Hosea 5:13

Both states are conscious of the destroying cancer, but neither of them adopts the only possible means of arresting its progress.

his sickness … his wound The ordinary figure for corruption of the body politic; comp. Isaiah 1:5-6; Jeremiah 30:12-13.

and sent to king Jareb Some have thought that as Ephraim and Judah are both mentioned in the first line, the subject of the second verb in this second line must be Judah. As the text stands, however, this is impossible, and if -Judah" once stood in the text as the subject of -sent", it is not easy to conjecture how it dropped out. None of the ancient versions contains the word. But who is -king Jareb", or rather the fighting king (a nickname for the king of Assyria), to whom Ephraim sent? Sennacherib has been thought of, as if there were a playful interpretation of a shortened form of this name, but the short for Sennacherib (on the analogy of Baladan for Merodach-Baladan, Sharezer for Nergal-Sharezer) would be akhirib, not irib.Schrader thinks that the king meant is Asurdan, who in 755 and 754 made expeditions against Khatarik (the Hadrach of Zechariah 9:1) and Arpadda (Arpad); Nowack prefers Tiglath-Pileser II., to whom the epithet -fighter" would accurately apply. In the uncertainty of the Israelitish chronology of this period, a decision is difficult. Indeed, it is becoming more and more evident that the intercourse between Assyria and Israel was more frequent than the fragmentary Bible notices had led us to suppose.

yet could he not Rather, though be will not he able to heal you, nor shall ye be relieved (or, with other points, shall he relieve you) of your wound. Delitzsch fully explains the passage in his note on Proverbs 17:22. The word rendered -wound" means both bandage and ulcer, and the verb is used in Syriac for -to be delivered, or, removed." How completely the politicians of Israel miscalculated, appears from Hosea 10:6.