Hosea 6:5

“Therefore have I hewed [them] by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, etc.] Sharply reproved them for their sins by the prophets, who were as lapidaries that cut stone, or us hewers of timber that cut off the knotty parts; so these by preaching the terrors of the law, which is a killing letter, and by delivering out the threatenings of the Lord, and denouncing his judgments upon them for their sins, cut them to the heart, and killed them; for their foretelling and prophesying of their being slain, ruined, and destroyed, was a slaying of them; (see <240110>Jeremiah 1:10). The Targum is, “because I admonished them by the message of my prophets, and they returned not, I…”

“I hewed them by the prophets--that is, I announced by the prophets that they should be hewn asunder, like trees of the forest. God identifies His act with that of His prophets; the word being His instrument for executing His will (Jer 1:10; Eze 43:3). by . . . words of my mouth-- (Isa 11:4; Jer 23:29; Heb 4:12). thy judgments--the judgments which I will inflict on thee, Ephraim and Judah (Hos 6:4). So "thy judgments," that is, those inflicted on thee (Zep 3:15). are as the light, &c.--like the light, palpable to the eyes of all, as coming from God, the punisher of sin. HENDERSON translates, "lightning" (compare Job 37:3, Margin; Job 35:15).”

“Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets - Since they despised God’s gentler warnings and measures, He used severer. “He hewed” them, He says, as men hew stones out of the quarry, and with hard blows and sharp instruments overcome the hardness of the stone which they have to work. Their piety and goodness were light and unsubstantial as a summer cloud; their stony hearts were harder than the material stone. The stone takes the shape which man would give it; God hews man in vain; he will not receive the image of God, for which and in which he was framed. God, elsewhere also, likens the force and vehemence of His word to “a hammer which breaketh the rocks in pieces” Jeremiah 23:29; “a sword…”

“Therefore - Because I would do for you whatever might be done. Hewed them - I have severely, and unweariedly reproved, and threatened them. By thy words - As I did by word foretel, so I did effect in due time. Thy judgments - The punishments threatened, which fell upon this people, did so fully answer the prediction that every one might see them clear as the light, and as constantly executed as the morning. Hosea 6:6”

“have I: Sa1 13:13, Sa1 15:22; Kg1 14:6, Kg1 17:1, Kg1 18:17; Kg2 1:16; Ch2 21:12; Isa 58:1; Jer 1:10, Jer 1:18, Jer 5:14, Jer 13:13; Eze 3:9, Eze 43:3; Act 7:31 I have: Kg1 19:17; Isa 11:4; Jer 23:29; Heb 4:12; Rev 1:16, Rev 2:16, Rev 9:15, Rev 9:21 and thy judgments are as: or, that thy judgments might be as, etc. Gen 18:25; Job 34:10; Psa 37:6, Psa 119:120; Zep 3:5; Rom 2:5 Hosea 6:6”

“"Therefore have I hewn by the prophets, slain them by the words of my mouth: and my judgment goeth forth as light." ‛Al-kēn, therefore, because your love vanishes again and again, God must perpetually punish. חצב ב does not mean to strike in among the prophets (Hitzig, after the lxx, Syr., and others); but ב is instrumental, as in Isa 10:15, and châtsabh signifies to hew, not merely to hew off, but to hew out or carve. The nebhı̄'ı̄m cannot be false prophets, on account of the parallel "by the words of my mouth," but must be the true prophets. Through them God had hewed or carved the nation, or, as Jerome and Luther render it, dolavi, i.e., worked it like a piece of hard wood, in other…”