.
"This verse describes an invasion of the territory of Benjamin from the south, i.e., from Judah. The enemy is portrayed as advancing along the main mountain road from Jerusalem through Bethel and thereafter into the heart of Ephraim. Gibeah, only three miles north of Jerusalem, is the first to be attacked; then Ramah, five miles north of Jerusalem; and finally Bethel, eleven miles north of Jerusalem, on the northern border of Benjamin."45
5:9 When the Lord rebuked Ephraim for her sins, she would become a desolation throughout her tribal territories. The Lord promised that this would surely happen (cf. Lev. 26:32-35).
5:10 The leaders of Judah had also broken covenant with the Lord (cf. Isa. 5:8; Mic. 2:1-2), as those who move boundary markers. Judah had re-annexed Benjamite territory, thus violating the terms of the Mosaic Covenant regarding tribal allotments (cf. Deut. 19:14; 27:17).46Consequently God's wrath would rain down on them. The boundaries that the leaders of Judah had moved were not just physical but also spiritual. They had moved the boundaries between right and wrong, true and false religion, and the true God and idols.
5:11 Ephraim would experience crushing judgment by an enemy invader because he determined to follow false gods rather than divine commands (cf. Deut. 4:3; 6:14; 8:19; 28:14; Jer. 2:5). The human command in view is probably Jeroboam I's institution of calf worship at altars in Bethel and Dan (1 Kings 12:27-30).
5:12 Yahweh would consume the Northern Kingdom as a moth eats cloth or as rot causes bones to decay. He was behind the enemy invasion.
5:13 Both Israel and Judah appealed to the king of Assyria for help, but he was unable to save them. King Ahab of Judah did this (2 Kings 16:5-9), and so did King Menahem of Israel (2 Kings 15:19-20) and King Hoshea of Israel (cf. 2 Kings 17:3). Rather than assisting, the Assyrians attacked both nations.
5:14 However it would be Yahweh, not the Assyrians, who was ultimately responsible for the discipline of these kingdoms (cf. v. 12). As a lion He would tear them to pieces and carry them away in judgment, and there would be no one who could deliver them. Israel fell to the Assyrians in 722 B.C. after two previous Assyrian invasions (in 743 and 734-32 B.C.). Judah escaped Assyria in 701 B.C., due to King Hezekiah's trust in the Lord, but Babylonia finally fulfilled this prophecy to her in 586 B.C.
5:15 As a lion returning to its lair, Yahweh would go away and leave His people until they bore their punishment and sought His forgiveness. When they felt their affliction they would seek Him earnestly (cf. v. 6; Deut. 4:29).
"The language would appear to reach into the Millennium, when the Israelites will indeed repent before God and seek his face (cf. 1:10-11; 2:14-23)."47
The last statement of this verse provides a transition from the messages of judgment in chapters 4 and 5 to the promises of restoration in 6:1-3.
