Hosea 4:16
in Hosea 4For Israel is as obstinate as a stubborn heifer. Can the LORD now shepherd them like lambs in an open meadow?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For Israel hath behaved himself stubbornly, like a stubborn heifer: now will Jehovah feed them as a lamb in a large place.
KJV
For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place.
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This verse in Hosea 4
Commentary
11 notes on this verseIsrael 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.
This site's exposition
Though thou, Israel, play the harlot
on Hosea 4:15-16
Though Israel plays the harlot, Judah is warned not to offend in the same way, and not to go up to the corrupted shrines at Gilgal or Beth-aven, the very name Bethel, house of God, deliberately twisted to Beth-aven, house of vanity, a wordplay the bench reads as the prophet's verdict on what the calf-worship had made of the place. Israel slides back like a stubborn heifer refusing the yoke, and yet the Lord's answer is not force but pasture, to feed them as a lamb in a large place, mercy answering rebellion rather than matching it.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
"If you fornicate, Israel, let not at least Judah sin, and do not enter into Gilgal, and do not ascend into Bethaven, neither shall you swear, by the living Lord, for as an wanton heifer, Israel has sinned. Now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place." LXX: "But you, Israel, do not ignore, and Judah, do not enter into Galgala, nor ascend into the house [ὢν] and do not swear, the Lord lives: for as a refuge-killed cow, Israel went insane. Now the Lord will feed them like a lamb in a spacious place."
A commentator
Philoxenus of Mabbug13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 6 -- First Discourse on the Fear of God · Written before 523.
proposed
In another place, the prophet heapeth contumely upon Israel who had slipped his shoulder from [under] the yoke of the divine commandments: "As an ox which hath escaped from the yoke, so have the children of Israel escaped, they and their kings and their nobles." …
A commentator
John ChrysostomDISCOURSES AGAINST JUDAIZING CHRISTIANS 1:2.5 · Written in the 5th century.
proposed
But what is the source of this hardness? It comes from gluttony and drunkenness. Who says so? Moses himself. "Israel ate and was filled, and the darling grew fat and frisky." When brute animals feed from a full manger, they grow plump and become more obstinate and hard to hold in check; they endure neither the yoke, the reins, nor the hand of the charioteer. Just so, the Jewish people were driven by their drunkenness and plumpness to ultimate evil. They kicked about and failed to accept the yoke of Christ. And they failed to pull the plow of his teaching. Another prophet hinted at this when he said, "Israel is as obstinate as a stubborn heifer." And still another called the Jews "an untamed calf."
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
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.
), Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer, as an untamed heifer (so some), or as a perverse or refractory one (so others), as a heifer that is turned loose runs madly about the pasture, or, if put under the yoke (which seems rather to be alluded to here), will draw back instead of going forward, will struggle to get her neck out of the yoke and her feet out of the furrow.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
): The Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place; they shall have a fat pasture, and a large one, in which they shall be fed to the full, and fed of the best, but it shall be only to prepare them for the slaughter, as a lamb is that is so fed.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
backsliding--Translate, "Israel is refractory, as a refractory heifer," namely, one that throws the yoke off her neck. Israel had represented God under the form of "calves" (1Ki 12:28); but it is she herself who is one. lamb in a large place--not in a good sense, as in Isa 30:23.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
For Israel slideth back, as a backsliding heifer - The calves which Israel worshiped were pictures of itself. They represented natural, untamed, strength, which, when put to service, started back and shrank from the yoke. “Untractable, petulant, unruly, wanton, it withdrew from the yoke, when it could; if it could not, it drew aside or backward, instead of forward.” So is it rare, exceeding rare, for man to walk straight on in God’s ways; he jerks, writhes, twists, darts aside here and there, hating nothing so much as one straight, even, narrow tenor of his ways. Now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place - The punishment of Israel was close at hand, “now.” It would not have the straitness of God’s commandments; it should have the wideness of a desert. God would withdraw His protecting providence from them: He would rule them, although unfelt in His mercy. At “large,” they wished to be; at large they should be; but it should be the largeness of a “wilderness where is no way.” There, like a lamb, they should go astray, wandering up and down, unprotected, a prey to wild beasts. Woe is it to that man, whom, when he withdraws from Christ’s easy yoke, God permits to take unhindered the broad road which leadeth to destruction. To Israel, this “wide place” was the wide realms of the Medes, where they were withdrawn from God’s worship and deprived of His protection.
The words behind it
10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּ֚י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| כְּפָרָ֣ה | kefarah | like a heifer | H6510 → | |
| סֹֽרֵרָ֔ה | sorerah | stubborn | H5637 → | 17 times |
| סָרַ֖ר | sarar | it is stubborn | H5637 → | 17 times |
| יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל | yisrael | Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
| עַתָּה֙ | ʾatah | now | H6258 → | 433 times |
| יִרְעֵ֣ם | yirem | he will pasture them | H7462 → | 177 times |
| יְהוָ֔ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| כְּכֶ֖בֶשׂ | kekheves | like a lamb | H3532 → | |
| בַּמֶּרְחָֽב׃ | bamerchav | in <the> roomy place | H4800 → |
כִּ֚יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
כְּפָרָ֣הlike a heifer
kefarahH6510 →
סֹֽרֵרָ֔הstubborn
sorerahH5637 →17 times
סָרַ֖רit is stubborn
sararH5637 →17 times
יִשְׂרָאֵ֑לIsrael
yisraelH3478 →2507 times
עַתָּה֙now
ʾatahH6258 →433 times
יִרְעֵ֣םhe will pasture them
yiremH7462 →177 times
יְהוָ֔הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
כְּכֶ֖בֶשׂlike a lamb
kekhevesH3532 →
בַּמֶּרְחָֽב׃in <the> roomy place
bamerchavH4800 →
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
Hosea 11:7My people are bent on turning from Me. Though they call to the Most High, He will by no means exalt them.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 8:5
Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 8:5
Through
Zechariah 7:11But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.
it leads to
- Nehemiah 9:29
You admonished them to turn back to Your law, but they were arrogant and disobeyed Your commandments. They sinned against Your ordinances, by which a man will live if he practices them. They stubbornly…
- Nehemiah 9:29
Through
Jeremiah 8:5Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 9:6
You dwell in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares the LORD.
- Zechariah 7:11
But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.
- Jeremiah 5:3
O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than…
- Jeremiah 9:6
Through
1 Samuel 15:11“I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned away from following Me and has not carried out My instructions.” And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LORD all…
it leads to
- 1 Samuel 13:13
“You have acted foolishly,” Samuel declared. “You have not kept the command that the LORD your God gave you; if you had, the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.
- Genesis 6:6
And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
- 2 Samuel 24:16
But when the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand now!” At that…
- 1 Samuel 13:13
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; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Hosea 4:15-16; John Chrysostom, DISCOURSES AGAINST JUDAIZING CHRISTIANS 1:2.5; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Philoxenus of Mabbug, 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 6 -- First Discourse on the Fear of God.