Hosea 4:10
in Hosea 4They will eat but not be satisfied; they will be promiscuous but not multiply. For they have stopped obeying the LORD.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And they shall eat, and not have enough; they shall play the harlot, and shall not increase; because they have left off taking heed to Jehovah.
KJV
For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the Lord.
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This verse in Hosea 4
Commentary
10 notes on this verse"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.
This site's exposition
As they were increased
on Hosea 4:7-10
As the priests increased in number and prosperity they sinned the more, so their glory is turned into shame, a reversal the older writers call a fitting recompense for a caste that grew fat rather than faithful. They eat up the sin of my people is read as the priests profiting from the sin offerings brought for the people's guilt, feeding on wrongdoing instead of correcting it, so like people, like priest binds both under one coming punishment. They shall eat and not have enough, and shall commit whoredom and not increase, because they have left off taking heed to the Lord, futility built into the very acts meant to satisfy.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
Desire is insatiable, and the more it is felt, the more it creates in those who enjoy it a greater hunger. On the contrary: "Blessed are the ones who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied." For righteousness satisfies, while wickedness—because it has no substance—deceives by fraud those who feed on vain things and leaves empty the stomachs of those who hunger. "They played the whore continually." In fornication they run out of strength, yet the ardent desire of the fornication does not make a pause. The ten tribes played the whore with the idols of Jeroboam son of Naboth.
A remnant from Israel has been preserved. Since the judgment does not go entirely to the priest, he adds, "They eat, but they are not satisfied." This means either emigration and captivity for those leaders of Israel or, because of Christ, desolation of Judea by the hands of Romans.… For among those Israelites brought then by Shalmaneser and Tiglath-pileser III to Assyria and Media, very few could offer to the priests the things prescribed by the law.
"They kept the whoredom" means that they [Israel's leaders] got ready to preserve the error for those who were under their authority. Yet they should rather have removed and thrown it from their midst. For it is the vigilance of the teachers which should eagerly remove what hurts the people and turn down without delay what is hateful to God. By refusing to do this, they allow the works of error to stay somehow and to keep. Yet they confirm rather the contrary, when the minds of those who teach receive nothing but wine and drunkenness. For how will the disciples keep vigil, and how will they be able to point the eye of the understanding to God in nature and in truth, if the instructors and the teachers of useful things will still encourage them to err?
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Note, What is unlawfully gained cannot be comfortably used; no, nor that which is inordinately coveted; it is just that the desires which are insatiable should always be unsatisfied, and that those should never have enough who never know when they have enough. The more they increased the more they sinned (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
For they shall eat, and not have enough,....
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
eat, and not have enough--just retribution on those who "eat up (greedily) the sin of My people" (Ho 4:8; Hag 1:6). whoredom, and . . . not increase--literally, "break forth"; used of giving birth to children (Ge 28:14, Margin; compare Ge 38:29).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
They shall eat, and not have enough - Whatever means they may use to satisfy or gratify themselves shall be ineffectual.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
For they shall eat, and not have enough - This is almost a proverbial saying of Holy Scripture, and, as such, has manifold applications. In the way of nature, it comes true in those, who, under God’s affictive Hand in famine or siege, “eat” what they have, but have “not enough,” and perish with hunger. It comes true in those, who, through bodily disease, are not nourished by their food. Yet not less true is it of those who, through their own insatiate desires, are never satisfied, but crave the more greedily, the more they have. Their sin of covetousness becomes their torment. They shall commit whoredom and not increase - Literally, “they have committed whoredom.” The time spoken of is perhaps changed, because God would not speak of their future sin, as certain. There is naturally too a long interval between this sin and its possible fruit, which may be marked by this change of time. The sin was past, the effect was to be seen hereafter. They used all means, lawful and unlawful, to increase their offspring, but they failed, even because they used forbidden means. God’s curse rested upon those means. Single marriage, according to God’s law, “they twain shall be one flesh,” yields in a nation larger increase than polygamy. God turns illicit sexual intercourse to decay. His curse is upon it. Because they have left off to take heed to the Lord - Literally, “to watch, observe, the Lord.” The eye of the soul should be upon God, watching and waiting to know all indications of His will, all guidings of His Eye. So the Psalmist says, “As the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hands of her mistress, even so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until He have mercy upon us” Psa 123:2. […]
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
take away the heart The harlotry and [old] wine and new wine with which they are involved have captured their hearts away from me.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
11 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְאָֽכְלוּ֙ | veakhelu | and they will eat | H398 → | 810 times |
| וְלֹ֣א | velo' | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יִשְׂבָּ֔עוּ | yisbau | they will be satisfied | H7646 → | 97 times |
| הִזְנ֖וּ | hiznu | they will prostitute themselves | H2181 → | 94 times |
| וְלֹ֣א | velo' | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יִפְרֹ֑צוּ | yifrotzu | they will increase | H6555 → | |
| כִּֽי־ | ki- | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| יְהוָ֥ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| עָזְב֖וּ | ʾazevu | they have forsaken | H5800 → | |
| לִשְׁמֹֽר׃ | lishmor | to keep | H8104 → | 468 times |
וְאָֽכְלוּ֙and they will eat
veakheluH398 →810 times
וְלֹ֣אand not
velo'H3808 →5168 times
יִשְׂבָּ֔עוּthey will be satisfied
yisbauH7646 →97 times
הִזְנ֖וּthey will prostitute themselves
hiznuH2181 →94 times
וְלֹ֣אand not
velo'H3808 →5168 times
יִפְרֹ֑צוּthey will increase
yifrotzuH6555 →
כִּֽי־for
ki-H3588 →4482 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
יְהוָ֥הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
עָזְב֖וּthey have forsaken
ʾazevuH5800 →
לִשְׁמֹֽר׃to keep
lishmorH8104 →468 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Haggai 1:6You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but never get warm. You earn wages to put into…
it leads to
- Haggai 1:9
You expected much, but behold, it amounted to little. And what you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares the LORD of Hosts. Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you…
- Deuteronomy 28:38–40
You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it.
- Malachi 3:9–11
You are cursed with a curse, yet you—the whole nation—are still robbing Me.
- Hosea 8:7
For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.
- Haggai 2:16
from that time, when one came expecting a heap of twenty ephahs of grain, there were but ten. When one came to the winepress to draw out fifty baths, there were but twenty.
- Haggai 1:9
Through
Psalms 125:5But those who turn to crooked ways the LORD will banish with the evildoers. Peace be upon Israel.
it leads to
- Isaiah 59:8
The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their tracks. They have turned them into crooked paths; no one who treads on them will know peace.
- Proverbs 2:15
whose paths are crooked and whose ways are devious.
- Psalms 128:6
that you may see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel!
- Isaiah 59:8
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Hosea
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Cyril of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON HOSEA 3:42; Cyril of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON HOSEA 3:43; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Hosea 4:10-12; Jerome, COMMENTARY ON HOSEA 1:4; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.