Hoseachapter 4
19 verses · Hosea · 755 to 715 BC · The Twelve
Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a case against the people of the land: “There is no truth, no loving devotion, and no knowledge of God in the land!
Introduction
Hosea, The Twelve, Hosea Overview.
With this chapter Hosea turns from his household to the nation, and the rest of the book is his preaching to it. He spoke to northern Israelites who worshipped on the hilltops and at the calf shrine of Bethel. The chapter opens as a case brought at law, and the charge is broken loyalty to the covenant. Its first target is the priesthood, appointed to teach that covenant. Listen for the word knowledge and what it meant between a king and those bound to him. Listen too for the new name Hosea gives Bethel, which he keeps to the end of the book.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who worshipped at hill shrines and at the calf-sanctuaries
- What
- The LORD's case against Israel, charging the priests first with rejecting the knowledge of God and the people with following them into idolatry.
- Where
- The hilltop shrines of the northern kingdom, with Gilgal and Bethel, renamed Beth-aven, named, and a warning sent south to Judah.
- When
- About 750 to 745 BC, in the northern kingdom as its priesthood is put on trial; the date is approximate.
- Why
- To show that the nation's ruin began with priests who stopped teaching the covenant and with a people who turned to shrines and divination.
Historical context
The word translated knowledge here is not information. In covenant language, to know God meant to be in an acknowledged, loyal relationship with him, the way a vassal knew his king. The complaint that there is no knowledge of God in the land is a charge of broken allegiance, and the priests are blamed because teaching that allegiance was their job.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
Hill worship was as physical as the text describes. Shrines sat on ridge tops and under particular trees, oak, poplar, terebinth, because the shade was good and the height was thought to be nearer the gods. Excavated Israelite high places have altars, standing stones, and space for feasting.
The consultation by a piece of wood was ordinary divination. A rod or two arrow shafts were dropped or shaken and the pattern read for an answer. It was widespread across the region, and it is named here alongside the drinking and the shrine prostitution as part of the same package.
Two place names are turned into insults. Gilgal was where Israel first camped in the land under Joshua, and Bethel, house of God, is renamed Beth-aven, house of wickedness, because it housed one of the two golden calves. Hosea will use that nickname for the rest of the book.
Significance
The line that would have landed hardest is that the people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, and that the priests rejected it first. The men paid to hold the nation's memory had let it go, and the whole country went down with them.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
There is a warning to Judah tucked into the middle: do not come up to Gilgal. Hosea's message travelled south, and the southern kingdom was being told to watch what was happening to its northern relatives and stay away from it.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts, and it carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days. This card therefore names no public reading of the chapter and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the third verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Vayeshev 2:8. Under the seventh verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Beshalach 16:2.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries. He is quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY, and every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern. His lemmas, which carry the verse in that translation's wording, are never quoted.
Rashi reads the quarrel of the fourth verse through the story of Amos. The people warn the true prophets not to reprove them, as Amaziah the priest of Bethel warned Amos. Rashi adds, "This transpired in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash in whose time Hosea prophesied" (Rashi on Hosea 4:4:1). The priests were the teachers of the nation, so to strive with the priest is to strive "with their instructors". Rashi cites Deuteronomy 33:10, which gives the tribe of Levi the teaching of the law (Rashi on Hosea 4:4:2).
At the sixth verse, where God forgets the children, Rashi says why the children bear it. The reason is that "those who stood on Mt. Sinai offered their children as surety for their parents to keep the Torah", and he cites Tanhuma and Midrash Psalms for it (Rashi on Hosea 4:6:1). At the eleventh verse harlotry and wine "have captured their hearts away from me" (Rashi on Hosea 4:11:1).
The fourteenth verse Rashi ties to the ordeal of the bitter waters. God will no longer test a wife suspected of adultery by them. The reason he gives is "Because their husbands join with harlots; for once the man is not free of sin, the waters do not test his wife" (Rashi on Hosea 4:14:1). He cites the Sifrei and Sotah 47a for it. At the fifteenth verse he gives two readings of the warning to Judah. In the second, "the sons of Judah are not guilty thereof", and God will not hold them to account (Rashi on Hosea 4:15:1).
At the seventeenth verse Rashi reads the order to leave Ephraim alone as an order to the prophet. Ephraim is joined to idols "and cannot divest himself of them", so the prophet is to stop rebuking him "since it will not avail" (Rashi on Hosea 4:17:1). The wind of the last verse is the enemy: "So will the enemies come upon them and drive them into exile" (Rashi on Hosea 4:19:1).
The corpus carries two further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Hosea 4:1:1. The corpus cites Radak on Hosea 4:1:1 the same way.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 10:1, Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 11:13:2 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 11:13:1. On the second verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 74:1, Bamidbar Rabbah 9:1 and Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 23. On the third verse it holds Kiddushin 13a:14, Midrash Tanchuma, Vayeshev 2:8 and Otzar Midrashim, The Ten Exiles 2:10. On the fourth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Kiddushin 4:5, Ein Yaakov, Kiddushin 4:5 and Jerusalem Talmud Kiddushin 4:1:15.
On the fifth verse it holds Ein Yaakov, Menakhot 11:1, Ein Yaakov, Moed Katan 3:12 and Jerusalem Talmud Avodah Zarah 1:1:3. On the sixth verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 15:3, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 9:19 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yoma 3:19. On the seventh verse it holds Devarim Rabbah 2:19 and Midrash Tanchuma, Beshalach 16:2. On the tenth verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Yevamot 6:5:3, Midrash Aggadah, Deuteronomy 1:1:12 and Otzar Midrashim, Chuppah of Eliyahu, Chuppat Eliyahu Rabbah 101. On the eleventh verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 20:23, Eikhah Rabbah 1:47 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Gittin 7:3.
On the twelfth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sukkah 5:8, Ein Yaakov, Sukkah 5:12 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 18:10:1. On the thirteenth verse it holds Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 22 and Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 30:15:8. On the fourteenth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 9:44 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 9:11. On the fifteenth verse it holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations 1:1:4 and Tractate Sefer Torah 5:12. On the sixteenth verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 23:2 and Eikhah Rabbah 1:3. On the seventeenth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 11:7 and Bereshit Rabbah 38:6.
On the eighteenth verse it holds Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 11:16:15. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Hosea 4:4:1 to 4:19:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Hosea 4:1:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Hosea 4:1:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/hosea/4.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion and no Haftarah for this chapter and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
No truth, no mercy, no knowledge of God in the land
Hosea 4:1-3
the LORD has a case against: The book turns to the land, for "the LORD has a case against the people of the land". The sins listed are ones the commandments forbid, and "one act of bloodshed follows another". So "the land mourns", and beasts, birds and fish waste away, creation drawn into the covenant's collapse.
Hosea 4:1
“Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel - The prophet begins here, in a series of pictures as it were, to exhibit the people of Israel to themselves, that they might know that God did not do without cause all this which He denounced against them. Here, at the outset, He summons, the whole people, their prophets and priests, before the judgment seat of God, where God would condescend, Himself to implead them, and hear, if they had ought in their defense.”
one act of bloodshed follows another: Adam Clarke matched each sin to the lack named in verse 1: without truth come lies and false oaths, and without loving devotion comes murder. Matthew Henry tied the bloodshed to the throne. Shallum killed Zechariah, Menahem killed Shallum, Pekah killed Pekahiah, and Hoshea killed Pekah.
Hosea 4:2
“By swearing, and lying - Where there is no truth there will be lies and perjury; for false swearing is brought in to confirm lying statements. And when there is no mercy, killing, slaying, and murders, will be frequent. And where there is no knowledge of God, no conviction of his omnipresence and omniscience, private offenses, such as stealing, adulteries, etc., will prevail. These, sooner or later, break out, become a flood, and carry all before them.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 4:2
“It was about this time that there was so much blood shed in grasping at the crown; Shallum slew Zechariah, and Menahem slew Shallum, Pekah slew Pekahiah, and Hoshea slew Pekah; and the like bloody work, it is likely, there was among other contenders, so that the land was polluted with blood ( Ps. cvi. 38 ); it was filled with blood from one end to the other, 2 Kings xxi.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Therefore the land mourns: Therefore ties the mourning land to the bloodshed of verse 2. Jerome records that the Greek adds serpents to the beasts and birds that waste away. Wesley saw the fish of the sea lost as the waters dried up or filled with blood.
Hosea 4:3
Therefore the earth will mourn, and all who dwell in it will be weakened: in the beast of the field and in the bird of the sky, and even the fish of the sea will be gathered. " LXX: "Therefore the earth will mourn and be diminished with all who dwell in it, with the beasts of the field," "with the serpents of the earth, and with the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea will fail."
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 4:3patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 4:3
“Therefore shall the land mourn - Dumb inanimate nature seems to rejoice and to be in unison with our sense of joy, when bedewed and fresh through rain and radiant with light; and, again, to mourn, when smitten with drought or blight or disease, or devoured by the creatures which God employs to lay it waste for man’s sins. Dumb nature is, as it were, in sympathy with man, cursed in Adam, smitten amid man’s offences, its outward show responding to man’s inward heart, wasted, parched, desolate, when man himself was marred and wasted by his sins.”
Hosea 4:3
“The tamer either were killed by enemies, or offended with stench, forsook the country, or were devoured by birds of prey. Taken away - Whether by drying up the waters, or by corrupting them with blood and carcasses.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Hosea 4:4-6
let no man contend: No one is to bring a charge, and priest and prophet stumble together. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" is the chapter's hinge, and verse 6 lays the lack on the priests, who "rejected knowledge". The LORD rejects them as priests and forgets their children.
Hosea 4:4
"Nevertheless, let no one judge, and let no man be accused: for thy people are as they that contradict the priest, and thou shalt fall this day, and the prophet shall fall with thee." LXX: "That no one be judged, nor anyone be rebuked: but my people are like a priest who is contradicted, and shall be weakened" "during the day, and the prophet shall be weakened with thee." According to the Septuagint interpreters, what we have placed "that no one be judged or rebuked," should be combined with the previous chapter, but we follow the Hebrews.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 4:4-5patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 4:4
“Yet let no man strive - Or, no man contendeth. All these evils stalk abroad unreproved, for all are guilty. None can say, “Let me pluck the mote out of thy eye,” because he knows that “there is a beam in his own.” For thy people are - The people and the priest are alike rebels against the Lord; the priests having become idolaters, as well as the people.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
You will stumble by day: John Wesley took the prophet as one who prophesied lies and the mother as the kingdom itself. Albert Barnes noted that the stumbling comes by day, when a traveller least expects it, citing John 11:9-10. The night brings the prophet down as well.
Hosea 4:5
“Therefore shalt thou fall - The two parts of the verse fill up each other. “By day and by night shall they fall, people and prophets together.” Their calamities should come upon them successively, day and night. They should stumble by day, when there is least fear of stumbling Joh 11:9-10; and night should not by its darkness protect them.”
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 4:5
“The prophet - Prophesied lies. In the night - In the darkest calamities. Thy mother - Both the state, or kingdom; and the synagogues, or churches: the publick is as a mother to private persons, so all shall be destroyed.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge
destroyed for lack of knowledge: Wesley took the knowledge as knowledge of God, and he counted the people already destroyed in part by the king of Assyria and by Menahem. Clarke stressed that the people rejected the means to know.
Hosea 4:6
"At night, I made your mother be silent, my people have become silent, because they have no knowledge: for you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you, and you will not serve as a priest to me; and you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your sons." LXX: "I have compared thy mother to the night, and my people to have no knowledge. Since thou hast refused knowledge, I will also refuse thee, that thou shalt not be a priest to me.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 4:6patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 4:6
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge - They have not the knowledge of God, nor of sacred things, nor of their own interest, nor of the danger to which they are exposed. They walk on blindly, and perish. Because thou hast rejected knowledge - So they might have become wise, had they not rejected the means of improvement.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Hosea 4:6
“Destroyed - Many were already cut off by Pul king of Assyria, and many destroyed by the bloody tyranny of Menahem. Of knowledge - Of God, his law, his providence, his holy nature, his hatred of sin and power to punish it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Hosea 4:7-10
The more they multiplied: The more the priests "multiplied, the more they sinned against Me". They "feed on the sins of My people", living on the sin offerings, so "like people, like priest" puts both under one punishment. "They will eat but not be satisfied; they will be promiscuous but not multiply".
Hosea 4:7
"According to their abundance, so they sinned against me: I will change their glory into shame." LXX: "According to their abundance, so they sinned against me, I will turn their glory into shame." Israel had as many altars built for demons as they had men, in whose sacrifices they sinned against me. Therefore, I will exchange their glory, in which they boasted to themselves and preferred to God, into ignominy, so that both the priests and the people may be captured.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 4:7-9patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 4:7
“As they were increased, so they sinned against me,.... As the children of the priests increased and grew up, they sinned against the Lord, imitating their parents; they were as many sinners as they were persons, not one to be excepted: this expresses their universal depravity and corruption. Some understand it of their increase, as in number, so in riches, wealth, honour, dignity, and authority, and yet they sinned more and more; which shows their ingratitude.”
They feed on the sins: The Hebrew word chattath names both sin and the sin offering, and Clarke reads it as the offering the priests ate. Henry took their hearts set on iniquity as priests glad to see the people sin, for each sin brought another sacrifice to share. Their income grew with the guilt.
Hosea 4:8
“They eat up the sin of my people - חטאת chattath, the sin-offering, though it be offered contrary to the law; for their hearts are set on iniquity, they wish to do whatever is contrary to God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 4:8
“They set their heart upon the people's iniquities; they lifted up their soul to them, that is, they were glad then people did commit iniquity, that they might be obliged to bring an offering to make atonement for it, which they should have their share of; the more sins the more sacrifices, and therefore they cared not how much sin people were guilty of.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
like people, like priest: Albert Barnes described the bad priest copying the sins he should reprove, while the people shelter behind his example. Matthew Henry notes that repay translates a word for causing their deeds to return upon them. A sin thought finished comes back to its doer.
Hosea 4:9
“And there shall be like people, like priest - Priest and people were alike in sin. Yea they are wont, if bad, to foment each other’s sin. The bad priest copies the sins which he should reprove, and excuses himself by the frailty of our common nature. The people, acutely enough, detect the worldliness or self-indulgence of the priest, and shelter themselves under his example. Their defense stands good before people; but what before God?”
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 4:9
“Thus God will punish them both for their ways, and reward them for their doings. God will cause their doings to return upon them (so the word is); when a sin is committed the sinner thinks it is gone and he shall hear no more of it, but he shall find it called over again, and made to return, either to his humiliation or to his condemnation.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
eat but not be satisfied: Jerome saw here the nature of pleasure: the more a man eats of it, the less satisfied he is. He set it against Matthew 5:6, where those who hunger for righteousness are satisfied. Both the eating and the promiscuity end empty.
Hosea 4:10
"And they shall eat, and not be satisfied: and they have committed fornication, and have not ceased: because they have forsaken the Lord in not keeping him." LXX: "And they shall eat, and not be filled: they have committed fornication, and shall not be directed: because they have forsaken the Lord, to keep not his law." Insatiable pleasure is created, and the more one is captured by it, the more hunger it creates. On the contrary, blessed are the hungry and thirsty for justice, for they will be satisfied.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 4:10-12patristic
Hosea 4:11-14
Promiscuity, wine, and new wine: e take away understanding", and the prostitution named here is the text's own figure for unfaithfulness to the covenant. The people "consult their wooden idols", led astray by "a spirit of prostitution", and sacrifice on the hills "because their shade is pleasant".
Hosea 4:11
“Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart - (Literally, “takes away”). Wine and fleshly sin are pictured as blended in one, to deprive man of his affections and reason and understanding, and to leave him brutish and irrational. In all the relations of life toward God and man, reason and will are guided by the affections. And so, in God’s language, the “heart” stands for the “understanding” as well as the “affections,” because it directs the understanding, and the understanding, bereft of true affections, and under the rule of passion, becomes senseless.”
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 4:11
“A moral truth applicable to all times. The special reference here is to the licentious orgies connected with the Syrian worship, which lured Israel away from the pure worship of God (Isa 28:1, 7; Am 4:1). take away the heart--that is, the understanding; make men blind to their own true good (Ec 7:7).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
A spirit of whoredom has led them astray
consult their wooden idols: Adam Clarke took the divining rods as rhabdomancy, the reading of omens from rods, which he explains at Ezekiel 21. Matthew Henry set the wooden idols beside Jeremiah 2:27, where men call a piece of wood their father. Israel had God's own word to consult.
Hosea 4:12
“My people ask counsel at their stocks,.... Or "at his wood" (a), or stick; his wooden image, as the Targum; their wooden gods, their idols made of wood, mere stocks and blocks, without life or sense, and much less reason and understanding, and still less divinity.”
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 4:12
“At their stocks - They consult their wooden gods. And their staff declareth - They use divination by rods; see the note on Ezekiel 21 (note), where this sort of divination (rabdomancy) is explained.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Hosea 4:12
“They say to a stock, Thou art my father ( Jer. ii. 27 ); and, if it were indeed a father, it were worthy of this honour; but it was a great affront to God, who was indeed their Father, and whose lively oracles they had among them, with which they had liberty to consult at any time, thus to ask counsel at their stocks.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
under oak, poplar, and terebinth: Jerome recalled the Law allowed sacrifice only at the place the LORD would choose, with no trees planted beside the altar. Barnes noted mountaintops and hills seemed nearer heaven, and God chose mountains for Isaac's sacrifice and the giving of the law. The daughters follow the worship of their fathers.
Hosea 4:13
"On the tops of the mountains, they sacrificed, and on the hills, they burned incense under an oak and a poplar and a terebinth because its shade was good." According to the Law, it is commanded that one should not offer sacrifice to the Lord anywhere other than the place that the Lord God chooses. Trees are not to be planted near the altar so that a passive and indulgent religion does not overthrow the austerity of the one true religion.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 4:13patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 4:13
“They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains - The tops of hills or mountains seemed nearer heaven, the air was purer, the place more removed from the world. To worship the Unseen God upon them, was then the suggestion of natural feeling and of simple devotion. God Himself directed the typical sacrifice of Isaac to take place on a mountain; on that same mountain He commanded that the temple should be built; on a mountain, God gave the law; on a mountain was our Saviour transfigured; on a mountain was He crucified; from a mountain He ascended into heaven.”
Hosea 4:13
“But thus they might read their sin in their punishment, as David's adultery was punished in the debauching of his concubines by his own son, 2 Sam. xii. Note, When the same sin in others is made men's grief and affliction which they have themselves been guilty of they must own that the Lord is righteous.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
I will not punish your daughters: Gill read the sparing two ways, as God leaving the women to go on unchecked, or as a lighter judgment because their men led them. Adam Clarke called a people desperate when God removes even his judgments. The men set the example.
Hosea 4:14
"Therefore, your daughters will prostitute themselves, and your daughters-in-law will commit adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they fornicate or your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, because they themselves consorted with prostitutes and offered sacrifices with effeminate men, and the people who do not understand will be punished." LXX: "Therefore your daughters will prostitute themselves, and your brides will commit adultery; I will not punish them for prostitution nor for adultery, because they went to prostitutes and arranged pagan temple rites with sacred prostitutes; a senseless people they are."
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 4:14patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 4:14
“I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredoms, nor your spouses when they commit adultery,.... Either not punish them at all, so that they shall go on in sin, and to a greater degree, to the disgrace and reproach of their parents and husbands; or not as yet, or not so severely in them, because it was by their example they were led into it. Jarchi's note is very impertinent, that God threatens them with the disuse of the bitter waters of jealousy.”
Hosea 4:14
“I will not punish - Why should you be stricken any more; ye will revolt more and more. When God, in judgment, removes his judgments, the case of that people is desperate. While there is hope, there is correction. Themselves are separated - There is a reference here to certain debaucheries which should not be described.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone
Hosea 4:15-16
may Judah avoid such guilt!: Judah is told to keep away from Gilgal and "do not go up to Beth-aven". The name Bethel, house of God, is twisted into Beth-aven, house of vanity, for what the calf worship had made of the place. Israel is "as obstinate as a stubborn heifer".
Hosea 4:15
“Offend - Commit like sins. Gilgal - Gilgal was chosen by Jeroboam, or by succeeding idolaters for the solemn worship of their idols. Beth-aven - Beth-el, where Jacob lodged, who called it Beth-el, the house of God; but when Jeroboam made it the place for his calf-worship, it became Beth-aven, the house of vanity or iniquity.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 4:15
“Let not Judah offend - The sentence of Israel had been pronounced; she had been declared incorrigible. The prophet turns from her now to Judah. Israel had abandoned God’s worship, rejected or corrupted His priests, given herself to the worship of the calves; no marvel what further excess of riot she run into! But Judah, who had the law and the temple and the service of God, let not her, (he would say,) involve herself in Israel’s sin. If Israel, in willful blindness, had plunged herself in ruin, let not Judah involve herself in her sin and her ruin.”
Hosea 4:15
“The men of Israel were brethren, and near neighbours, to the men of Judah; Israel was more numerous, and at this time in a prosperous condition, and therefore there was danger lest the men of Judah should learn their way and get a snare to their souls. Note, The nearer we are to the infection of sin the more need we have to stand upon our guard.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
as obstinate as a stubborn heifer: The Berean sets the second line as a question. Clarke read it as irony: the open meadow is Assyria, where Israel would be scattered like lambs. Wesley saw a wilderness with no rest, safety or food for the heifer.
Hosea 4:16
“Israel slideth back - They are untractable, like an unbroken heifer or steer, that pulls back, rather than draw in the yoke. Will feed them as a lamb in a large place - A species of irony. Ye shall go to Assyria, and be scattered among the nations; ye may sport yourselves in the extensive empire, wither ye shall be carried captives.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 4:16
“As a back-sliding heifer - Which when grown lusty, and wanton, will neither endure the yoke nor be confined in her allowed pastures. In a large place - In a large place or wilderness, where is no rest, safety or provision; such shall be the condition of the ten tribes.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Hosea 4:17-19
Ephraim is joined to idols: s; leave him alone!" hands the people over to the course they chose. Once "their liquor is gone, they turn to prostitution", the whirlwind wraps them in its wings, and "their sacrifices will bring them shame".
Hosea 4:17
“Ephraim is joined to idols - that is, banded, bound up with them, “associated,” as the word means, with them so as to cleave to them, willing neither to part with nor to be parted from, them. The idols are called by a name, denoting toils; with toil they were fashioned, and, when fashioned, they were a toil and grief. Let him alone - Literally, give him rest, i. e., from all further expostulations, which he will not hear.”
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 4:17
"Partaker of their idols is Ephraim, leave him." LXX: "Ephraim, a participant in idols, has placed scandals for himself." Ephraim, of whose tribe Jeroboam son of Nabath, who first set up golden calves in Bethel and Dan, is king of ten tribes. Therefore, O Judah, whom I mentioned above, if Israel commits fornication, let at least Judah not sin. Listen to my advice, do not disregard the words of the prophets; for Ephraim once was a friend and partner with idols.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 4:17-19patristic
their rulers dearly love disgrace: The Hebrew for rulers is shields, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note, and they give two readings of the first line. Calvin saw drunkards whose liquor has turned sour, and Maurer, like the Berean, saw prostitution once the liquor is gone. The rulers love the disgrace.
Hosea 4:18
“Or, unbridled licentiousness; not mere ordinary sin, but as abandoned as drunkards who vomit and smell sour with wine potations [CALVIN]. MAURER not so well translates, "When their drinking is over, they commit whoredoms," namely, in honor of Astarte (Ho 4:13, 14). her rulers--Israel's; literally, "shields" (compare Ps 47:9). with shame . . . love, Give ye-- (Pr 30:15).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
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Hosea 4:18
“They drove a trade of uncleanness; it was not a single act now and then, but their constant practice, as it is of many that have eyes full of adultery and which cannot cease from that sin, 2 Pet. ii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The whirlwind has wrapped them: The verb is past tense. Barnes took that as the sign of a sentence already fixed, and set these wings against the eagle's wings of Exodus 19:4 that bore Israel. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the shame as the disappointment of hope placed in idol sacrifices.
Hosea 4:19
“Israel shall be swept away from her land (Ho 4:16) suddenly and violently as if by "the wings of the wind" (Ps 18:10; Jer 4:11, 12). ashamed . . . of their sacrifices--disappointed to their shame in their hope of help through their sacrifices to idols.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Hosea 4:19
“And then they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices, ashamed of their sin in offering sacrifice to idols, ashamed of their folly in putting themselves to such an expense upon gods that have no power to help them, and thereby making that God their enemy who has almighty power to destroy them. Note, There are sacrifices that men will one day be ashamed of.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hosea 4:19
“The wind hath bound her up in her wings - When God brought Israel out of Egypt, He “bare them on eagle’s wings, and brought them unto Himself” Exo 19:4; Deu 32:11. Now they had abandoned God, and God abandoned them as chaff to the wind. The certainty of Israel’s doom is denoted by its being spoken of in the past. It was certain in the divine judgment. Sudden, resistless, irreversible are God’s judgments, when they come.”
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.