Hosea 4:2
in Hosea 4Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
There is nought but swearing and breaking faith, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery; they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
KJV
By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
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This verse in Hosea 4
Commentary
10 notes on this verseBy 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.
This site's exposition
Hear the word of the Lord
on Hosea 4:1-3
The book turns from Gomer's household to the whole land with a lawsuit form, a controversy the Lord brings against Israel for the absence of truth, mercy and the knowledge of God. Swearing, lying, killing, stealing and adultery break out until blood toucheth blood, one sin overtaking another the way flood water rises, and the commentators read the list as the second table of the commandments broken in order. The land itself mourns and the beasts, birds and fish are taken away, creation drawn into the covenant's collapse the way Genesis ties the ground to Adam's fall.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
After Moses, prophets were sent to heal Israel. But in their exercise of healing they deplored the fact that they could not overcome evil, so that one of them says, "The faithful are gone from the earth, among men the upright are no more," and again, "All alike have gone astray; they have become perverse; there is not one who does good, not even one." And again, "Cursing, and theft, and adultery, and killing have overflowed" upon the land. "They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons."
"Hear the word of the Lord, sons of Israel; for judgment is for the Lord with the inhabitants of the earth: for there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. Cursed, and lying, and murder, and theft, and adultery have overflowed: and blood has touched blood." LXX: "Hear the word of the Lord, sons of Israel; for judgment is for the Lord with the inhabitants of the earth: for there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God over the earth.
The Reformation2 voices
By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
We hence see what the Prophet treats of now; and this ought to be observed, for hypocrites wish ever to be flattered; and when the mercy of God is offered to them, they seek to be freed from every fear. It is therefore a bitter thing to them, when threatening are mingled, when God sharply chides them.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
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.
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
) of blood touching blood; the blood of the sacrificer was mingled with the blood of the sacrifice, That, says he, was the apex of their wickedness --thence their ruin was to be dated ( Matt. xxiii.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation
By swearing, and lying,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
By swearing, and lying ... - Literally, “swearing or cursing” , “and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery!” The words in Hebrew are nouns of action. The Hebrew form is very vivid and solemn. It is far more forcible than if he had said, “They swear, lie, kill, and steal.” It expresses that these sins were continual, that nothing else (so to speak) was going on; that it was all one scene of such sins, one course of them, and of nothing besides; as we say more familiarly, “It was all, swearing, lying, killing, stealing, committing adultery.” It is as if the prophet, seeing with a sight above nature, a vision from God, saw, as in a picture, what was going on, all around, within and without, and summed up in this brief picture, all which he saw. This it was and nothing but this, which met his eyes, wherever he looked, whatever he heard, “swearing, lying, killing, stealing, committing adultery.” The prophet had before said, that the ten tribes were utterly lacking in all truth, all love, all knowledge of God. But where there are none of these, “there,” in all activity, will be the contrary vices. When the land or the soul is empty of the good, it will be full of the evil. “They break out,” i. e., burst through all bounds, set to restrain them, as a river bursts its banks and overspreads all things or sweeps all before it. “And blood toucheth blood,” literally, “bloods touch bloods” . The blood was poured so continuously and in such torrents, that it flowed on, until stream met stream and formed one wide inundation of blood.
The words behind it
9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אָלֹ֣ה | ʾaloh | cursing | H422 → | |
| וְכַחֵ֔שׁ | vekhachesh | and deceiving | H3584 → | |
| וְרָצֹ֥חַ | veratzoach | and murdering | H7523 → | |
| וְגָנֹ֖ב | vegano | and stealing | H1589 → | |
| וְנָאֹ֑ף | venaof | and committing adultery | H5003 → | 31 times |
| פָּרָ֕צוּ | paratzu | people have broken out | H6555 → | |
| וְדָמִ֥ים | vedamim | and blood<s> | H1818 → | 360 times |
| בְּדָמִ֖ים | bedamim | <in> blood<s> | H1818 → | 360 times |
| נָגָֽעוּ׃ | nagau | they have touched | H5060 → |
אָלֹ֣הcursing
ʾalohH422 →
וְכַחֵ֔שׁand deceiving
vekhacheshH3584 →
וְרָצֹ֥חַand murdering
veratzoachH7523 →
וְגָנֹ֖בand stealing
veganoH1589 →
וְנָאֹ֑ףand committing adultery
venaofH5003 →31 times
פָּרָ֕צוּpeople have broken out
paratzuH6555 →
וְדָמִ֥יםand blood<s>
vedamimH1818 →360 times
בְּדָמִ֖ים<in> blood<s>
bedamimH1818 →360 times
נָגָֽעוּ׃they have touched
nagauH5060 →
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
1 Thessalonians 2:15who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men,
it leads to
- Matthew 5:12
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.
- Acts 7:52
Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—
- Luke 11:48–53
So you are witnesses consenting to the deeds of your fathers: They killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.
- Acts 2:23
He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.
- Matthew 5:12
Through
Micah 7:2The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.
it leads to
- Psalms 12:1
Help, O LORD, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men.
- Psalms 14:1–3
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; their acts are vile. There is no one who does good.
- Jeremiah 5:26
For among My people are wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men.
- Isaiah 57:1
The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; devout men are swept away, while no one considers that the righteous are guided from the presence of evil.
- Psalms 12:1
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Hosea
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 Jerusalem, CATECHETICAL LECTURE 12:6; Jerome, Commentary on Hosea 4:1-2; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.