In this post, I want to do two things: First, I’ll highlight key phrases and unique vocabulary that link together Hosea 5 and Isaiah 28, making clear how both prophets inhabit a very similar conceptual world. On this basis, I suggest that the use of צַו in Isaiah 28 sheds light on the use of צַו in Hosea 5. צַו is a rare word, unique to these two chapters, and the repeated use of the צַו in Isaiah sheds light on the meaning of צַו in Hosea 5:11.

It’s helpful to highlight the similar way these two prophets talk about Israel’s situation and God’s coming judgment, but I also want to get behind what Hosea means with the use of צַו in this verse:

Ephraim is oppressed and crushed by judgment for they determined to walk after צַו. (Hosea 5:11)

I’ll explain as clearly as I can why I think Isaiah 28 provides a helpful backdrop of context. First, let’s start with how these chapters are connected conceptually.

Judgment like a Flood

In Hosea 5:10, the word that the ESV translates “wrath” is literally “overflow” (עֶבְרָה). I think a paraphrase like “overflowing justice” works well, as you can see in the translation below. The word in question comes from a common Hebrew root that has to do with “crossing over” (עבר). Even if you don’t read Hebrew, you can see the similarity between those two words/roots in parentheses. God’s “outburst” or “overflow” refers to his justice; it’s a metaphor based on the analogy between overflowing anger and waters overflowing their banks. Hosea makes the metaphor explicit in 5:10 by pairing together the עֶבְרָה with the phrase “like water” (כַּמַיִם):

The princes of Judah have become like those who move boundaries; upon them I will pour out like water (כַּמַיִם) my overflowing justice (עֶבְרָה). (Hosea 5:10)

Isaiah also describes God’s judgment with water imagery, and like Hosea the means of judgment is Assyria. Assyria will pass over the land of Israel like a flood (Isaiah 28:2). Isaiah piles up the water imagery, here:

Look, the Lord has something strong and mighty like a downpour of hail, a destructive storm, like a downpour of water, like mighty, gushing water. He gives rest to the land with his hand. (Isaiah 28:2)

In these chapters, both prophets share the imagery of judgment like a flood. They also share some unique vocab.

Distortion as Precursor to Judgment

Isaiah 28 and Hosea 5 are the only two places where the Hebrew word tsav (צַו) is used. The translations usually interpret the word as some sort of shorthand for the similar sounding צוה or מצוה, words that have to do with an act of giving a command or instruction. But in Isaiah 28:10 and 13, I think צַו is intentionally obscured speech. It’s a piece of a word that is used in repetition to sound like baby speech, distorted speech. I’m not sure it’s supposed to be interpreted as anything other than babbling, but perhaps there’s a play on צוה.

The fact that the people have skewed, misunderstood, and misrepresented the prophetic message of Yahweh is part of the point. Listen to how Isaiah describes the people he is writing about, leading up to our instances of צַו:

To whom can someone teach knowledge? To whom will the message be made understandable? People just weaned from milk, taken from the breast, for it’s tsav (צַו) le-tsav (צַו), tsav (צַו) le-tsav (צַו), kav le-kav, kav le-kav … (Isaiah 28:9–10)

Of course, Robert Alter picks up on this word play and navigates the situation insightfully. He translates the line this way:

For it is filth-pilth, filth-pilth, vomit-momit, vomit-momit …

Here’s his explanation:

Wildly divergent interpretations have been proposed for these words. The literal sense would seem to be: “precept precept, line line.” But if precepts are at issue here, they are precepts that have been turned into gibberish by these drunkards. The phonetic kinship between צַו, precept or command, and צֹאָה, filth or excrement, and between קַו, line, and קִיא, vomit, is surely not accidental. The translation seeks to convey both this correspondence and the effect of gibberish.¹

Perhaps Alter is right and the wordplay is intended to represent how their infantile gibberish has taken words related to order—command (צוה) and line (קַו)—and distorted them—filth (צֹאָה) and vomit (קִיא).

I think the effect of the discourse is clear: The people cannot understand the truth Isaiah speaks. The outcome is gibberish, and—this is important—their gibberish will lead to more gibberish of a different kind: the influx of a foreign people whose speech they won’t understand. Israel’s distorted reflection of Isaiah’s clear words from Yahweh will lead to the Assyrians filling the land, speaking words that Israel does not understand.

For with stammering lip and foreign speech, he will speak to this people; the one who has said to them, “This is rest! Give rest to the weary! This is relief,” but they did not want to listen. The speech of Yahweh will be to them tsav (צַו) le-tsav (צַו), tsav (צַו) le-tsav (צַו), kav le-kav, kav le-kav … with the result that they will go and stumble backwards, be shattered, captured, and taken captive. (Isaiah 28:11–13)

This context in Isaiah helps make clear what’s being communicated in Hosea 5:11, the only other place where צַו is used. Hosea and Isaiah are addressing the same people, Israel/Ephraim (Isaiah 28:1; Hosea 5:11).

Ephraim is oppressed and crushed by judgment for they determined to walk after צַו. (Hosea 5:11)

How do we understand צַו here? The flood of judgment from Assyria is coming. They’ve chased distorted versions of good, and distortion is what Assyria will bring. The ESV renders the word “filth,” but how do they get there? I hope this post makes the path a little more clear. It’s helped me work it out. I would render it this way:

Ephraim is oppressed and crushed by judgment for they determined to walk after a distorted version of good (צַו). (Hosea 5:11)

Isaiah related צַו to both Israel’s distortion and the speech of the coming Assyrians, and Hosea does a very similar thing, too. Two verses after Hosea 5:11, where the prophet says that Ephraim is determined to “walk after צַו,” the prophet makes a parallel statement: Ephraim “walked after Assyria” (Hosea 5:13). Hosea sets צַו and Assyria in parallel, just like Isaiah.

Conclusion

Isaiah 28 and Hosea 5 share a common view of God’s judgment on Israel. Assyria will conquer the land, passing over it like a destroying flood (Isaiah 28:2; Hosea 5:10). Once the shared conceptual world between these passages is recognized, it makes sense to let the repeated use of צַו in Isaiah 28 inform the use of the word in Hosea 5. Both prophets are saying that Ephraim is headed for judgment because they are determined to chase after distorted versions of what is good. צַו represents “a distorted version of what is good.”

1. Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (Norton, 2019), p. 709. Instead of writing the Hebrew words in English transliteration I wrote them in Hebrew characters because it was easier to type. ↩