Albert Barnes Commentary Hosea 5:10

"The princes of Judah are like them that remove the landmark: I will pour out my wrath upon them like water." — Hosea 5:10 (ASV)

The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound - All avaricious encroachment on the paternal inheritance of others was strictly forbidden by God in the law, under the penalty of His curse. Cursed is he that removeth his neighbor’s landmark (Deuteronomy 27:17). The “princes of Judah,” that is, those who were the king’s counselors and chief in the civil polity, had committed sin similar to this.

Since the prophet had just pronounced the desolation of Israel, perhaps their sin was that, instead of taking warning from the threatened destruction and turning to God, they thought only how the removal of Ephraim would benefit them by the enlargement of their borders. They might also hope to increase their private estates from the desolate lands of Ephraim, their brother. The unregenerate heart, instead of being awed by God’s judgment on others, looks to see what advantages it may gain from them.

Times of calamity are also times of greediness. Israel had been a continual sore to Judah. The princes of Judah rejoiced in the prospect of their removal, instead of mourning their sin and fearing for themselves. More broadly still, the words may mean that the “princes of Judah” burst all bounds set for them by the law of God, to which nothing was to be added, from which nothing was to be diminished, transferring to idols or devils, to sun, moon, and stars, or to the beings supposed to preside over them, the love, honor, and worship due to God Alone.

I will pour out My wrath like water - As long as those bounds were not broken through, the justice of God, although provoked in many ways, was nevertheless restrained. When Judah broke them, they would, as it were, make a way for the chastisement of God, which would burst in like a flood upon them, overspreading the whole land, yet bringing not renewed life, but death. Like a flood, it overwhelmed the land; but it was a flood, not of water, but of the wrath of God. They had burst the bounds that divided them from Israel and had let in upon themselves its chastisements.