Hear Yahweh’s word, you children of Israel; for Yahweh has a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “Indeed there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.
Parallel Translations
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Hear Yahweh’s word, you children of Israel; for Yahweh has a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “Indeed there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.
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Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
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Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel! for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
Cross-references (31)
Passages linked to Hosea 4:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Jeremiah 4:22 “For my people are foolish. They don’t know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but they don’t know how to do good.”
- Micah 6:2 Hear, you mountains, Yahweh’s controversy, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for Yahweh has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.
- Isaiah 3:13-14 Yahweh stands up to contend, and stands to judge the peoples. Yahweh will enter into judgment with the elders of his people and their leaders: “It is you who have eaten up the vineyard. The plunder of the poor is in your houses.
- 1 Corinthians 15:34 Wake up righteously, and don’t sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
- Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let’s reason together,” says Yahweh: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
- Isaiah 34:1 Come near, you nations, to hear! Listen, you peoples. Let the earth and all it contains hear, the world, and everything that comes from it.
- Jeremiah 5:4 Then I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don’t know the Yahweh’s way, nor the law of their God.
- Jeremiah 25:31 A noise will come even to the end of the earth; for Yahweh has a controversy with the nations. He will enter into judgment with all flesh. As for the wicked, he will give them to the sword,” ’ says Yahweh.”
- Hosea 12:2 Yahweh also has a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his deeds he will repay him.
- Amos 7:16 Now therefore listen to Yahweh’s word: ‘You say, Don’t prophesy against Israel, and don’t preach against the house of Isaac.’
- Romans 1:28 Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
- 1 Kings 22:19 Micaiah said, “Therefore hear Yahweh’s word. I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne, and all the army of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.
- Isaiah 1:10 Hear Yahweh’s word, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
- Isaiah 5:3 “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard.
- Isaiah 28:14 Therefore hear Yahweh’s word, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem:
- Isaiah 34:8 For Yahweh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
- Isaiah 59:13-15 transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has fallen in the street, and uprightness can’t enter. Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.
- Isaiah 66:5 Hear Yahweh’s word, you who tremble at his word: “Your brothers who hate you, who cast you out for my name’s sake, have said, ‘Let Yahweh be glorified, that we may see your joy;’ but it is those who shall be disappointed.
- Jeremiah 2:4 Hear Yahweh’s word, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel!
- Jeremiah 4:28 For this the earth will mourn, and the heavens above be black, because I have spoken it. I have planned it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it.”
- Jeremiah 6:13 “For from their least even to their greatest, everyone is given to covetousness. From the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely.
- Jeremiah 7:2-6 “Stand in the gate of Yahweh’s house, and proclaim this word there, and say, ‘Hear Yahweh’s word, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship Yahweh.’ ” Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says, “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Don’t trust in lying words, saying, ‘Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, are these.’ For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; if you don’t oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place, and don’t walk after other gods to your own hurt;
- Jeremiah 7:28 You shall tell them, ‘This is the nation that has not listened to Yahweh their God’s voice, nor received instruction. Truth has perished, and is cut off from their mouth.’
- Jeremiah 9:20 Yet hear Yahweh’s word, you women. Let your ear receive the word of his mouth. Teach your daughters wailing. Everyone teach her neighbor a lamentation.
- Jeremiah 19:3 Say, ‘Hear Yahweh’s word, kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says, “Behold, I will bring evil on this place, which whoever hears, his ears will tingle.
- Jeremiah 34:4 “Yet hear Yahweh’s word, O Zedekiah king of Judah: Yahweh says concerning you, ‘You won’t die by the sword.
- Hosea 5:1 “Listen to this, you priests! Listen, house of Israel, and give ear, house of the king! For the judgment is against you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread on Tabor.
- Micah 7:2-5 The godly man has perished out of the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net. Their hands are on that which is evil to do it diligently. The ruler and judge ask for a bribe; and the powerful man dictates the evil desire of his soul. Thus they conspire together. The best of them is like a brier. The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, even your visitation, has come; now is the time of their confusion. Don’t trust in a neighbor. Don’t put confidence in a friend. With the woman lying in your embrace, be careful of the words of your mouth!
- John 8:55 You have not known him, but I know him. If I said, ‘I don’t know him,’ I would be like you, a liar. But I know him and keep his word.
- Revelation 2:11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. He who overcomes won’t be harmed by the second death.
- Revelation 2:29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain This is a new discourse by the Prophet, separate…
This is a new discourse by the Prophet, separate from his former discourses. We must bear in mind that the Prophets did not literally write what they delivered to the people, nor did they treat only once of those things which are now extant with us; but we have in their books collected summaries and heads of those matters which they were wont to address to the people. Hosea, no doubt, very often descanted on the exile and the restoration of the people, forasmuch as he dwelt much on all the things which we have hitherto noticed. Indeed, the slowness and dullness of the people were such, that the same things were repeated daily. But it was enough for the Prophets to make and to write down a brief summary of what they taught in their discourses.
Hosea now relates how vehemently he reproved the people, because every kind of corruption so commonly prevailed, that there was no sound part in the whole community. 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. “What! we heard yesterday a discourse on God’s mercy, and now he fulminates against us. He is then changeable; if he were consistent, would not his manner of teaching be alike and the same today?” But men must be often awakened, for forgetfulness of God often creeps over them; they indulge themselves, and nothing is more difficult than to lead them to God; nay, when they have made some advances, they soon turn aside to some other course.
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We hence see that men cannot be taught, except God reproves their sins by his word; and then, lest they despond, gives them a hope of mercy; and except he again returns to reproofs and threatening. This is the mode of address which we find in all the Prophets.
I now come to the Prophet’s words: Hear, he says, the word of Jehovah, ye children of Israel, the Lord has a dispute, etc. The Prophet, by saying that the Lord had a dispute with the inhabitants of the land, intimates that men in vain flatter themselves, when they have God against them, and that they shall soon find him to be their Judge, except they in time anticipate his vengeance. But he also reminds the Israelites that God had a dispute with them, that they might not have to feel the severity of justice, but reconcile themselves to God, while a seasonable opportunity was given them. Then the Prophet’s introduction had this object in view — to make the Israelites to know that God would be adverse to them, except they sought, without delay, to regain his favor. The Lord then, since he declared that he would contend with them, shows that he was not willing to do so. for had God determined to punish the people, what need was there of this warning? Could he not instantly execute judgment on them? Since, then, the Prophet was sent to the children of Israel to warn them of a great and fatal danger, God had still a regard for their safety: and doubtless this warning prevailed with many; for those who were alarmed by this denunciation humbled themselves before God, and hardened not themselves in wickedness: and the reprobate, though not amended, were yet rendered twice less excusable.
The same is the case among us, whenever God threatens us with judgment: they who are not altogether intractable or unhealable, confess their guilt, and deprecate God’s wrath; and others, though they harden their hearts in wickedness, cannot yet quench the power of truth; for the Lord takes from them every pretext for ignorance, and conscience wounds them more deeply, after they have been thus warned
We now then understand what the Prophet meant by saying, that God had a dispute with the inhabitants of the land. But that the Prophet’s intention may be more clear to us, we must bear in mind, that he and other faithful teachers were wearied with crying, and that in the meantime no fruit appeared. He saw that his warnings were heedlessly despised, and that hence his last resort was to summon men to God’s tribunal. We also are constrained, when we prevail nothing, to follow the same course: “God will judge you; for no one will bear to be judged by his word: whatever we announce to you in his name, is counted a matter of sport: he himself at length will show that he has to do with you.” In a similar strain does Zechariah speak,
‘They shall look on him whom they have pierced,’ (Zechariah 12:10:)
and to the same purpose does Isaiah say, that the Spirit of the Lord was made sad.
‘Is it not enough,’ he says, ‘that ye should be vexatious to men, except ye be so also to my God?’ (Isaiah 7:13.)
The Prophet joined himself with God; for the ungodly king Ahab, by tempting God, did at the same time trifle with his Prophets.
There is then here an implied contrast between the dispute which God announces respecting the Israelites, and the daily strifes he had with them by his Prophets. For this reason also the Lord said,
‘My Spirit shall no more strive with man, for he is flesh,’ (Genesis 6:3.)
God indeed says there, that he had waited in vain for men to return to the right way; for they were refractory beyond any hope of repentance: he therefore declared, that he would presently punish them. So also in this place, ‘“The Lord has a trial at law”; he will now himself plead his own cause: he has hitherto long exercised his Prophets in contending with you; yea, he has wearied them with much and continual labour; ye remain ever like yourselves; he will therefore begin now to plead effectually his own cause with you: he will no more speak to you by the mouth, but by his power, show himself a judge.’ The Prophet, however, designedly laid down the word, dispute, that the Israelites might know that God would severely treat them, not without cause, nor unjustly, as though he said, “God will so punish you as to show at the same time that he will do so for the best reason: ye elude all threatenings; ye think that you can make yourselves safe by your shifts: there are no evasions by which you can possibly hope to attain any thing; for God will at length uncover all your wickedness.” In short, the Prophet here joins punishment with God’s justice, or he points out by one word, a real (so to speak) or an effectual contention, by which the Lord not only reproves men in words, but also visits with judgment their sins.
It follows, Because there is no truth, no kindness, no knowledge of God. The dispute, he said, was to be with the inhabitants of the land: by the inhabitants of the land, he means the whole body of the people; as though he said, “Not a few men have become corrupt, but all kinds of wickedness prevail everywhere.” And for the same reason he adds, that there was no truth”, etc. in the land; as though he said, “They who sin hide not themselves now in lurking-places; they seek no recesses, like those who are ashamed; but so much licentiousness is everywhere dominant, that the whole land is filled with the contempt of God and with crimes.” This was a severe reproof to proud men. How much the Israelites flattered themselves, we know; it was therefore necessary for the Prophet to speak thus sharply to a refractory people; for a gentle and kind warning proves effectual only to the meek and teachable. When the world grows hardened against God, such a rigorous treatment as the words of the Prophet disclose must be used. Let those then, to whom is intrusted the charge of teaching, see that they do not gently warn men, when hardened in their vices; but let them follow this vehemence of the Prophet.
We said at the beginning, that the Prophet had a good reason for being so warm in his indignation: he was not at the moment foolishly carried away by the heat of zeal; but he knew that he had to do with men so perverse, that they could not be handled in any other way. The Prophet now reproves not only one kind of evil, but brings together every sort of crimes; as though he said, that the Israelites were in every way corrupt and perverted. He says first, that there was among them no faithfulness, and no kindness. He speaks here of their contempt of the second table of the law; for by this the impiety of men is sooner found out, that is, when an examination is made of their life: for hypocrites vauntingly profess the name of God, and confidently (plenis buccis — with full cheeks) arrogate faith to themselves; and then they cover their vices with the external show of divine worship, and frigid acts of devotion: nay, the very thing mentioned by Jeremiah is too commonly the case, that
‘the house of God is made a den of thieves,’ (Jeremiah 7:11.)
Hence the Prophets, that they might drag the ungodly to the light, examine their conduct according to the duties of love: “Ye are right worshipers of God, ye are most holy; but in the meantime, where is truth, where is mutual faithfulness, where is kindness? If ye are not men, how can ye be angels? Ye are given to avarice, ye are perfidious, ye are cruel: what more can be said of you, except that each of you condemns all the rest before God, and that your life is also condemned by all?’
By saying that truth or faithfulness was extinct, he makes them to be like foxes, who are ever deceitful: by saying that there was no kindness, he accuses them of cruelty, as though he said, that they were like lions and wild beasts. But the fountain of all these vices he points out in the third clause, when he says, that they had no knowledge of God: and the knowledge of God he takes for the fear of God which proceeds from the knowledge of him; as though he said, “In a word, men go on as licentiously, as if they did not think that there is a God in heaven, as if all religion was effaced from their hearts.” For as long as any knowledge of God remains in us, it is like a bridle to restrain us: but when men become wanton, and allow themselves every liberty, it is certain that they have forgotten God, and that there is in them now no knowledge of God. Hence the complaints in the Psalms,
‘The ungodly have said in their heart, There is no God,’ (Psalm 14:1:)
‘Impiety speaks in my heart, There is no God.’ Men cannot run headlong into brutal stupidity, while a spark of the true knowledge of God shines or twinkles in their minds. We now then perceive the real meaning of the Prophet.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Because the people would not obey the admonitions of…
Because the people would not obey the admonitions of the Prophet, he citeth them before the judgment seat of God, against whom they chiefly offended, Isa. 7:13; Zech. 12:10; Mic. 6:1, 2.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Hos 4:1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye…
Hos 4:1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because [there is] no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
Ver. 1. Hear the word of the Lord] This is the beginning of a new sermon, or judicial act of God against the ten tribes, which are here convented, convinced, sentenced. It begins with an Oyez, like that of St Paul, Act 13:16, "Men of Israel, and ye that fear God" (if any such be in so general a defection), "give audience." Ye have heard God’s mind before parabolically delivered and in types; now hear it in plain terms, that you may "see and understand and be converted, and I may heal you." Hear, and your souls shall live. Hear him that speaketh from heaven, even that excellent speaker as he is called, Dan 10:4-9, that arch-prophet, whom ye are bound to hear, Deu 18:18 Mat 17:5, upon pain of death, Heb 12:25, the Lord Christ I mean, who speaketh with authority, and is mighty in word and deed, Act 10:36. He it was whom Isaiah saw upon his throne, and heard speaking, Joh 12:41. And it is a rule in divinity, that where the Old Testament bringeth in God appearing and speaking to the patriarchs, prophets, and people, it is to be understood of the Second Person. "Hear, therefore, and give ear; be not proud: for the Lord hath spoken it," Jer 13:15. "The lion hath roared, who will not fear?" Amo 3:8. The Lord God hath spoken, who can but hear and fear, humble and tremble?
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Ye children of Israel] But oh, how altogether unlike your father! Even as unlike as Jehoiakim (that degenerate plant) was to his father, Josiah, that "plant of renown," Eze 34:29. His heart melted when he heard the law, 2Ch 34:18-19, but Jehoiakim cut it with a penknife and cast it into the fire, Jer 36:23. These were Israel’s children, and named "the house of Jacob," as those in Mic 2:7; but an empty title yields but an empty comfort at last. Is the spirit of the Lord straitened? (saith the prophet there;) were these Jacob’s doings? Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly? Were you Israelites indeed, I should not thus lose my sweet words upon you; but you would incline your ears and come unto me, Isa 55:3, hear as for life itself: especially since I am sent unto you (as once Ahijah was to Jeroboam’s wife, 1Ki 14:6) with heavy tidings, with such a citation or process from heaven as may well be unto you as Samuel’s message was to Eli, that made both his ears to tingle; or as the handwriting was to Balthasar, that made his knees knock together.
For the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land] The former title (children of Israel) was too good for them: they had disgraced their father’s family, and were therefore (Reuben-like) fallen from their dignity. They shall henceforth be called the inhabitants of the land, as the wicked are called, Rev 12:12, in opposition to "the heavens and those that dwell therein," the burgesses of the new Jerusalem. Abraham had seed of two sorts, some were as the dust of the earth, Gen 13:16, others as the stars of heaven, Gen 15:5. And all are not Israel that are of Israel, Rom 9:6. Multi sacerdotes et pauci sacerdotes, saith Chrysostom. There are many ministers, and yet but few; many in name, but few in deed, workmen that need not be ashamed; Nomen inane, crimea immane. It was cold comfort to Dives in flames, that Abraham called him son; or to Judas, that Christ called him friend; or to these rebellious Jews, that God sometimes called them his people, and had rooted out the cursed Canaanites to make room for them, when as they lived in God’s good land, but not by God’s good laws. For which cause the Lord hath here a controversy with them, a suit at law; and being himself both plaintiff and judge, he is sure to cast them; yea, to cast them out of that good land as evil tenants ( Malae fidei possessores), that should hold no longer: for, Hos 4:3, he threateneth to plead against them, non verbis sed verberibus, with pestilence and with blood, as Eze 38:22, to make them say, as Isa 45:9, "Woe to him that striveth with his Maker," that hath him for his adversary at law; such a one is sure to be undone unless he agree with him quickly, Mat 5:25, while he is yet in the way with him, and before he be brought to the tribunal. "For even our God is a consuming fire," Heb 12:29; his tribunal also is of fire, Eze 1:27, his pleading with sinners "in flames of fire," 2Th 1:7, the trial of men’s works shall be by fire, 1Co 3:13, the place of punishment a lake of fire fed with a river of brimstone, Isa 30:33. O pray, therefore, and prevent, that God enter not into judgment with us: for if so, no man living shall be justified in his sight. God’s people may have and shall be sure to have the devil an adversary at law against them, as St Peter’s word, αντιδικος, signifies, 1Pe 5:8. The accuser of the brethren he is called, which accuseth them before God day and night, Rev 12:12. But him they may resist stedfast in the faith, and recover cost and charges of him, as I may so say; for they have Christ to appear for them in heaven, Heb 9:24, as a lawyer for his client, 1Jn 2:2, to thwart all the devil’s accusations. The Spirit also (as a paracletus or advocate) maketh request for them to God in their hearts, and helpeth them to make apologies for themselves, 2Co 7:11. Again, "If a man sin against another, the judge shall judge him," saith old Eli to his wicked sons; that is, the umpire may come and take up the controversy and put an end to the quarrel. "But if a man have sinned against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?" 1Sa 2:29. Who dare be his daysman? no mediation of man can make his peace; no reconciliation can be here hoped for, but by running from God as a Judge, to God as a Father in Christ. Let men, therefore, be wrought upon by the reprehensions of God’s faithful ministers, by whom he appealeth and impeacheth them. If they stand out as the old world did against that preacher of righteousness, by whom he went and preached to those spirits now in prison (because they would not take up the matter in time, but futured and fooled away their own salvation), he will break off his patience, and say, as Gen 6:3, "My Spirit shall not always strive with these men, for that they also are flesh," &c., and are therefore the worse, because they ought to be better ( Ideo deteriores quia meliores esse debebant); therefore they shall fare the worse, because they would be no better. I have hewed them by my prophets, Hos 6:5, but can make no good work of them. Like ill timber, they fall to splinters; and like ill stones, they crumble all to gravel; they are therefore fitter for the highway and chimney corner then for my building. My Spirit shall therefore strive no more with these perverse persons, either by preaching, disputing, convincing, &c., in the mouth of my ministers; or in their own minds and consciences, by inward checks and motions, which they reject, refusing to be reformed, hating to be healed. I will take away my Spirit, and silence my prophets (as he doth Hos 4:4), and resolve upon their utter ruin; since there is no good to be done upon them. See Hos 4:17. {See Trapp on "Hos 4:17"} Currat ergo poenitentia, ne praecurrat sententia, &c.
Because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land] Lo, here the charge: and "knowing the judgment of God," you must needs say that "those that commit such things are worthy of death," Rom 1:32. For "if the word spoken by angels" (the law given by angels in the hand of Moses a mediator) "were stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience" (that is, every commission and omission) "received a just recompense of reward," Heb 2:2, how should these miscreants escape, that had left off to do good? and for evil, they did it with both hands earnestly; for the second table of the law, it is articled against them (for matter of omission or defect) that there was "neither truth nor mercy in the land"; and for the first table, that there was no sound "knowledge of God" there; and, consequently, no care of God, either inward or outward worship: for there can be neither faith, nor repentance, nor due obedience yielded to an unknown God. A Samaritan service there may be ("ye worship ye know not what," Joh 4:22), but not a rational service, Rom 12:1, such as whereof a man can render a reason. Now God will not have a blind sacrifice, Mal 1:8 1Ch 28:9; it is worthless that men are virtuous, unless they join to their virtue knowledge, 2Pe 1:5; nor that they offer sacrifice, if they bring the "sacrifice of fools," Ecc 5:1. Those must needs be "abominable and disobedient" that are to "every good work reprobate," injudicious, as the word signifies, Tit 1:11; and what marvel though men be "alienated from the life of God" (or a godly life), "through the ignorance that is in them?" Eph 4:18. But let us take the words in order. "There is no truth." Here God declareth against them (as lawyers do against offenders in court), and not for trifles, but first for want of truth or trustiness in word and deed; without which human society is but funiculus ex arena, a rope of sand, or arena sine calce, sand without lime, it cannot hold together. It was an old complaint of the prophets, that "Truth was fallen in the streets, and faithfulness failed from among the children of men," Isa 59:14 Psa 12:1. When Varus was slain Augustus grieved excessively; and that because non esset a quo verum audiret, he had none about him that would tell him the truth of things, and deal plainly with him. Multis annis iam transactis, nulla fides est in pactis, &c. Jeremiah bewails it in his treacherous countrymen, that they "bent their tongues like their bows for lies; but they were not valiant for the truth on the earth," Jer 9:3; they were mendaciorum loquaeissimi (as Tertullian phraseth it), loud and lewd liars, and (as Hegesippus saith of Pilate) they were viri nequam et pravi facientes mendacium, naughty men, and such as made nothing of a lie. But God’s people are said to be "children that will not lie," Isa 63:8, they are φιλαληθεις, lovers of truth, which was the title of honour given to Arrian, the Greek historian; whereas of all other historians Vopiscus testifieth, that there is none qui non aliquid est mentitus, that taketh not the liberty to lie more or less. And for slipperiness in contracts and covenants nothing is more common among men; it is counted a peccadillo. But the God of truth, the faithful and true witness, as Christ is called, counteth it not so. See Eze 17:15-21 1Ti 4:2 2Ti 3:3. There are those who take truth here for justice, according to Zec 8:16, and so it suits well with that which followeth.
Nor mercy] These two are set together, Mic 6:8 (to do justly, and to love mercy), as the sum of the second table. Mouth mercy there was enough, such as was that in St James’ days, Jas 2:15-16. "But there is not any one that taketh Zion by the hand," Isa 51:18, that "draweth out his soul to the hungry, and dealeth his bread to such," Isa 58:7; Isa 58:10. Sodom hath fulness of bread, but would part with none to strengthen the hands of the poor and needy, Eze 16:49. Therefore she had "judgment without mercy," that had showed no mercy, Jas 2:13. Whereas Tyre, when once she left heaping and hoarding, and brought forth her merchandise for them that dwell before the Lord to "eat sufficiently," and for "durable clothing," Isa 23:18, is renowned and reckoned among those that came to Christ with their desirable things, as some read that text, Hag 2:7. Colligent omnes suos thesauros (so Calvin readeth it), they shall come with strong affections, with large contributions, as those primitive saints did, Act 4:34. The same Hebrew word, chasid, signifieth both saint and merciful; and it comes of chesed, the word here rendered mercy, or bounty. The tender mercies of the Almighty shed forth abundantly upon such, leave a compassionate frame upon their hearts, as in the jailer, Act 16:33. Their thoughts, steeped in the mercies they have received, are dyed of the same colour as cloth is in the dye fat, Col 3:12. This text, after no mercy, fitly adds,
Nor knowledge of God in the land] Heb. "And no knowledge of God": or, "because there is no knowledge of God in the land." Did men but know God savingly, had they but tasted and seen how good the Lord is, they would not be so hide bound, and strait handed to their poor brethren; but "ready to distribute, willing to communicate," 1Ti 6:18. They are the "dark places of the earth" that are "full of the habitations of cruelty," Psa 74:20. But in the kingdom of Christ they "shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain," saith the Lord: and why? "For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea," Isa 11:9. St Paul thanks his ignorance for his persecutions and blasphemy, 1Ti 1:13, and resolves the sin of those killers of Christ into their "not knowing of him," 1Co 2:8. Surely as toads and serpents grow in dark and dirty cellars, so doth all sin and wickedness in an ignorant and blind soul. Hence, in this text, after "no knowledge of God in the land," followeth that black bead roll of abominations in the next verse: "By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing," &c. As blind alehouses are sinks and sources of all villany, so are blind hearts.
In the land] Though it were a land of light, a very Goshen in comparison to the rest of the world; though in Judah was God known, and his name great in Israel, Psa 76:1; men may remain grossly ignorant amidst a multitude of means, and "in a land of righteousness deal unjustly": and why? they will not behold the majesty of the Lord, Isa 26:10. They will not see. They are "willingly ignorant," saith St Peter: Ut liberius peccent libenter ignorant, saith Bernard. They "hate the light," saith our Saviour, Joh 3:20 2Pe 2:1-22; it "is unto them as the shadow of death," saith Job, Job 24:17. Hence they shut the windows, lest it should shine upon them; or if it do, they rebel against it, rush against it, as bats do against torches in the night. That light they have by nature, or otherwise (as a prophet from God), they detain and imprison in unrighteousness, Rom 1:18. Their knowledge of God, if any, is only apprehensive, and not affective, cognoscitiva, non vitae directiva, enlightening, not transforming into the same image, so as to make them children of light: it is notional knowledge, not experimental and practical. Hence such outrages in their lives, such errors and enormities: for,
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Hear; attend, consider, and duly weigh: it is the…
Hear; attend, consider, and duly weigh: it is the hearing of the mind, as well as of the ear, is here required.
The word of the Lord; he that speaks is the great God, though the messenger be a man; the message is not man’s, but it is the word, the message of the sovereign, holy; just, and mighty Jehovah, who ever speaks most important things, things that respect our duty and safety.
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Ye children of Israel; you of the ten tribes, with whose ancestors my covenant was made, who received the law by the disposition of angels, but have not kept it, you that have turned aside from your God to idols.
The Lord; who knoweth your sins, who hateth, threateneth, and will judge, and punish unless you repent, it is he that speaketh, and summoneth you to plead with him.
Hath a controversy; just matter of debate or arguing against you; you have wronged him, and he will right himself, yet so that he will be clear in his judgment, all shall see that the just Lord doth justly, and that this people’s sins are the cause of all their sufferings, that God doth not delight to afflict the children of men.
With the inhabitants of the land; who dwell in the cities and towns of Israel, divided from the house of David, and from the house of God; ye that dwell with idolatrous neighbours: it is not a few, but the generality of the inhabitants; it is the whole land I have an action against.
There is no truth, no faithfulness, in their minds, words, or works; they cover falsehood with fair words, till they may fitly execute their designed frauds. There is neither plain-heartedness nor constancy in their purposes and words.
Nor mercy, kindness or gentleness of mind; all are hardened, and restrain their bowels, which should be opened toward the indigent and necessitous. There is neither compassion nor beneficence among them, they pity not, nor relieve any.
Nor knowledge of God; all generally are ignorant, know not what God hath done for them, or what God is in himself, or what candour and truth, or what tenderness and beneficence, he requires in his word; if they have a slight knowledge of those things, yet they consider them not. They have rased the knowledge of God out of their minds.
In the land: this speaks the universal ignorance, mercilessness, and unfaithfulness of that age.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here is, I. The court set, and both attendance…
Here is, I. The court set, and both attendance and attention demanded: "Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for to you is the word of this conviction sent, whether you will hear or whether you will forbear." Whom may God expect to give him a fair hearing, and take from him a fair warning, but the children of Israel, his own professing people? Yea, they will be ready enough to hear when God speaks comfortably to them; but are they willing to hear when he has a controversy with them? Yes, they must hear him when he pleads against them, when he has something to lay to their charge: The Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, of this land, of this holy land. Note, Sin is the great mischief-maker; it sows discord between God and Israel. God sees sin in his own people, and a good action he has against them for it. Some more particular actions lie against his own people, which do not lie against other sinners. He has a controversy with them for breaking covenant with him, for bringing a reproach upon him, and for an ungrateful return to him for his favours. God's controversy will be pleaded, pleaded by the judgments of his mouth before they are pleaded by the judgments of his hand, that he may be justified in all he does and may make it appear that he desires not the death of sinners; and God's pleadings ought to be attended to, for, sooner or later, they shall have a hearing.
II. The indictment read, by which the whole nation stands charged with crimes of a heinous nature, by which God is highly provoked. 1. They are charged with national omissions of the most important duties: There is no truth nor mercy, neither justice nor charity, these most weighty matters of the law, as our Saviour accounts them (Mat 23:23), judgment, mercy, and faith. The generality of the people seemed to have no sense at all of the thing called honesty; they made no conscience of what they said and did, though ever so contrary to the truth and injurious to their neighbour. Much less had they any sense of mercy, or any obligation they were under to pity and help the poor. And it is not strange that there is no truth and mercy when there is no knowledge of God in the land. What good can be expected where there is no knowledge of God? It was the privilege of that land that in Israel God was made known, and his name was great, which was an aggravation of their sin, that they did not know him, Psa 76:1. 2. Hence follows national commissions of the most enormous sins against both the first and second table, for they had no regard at all to either. Swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, against the third, ninth, sixth, eighth, and seventh commandments, were to be found in all corners of the land, and among all orders and degrees of men among them, Hos 4:2. The corruption was universal; what good people there were among them were either lost or hid, or they hid themselves. By these they break out, that is, they transgress all bounds of reason and conscience, and the divine law; they have exceeded (Job 36:9); they have been overmuch wicked (Ecc 7:17); they suffer their corruptions to break out; they themselves break over, and break through, all that stands in their way and would stop them in their sinful career, as water overflows the banks. Note, Sin is a violent thing and its power exorbitant; when men's hearts are fully set in them to do evil (Ecc 8:11) what will be restrained from them? Gen 11:6. When they break out thus blood touches blood, that is, abundance of murders are committed in all parts of the country, and, as it were, in a constant series and succession. Caedes aliae aliis sunt contiguae - Murders touch murders; a stream of blood runs down among them, even royal blood. 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 (Psa 106:38); it was filled with blood from one end to the other, Kg2 21:16.
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III. Sentence passed upon this guilty and polluted land, Hos 4:3. It shall be utterly destroyed and laid waste. The whole land is infected with sin, and therefore the whole land shall mourn under God's sore judgments, shall sit in mourning, being stripped of all its wealth and beauty. As the valleys are said to shout for joy, and sing, when there are plenty and peace, so here they are said to mourn when by war and famine they are made desolate. The whole land shall be brimstone, and salt, and burning, was as threatened in the law, Deu 29:23. They had broken all God's commandments, and now God threatens to take away all their comforts. The land mourns when there is neither grass for the cattle nor herbs for the service of man; and then every one that dwells therein shall languish for want of nice food to support a wasting life, and fret for want of the usual dainties for delight. The beasts of the field will languish, Jer 14:5, Jer 14:6. Nay, the destruction of the fruits of the earth shall be so great that there shall not be picking for the fowls of the air, to keep them alive; they shall suffer with man, and their dying, or growing lean, will be a punishment to those who used to have their tables replenished with wild-fowl. Nay, the fishes of the sea shall be taken away, or gathered together, that they may go away in shoals to some other coast, and then the fishing trade will be worth nothing. This desolation shall be in that respect more general than that by Noah's flood, for that did not affect the fishes of the sea, but this shall. It was part of one of the plagues of Egypt that he slew their fish (Psa 105:29); when the waters are dried the fish die, Isa 50:2; Zep 1:2, Zep 1:3. Note, When man becomes disobedient to God, it is just that the inferior creatures should be made unserviceable to man. Oh what reason have we to admire God's patience and mercy to our land, that though there is in it so much swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and adultery, yet there is plenty of flesh, and fish, and fowl, on our tables!
IV. An order of court that no pains should be taken with the condemned criminal to bring him to repentance, with the reason for that order. Observe, 1. The order itself (Hos 4:4): Yet let no man strive nor reprove another; let no means be used to reduce and reclaim them; let their physicians give them up as desperate and past cure. It intimates that as long as there is any hope we ought to reprove sinners for their sins; it is a duty we owe to one another to give and to take reproofs; it was one of the laws of Moses (Lev 19:17), Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour; it is an instance of brotherly love. Sometimes there is need to rebuke sharply, not only to reprove, but to strive, so loth are men to part with their sins. But it is a sign that persons and people are abandoned to ruin when God says, Let them not be reproved. Yet this is to be understood as God's commands sometimes to the prophets not to pray for them, notwithstanding which they did pray for them; but the meaning is, They are so hardened in sin, and so ripened for ruin, that it will be to little purpose either to deal with them or to deal with God for them. Note, It bodes ill to a people when reprovers are silenced, and when those who should witness against the sins of the times, retire into a corner, and give up the cause. See Ch2 25:16. 2. The reasons of this order. Let them not reprove one another; for, (1.) They are determined to go on in sin, and no reproofs will cure them of that: Thy people are as those that strive with the priests; they have grown so very impudent in sin, so very insolent, and impatient of reproof, that they will fly in the face even of a priest himself if he should but give them the least check, without any regard to his character and office; and how then can it be thought that they should take a reproof from a private person? Note, Those sinners have their hearts wickedly hardened who quarrel with their ministers for dealing faithfully with them; and those who rebel against ministerial reproof, which is an ordinance of God for their reformation, have forfeited the benefit of brotherly reproof too. Perhaps this may refer to the late wickedness of Joash king of Judah, and his people, who stoned Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, for delivering them a message from God, Ch2 24:21. He was a priest; with him they strove when he was officiating between the temple and the altar; and Dr. Lightfoot thinks the prophet had an eye to his case when he spoke (Hos 4:2) 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 (Mat 23:35), as this is of their incorrigibleness, that they are as those who strive with the priest, therefore let no man reprove them; for, (2.) God also is determined to proceed in their ruin (Hos 4:5): "Therefore, because thou wilt take no reproof, no advice, thou shalt fall, and it is in vain for any to think of preventing it, for the decree has gone forth. Thou shalt stumble and fall in the day, and the prophet, the false prophet that flattered and seduced thee, shall fall with thee in the night; both thou and thy prophet shall fall night and day, shall be continually falling into one calamity or other; the darkness of the night shall not help to cover thee from trouble nor the light of the day help thee to flee from it." The prophets are blind leaders and the people blind followers; and to the blind day and night are alike, so that whether it be day or night both shall fall together into the ditch. "Thou shalt fall in the day, when thy fall is least feared by thyself and thou art very secure; and in the day, when it will be seen and observed by others, and turn most to thy shame; and the prophet shall fall in the night, when to himself it will be most terrible." Note, The ruin of those who have helped to ruin others will, in a special manner, be intolerable. And did the children think that when they were in danger of falling their mother would help them? It shall be in vain to expect it, for I will destroy thy mother, Samaria, the mother-city, the whole state, or kingdom, which is as a mother to every part. It shall all be made silent. Note, When all are involved in guilt nothing less can be expected than that all should be involved in ruin.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of…
Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel,.... The people of the ten tribes, as distinct from Judah, Hos 4:15, the prophet having finished his parables he was ordered to take up and deliver, and his explanations of them, and concluded with a gracious promise of the conversion of the Jews in the latter day, enters upon a new discourse, which begins with reproof for various sins; since what had been delivered in parables and types had had no effect upon them, they are called upon to hear what the Lord would say to them by the prophet, in more clear and express terms; silence is ordered, and attention required to what follows:
for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land; the land of Israel; against him they had sinned, before him they stood guilty; he had something, yea, many things, against them; a charge is brought into open court, the indictment is read, an answer must be made: God is the antagonist, that moves and brings on the controversy in a judicial way, and who can answer him for one of a thousand? or stand before him, or in court with him, when he marks iniquity? the charge is as follows,
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because there is no truth; none that do or speak truth; that are true and faithful men, true to their word, and faithful to their trust; no truth of grace in them, nor truth of doctrine held and received by them; truth failed from among them, and none were valiant for it; no truth or civil faith with respect to men, nor any truth of word or worship with respect to God:
nor mercy: to poor and indigent creatures; no compassion shown them; no offices of humanity or acts of beneficence exercised towards them; though these are more desirable by the Lord than, and are preferred by him to, all ceremonial sacrifices, Hos 6:6, or no piety, religion, godliness, powerful godliness, which has the promise of this life, and that to come:
nor knowledge of God in the land; in the land of Israel, where God was used to be known; where he had been worshipped; were his word had been dispensed, and his prophets had been sent, and his saints that knew him, and his mind and will, formerly had dwelt; but now a company of atheists, at least that lived as such, and had no true spiritual saving knowledge of God, and communion with him; they had not true love to him, nor a godly reverence of him, which this implies; and that was the source of all the wickedness committed by them, afterwards expressed. The Targum is,
"there are none that do truth, nor dispense mercy, nor walk in the fear of the Lord, in the land.''
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The prophet shews their numerous sins, and the judgments…
The prophet shews their numerous sins, and the judgments consequent upon them, ver. 1-19.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The prophet charges his people with their enormous sins,…
CHAPTER IV
The prophet charges his people with their enormous sins, 1, 2;
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in consequence of which they are threatened with heavy
judgments, 3-5.
God himself is then introduced complaining of the ignorance and
obstinacy of Israel; and as their priests had a large share in
the common guilt, it is declared that they shall be visited
with a proportionable share of the common ruin, 6-11.
The sins of idolatry and divination are then particularly
reproved, 12-14;
and Judah admonished to beware of these sins, which would leave
her rebellious sister Israel helpless and desolate as a lamb in
a desert, 15, 16.
In the remaining verses the style is varied, but the subject is
the same. Ephraim is given up to idolatry, and the necessary
consequence declared to be a bitter draught! Immediately we see
him bound in the wings of a mighty tempest, and driven as chaff
before the wind, either to destruction or captivity, 17-19.
NOTES ON CHAP. IV
Verse 1. The Lord hath a controversy] ריב rib, what we should call a lawsuit, in which God is plaintiff, and the Israelites defendants. It is Jehovah versus Israel and Judah.
But when has God a controversy with any land? - Answer. When there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. These refer to the minds of the people. But wherever these righteous principles are wanting, there will soon be a vicious practice; hence it is added,
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Hos 4:1. Hear the word of the Lord, ye…
Hos 4:1. Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel — “The prophet here begins a third discourse, which is manifestly distinct from the preceding, both as to matter and manner. He was before predicting what should happen in future times, by way of prophetic vision; here he reproves those of the present time for such sins as then reigned among them; such as provoked God to send on them and their posterity the judgments foretold in the former chapter.” He seems to be addressing chiefly the Israelites of the ten tribes, though not exclusively, his reproofs and exhortations being so formed and expressed as to suit the case of the Jews also. For the Lord hath a controversy, &c. — Hebrew, ריב, a cause, contention, or matter of debate. The LXX. render the word, κρισις, judgment, or dispute; and so the Vulgate. The expression is taken from the actions, or pleas, which one man brings against another, for injuries or damages received: so here God is represented as entering into judgment, or bringing a plea, or complaint, against the people of the ten tribes, for their injustice and other sins, as being so many injuries to his honour, for which he demands satisfaction. The other prophets bring the same charges against this people, as we find from their writings. Because there is no truth, &c. — No faithfulness in their minds, words, or works; they cover falsehood with fair words, till they can conveniently execute their designed frauds. It appears they had no sense of moral honesty; made no conscience of what they said or did, though never so contrary to uprightness, and injurious to their neighbours. Much less had they any sense of mercy, or of the obligation they were under to help the indigent and necessitous. There was neither compassion nor beneficence among them; they neither pitied nor relieved any. Nor knowledge of God in the land — Here we have the cause of their want of integrity and benevolence: they had not the true and saving knowledge of God, they were neither acquainted with him, nor with his will, and their own duty: hence they were destitute of true piety, and therefore also of true virtue.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of…
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. The title “children of Israel” is, in itself, an appeal to their gratitude and their conscience, as the title “Christian” among us is an appeal to us, by Him whose name we bear. Our Lord says, “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the work’s of Abraham” Joh 8:39; and Paul, “let every one that nameth the name of Christ, depart from iniquity” 2Ti 2:19.
For the Lord hath a controversy - God wills, in all His dealings with us His creatures, to prove even to our own consciences, the righteousness of His judgments, so as to leave us without excuse. Now, through His servants, He shows people their unrighteousness and His justice; hereafter our Lord, the righteous Judge, will show it through the book of people’s own consciences.
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With the inhabitants of the land - God had given the land to the children of Israel, on account of the wickedness of these whom He drave out before them. He gave it to them “that they might observe His statutes and keep His laws” (Ps. 105 ult.). He had promised that His “Eyes should always be upon it from the beginning of the year unto the end of the year” Deu 11:12. This land, the scene of those former judgments, given to them on those conditions (see Deu 4:1, Deu 4:40; Deu 6:21-25, etc.), the land which God had given to them as their God, they had filled with iniquity.
Because there is no truth, nor mercy - “Truth and mercy” are often spoken of, as to Almighty God. Truth takes in all which is right, and to which God has bound Himself; mercy, all beyond, which God does out of His boundless love. When God says of Israel, “there is no truth nor mercy,” He says that there is absolutely none of those two great qualities, under which He comprises all His own Goodness. “There is no truth,” none whatever, “no regard for known truth; no conscience, no sincerity, no uprightness; no truth of words; no truth of promises; no truth in witnessing; no making good in deeds what they said in words.”
Nor mercy - The word has a wide meaning; it includes all love of one to another, a love issuing in acts. It includes loving-kindness, piety to parents, natural affection, forgiveness, tenderness, beneficence, mercy, goodness. The prophet, in declaring the absence of this grace, declares the absence of all included under it. Whatever could be comprised under love, whatever feelings are influenced by love, of that there was nothing.
Nor knowledge of God - The union of right knowledge and wrong practice is hideous in itself; and it must be especially offensive to Almighty God, that His creatures should know whom they offend, how they offend Him, and yet, amid and against their knowledge, choose that which displeases Him. And, on that ground, perhaps, He has so created us, that when our acts are wrong, our knowledge becomes darkened Rom 1:21. The “knowledge of God” is not merely to know some things of God, as that He is the Creator and Preserver of the world and of ourselves. To know things of God is not to know God Himself. We cannot know God in any respect, unless we are so far made like unto Him. “Hereby do we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him. Every one that loveth is born of’ God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love” 1Jo 2:3-4; 1Jo 4:7-8.
Knowledge of God being the gift of the Holy Spirit, he who hath not grace, cannot have that knowledge. A certain degree of speculative knowledge of God, a bad man may have, as Balaam had by inspiration, and the Pagan who, “when they knew God, glorified Him not as God.” But even this knowledge is not retained without love. Those who “held the truth in unrighteousness” ended (Paul says Rom 1:21, Rom 1:18, Rom 1:28) by corrupting it. “They did not like to retain God in their knowledge, and so God gave them over to a reprobate,” or undistinguishing mind, that they could not. Certainly, the speculative and practical knowledge are bound up together, through the oneness of the relation of the soul to God, whether in its thoughts of Him, or its acts toward Him. Wrong practice corrupts belief, as misbelief corrupts practice. The prophet then probably denies that there was any true knowledge of God, of any sort, whether of life or faith or understanding or love. Ignorance of God, then, is a great evil, a source of all other evils.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Israel. They are chiefly addressed, (Chaldean; St. Jerome; Calmet)…
Israel. They are chiefly addressed, (Chaldean; St. Jerome; Calmet) or what follows to ver. 15, regards all. (Worthington) --- Judgment. Hebrew, "a trial." --- Mercy. The want of humanity and of practical knowledge is urged. (Calmet) --- The knowledge of God includes the observance of the commandments, 1 John ii. 4. (Worthington) --- This science alone is requisite, Jeremias ix. 3., and Isaias v. 13. Blind leaders prove their own and other’s ruin.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Jehovah pleads with Israel his Beloved but Unfaithful Spouse
PART SECOND
Jehovah pleads with Israel his Beloved but Unfaithful Spouse
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Hosea 4-14
___________
FIRST DISCOURSE
Hosea 4-11
I. THE ACCUSATION
Hosea 4-7
A. Against the People as a Whole on Account of their Idolatry and the Corruption of their Morals (Promoted by the Priests)
Hos_4:1-19
1 Hear the word of Jehovah, ye children of Israel!
For Jehovah has a difference with the inhabitants of the land,
Because there is no fidelity and no goodness
And no knowledge of God in the land;
2 (Only) cursing and lying,
And murdering and stealing and adultery;
They break in, and murder follows upon murder.
3 Therefore will the land mourn,
And all who dwell therein shall languish,
With the beast1 of the field and the bird of heaven;
And the fish of the sea also shall be swept away.
4 Only let none contend,
And let none reprove (another);
And thy people2 is like those that strive with the priest.
5 And thou shalt fall in the day-time.
And the Prophet also shall fall with thee in the night,
And I will destroy thy mother.
6 My people are destroyed for want of knowledge!3
Because thou despisest knowledge,
So do I despise thee3 to be my Priest;
Because thou dost forget the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.
7 The more they increased the more they sinned against me;
Their glory will I turn into shame.
8 They eat [make profit of] the sin of my people,
And direct their desires after their transgressions.
9 And so it is: as the people, so the priest,
And I will visit their ways upon them,
And reward to them their deeds.
10 Then they shall eat and not be satisfied,
Will practice whoredom and not spread abroad,
Because they forgot4 Jehovah, to regard Him.
11 Whoredom and wine and new wine
Will take (possession of) a heart.
12 My people5 inquires of its wood [idols],
And their staff shall declare to it;
For the spirit of whoredom has deceived them,
And they commit whoredom (departing) from under their God.
13 They sacrifice on the summits of the mountains,
And burn incense on the hills;
Under the oak and poplar and terebinth,
Because their shadow is pleasant.
Therefore your daughters commit whoredom
And your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
14 Yet I will not visit upon [punish] your daughters because they commit whoredom,
Nor your daughters-in-law because they commit adultery;
For they [you] themselves go aside with prostitutes,
And sacrifice with temple-girls,
And the people without understanding shall be cast down,
15 If thou commit whoredom, O Israel!
Let not Judah become guilty,
Go not to Gilgal,
And ascend not to Beth-aven,
And swear not: by the life of Jehovah.
16 For Israel is as intractable as an unbroken heifer;
Now Jehovah will pasture them
Like a lamb in a wide field.
17 Ephraim is joined to idols—let him be.
18 Their drinking-feast is spoiled;
They keep on whoring.
Their shields [rulers] keep on loving shame.6
19 The tempest seizes them with its wings:
And they shall be ashamed of their sacrifices.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Four strophes may be supposed with Keil (Hos_4:1-5; Hos_4:6-10; Hos_4:11-14; Hos_4:16-19), although it can hardly be maintained in general, that our Prophet observes a strict strophical division.
Hos_4:1. Hear the word of Jehovah, etc. Jehovah appears against Israel as a Judge (that is, Israel of the Ten Tribes, comp. Ver 15), who raises the accusation, and pronounces the sentence and punishment. In a certain sense this first strophe contains the sense of the whole. Jehovah has a contest = legal action, comp. Mic_6:2, and with relation to the heathen, Joe_3:2.—אֶמֶת is faithfulness, trueness to one’s word. חֶסֶר is affection, kindness, love. These qualities are frequently mentioned together; usually as divine attributes, but sometimes also as human virtues. חסר is here probably special kindness towards the feeble and distressed (Keil). The opposites are primarily moral defects. But they have their root in the knowledge of God, i.e., they do not know the living God or know Him any longer—naturally through their own fault—since they do not care to serve Him.
Hos_4:2. Along with the negative description of the corruption we have the positive. The sins are not described by substantives, but are expressed in a lively manner as actions by verbs, and that with special emphasis by the inf. absol. Five sins are thus mentioned, corresponding to five of the Ten Commandments, and at the fidelity and goodness. Swearing along with lying naturally=false swearing, or, at all events, wanton swearing. פָּרָצוּ forms the transition to the finite verb; the last three sins, especially murder, are represented in the concrete, and at the same time as something fearfully prevalent. [The literal translation of the last three words is: and bloody deed touches bloody deed. רּמִּים meant originally: drops of blood, then transferred to deeds of blood in general, and it is altogether probable that this word was chosen here to present to the imagination the picture of a swift succession of murderous assaults, following so closely that drops of the blood of one victim might be conceived as meeting and mingling with those of another. If so, this is a striking illustration of Hosea’s wonderful power of graphic poetical delineation. Henderson: “What the Prophet means is that murder was so common that no space was left between its acts. LXX.: αἵματα ἐφ αἵματι μίσγουσι. Coverdale: one bloudgiltyness foloweth another. And Ritterhusius powerfully in his poetical metaphrase:—
—‘Sic sanguini sanguis
Truditur, et scelerum nullus finisve modusve est.’ ”
See 2 Kings 15; Mic_7:2.—M.]
Hos_4:3. Therefore will the land mourn, etc. The punishment of that moral deprivation; a great and universal drought, such, e.g., as prevailed under Ahab, was a judgment of God. This is described in its effects: The mourning of the land is a lively figurative expression for the scorching away of all vegetable productions, and the languishing of animal life, and the beasts are named, because the drought was, so to speak, to be described from its natural side (comp. Joe_1:10 ff.). It is just in this condition of nature generally that God executes judgment upon man. The drought is not be conceived of as existing at present, but is threatened, as the whole chapter generally is occupied with threatening. בָּהּכָל־ישֵׁב probably does not refer to the men themselves but is specified by the following בְּ, and therefore refers to the beasts, etc. [Keil: בְּ׳ is used in the enumeration of the individuals as in Gen_7:21; Gen_9:10. The fishes are mentioned last, and introduced by the emphatic וְגַם to show that the drought would prevail to such an extent that even lakes and other bodies of waters would be dried up. הֵאָסֵף: to be collected, to be taken away, to disappear or perish.”—M.]
Hos_4:4. Only let none contend, and let none reprove, etc. These words appear quite unexpectedly and are not quite clear. There seems to be a verbal reference to Hos_4:1; and it may be that there is a contrast to that contending there announced on the part of God. The sense would then be: The Lord will contend, but it is presumptuous for men to strive against Him; none are to contend or reprove. Or we might forego the reference to Hos_4:1, and explain generally: let none contend or reprove! The hardened hearts of the people would then be referred to, who would listen to no rebuke. So Luther after the Vulgate: yet let none rebuke, etc. But אַךְ is thus falsely rendered. It is not=yet. Therefore others hold that there is a demand “only” to neglect pleading with and rebuking the corrupt people. There would indeed be much to rebuke, but it would be to no purpose (Keil). But this thought is not suitable to the context. It is just on the part of God that the רִיב does take place, and is not the whole prophetic discourse a rebuke? Others suppose a demand to the people not to resist God and his judgment. But הוֹכִיחַ will not suit here; it must be taken in the sense of censuring: let none censure God and his deeds. The explanation of Wünsche is therefore better: let none quarrel with another and attribute to him the blame of the calamity. And thy people as those who contend with the priest, that is, are like those, etc. With the first explanation of the preceding words, the ones now considered would surround them with still greater difficulties: let none contend—uttered with respect to the spirit of contradiction among the people—and they act as, etc. With the second explanation the words serve to support the preceding, to show the uselessness of contending and rebuking: yet thy people are like, etc. The explanation of Wünsche shows the best connection: the reason is given why none should reproach the others: the whole people are alike. In form however the sentence is not a confirmatory one, being simply coördinated by וְ [This objection is not conclusive. ו very often introduces a reason. See Green, Gr., § 287, 1. The opinion assigned to Wünsche is that not only adopted in E. V. but approved by most of the recent English commentators. Noyes prefers the view assigned above to Keil. On attempts to amend the text for other renderings, see the Textual note.—M.] Contend with the priest—an unexpected expression, perhaps to be explained by Deu_17:12 f. The people are like those who in the Law are described as rebels against the authority of the priest. They are therefore those who would not allow themselves to be directed aright by those whose prerogative it was to direct them (Hengstenberg, Keil).
Hos_4:5. כָּשַׁל naturally refers to the punishment [as the cause of the fall (destruction) of the people, whom the Prophet now directly addresses.—M.] Prophet, naturally=false prophets (comp. 1Ki_22:6 ff.), “who followed prophesying as a source of gain.” In the day,—by night: a figurative representation distributed according to the members of the sentence. The meaning is: the people and prophets shall fall all the time. And I will destroy thy mother = the whole nation conceived of as the mother of the children of Israel.
Hos_4:5. My people is destroyed.הַרַּעַת מִבְּלִי, not: unawares (Meier), but: from want of knowledge [see Gram. note], i.e., chiefly, knowledge of God. Yet the expression is to be taken primarily in its general reference; compare the beginning and end of the next strophe [Hos_4:11-14]. This want of knowledge is blameworthy, a despising of knowledge. This shows the nearer reference to be to the knowledge of God. Israel could have gained this from the law, but had forgotten that law. And I will despise thee from being a priest to me. This does not refer to the priest simply. All Israel, according to Exo_19:6, was to be a priestly people, and to be thus distinguished from the heathen, the profane. But they were to forfeit this high prerogative. The notion therefore=“shall be not-my-people,” chaps. 1–2.
Hos_4:7. The more they increased, not merely in numbers, but in prosperity, power, etc.,—the more they sinned; comp. Hos_2:7. They ascribed this prosperity to their idols, and were thus confirmed in idolatry. Accordingly Israel’s glory, consisting in their richness and greatness, shall be turned into shame, i.e., they shall lose their glory and stand dishonored.
Hos_4:8. A transition to the Priests, according to the purport of the words, and the beginning of Hos_4:9. They eat the sin of my people. They live upon, derive their support from, the sin of the people. That is their right to do so, the more the people sin, i.e., serve idols. For the very existence of the idol priesthood depended upon the idolatry of the people. Keil, still more specially, makes חַטַּאת עַמּי= sin-offering of the people (so also Luther). In the Law the priest was enjoined to eat the flesh of the sin-offering to blot out the sin of the people (Lev_6:19). But that became sin to the priests, because (second member of the verse) they directed their desires towards the transgression of the people, that is, wished their transgressions to multiply, so as to acquire a large supply of food from their offerings. The peculiar expression: eat the sin, may still bear allusion to the sacrificial ritual. But the notion is probably more general: they live upon the sin=the idolatry of the people, as they eat the flesh of the sacrifice offered to idols. He lifts up his soul towards = directs his desires towards. The singular suffix is anomalous; it is perhaps distributive: each one lifts up his soul. The meaning of the whole would be: Since they live upon the sin of my people, they wish for nothing more earnestly than that the people should keep on sinning more and more, namely, in idolatry. [So the expositors generally.—M.]
Hos_4:9. Since the priests go hand in hand with the people, the people serving idols and the priests desiring their idolatry, a like punishment will overtake them all. [Henderson: “The rank and wealth of the priests will not exempt them from sharing the same fate with the rest of the nation.”—M.]
Hos_4:10. They will eat, etc. “Eat” refers back to Hos_4:8, and therefore the primary reference is to the priests—הזנו. The usual force of the hiphil=entice to whoredom, would hardly suit here, although it is the priests who are spoken of. The addition וְלוֹ יִפְלצוּ, is unsuitable to this sense, for an extension by the procreation of children, which is here denied of them, could be predicated of those who commit whoredom, but not of those who only seduce others into that sin. Therefore it probably=a strengthened kal, as in Hos_4:18; 2Ch_21:13. The literal signification cannot here be excluded, if we take into account the conclusion of the verse, and especially the parallelism with “eat.” Hos_4:11, also, necessitates the conjunction of whoredom with “wine and must”=debauchery, and thus supports the literal interpretation, as also in Hos_4:13-14, the daughters are said to be actual whores. But yet all this is only the consequence of spiritual whoredom=idolatry, and in closest connection with it. It is that which is to be rebuked, and the figurative sense therefore predominates in Hos_4:12, where idolatrous practices are specially denounced, in the expression: spirit of whoredom. Whoredom as a consequence of idolatry, and as connected with it, and idolatry itself, are to the prophet perfectly identical, because inseparably united. The reason why they will not be satisfied or be extended, which are negative expressions affirming strongly their opposite, is that they forsook to regard. The expression refers to Jehovah: they forsook Jehovah, to keep Him, to regard, to honor Him (comp. Psa_31:7; Pro_27:18)=they forsook Him and ceased to regard, honor Him. [See Gram. note.—M.]
Hos_4:11. Whoredom and wine and new wine takes possession of the heart, לֵב, “the centre of the whole spiritual and moral life, the understanding, the will, and the sensibilities” (Wünsche). Hence the capture of the heart=the obscuring and perversion of the understanding and the will, expressing generally the intellectually and morally polluting influence of a life given up to sensual enjoyment. Then in the first member of Hos_4:12 a proof of this is adduced,—a special instance of apostasy from the living God.
Hos_4:12. שָׁאַל בְּעֵצוֹ, inquire of idols framed of wood, especially teraphim, in order to gain a divine revelation; in direct contrast to יְהוָֹה שָׁאַל. The reproach is made keener by the contrasted words: my people, their wood: the people who are Jehovah’s seek to wood, which is made their god instead of Jehovah. Their staff shall instruct them. This was the so-called rhabdomancy: two staves placed upright were allowed to fall while incantations were being repeated, and an oracular response was supposed to be given by the direction of its fall, backwards or forwards, to the right or to the left. [So described by Cyril of Alexandria. Compare the use of divining-rods or wishing-rods.—M.] This course of action is expressly attributed to the influence of a spirit of whoredom: idolatry (in connection with its consequences, whoredom and debauchery) is a seductive, demoniacal power, which they could no longer resist. מִתַּחַת אֵל׳, literally, from under their God, like מֵאַחְַרֵי (Hos_1:2), the normal relation to God is here regarded as one of subjection. It is from this that they withdraw themselves.
Hos_4:13. Upon the summits of the mountains, etc. (comp. Deu_12:2; Jer_2:20; Jer_3:6; Eze_6:13). Mountains and hills, as is well known, were favorite places for idolatrous worship. So also were green and shady trees in pleasant places (here specified instead of the usual general expression, “under every green tree”). “Therefore”=because the places of idol-worship everywhere arranged gave abundant opportunity, therefore your daughters commit lewdness (Keil). “Lewdness” is here, at all events, used in its literal sense, see especially Hos_4:14, second part. The prostitution of young maidens and of wives formed an essential portion of the nature-worship of Babylon and Canaan. It would seem from the mention of temple-girls in Hos_4:14 that the worship of Astarte, or something similar, is implied. But, even apart from this, the sensuous character of idolatry commonly induced unchaste practices.
Hos_4:14. Those who are young cannot be blamed, for those who are older are worse still. חֵם: they=husbands and fathers. פֵּרֵד, here intransitive: to go aside in order to be alone with the זֹונוֹת. קָדֵשׁ is one who is consecrated to the service of Astarte, or some similar Canaanitish divinity; women who prostituted themselves for gain. Offer with the temple-girls; appear with them at the altar. To such an extent did they carry their impudence and shamelessness. At the end of the strophe want of understanding is again emphasized; it is this that brings them to their fall.
Hos_4:15-19 contain a warning to Judah not to participate in Israel’s idolatry and shameless conduct, in order to escape the dreadful ruin of the former.
Hos_4:15. If thou, Israel, dost commit whoredom. Whoredom is here predominantly employed in its metaphorical, but includes also the literal sense. A participation in Israel’s idolatry would have been induced by pilgrimages to the shrines of the ten tribes, which still, presumably, were made. Such places were: Gilgal, southwest from Shiloh, now Djidjilia, formerly the seat of a School of the Prophets (2Ki_2:1; 2Ki_4:38); later a seat of idolatrous worship, and mentioned as such besides in our Prophet, Hos_9:15; Hos_12:12, and Amo_4:4; Amo_5:5; and Bethel, south of Gilgal, near the borders of Israel and Judah; now Betin. This is probably meant here by Beth-Aven, the name being intentionally changed; comp. Amo_5:5; mentioned also in Amo_4:4 along with Gilgal. Swear not: by the life of Jehovah. This cannot be forbidden in itself, for in Deu_6:13; Deu_20:20 it is directly enjoined. Swearing applied to the service of idolatry must be meant, and that in the two places above-mentioned. It appears evident that certain formulas of swearing characteristic of Jehovah’s worship were employed in idolatrous service, and that for the purpose of giving to the latter a seeming justification.
Hos_4:16. The punishment of Israel is pointed out in order to strengthen the warning to Judah. סֹרֵר, intractable, stubborn, will not be subject to God. God then gives them a free course—bitter irony,—like a sheep on a wide plain: that is, they shall be dispersed far and wide. [Henderson: “The latter hemistich contains the language of irony. As lambs are fond of ranging at large, but are in danger of being lost or devoured, so God threatens to remove the Israelites into a distant and large country, where they would be separated from those with whom they associated in idolatrous worship, and thus be left solitary and exposed as in a wilderness. The phrase, to feed in a large place, is elsewhere used in a good sense. Isa_30:23.”—M.]
Hos_4:17. Joined to idols, i.e., joined to them so fast that they cannot give them up; therefore probably חַנַּח־לוֹ = let them, that is, keep on, let them serve idols forever, the punishment will not delay. Ephraim was the most powerful of the ten tribes, and therefore often stands for the ten tribes generally. [The other interpretation, not so much favored, but numbering amongst its supporters Jerome, Grotius, Rosenmüller, and Maurer, is that the inhabitants of Judah are commanded to have nothing to do with the idolatry of Israel. This view has also the support of Cowles, but the other is approved by the majority of the English expositors.—M.]
Hos_4:18. A difficult one. סֹבֶא liquor, then: a drinking-bout. Fürst assumes besides כוּר to turn aside, another סוּר to become worthless or corrupt, here=to be spoiled. So also Keil [so also Ewald, Horsley, Pusey, and others, with E. V.—M.]. Meier takes it in the usual sense, to be removed, disappear: their carousing has disappeared. He then takes the following as in sense a dependent sentence: the carousing of those who commit whoredom, whose shields, etc. But this is rather artificial. To be sure, the mention of the punishment might be expected here, but it is just as suitable that Hos_4:18 should describe only their wicked conduct, and Hos_4:19 pictures them as being seized by a storm-wind in the midst of it. [Henderson translates the first clause: when their carousals are over they indulge in lewdness. Here אִם is supposed to be omitted. Cowles suggests the impossible explanation: He (Ephraim) becomes more apostate from God through strong drink.—M.] Along with their debauchery they commit whoredom,—again in the double sense. [For the construction of the next clause, see Gram. note.—M.] The shame which they love is not expressed, but is clearly enough contained in the two preceding hemistichs, therefore=shameful conduct in a moral sense; not=what brings disgrace upon them in its punishment. Her shields = her princes, as defenders of the people. “Her” refers to Ephraim, regarded as the wife. The princes are named specially: the whole nation is corrupt from the highest to the lowest.
Hos_4:19. In the midst of their sins destruction carries them away like a tempest with irresistible force. צַרַר=bind together; seize upon. It is the prophetic preterite. The tempest is regarded as already present. יֵבשׁוּ מִזִּבחֹתָם. This means either that they shall be shamed away from their sacrifices, because they were proved not to be able to help them, or that they shall be ashamed of their sacrifices. The sense is that both they and their sacrifices would be put to shame.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. With bold freedom and with holy earnestness the Prophet here displays a picture of the religious and moral corruption of the nation, before which we tremble. He has an eye open for both, and expresses most clearly the inseparable connection between religion and morality. Not only is immorality censured, but the religious depravation also (Hos_4:1-6; Hos_4:10-13), so that it may be clearly perceived that this religious decline is the source of the moral corruption, and therefore the (true) religion, that belief in Jehovah is the root of all morality. Observe here how the knowledge of God is exhibited as the essence of religion, and the want of this knowledge as the great error in connection with religion. Apostasy from God therefore consists or is rooted in the loss of the knowledge of Him, which includes not merely a theoretical cognition, but also belief in Him, as the self-revealed God, and the acquaintance and intimacy with Him thence drawn by experience. It is thus that Hosea elsewhere also insists upon the “knowledge of Jehovah” (Hos_5:4; Hos_6:3, and especially 6). In contrast hereto the idolater is described as one who is “joined to idols” (Hos_4:17), enters into conjugal intercourse with them. The Prophet, however, does not, in a one-sided fashion, pay exclusive attention to the conduct of the people with respect to religion, but lays just as much stress upon the moral consequences of their religious decline. In his several pictures he brands and rebukes the depravation of morals; want of fidelity and goodness, swearing, lying, stealing, murder, and adultery. Murdering and stealing, probably includes also deeds of violence committed against the poor, defenseless, etc. Special prominence is given to sins against the Sixth [Seventh] Commandment, which, on the basis of idolatry raged so violently in consequence of the terrible increase of unchaste practices during the prevalence of heathen religion and rites. The morally destructive influence of devotion to sensual and fleshly lusts is aptly described in the rebuke of Hos_4:11 it takes possession of the heart, and the extent of that influence is shown in Hos_4:13-14, where the complete destruction of all morality in domestic life is described. A large element of the moral corruption is the influence exerted by the corruption of the priests who make gain of the people’s sins (Hos_4:8-9), partly also of the prophets. It is also here to be observed how, on the other hand, the moral corruption hastens the religious ruin of the people, drawn as they are ever further from God, and led deeper into idolatry, superstition, and unbelief. Comp. Hos_4:12 in relation to Hos_4:11. In Hos_4:12 b, it is clearly indicated that men, through their estrangement from God and their immoral conduct, lose the power of voluntary self-determination, and become subject to a power, and evil “spirit,” which they must follow, and, in the end, against their bitter feelings. Where such universal corruption obtains a spirit will prevail by which the individual is easily borne along with it (comp. also Hos_5:4).
2. Jehovah has a contest with Israel (Hos_4:1). The expression evidently rests upon the covenant-relation in which two parties assume obligations conditioned on both sides. Israel with God and God with Israel. The relation is therefore a legal one. The one party is bound only so long as the other fulfills his obligations; if one party does not fulfill them, the other may accuse him of an infringement of the compact and institute legal proceedings against him. Thus Jehovah has a “suit-at-law” with Israel, because the latter did not fulfill its obligations. In Joel 4:2 the expression has a more general application to the judgment which God is to inflict upon the heathen; for they are also related to Jehovah as the Lord of the world. He will not be unjust with them, will not subject them to disadvantages, and will not do them injustice through his people; but they are not to infringe upon his rights, among which is his special relation to Israel. Attacking this, they attack Him also: hence this controversy with them. But alas! there is a dispute between Jehovah and his own people: instead of being united they are divided into two opposing parties. Because the land, shorn of fidelity, goodness, etc., is brought to shame through sin and infamous deeds (Hos_4:1-2), it shall mourn and languish (Hos_4:3)—be visited by drought—as the punishment decreed by God. If this “languishing” is extended even to the unintelligent creation, such a dispensation would express not merely the extent and degree of the visitation, but would show the lower animals to be also included in the punishment. Man, as lord of creation, has by his sin brought punishment upon the rest of the animal world: though these have not sinned, they must suffer with their master on account of his guilt. The punishment is elsewhere also set closely parallel to the guilt: in Hos_4:9 and especially in Hos_4:6; because Israel has despised and forgotten God, He shall also despise and forget them. In particular, I they show themselves unworthy of the high prerogative of being Jehovah’s priest, to which they were really called as being the chosen people.
3. Between Israel and Judah there was always an important distinction morally and religiously. Hence the kingdom of Israel could be held before to the kingdom of Judah as a warning example. And this must be done: for it may easily be understood how the example of Israel was most dangerous to Judah. We feel clearly, when the Prophet utters the warning: “If thou dost commit whoredom, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty,” how warmly his heart beats for Judah. He regards Judah not merely as a kingdom of kindred origin, but as the one which, after Israel’s apostasy, represented alone the people of God, and thus he must all the more desire to have Judah preserved from Israel’s ways. The position of a Prophet like Hosea, who was a citizen of the northern kingdom, was peculiar. In the discord that existed between Israel and Judah, such warm sympathy with the one would hardly be expected from a citizen of the other. But with a Prophet of Jehovah theocratic feelings, higher than natural ones, must prevail. In Judah was Jerusalem with the temple; in Judah the House of David ruled; Judah was always comparatively more faithful to God, and that was decisive. His heart must therefore turn towards Judah. He could regard the separation of Israel from Judah, partly in itself and partly on account of its disastrous consequences especially to Israel, which were so clearly manifested, only as something utterly false and unrighteous, as an act of injustice, and would behold the nation only in both kingdoms, so that the theocratic conception was in the deeper sense also the natural one. Yet in this he displayed his patriotism even in respect to his nearer home, just in his earnest testimony against the prevailing corruption, whose consequence he foresaw would be certain ruin. Hosea certainly does not expect this ruin to be averted, but only expects a religious and moral renovation through its influence, with which he could not but see the restoration of the national unity necessarily united. See further No. 4 in the Doctrinal and Ethical section on chaps. 5 and 6.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Luther: Hos_4:1. Who will stand in the judgment in which he is accused by God? For then it will be no argument of words as before an earthly judge, but we ourselves bring against ourselves the testimony of our consciences as our indictment. What is the source of this evil in the world, that nothing true is found, but everything is done from a false heart, and that nowhere can any evidence of honest kindness be seen? The reason is, because there is no knowledge of God in the land, i. e., because men despise God’s Word.
[Matthew Henry: Sin is the great mischief-maker: it sows discord between God and Israel: God’s controversies will be pleaded; pleaded by the judgments of his mouth before they are pleaded by the judgments of his hand, that He may be justified in all He doth, and may make it appear that He does not desire the death of sinners. And God’s pleadings ought to be attended to, for sooner or later they shall have a hearing.—M.]
Hos_4:2. Würt. Summ.: Faithfulness and sincerity among a people are like great and precious jewels in a land. So also are paternal confidence and love and pure and faithful preachers of the Word of God. So there is no greater need than when these things are absent; and especially when God’s Word and pure teachers and preachers are wanting. This is the fountain of all evil. For God’s Word keeps sin at a distance. Where it is not, or where it is not preached in its simplicity and purity, or men will not be reproved by it, nor follow it, nor amend their ways, there one blood-guiltiness and deadly sin follow after another, and all kinds of evil break in like a flood.
[Pusey: Speculative and practical knowledge are bound up together, through the oneness of the relation of the soul to God, whether in its thoughts of Him or acts towards Him. Wrong practice corrupts belief, and misbelief corrupts practice.—M.]
Hos_4:4. Luther: It is not so great an offense for men to sin as for them not to be willing to suffer the reproval of sin. For when they live in such a way as that their hearts have a horror of the cure of their malady, punishment can no longer delay. This sin is the most common of our time. Just look at Christian churches, and you will see everywhere that the teachers are hated for rebuking sin so freely. But this only excites God’s wrath more fiercely against us. For not man but God rebukes and challenges the sinner.
Hos_4:6. God will not be mocked. Men may reject God, but He is still beside them, and shows that He is there in his judgments. The self-deception of sin: in rejecting God (forgetting his commands) thou doest so as one who is rejected by Him.
[Matthew Henry: Ignorance is so far from being the mother of devotion that it is the mother of destruction.
Pusey: In an advanced stage of sin, men may come to forget what they once despised.—M.]
Hos_4:8. There is nothing more shameful than to draw profit from the sin of our neighbor, and thus to strengthen him in his sin, or become the occasion of his sinning; doubly shameful if we abuse our office and more exalted position to do so.
[Pusey: What else is to extenuate or flatter sin than to dissemble it, not to see it, not openly to denounce it, lest we lose our popularity, or alienate those who commit it?—M.]
[Hos_4:9. Matthew Henry: Sharers in sin must expect to be sharers in ruin.—M.]
[Hos_4:10. Pusey: Single marriage, according to God’s law: “they twain shall be one flesh,” yields in a nation a larger increase than polygamy. Illicit intercourse God turns to decay. His curse is upon it.—M.]
Hos_4:11. Luther: These two vices, whoredom and debauchery, so take possession of a man that he does not know what he thinks, speaks, or does. The boy Cyrus in Xenophon admirably says, that wine is mixed with poison. And the saying of Archilochus, with reference to impure love, is well known:—
“Πολλὴν κατ̓ ἔρως ἀχλὺν ὀμμάτων ἔχευεν,
Κλέψας ἐκ στηθέων απαλὰς φρένας.”
Comp. Luk_21:34; Eph_5:18.
Hos_4:12. Luther: The spirit of whoredom is that evil spirit which takes away from men’s hearts true thoughts of God, and either perverts their hearts, or entirely subdues them by filling them with trust in the creature, which is true and sheer idolatry. For idolatry does not consist merely in calling upon idols, but also in trust in our own righteousness, works, and service, in riches and human influence and power. And this, as it is the most common, is also the most harmful idolatry.
[Pusey: The sins of the fathers descend very often to the children, both in the way of nature, that the children inherit strong temptations to their parents’ sin, and by way of example, that they greedily imitate, often exaggerate them. Wouldst thou not have children which thou wouldst wish unborn, reform thyself.—M.]
Hos_4:13. Würt. Summ.: Corporeal and spiritual whoredom are commonly united, and mutually dependent. For how should he who does not abhor a departure from God through idolatry, abhor a life abandoned to fleshly lusts? For idolatry is a much greater sin than corporeal indulgence: the one offends against the first table of the law and against God Himself, but the other against the second table and our neighbor.
Starke: When worship is performed in any other way than God has appointed, God is honored no longer, and idolatry is committed.
Hos_4:14. Experience teaches that children are prone to imitate the shameful and unchaste lives of their parents. When such is the case the parents are most responsible; they deserve the chief punishment.
Luther: If God gives his Word to men, and they will not receive his instructions, what else should He do with them, than give them up to a reprobate mind, i.e., let them live on according to their own counsel and pleasure, until they finally perish?
[Clarke: While there is hope, there is correction.
Pusey: To be chastened severely for lesser sins is a token of the great love of God toward us. To sin on without punishment is a token of God’s extremest displeasure and a sign of reprobation. “Great is the offense, if, when thou hast sinned, thou art undeserving of the wrath of God.”—M.]
Hos_4:15. Pfaff. Bibelwerk: Ye pious and true believers, let not the ungodly seduce you to follow their steps, but beware of them lest ye also have part in their punishment. But ye sinners, if ye will go on sinning, do not seduce the innocent, and thus heap up the measure of your iniquities. Comp. Gal_5:9.
[Matthew Henry: The nearer we are to the infection of sin, the more need have we to stand upon our guard. Those that would be steady in their adherence to God must possess themselves with an awe and reverence of God, and always speak of Him with solemnity and seriousness; for those who can make a jest of the true God will make a god of anything.—M.]
Hos_4:16. The Prophet employs this simile of a lamb in the desert, because nothing is more pitiable than a little lamb which has lost its shepherd. For the same reason Christ employs this figure of the lost sheep, when He would show the piteous condition of the sinner, and his great compassion towards him.
Schmieder: He who will not submit to the restraints imposed by God, shall obtain a freedom which will at last become most irksome. This applies both to nations and to individuals.
[Scott: While sinners obstinately reject the easy yoke of Christ, they are bringing down the heavy load of his vengeance upon themselves.
Pusey: Woe is it to that man, whom, when he withdraws from Christ’s easy yoke, God permits to take the broad road which leadeth to destruction.—M.]
Hos_4:19. Starke: God does indeed bear with sinners in great patience and long-sufferings, and calls them to repentance; but when they do not amend, his punishment is swift. 1Th_5:3.
[Pusey: So does God, by healthful disappointment, make us ashamed’ of seeking out of Him those good things which He alone hath, and hath in store for them that love Him.—M.]
Footnotes:
[1][Hos_4:3.—בְּחַיַּת וג׳. בְּ is used here as in Gen_7:21; Gen_9:10, to specify or enumerate objects indicated before in the general. In usage, though not in grammatical function, it is equivalent to our namely.—M.]
[2][Hos_4:4.—וְעַמְּךָ. Newcome gives a variety of emendations and transpositions, partly from other sources, in order to obtain a more natural sense than the one he draws from the text. He seems to have been misled by the difficulty suggested by Houbigant, who remarks that it could not be a crime to contend with idolatrous priests. These of course, are not meant. See the exposition. Among the ancient translators, the LXX., Aquila, and Arab. read עַמּי: my people, which seems more natural but is not necessary.—M.] Meier would point differently, and reads וְעִמְּךָ: with thee, against thee, namely, God, and makes the negation continue: (let no one be) against thee. This is forced. The יְהִי would be necessary, and עם would not be the proper preposition.
[3][Hos_4:6.—We must not read מִבְּלִי דַּעַת unexpectedly (Meier). The article is essential—וָאֶמְאַסאךָ. According to the Masora the third א is superfluous, and therefore probably a chirographical error. According to Ewald it is an Aramaic pausal form. [Henderson: The third א is not found in a great number of Kennicott’s and De Rossi’s manuscripts, nor in some of the earlier printed editions; in others it is marked as redundant, and a few have קרי אמאסך.—M.]
[4]Hos_4:10.—לִשְׁמֹר. Meier attaches this word to the following verse: to practice lewdness, etc. But this is forced. [Henderson cites the similar view of Saadias, Arnold, and Horsley, but thinks “there is something so repugnant to Hebrew usage in the combination: to observe fornication, wine and new wine, that it is altogether inadmissible.” But his choice of the term “observe” is arbitrary. In thus opposing Horsley, he overlooks the fact that the latter renders: to give attention to, a sense of the word which is not at all repugnant to Hebrew usage. It must be remembered that they “neglected “Jehovah or dropped Him from their thoughts; the antithesis would naturally be: to keep in mind lewdness, etc. This is the exact usage of the word in Gen_37:11; Psa_130:3. Horsley’s arguments are mainly based upon the double anomaly of the construction as formerly assumed, in which עזב was supposed to govern its object indirectly (and irregularly) by means of לְ with the infinitive, and שׁמר was regarded as governing (against usage) יהוה as its direct object: they forsook to regard Jehovah. עזב is now admitted by some to govern יהוה directly, and the pers pron.: him, is supplied after regard, as is done by Schmoller. But, even with this construction, the omission of the object in the original after לִשְׁמֹר would he unaccountable and very abrupt. To these considerations this other may be added, that under the present division of the verses, Hos_4:11 is made unusually brief. These difficulties in the way of the ordinary constructions should lead us to regard the subversion of the mark of division between the verses with more favor than should ordinarily be shown to attempts at amending the text. The proposed change would give the translation: because they have neglected Jehovah to set their minds on whoredom and wine and new wine, (which) will take possession of the heart.—M.]
[5][Hos_4:12.—Henderson: “The LXX. and most versions which follow them connect עַמַּי with לֵב at the end of the preceding verse; a mode of construction adopted by Michaelis and Dathe, but otherwise disapproved by modern translators.—M.]
[6]Hos_4:18.—אָהֲבוּ הֵבוּ perhaps belong together, a pialal form from אהב, except that the doubling has been separated in an extraordinary manner. It is therefore really instead of אֲהַבְחֳבוּ. Wünsche would read אֱהַב אָהֲבוּ resembling the preceding הַזנֵה חִזְנוּ. [On this combination see Green, Gr., §§ 92 a, 122, 1; Ewald, § 120 a; Böttcher, § 1055 b. These grammarians, as well as the best critics generally, regard it as one word. The form with which it is usually compared is צִמחֻתוּנִי, Psa_88:17. The last named author calls our form a Qetaltal, corresponding to the form adopted by Schmoller. The notion conveyed by such forms is that of intensity, or repetition. So Ewald: es lieben lieben Schmach seine Schilde. Comp the rendering of Delitzsch in the passage just cited: vernichtnichtigt. It the alternative of separate words be adopted, it would be almost necessary to adopt some such expedient as that of Wünsche given above; for the rendering of E. V.: her rulers with shame do love; give ye, is almost unintelligible.—M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1-3. The moral corruption in everyday life.
1-3. The moral corruption in everyday life.
Hear — The prophet solemnly summons Israel to listen to the accusation he brings in the name of Jehovah.
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Jehovah hath a controversy — Jehovah is both plaintiff and judge (Isa_1:2; compare Hos_12:2; Mic_6:2). He is proceeding against the people because their life and conduct are contrary to his will. All virtue and godliness have disappeared.
Truth — Truthfulness and fidelity in their transactions. The lack of it is due to the want of mercy [“goodness”] — The same word is translated in Hos_2:19, “loving-kindness”; it is used here in the same sense as there (see on Hos_2:19). The lack of love in turn is due to the absence of the knowledge of God — See on Hos_2:20 (compare Hos_4:6; Hos_5:4; Hos_6:3, etc.). Note that Hosea does not say Jehovah; truthfulness and kindness are universally recognized virtues, not confined to the worshipers of Jehovah. Hos_4:2 shows what is found in Israel in the place of virtue.
By swearing — Better, with R.V., “There is naught but swearing.”
Lying — R.V., “Breaking faith” — The two expressions are closely connected, oaths are taken lightly and broken easily; the two combined are almost equivalent to false swearing or perjury (Hos_10:4), the opposite of truthfulness (Hos_4:1). Perjury, murder, theft, and adultery, all caused by the absence of lovingkindness (Hos_4:1), are common; the ninth, sixth, eighth, and seventh commandments are thus broken.
They break out — Into acts of violence.
Blood — Bloody, violent deeds (G.-K. 124n) — toucheth blood — One bloody deed follows closely upon another.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. ye children of Israel] The northern kingdom only…
1. ye children of Israel] The northern kingdom only is addressed (see Hos_4:15, where the prophet turns aside to Judah).
the Lord hath a controversy] Jehovah is both plaintiff and judge; comp. Hos_12:2; Isaiah 1.
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no truth, nor mercy] Or, ‘no truthfulness and no kindness.’ The Hebrew khesedh includes in its wide range of meaning[55] (1) the love of God to man, as Psa_5:7, (2) the love of man to God, as Hos_6:4, and (3) brotherly love, or the love of a man to his neighbour, as often. Here the context favours the last of these applications. St Jerome well describes the connexion between the two qualities,—‘nec veritas absque misericordiâ sustineri potest, et misericordia absque veritate facit negligentes, unde alterum miscendum est alteri’. In short, truth without love leads to hardness, love without truth to weakness.
[55] On the Hebrew words for love, comp. Carl Abel, Ueber den Begriff der Liebe in einigen alten und neuen Sprachen, Berlin, 1872, pp. 63.
nor knowledge of God] This might well have been mentioned first. Moral practice is low, because the heart has no experience of God’s personal dealings with it (see on Hos_2:20).
1–3. The people are summoned to hear whereof Jehovah accuses them, viz. the universal prevalence of the most crying sins. The prophet assures them that this is the true cause of the physical calamity which is becoming more and more general in its range.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) Controversy.—A judicial suit, in which Jehovah is plaintiff…
(1) Controversy.—A judicial suit, in which Jehovah is plaintiff as well as judge (Isa_1:23; Isa_41:21). By the “children of Israel” we are to understand the northern kingdom of the ten tribes, as distinguished from Judah.
Mercy.—Better rendered love. The Hebrew word chésed expresses (1) the love of God for Israel under covenant relationship; (2) the corresponding quality in man exhibited to God or towards his fellow-men. (See Hupfeld on Psa_4:4; and Duhm, Theologie der Propheten, p. 100.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain A new and distinct division of the book commences…
A new and distinct division of the book commences with this fourth chapter and continues till the close. What had previously been presented in figure and symbol is now plainly and literally stated. The children of Israel are summoned in the first verse of this chapter to hear the charge preferred against them and the sentence pronounced. Having convened, as it were, a public assembly and cited the persons concerned, the prophet proceeds to show cause why they are bound to give an attentive hearing. In God"s controversy with the people of the land the prophet acts as his ambassador, accusing the people of great and grievous sins, and vindicating the justice of God"s judgments in their punishment. The ki with which the last clause of the verse commences may be either causal or recitative, and may thus specify either the ground or subject of controversy. It is commonly understood here in the former sense. Israel is charged with want of truth, mercy, and the knowledge of God. Kimchi comments on this controversy as follows: With the inhabitants of the land of Israel I have a controversy, for I gave them the land on the condition that they should exercise righteousness and judgment, and on this condition I pledged myself to them that my eyes would be upon them from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. But since they practice the opposite cursing, lying, etc. I also will act with them in a way contrary to what I assured them, and will hide my face from them." He adds, "There were some righteous among them, but they were few, and they hid themselves from the face of the multitude who were wicked." Truth and mercy are at once Divine attributes and human virtues; it is in the latter sense, of course, that they are here employed. Truth includes works as well as words, doing as well as saying; it implies uprightness in speech and behavior thorough integrity of character and conduct, Mercy goes beyond and supplements this. We sometimes say of such a one that he is an honest but a hard man. Mercy combined with truth, on the contrary, makes a man kind as well as honest, benevolent as well as upright. In a somewhat similar sense the apostle conjoins goodness and righteousness when he says, "Scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die." The knowledge of God is the real root of these two virtues of truth and mercy. If we know God as he is in himself and as he stands in his relations to us, we shall conform our conduct to his character and our actions to his will. If we know God to be a God of truth, who delighteth in truth in the inward parts, we shall cultivate truth in our hearts, express it with our lips, and practice it in our lives. If we know God as a God of mercy, who has shown such boundless mercy to us in pardoning our multiplied and aggravated offenses, we shall imitate that mercy in our relations to our fellow-man; nor shall we enact the part of the merciless man in the parable, who owed his lord ten thousand talents, and who, having nothing to pay, was freely forgiven the debt; but finding his fellow-servant, who owed him only a hundred pence, laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, "Pay me that thou owest," and, deaf to that fellow-servant"s supplications, east him into prison till he should pay the debt. The intimate connection of the knowledge of God with the virtues in question is confirmed by the Prophet Jeremiah, Did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? he judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me, saith the Lord?
Vers. 1-5. Israel"s sin and consequent suffering.
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The prophet is Jehovah"s mouth-piece, and as such he calls on his fellowmen to hear the word of the Lord; he thus speaks by commission and with authority. Having thus claimed an attentive hearing in his Master"s Name, he denounces Israel"s sins, and declares the judgments that await them. In this discharge of his duty the prophet has a twofold object in view. By his timely and truthful warning he hopes to reclaim some, at least, of his countrymen, and in any case he means to leave all without excuse. God by his ambassador displays in this way both his mercy and his justice. His mercy in that he speaks to them before he strikes them he warns them of their danger while it is yet impending, and before they are actually involved in it; his justice for he condescends to debate the matter with his people, and convince them of the reasonableness of his dealings, that they may see that he does not contend with them without cause, and that when he is forced to execute sentence for their sills, that sentence has been well deserved.
I RELIGION IS THE SURE FOUNDATION OF MORALITY. True religion begins with a saving knowledge of God. This is the fountain-head; moral duties are the salutary streams that issue from it. Godliness is the source of uprightness; piety towards God produces propriety of conduct in demeaning ourselves and in dealing with others; where the right knowledge of God is absent, we need not expect truth or mercy among men. On the contrary, a profession of piety without the performance of duty to our fellows God will disown; without truth and mercy religion is only a pretence, a painful hypocrisy. Religion, then, is the rich soil in which virtue strikes root and its growth is maintained.
II THE RELATION OF THE VIRTUES HERE SPECIFIED. With regard to mercy and truth, Kimchi has well remarked that "no truth" imports that there is "no one doing the truth, and no one speaking the truth;" while on the words "nor mercy," he adds, "Hew much does it follow thence that there is no mercy, for mercy is the superabundance of goodness over and above what is meet; and as to him who does not maintain either truth or justice, how much less will he show mercy?" The combination of truth, mercy, and knowledge of God may be compared with the triple duties specified by Micah, as doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God; and with the apostolic triad of living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. In each of these our duty to ourselves, to our neighbor, and to our God is expressed; so, too, in the verse before us. While mercy mainly respects the duty we owe our fellowman, and knowledge of God our relation to him, truth has to do with a man himself as well as with his neighbor. We are to be true to conscience, seeking to have it enlightened, striving to keep it clear, and having the courage of our convictions. We are to be true to ourselves, in our strangely composite personality; true to the soul by seeking its salvation, for "what shall it profit a man, should he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" true to the body by preserving its purity, maintaining its sobriety, and securing its health, that we may possess a sound mind in a sound body. Of course, truth has large scope in our intercourse with others. We are required to be truthful in our utterances, true to our promises, true in all our engagements, true and just in all our dealings. The duty of mercy, in a world where sin has wrought such ruin and caused such misery, is obvious. As sinful creatures, we need the mercy of our Creator; as suffering, sorrowful beings, we are strongly obligated to the exercise of mercy towards each other. The quality of mercy is not strain"d: It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless"d; It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes: The mightiest in the mightiest; ... while In the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation.
III OMISSIONS SOON MAKE WAY FOR COMMISSIONS. When the duties of truth, mercy, and the knowledge of God were omitted, the grossest sins succeeded and took their place. But we must notice the expression, "in the land;" this appears to mean more than the general prevalence of such through all this country; it seems to hint at Israel"s ingratitude. God had given them that good land, where God should have had grateful worshippers and a holy people. Kimchi makes the following judicious comment on this subject: "I have a controversy with them (the inhabitants of the land of Israel), for I gave them the land conditionally that they should exercise justice and judgment; and herein I made a covenant with them, that my eyes should be upon it from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year. But since they acted in a way contrary to this perjuring, stealing, and committing adultery I also will act towards them in a way contrary to what I promised, and hide my face from them; and the land shall mourn, and all the dwellers in it shall languish." The sins committed by Israel at this period evidence an almost disorganized state of society. The most important duties were omitted and the most enormous sins committed; nor was this strange, when there was no knowledge of God in the land; and yet this very circumstance was the great aggravation both of their omissions and commissions. It was the privilege of the highly favored inhabitants of that land to know God; as we read, "In Judah is God known: his Name is great in Israel. In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion." But while both tables of the Law were transgressed, and fearfully transgressed, the violations of the sixth commandment were something shocking. This black feature in Israel"s iniquity is made prominent by the prophet, and specially noticed by the Hebrew expositors. Rashi says, "They multiply the shedding of bloods until the blood of one slain man touches the blood of his neigh-bout;" and Kimchi"s comment is, "The bloods of the slain touch one another from abundance." Though we may not be able to fix with certainty the period referred to, it may with considerable probability be conjectured that about this time the numerous and dreadful regicides occurred. Shallum slaying Zechariah; Menahem slaying Shallure; Pekah slaying Pekahiah; and Hoshea slaying Pekah; so that "the land was polluted with blood.
a. HUMAN SINFULNESS DRAPES NATURE IN WEEDS OF WOE. We have here at once an expansion and illustration of the sentiment of the Psalm, (Psa_107:33, Psa_107:34) "He turneth... a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein." Man and beast, fish and fowl alike, are sufferers in consequence of human sin. The whole creation groaneth and suffereth together in consequence of the creature having been subjected to vanity. "When," says Jerome, on this verse, "the inhabitant is removed, the beasts also, and fowls of heaven, and fishes of the sea shall fail; and even the dumb elements shall feel the wrath of God." Many actual illustrations of this state of things, we doubt not, had taken place in the history of Israel, as in the days of Ahab and many a time besides. When rain was long delayed and drought ensued, the land mourned and its inhabitants languished.
b. PERVERSENESS IS A PREPARATIVE FOR DESTRUCTION. When people become so froward and perverse as to be beyond reproof, so that God says of them, as he does in effect of Israel in this passage, "Let them proceed and reproof cease," they are on the very verge of a fearful precipice. Israel had gone so far towards that perilous position that no private person was permitted to warn, if so disposed, or reason with his neighbor; not even the priest, God"s appointed minister, in those days dared venture to do so, or if he did it was labor lost. They stumble and fall, teacher and taught, prophet and people together. As also both night and day alike; by day, when danger was least and the disgrace greatest; in the night season, when darkness made destruction inevitable. Worst of all, no helper to be hoped for; or, rather, the mother she that might be expected to hold up or lift up her children is herself doomed. That mother, whether Samaria, the mother city, or the commonwealth itself, the mother of them all, was devoted to the silence of destruction.
HOMILIES BY C. JERDAN Vers. 1-5. The Lord"s lawsuit.
The introduction to the Book of Hoses consists of a symbolical narrative, contained in Hosea 1-3. The body of the book is occupied with discourses, which are full of mingled reproaches, threatenings, and promises. Hosea 4. evidently reflects the condition of the nation during the interregnum which followed the death of Jeroboam II The key-word of the first strophe (vers. 1-5) is the word "controversy" (ver. 1), used in the sense of a legal action a suit at law. Jehovah represents himself as prosecuting Israel for breachof contract.
I THE SUMMONS. (Ver. 1) A solemn covenant had been concluded at Sinai between God and the chosen nation. It had the Decalogue for its basis, and it had been ratified by sacrifice (Exodus 20-24). But the people of the ten tribes had infringed the covenant, and exposed themselves (taking the figure of the passage) to legal proceedings for breach of contract. The summons, however, was not served without extreme provocation. For the Lord is not litigious. He is "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy". (Psa_103:8) We shall see from the indictment that almost every obligation of the sacred compact had been violated.
II THE INDICTMENT. (Vers. 1, 2) It is a tremendous one. There are two weighty counts in it, and together they show that by this time the very bonds of society in Israel had been dissolved.
1. Religion was dead. (Ver. 1) "No truth." "Truth" may here be taken to cover the entire masculine side of the religious character, and to include all such strong virtues as veracity, faithfulness, integrity, righteousness, immutability. To love truth is one of the first duties of religion. "Igor mercy." This word represents the feminine side of piety, and includes such graces as pity, clemency, kindness, sympathy. These fatal defects were due to the lack of" knowledge of God in the land." Mercy and truth are glorious perfections of the Divine nature, and their existence as virtues of social ethics depends upon right conceptions regarding him. But Israel had lost the knowledge of Jehovah. The calf-shrines had been her ruin. The image-worship had destroyed the spiritual service of God. And the failure of the heart knowledge led to the failure of head-knowledge also, and that in turn to the loss of all virtue. How sad that there should be "no knowledge of God in the land." For was it not the land of Immanuel, and were not its citizens "a people near unto him"? How dreadful such an indictment against the nation of whom the psalmist exultingly sings, "In Judah is God known: his Name is great in Israel"! (Psa_76:1)
2. Immorality was rampant. (Ver. 2) The sin of Jeroboam I, in setting up the golden calves and encouraging the systematic violation of the second commandment, had become the fruitful source of disobedience to the whole moral Law. It had paved the way for the deeper apostasy of Baalism; (1Ki_16:31) and, the first two commandments being overturned, little respect was any longer paid to the others. Ver. 2 presents a picture of the eleven years which followed the death of Jeroboam II, when the forces of revolution and anarchy were struggling for the upper hand. Then the land was full of perjury and violence. All kinds of evil broke forth like a flood. The third commandment, the sixth, the seventh, the eighth, the ninth, were alike disregarded. One deed of blood trod upon the heels of another; assassination following assassination, and slaughter avenging slaughter. The character of the people, and of their prophets and priests, was hopelessly bad. Reproof would be in vain (ver. 4). The men of Israel were as contumacious as those who refused to obey the priest when he gave judgment in Jehovah"s Name. (Deu_17:12) Indeed, the sin of the whole kingdom, which began with the renunciation of the Aaronical priesthood, may be symbolically described as that of" striving with the priest." And now, at last, even the very mercy of God had to be withdrawn from the nation.
III THE JUDGMENT. (Vers. 3-5) The Lord does not cite and plead in vain. He is "justified when he speaks, and clear when he judges." The punishment of Israel"s sin is to be universal and very terrible. The judgment is to fall upon:
1. The soil. (Ver. 3) The threatening here is that of a universal drought. The very ground is to be cursed because of the people"s guilt. The famine is to be one of fearful severity. In a sense, the soil of Palestine may be said to be lying under that visitation yet. Canaan is naturally "a fruitful land; " but God has turned it "into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwelt therein.
2. The lower creatures. Animal life is to decline by reason of the drought. The brute creation shall be reduced to an extremity of hunger on account of the people"s sin.
3. The people themselves. They are to be punished with:
(1) Loss of health. "Every one that dwelleth therein shall languish "- the physical frame losing strength and tone, and "joy being withered away from the sons of men". (Joe_1:12)
(2) Loss of food, due to the breaking of the two staffs of life the failure of the harvests and the destruction of the animals.
(3) Loss of grace (ver. 4). Expostulation with the people would be useless. They hated reproof. God"s Spirit had ceased to strive with Ephraim; he was "joined to idols" (ver. 17). The men of Israel were so desperately wicked that it was "impossible to renew them again unto repentance.
(4) Loss of life (ver. 5). "Evil shall slay the wicked." The people of the ten tribes, with their false prophets, are to perish in their sins. The slaughter is to be continuous, neither day nor night being free from it. It is also to be indiscriminate, and at last universal. And the loss of temporal life is only the shadow of deeper spiritual loss, beyond in eternity.
4. The nation as such. (Ver. 5) "I will destroy thy mother." The Israelitish state was the "mother" of the people; and already, by reason of the family wickedness, she is driving fast along the highway to destruction. These closing words, indeed, are her funeral knell.
CONCLUSION. Two lessons of this passage are specially prominent, viz.
(1) the essential connection between religion and morality;
(2) the inevitable connection between national sin and national suffering. Wherever the right knowledge of God is wanting, there sin and Satan are sure to triumph. Ancient Greece gave to Europe the glorious beginnings both of political and intellectual life and was herself resplendent with the choicest triumphs of literature and art; yet some of her wisest philosophers countenanced the practice of unmentionable vices. The sun never shone upon a more brilliant company of scholars, poets, philosophers, orators, jurists, and litterateurs, than that which adorned the court of Augustus, the first emperor of Rome; yet during the Augustan age the Roman people were plunging into depths of moral degradation which ultimately led to the ruin of the empire. On the other hand, when the general overthrow of the continental monarchs took place in 1848, and the throne of Great Britain remained as stable as ever, M. Guizot said one day to Lord Shaftesbury, "I will tell you what saved your empire. It was not your constable; it was not your army; it was not your statesmen. It was the deep, solemn, religious atmosphere that still is breathed over the whole people of England." For nations, knowledge of God and acceptance of his salvation are necessary, in order to the prevalence of that righteousness which is the source of national stability. And for each citizen in like manner, "This is life eternal, to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. C.J.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON Ver. 1. Hear the word of the Lord!
The Hebrew prophets were distinguished from other politicians and moralists in this respect, that they did not address the people upon their own authority, or convey to them the counsels of their own wisdom. It was their practice to keep themselves in the background, and to summon their countrymen, in the language of the text, to "hear the word of the Lord." This language implies
I. THAT GOD HAS SPOKEN TO MAN.
1. This is opposed to the atheistic doctrine, that there is no God to speak; and to the Epicurean doctrine, that the gods care not to concern themselves in the affairs of mortals. It is also opposed to the modern and pseudo-scientific doctrine, that the universe is so bound in the chains of physical law that there is no opportunity for the mind, if such there be, that shapes and controls all things to communicate with the spiritual nature of man.
2. Yet this belief harmonizes with the highest conception we can form of the Eternal. We refuse to believe that he, who is present throughout his material creation, is cut off from the very nature which is most akin to his own.
3. As a matter of fact, revelation is a word of God to man. The prophets, evangelists, and apostles were taken possession of by a supernatural power, that spake to them, in them, and by them, to their fellow-men.
4. Christ himself, the Word of God, sums up in his person, ministry, and sacrifice all that God has of especial interest and value to impart to the minds of men.
II THAT MAN IS UNDER AN OBLIGATION TO LISTEN TO THE WORD OF GOD.
1. The finite and fallible nature of man stands in need of Divine instruction, guidance, encouragement, and admonition.
2. There is in man a conscience which attests the divinity of the word to which he listens when God speaks.
3. Humility and reverence are becoming to such as thus come into contact with the utterances of Eternal Wisdom.
4. To hear aright involves a prompt and cheerful obedience. For the Word of God conveys not only speculative truth, but the most valuable practical counsels as to conduct, He received aright the word of God who exclaimed, "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth! T.
A controversy.
Language such as this shows how readily the inspired writers made use of human relationships in order to impress upon the minds of the people great moral facts and lessons. There is, of course, great difference between the disputes and controversies which arise among men, and any matter of estrangement between God and men; yet how vigorously and effectively does this language set forth human sin and Divine righteousness!
I THE PARTIES TO THIS CONTROVERSY. On the one side is a rightful Ruler; on the other, rebellious subjects. The Ruler is possessed of infinite power; the rebels are feeble, and their resistance is vain. The Ruler has established, by his grace and forbearance, the strongest claims upon his subjects" gratitude and loyal affection; the rebels have shown amazing insensibility and obduracy. This is indeed a just picture of the righteous and merciful God, and of the disobedient and rebellious children of men. The inhabitants of the land, i.e. of Israel, are in this matter representative in their attitude and conduct of an ungodly race.
II THE GROUND OF THE CONTROVERSY. The prophet, speaking in the name of Jehovah, charges Israel with evil-doing of two kinds.
1. Immorality. The two great classes of human duty are simply described by the two terms, truth and mercy. If men are just and benevolent in their dealing with one another, they fulfill moral obligations; for these virtues comprehend all excellences which may be displayed in human life and intercourse. But where faith is broken and pity is withheld, the bonds of society are loosened, and its dissolution has begun.
2. Impiety. "The knowledge of God in the land" is essential to the wellbeing of a nation. Where God is unknown, where men live" without God in the world," where his knowledge is suffered to lapse, and the rising generation are trained with no fear of God before their eyes there vice and crime will be rampant and unchecked, and there will be no guarantee for social order and peace.
III THE ISSUE OF THIS CONTROVERSY.
1. It cannot be in the victory of the rebellions.
2. It must be in the maintenance of Divine authority and honor.
3. It should be in the repentance and submission of the disloyal, and in a reconciliation between the penitent offenders and the righteously offended God.
4. The gospel is especially intended to bring this controversy to a close, in a way honoring to God and advantageous to sinful man. "We beseech you in Christ"s stead, be ye reconciled to God. T.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1, 2. A corrupt people and an expostulating God.
"Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood." In the previous chapters the prophet"s language had been highly and somewhat perplexingly symbolical. It is so much so in the short chapter preceding this, that we pass it by. Here he begins to speak more plainly, and in sententious utterances. From the first to the nineteenth verses of this chapter, he reproves both the people and the priest for their sins during the eleven years" interregnum that followed Jeroboam"s death. He makes no mention, therefore, either of the king or his family. The subject of these two verses isA corrupt people and an expostulating God.
I A CORRUPT PEOPLE. The people are "the children of Israel," or the ten tribes who were living during the terrible period of anarchy which followed on the death of Jeroboam II Their depravity is here represented both in a negative and a positive form.
1. Negatively. "Because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land." These are the great fontal virtues in the universe; and where they are not, there is a moral abjectness of the most terrible description. "No truth!" A people without reality, not only living in fictions, but their very life a lie. "Nor mercy!" No acts of beneficence performed, and the very spirit of kindliness extinct. All tenderness and genial feeling burnt out. "Nor knowledge of God!" The greatest, the holiest, and the most beneficent Being in the universe utterly ignored.
2. Positively. The absence of these great virtues gives rise to tremendous crimes.
(1) There is profanity. "By swearing." Where God is ignored, all reverence is gone; the sentiments of sacredness can never exist in a heart "without God.
(2) There is falsehood. "And lying." God is the foundation of all realities; and estrangement from him is a universe of lies.
(3) There is cruelty. "Killing." What is life to a man who has no truth, or mercy, or knowledge of God? It is a cheap and worthless thing; and the work of the assassin and the warrior becomes natural to him.
(4) There is dishonesty. "And stealing." Rapine and plunder become rife: he who respects not the claims of God will have but little respect for the claims of man.
(5) There is incontinence. "Committing adultery." Domestic sanctities invaded and the Divine institution of marriage outraged.
(6) There is murder. Blood toucheth blood." An expression that means a profusion of slaughter, as in the case of massacres, insurrections, and national wars. "Blood toucheth blood;" the streams of crimson gore run from the slain and mingle together. It was about this time that there was so much blood shed in grasping at the crown: Shallum stew 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; (Psa_106:38) it was filled with blood from one end to the other." (2Ki_15:16) Such are the corrupt people here portrayed. Alas, that there should be so much in modern England like unto this ghastly and revolting picture!
II AN EXPOSTULATING GOD. "Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land." Of all controversies this is the most awful. A controversy between men and men, between individuals, Churches, nations, is sometimes very awful, but nothing approaching to this.
1. It is a just controversy. Many of men"s controversies are most unrighteous, but this is just. Has not the great Ruler of the universe a right to contend against profanity, falsehood, cruelty, etc.? They are repugnant to his nature; they are detrimental to the interests of his creation.
2. It is a continuous controversy. It began with the first sin, has continued through all preceding ages, and is on now as strong as ever.
3. It is an unequal controversy. What are all human intellects to his? Sparks to the sun. The sinner has no argument to put before him. He cannot deny his sins; they are too palpable and patent. He cannot plead accidents, for sin has been the law of his life. He cannot plead compulsion, for he is free. He cannot plead some merit as a set-off, for he has none. No, in this controversy he must be crushed. "Julian strove a great while against the Lord, but at length he was forced to acknowledge, with his blood cast up in the air, Vicisti Galilaee, vicisti!"Thou hast conquered, O Galilean, thou hast conquered!
CONCLUSION. IS this controversy going on with you? It is held in the court of conscience, and you must know of its existence and character. D.T.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR Vers. 1-5. The Lord"s controversy.
God had a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. The essential part of the indictment was that they had forsaken him. "There is no knowledge of God in the land." Hence
I A FEARFUL OVERFLOWING OF IMMORALITY.
1. With the knowledge of God there had departed also "truth and mercy" (ver. 1). "Truth" and "mercy," or "kindness," are root-principles of morals. The subversion of them is the subversion of morality in its foundations. These foundation-virtues, however, had been subverted in Israel. Morality has never proved able to sustain itself in divorce from religion. The bond which binds man to God is also the bond which binds him to the practice of the moral virtues. To cut this bond is to set him adrift. He who ignores the primal obligation that to his Maker is not likely to have much regard for any other.
2. The result was a fearful overspreading of corruption. "By swearing, and lying, and killing," etc. (ver. 2). Ungodliness ran its course unchecked. It brought forth its natural fruits of rapine, dishonesty, licentiousness, profanity, riotousness, and murder. Society seamed dissolving. Irreligion is the foe, not only of private morality, but of social order. It tends to division, to anarchy, to general disregard of law and rights.
II SEVERE JUDGMENTS ON THE LAND. "Therefore shall the land mourn," etc. (ver. 3). Man"s sin, in its effects, is not confined to himself or to his kind. It overflows on the animate and the inanimate creation.
1. The ground was cursed at first for man"s sake. (Gen_3:17)
2. It is degraded in being compelled to sustain the sinner, and to serve as the instrument of his vices.
3. It is visited on his account with plagues, droughts, and famines. (Amo_4:6-12)
1. It is despoiled and down-trodden, and suffers from his neglect, his misuse, and his ruthless devastations.
2. The animal creation shares in these calamities, besides suffering much directly from man"s cruel treatment. Thus in many ways the creature is made subject to vanity. (Rom_8:19-22) The consideration should heighten our sense of sin"s enormity.
III APPROACHING RUIN TO THE NATION. (Vers. 4, 5) A nation in the moral state above described cannot long escape punishment. It "is nigh unto cursing". (Heb_6:8) Its doom hastens on apace. "Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together". (Mat_24:28) The judgment which would fall on Israel would be:
1. Sure. "Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another," etc. (ver. 4). The thing for the people to do was, not to strive with one another, but to cease to strive with God. But this was a remedy not likely to be adopted. A headstrong, presumptuous, contumacious spirit had got possession of them; they were "as they that strive with the priest a proverbial expression for the highest contumacy. (cf. Deu_17:12) It is useless for the wicked to reprove, rebuke, or reproach one another for the miseries which are overtaking them while repentance toward God stands postponed. That is the first and great necessity.
2. Sudden. "Therefore shalt thou fall in the day," etc. (ver. 5). People and prophet would fall continuously, night and day, till all were destroyed. But there seems allusion also to the swiftness with which the calamity would descend. The "day" of their prosperity (Hos_2:11) would suddenly terminate; a "night" of terrible blackness would succeed. This night would be a specially dark one for the "prophet he who had claimed to be a "seer." His predictions discredited, his repute gone, his charlatanry exposed, his visions extinguished in blood, he and his dupes would perish miserably together. "The blind lead the blind," and both at last "fall into the ditch". (Mat_15:14)
3. Complete. The whole nation would be destroyed. "Thy mother" (ver. 5). J.O.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Hear the Word of the Lord, ye children of…
Hos_4:1
Hear the Word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.
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A corrupt people and an expostulating God
In the previous chapters the prophets language had been highly and somewhat perplexingly symbolical. In this chapter he begins to speak more plainly and in sententious utterances.
I. A corrupt people. The depravity of Israel is represented--
1. Negatively. There is no truth, etc. These are the great fontal virtues in the universe; and where they are not, there is a moral abjectness of the most terrible description. A people without reality, their very life a lie. No acts of beneficence performed, and the very spirit of kindliness extinct. The greatest, the holiest Being in the universe utterly ignored.
2. Positively. The absence of these great virtues gives rise to tremendous crimes.
(1) Profanity. Reverence is gone.
(2) Falsehood.
(3) Killing.
(4) Dishonesty.
(5) Incontinence.
(6) Murder.
II. An expostulating God. The Lord hath controversy. Of all controversies this is the most awful.
1. It is a just controversy. Has not the great Ruler of the universe a right to contend against such evils?
2. It is a continuous controversy.
3. It is an unequal controversy. What are all human intellects to His? Sparks to the sun. The sinner has no argument to put before Him. He cannot deny his sins. He cannot plead accidents. He cannot plead compulsion. He cannot plead some merit as a set-off, for he has none. This controversy is still going on. It is held in the court of conscience, and you must know of its existence and character. (Homilist.)
Jehovahs controversy with Israel
In this chapter Israel is cited to appear at Gods tribunal. There the Lord makes the following accusations--
1. Gross violation of both Tables of the Law, both by omission and by commission. God threatens, because of this, to send extreme desolation.
2. Desperate incorrigibleness. He threatens to destroy such, and the false prophets, and the body of the people and Church.
3. God accuseth the priests in Israel, that, through their fault, the people were kept in ignorance. He threatens to cast them and their posterity off. He further accuses the priests of ingratitude towards Elm, for which He threatens to turn their glory into ignominy. And tie even accuses them of sensuality and covetousness, rendering them unfaithful to their calling.
4. He accuses the whole people of gross idolatry, and threatens not to restrain their sin by corrections.
5. He accuses them of the idolatry of the calves, from which He dissuades Judah, as being an evidence of Israels wantonness, and the cause of their ensuing exile.
6. He accuses Ephraim, the kingly tribe, of their incorrigibleness in idolatry, their intemperance, filthiness, and corruption of justice through covetousness. For this He threatens sudden and violent destruction and captivity, where they should be ashamed of their corrupt worship. (George Hutcheson.)
The Divine suit with Israel
I. The suit commenced.
1. The knowledge that any truth is the Word of the Lord is a special means to prepare the heart to receive it with reverence and all due respect, even though it be hard and grievous to flesh and blood.
2. The nearness of a people to God does not exempt them from Gods contending with them for sin.
3. The nearer the relationship the more grievous the controversy.
II. The pleading of God. A suit first is entered against a man; when the court day comes, there is calling for a declaration.
1. God contends not with a people without a cause.
2. God contends not against a people for little things. These are not little things No truth, no mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
3. It is in vain for any man to talk of his religion, if he make no conscience of the second table as well as the first.
III. Judgment pronounced (Hos_4:3, etc.). Therefore shall the land mourn.
1. All the glory and pomp of the men of the world is but as a flower.
2. Times of affliction take down the jollity and bravery of mens spirits, and make them fade, wither, and pine away.
3. The good or evil of the creature depends on man.
4. God, when in a way of wrath, can cause His wrath to reach to those things that seem to be most remote.
5. No creature can help man in the time of Gods wrath, for every creature suffers as well as man.
IV. Exhortation to Judah to beware that she come not into the same condition (Hos_4:15). The prophet Hosea was sent especially to Israel, to the Ten Tribes, but here we see he turns his speech to Judah.
1. Ministers should especially look to those whom they are bound unto by office, but yet so as to labour to benefit others when occasion offers.
2. When we see our labour lost on those we most desire to benefit, we should try what we can do with others. There were many arguments why Judah should not do as Israel did.
V. Execution, God in his wrath giving up Ephraim to himself (verse 17).
1. Ephraim engaging himself in false worship is now so inwrapped in that sin and guilt that he cannot tell how to extricate himself.
2. The Lord has given him up to his idols.
(1) It is a heavy judgment upon a people when the saints withdraw from them.
(2) The Lord here virtually says to Hosea, You can do no good to them, it is in vain for you to meddle with Ephraim. God has a time to give men over to themselves, to say that His Spirit shall no longer strive with them. It is the most woeful judgment of God upon any people, or person, when He saith in His wrath, Let him alone. It is a testimony of very great disregard in God for His creatures. Those thus let alone are going apace to misery. God intends by this to make way for some fearful wrath that is to come upon them. It is a dreadful sign of reprobation. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
The Lords controversy
The court is set, and both attendance and attention are demanded. Whom may God expect to give Him a fair hearing, and take from Him a fair warning, but the children of Israel, His own professing people? Sin is the great mischief-maker; it sows discord between God and Israel. God sees sin in His own people, and a good action He has against them for it. He has a controversy with them for breaking covenant with Him, for bringing a reproach upon Him, and for an ungrateful return to Him for His favours. Gods controversies will be pleaded, pleaded by the judgments of His mouth before they are pleaded by the judgments of His hand, that He may be justified in all He does, and may make it appear that He desires not the death of sinners; and Gods pleadings ought to be attended to, for, sooner or later, they shall have a hearing. (Matthew Henry.)
There is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
Things that go with the knowledge of God
Truth and mercy are often spoken of as to Almighty God. Truth takes in all which is right, and to which God has bound Himself; mercy all beyond which God does out of His boundless love. When God says of Israel there is no truth nor mercy, He says that there is absolutely none of those two great qualities under which He comprises all His own goodness. There is no truth, none whatever, no regard for known truth; no conscience, no sincerity, no uprightness; no truth of words; no truth of promises; no truth in witnessing; no making good in deeds what they said in words. Nor mercy. This word has a wide meaning; it includes all love to one another, a love issuing in acts. It includes lovingkindness, piety to parents, natural affection, forgiveness, tenderness, beneficence, mercy, goodness. The prophet, in declaring the absence of this grace, declares the absence of all included under it. Whatever could be comprised under love, whatever feelings are influenced by love, of that there was nothing. Nor knowledge of God. The union of right knowledge and wrong practice is hideous in itself; and it must be especially offensive to Almighty God that His creatures should know whom they offend, how they offend Him, and yet, amid and against their knowledge, choose that which displeases Him. And on that ground, perhaps, He has so created us, that when our acts are wrong, our knowledge becomes darkened. The knowledge of God is not merely to know some things of God, as that He is the Creator and Preserver of the world and of ourselves. To know things of God is not to know God Himself. We cannot know God in any respect unless we are so far made like unto Him. Knowledge of God being tim gift of the Holy Ghost, he who hath not grace, cannot have that knowledge. A certain degree of speculative knowledge of God a bad man may have. But even this knowledge is not retained without love. Those who held the truth in unrighteousness ended (St. Paul says) by corrupting it. Certainly, the speculative and practical, knowledge are bound up together through the oneness of the relation of the soul to God, whether in its thoughts of Him, or its acts towards Him. Wrong practice corrupts belief, as misbelief corrupts practice. The prophet then probably denies that there was any true knowledge of God, of any sort, whether of life or faith, or understanding or love. Ignorance of God, then, is a great evil, a source of all other sins. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)
A national duty
No one can fail to acknowledge in this terrible picture a representation of every people which habitually breaks the laws of God; and who, having set themselves free from the restraints of religion, or, through ignorance, being unconscious of their obligation, are delivered up to the working of their own hearts lusts, and to follow their own imaginations. This consummation of depravity is even found in the chosen people of God. There was no truth where the great Source of all truth had announced the laws of moral perfection: there was no mercy where the prodigies of Divine compassion had been manifested from one generation to another: there was no knowledge of God where alone God could be known, and in the only place in which the principles of His government, and the attributes of His person, had been revealed to man. What rendered the case of Israel desperate, and remedy impossible, was this, that those who had been set apart as the depositaries of Divine knowledge, and who, by their life and doctrine, had been intended by the Almighty to act constantly, as a conservative power, against the corruptions of the mass, had yielded themselves to the popular torrent, and turned rank and station, the dignity of a holy vocation, and the talents of knowledge and intellect to the promotion of those vices which God had given them a solemn commission to withstand. They were weary of resisting the tendencies of the age and the godless spirit which found too complete an echo in their own hearts. So the princes and priests of Israel deserted their post, sealed up the records of Gods Word, and by ceasing to inculcate the awful sanctions of His law, and concealing from the people those oracles in which alone knowledge and wisdom are to be found, filled up to the brim the measure of their iniquity. That measure was filled up because they who had knowledge and had the guardianship of Gods heritage had turned traitors and withheld the Bread of Life from the famishing people. To whatever privileges a people may have been elected, no outward marks of distinction, apart from a corresponding holiness, will avail in the sight of Him who is no respecter of persons, and who trieth the very reins and hearts. The history of Israel is nothing but the annals of those judgments with which tie has visited their abuse of mercies, and their never-ending neglect or perversion of that most awful of all deposits, spiritual knowledge. If men in all times have been made accountable to God for the fate of their fellowcreatures, and most assuredly they have, it behoves us to look well to our own case, and beware how we involve ourselves in the participation of such guilt. Let us not deceive ourselves by supposing that the sins and the sanctions, the moral actions and the moral dealings of the eider covenant are inapplicable to ourselves. Considerable differences there may be, but they are all against us, and an increase of our responsibility. It is known to few of us how vast are the masses of ignorance and vice which undermine the surface of this favoured land. (J. Garbett.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Hosea 4-14
THE THICK NIGHT OF ISRAEL
Hosea 4-14
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It was indeed a "thick night" into which this Arthur of Israel stepped from his shattered home. The mists drive across Hoseas long agony with his people, and what we see, we see blurred and broken. There are stumbling and clashing; crowds in drift; confused rallies; gangs of assassins breaking across the highways; doors opening upon lurid interiors full of drunken riot. Voices, which other voices mock, cry for a dawn that never comes. God Himself is Laughter, Lightning, a Lion, a Gnawing Worm. Only one clear note breaks over the confusion-the trumpet summoning to war.
Take courage, O great heart! Not thus shall it always be! There wait thee, before the end, of open Visions at least two-one of Memory and one of Hope, one of Childhood and one of Spring. Past this night, past the swamp and jungle of these fetid years, thou shalt see thy land in her beauty, and God shall look on the face of His Bride.
Chapters 4-14 are almost indivisible. The two Visions just mentioned, chapters 11 and Hos_14:3-9, may be detached by virtue of contributing the only strains of gospel which rise victorious above the Lords controversy with His people and the troubled story of their sins. All the rest is the noise of a nation falling to pieces, the crumbling of a splendid past. And as decay has no climax and ruin no rhythm, so we may understand why it is impossible to divide with any certainty Hoseas record of Israels fall. Some arrangement we must attempt, but it is more or less artificial, and to be undertaken for the sake of our own minds, that cannot grasp so great a collapse all at once. Chapter 4 has a certain unity, and is followed by a new exordium, but as it forms only the theme of which the subsequent chapters are variations, we may take it with them as far as Hos_7:7; after which there is a slight transition from the moral signs of Israels dissolution to the political-although Hoses still combines the religious offences of idolatry with the anarchy of the land. These form the chief interest to the end of chapter 10. Then breaks the bright Vision of the Past, chapter 11, the temporary victory of the Gospel of the Prophet over his Curse. In chapters 12-14:2 we are plunged into the latter once more, and reach in Hos_14:3 if. the second bright vision, the Vision of the Future. To each of these phases of Israels Thick Night-we can hardly call them Sections-we may devote a chapter of simple exposition, adding three chapters more of detailed examination of the main doctrines we shall have encountered on our way-the Knowledge of God, Repentance, and the Sin against Love.
A PEOPLE IN DECAY: 1 MORALLY
Hosea 4 - Hosea 7:7
PURSUING the plan laid down in the last chapter, we now take the section of Hoseas discourse which lies between chapter 4 and Hos_7:7. Chapter 4 is the only really separable bit of it; but there are also slight breaks at Hos_5:15 and Hos_7:2. So we may attempt a division into four periods:
1. Chapter 4, which states Gods general charge against the people;
2. Hos_5:1-14, which discusses the priests and princes;
3. Hos_5:15 - Hos_7:2, which abjures the peoples attempts at repentance; and
4. Hos_7:3-7, which is a lurid spectacle of the drunken and profligate court.
All these give symptoms of the moral decay of the people, -the family destroyed by impurity, and society by theft and murder; the corruption of the spiritual guides of the people; the debauchery of the nobles; the sympathy of the throne with evil, -with the despairing judgment that such a people are incapable even of repentance. The keynotes are these: "No truth, nor real love, nor knowledge of God in the land. Priest and Prophet stumble. Ephraim and Judah stumble. I am as the moth to Ephraim. What can I make of thee, Ephraim? When I would heal them, their guilt is only the more exposed." Morally, Israel is rotten. The prophet, of course, cannot help adding signs of their political incoherence. But these he deals with more especially in the part of his discourse which follows chapter 7:7.
I. THE LORDS QUARREL WITH ISRAEL
Hosea 4
"Hear the word of Jehovah, sons of Israel! Jehovah hath a quarrel with the inhabitants of the land, for there is no truth nor real love nor knowledge of God in the land. Perjury and murder and theft and adultery! They break out, and blood strikes upon blood."
That stable and well-furnished life, across which, while it was still noon, Amos hurled his alarms-how quickly it has broken up! If there be still "ease in Zion," there is no more "security in Samaria." {Amo_6:1} The great Jeroboam is dead, and society, which in the East depends so much on the individual, is loose and falling to pieces. The sins which are exposed by Amos were those that lurked beneath a still strong government, but Hosea adds outbreaks which set all order at defiance. Later we shall find him describing housebreaking, highway robbery, and assassination. "Therefore doth the land wither, and every one of her denizens languisheth, even to the beast of the field and the fowl of the heaven; yea, even the fish of the sea are swept up" in the universal sickness of man and nature: for Hosea feels, like Amos, the liability of nature to the curse upon sin.
Yet the guilt is not that of the whole people, but of their religious guides. "Let none find fault and none upbraid, for My people are but as their priestlings. O Priest, thou hast stumbled today: and stumble tonight shall the prophet with thee." One order of the nations ministers goes staggering after the other!" And I will destroy thy Mother," presumably the nation herself. "Perished are My people for lack of knowledge." But how? By the sin of their teachers. "Because thou," O Priest, "hast rejected knowledge, I reject thee from being priest to Me; and as thou hast forgotten the Torah of thy God, I forget thy children- I on My side. As many as they be, so many have sinned against Me." Every jack-priest of them is culpable. "They have turned their glory into shame. They feed on the sin of My people, and to the guilt of these lift up their appetite!" The more the people sin, the more merrily thrive the priests by fines and sin-offerings. They live upon the vice of the day, and have a vested interest in its crimes. English Langland said the same thing of the friars of his time. The contention is obvious. The priests have given themselves wholly to the ritual; they have forgotten that their office is an intellectual and moral one. We shall return to this when treating of Hoseas doctrine of knowledge and its responsibilities. Priesthood, let us only remember, priesthood is an intellectual trust.
"Thus it comes to be-like people like priest: "they also have fallen under the ritual, doing from lust what the priests do from greed. "But I will visit upon them their ways, and their deeds will I requite to them. For they" (those) "shall eat and not be satisfied," (these) "shall play the harlot and have no increase, because they have left off heeding Jehovah." This absorption in ritual at the expense of the moral and intellectual elements of religion has insensibly led them over into idolatry, with all its unchaste and drunken services. "Harlotry, wine, and new wine take away the brains!" The result is seen in the stupidity with which they consult their stocks for guidance. "My people! of its bit of wood it asketh counsel, and its staff telleth to it" the oracle! "For a spirit of harlotry hath led them astray, and they have played the harlot from their God. Upon the headlands of the hills they sacrifice, and on the heights offer incense, under oak or poplar or terebinth, for the shade of them is pleasant." On "headlands," not summits, for here no trees grow; and the altar was generally built under a tree and near water on some promontory, from which the flight of birds or of clouds might be watched. "Wherefore"-because of this your frequenting of the heathen shrines-"your daughters play the harlot and your daughters-in-law commit adultery. I will not come with punishment upon your daughters because they play the harlot, nor upon your daughters-in-law because they commit adultery." Why? For "they themselves," the fathers of Israel-or does he still mean the priests?-"go aside with the harlots and sacrifice with the common women of the shrines! "It is vain for the men of a nation to practice impurity and fancy that nevertheless they can keep their womankind chaste. "So the stupid people fall to ruin!"
("Though thou play the harlot, Israel, let not Judah bring guilt on herself. And come not to Gilgal, and go not up to Beth-Aven, and take not your oath at the Well-of-the-Oath, BeerSheba, "By the life of Jehovah!" This obvious parenthesis may be either by Hosea or a later writer; the latter is more probable.")
"Yea, like a wild heifer Israel has gone wild. How now can Jehovah feed them like a lamb in a broad meadow?" To treat this clause interrogatively is the only way to get sense out of it. "Wedded to idols is Ephraim: leave him alone." The participle means "mated" or "leagued." The corresponding noun is used of a wife as the "mate" of her husband {Mal_2:4} and of an idolater as the "mate" of his idols. {Isa_44:11} The expression is doubly appropriate here, since Hosea used marriage as the figure of the relation of a deity to his worshippers. "Leave him alone"-he must go from bad to worse. "Their drunkenness over, they take to harlotry: her rulers have fallen in love with shame," or "they love shame more than their pride." But in spite of all their servile worship the Assyrian tempest shall sweep them away in its trail. "A wind hath wrapt them up in her skirts; and they shall be put to shame by their sacrifices."
This brings the passage to such a climax as Amos loved to crown his periods. And the opening of the next chapter offers a new exordium.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Hos_4:1. Controv.] = a legal action (cf. Mic_6:2; Joe_3:2),…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Hos_4:1. Controv.] = a legal action (cf. Mic_6:2; Joe_3:2), or ground of complaint with the ten tribes (Hos_4:15). Truth] i.e. truthfulness in word or deed, no conscience nor uprightness (Pro_3:3; Jer_3:4). Mercy] Affection, tenderness, and love; no compassion to the needy. Truth and love cannot be separated. “Truth cannot be sustained without mercy; and mercy without truth makes men negligent; so that the one ought to be mingled with the other.” No know.] which produces love and fear; wilfully ignorant; hence injustice the upper hand.
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Hos_4:2. Swearing] a breach of the second, stealing of the eighth commandment. In Heb. these nouns of action give emphasis and picture the scene, nothing but evil, and that continually. Break] out like waters beyond all bounds and restraint (2Sa_5:20). Blood] Lit. bloods, shed with violence. Toucheth] “Murder was so common, that no space was left between its acts” [Henderson].
Hos_4:3. Mourn] by drought (1Ki_18:17-18). As a consequence vegetation scorched, animal life wastes away, and pools dry, the greatest calamity that could happen in the East.
Hos_4:4. Strive] Lit. only man, let him not strive, and let not man reprove. God had taken the matter in his own hands, reproof would only aggravate their guilt, man must not interfere. Some give, let none reprove one another; each must look to his own sins. Priest] The judge and tribunal to decide law-suits (Deu_17:12-13), to dispute with whom was the highest contumacy.
Hos_4:5.] People and prophet would fall by night and day without intermission. Mother] The whole nation destroyed.
HOMILETICS
GOD’S CONTROVERSY WITH A GUILTY PEOPLE.—Hos_4:1-5
The prophet now begins to speak more plainly. Israel was bound to God by legal covenant. God only wishes justice to be done, and will not subject them to disadvantages. But they have infringed upon his rights, neglected their obligations, and forgotten their relation to him. Hence the suit-at-law. The land, swept of fidelity, goodness, and love, is brought to shame and desolation.
I. The nation summoned into court. “Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel.” The whole people, with prophets and priests, are called to the judgment-seat of God to make their defence or hear their indictment. Men are inattentive and negligent. They disregard the word of God, and forget things which make for their peace. If Demosthenes had need to reprove the Athenian senate for inattention to his speech on important affairs, how much greater reproof do the careless and indifferent require now. It is sad to be given up to a spirit of slumber, to have eyes and not see, ears and not hear. None so deaf as those who will not hear. God speaks loudly and continually in his providence and word—“once, yea, twice, yet man perceiveth it not.” In creation wisdom, power, and goodness are manifest; in works of judgment and mercy God’s voice is heard; by his prophets and his Son God expostulates, but men neglect the warnings. This needful admonition suggests a sad condition. One would think that every one would gather round the feet of Jesus, and, like Samuel, cry, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth!” But sinners are—
1. Ignorant;
2. Careless;
3. Obdurate. God’s cause will be pleaded by the words of his mouth, and the wonders of his providence. He speaks with authority, demands fair hearing, and gives fair warning. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
II. The nation accused of guilt. The indictment of Israel is given negatively and positively. We have the absence of virtue and the presence of evil. There must be one or the other. The human mind does not like a vacuum. Dethrone good, you set up evil. A mind unoccupied and a life of sin are the impersonations of wretchedness. Some object must engage attention. The heart must have something really good, or thought to be good, to lay hold of. Wrest it away from one thing, without the substitution of another, you leave a void as painful as hunger. It may be dispossessed of one thing, but it cannot be desolated of all. If grace does not abound in thought and conduct, sin will much more abound. In Israel there was—
1. A declension of religion. “There is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land” … (a) “No truth.” Truth is the bond of union and the basis of human happiness. “Without this virtue,” says Jeremy Collier, “there is no reliance upon language, no confidence in friendship, and no security in promises and oaths.” Neither talent nor genius can be trusted unless based on truthfulness. This is the foundation of personal excellence and human character; this is the health and ornament of the nation; loyal adherence to truth is the secret of a nation’s power and a nation’s glory. When there is no truth, but falsehood; when men’s acts are at variance with their words; then there is no respect, nor honesty, nor security. What a sad state of society! We depart from truth when we state as true what we do not know to be true, when we intentionally produce a false impression, when we deceive and designedly mislead. Often painful wrongs are inflicted by covert innuendos and malignant insinuations. Half a fact is a whole falsehood, and he who colours truth by false methods of telling it is a liar. “Of all duties,” says a writer, “the love of truth, with faith and constancy in it, ranks first and highest. Truth is God. To love God and to love truth are one and the same.” (b) “Nor mercy.” Mercy is pity or compassion which one man shows toward another in misery; clemency towards our neighbours (Pro_20:28; Luk_10:37). “Let not mercy and truth forsake thee; bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart.” Mercy and truth are the glorious perfections of God always in harmony and action. We rest upon them for salvation, and should copy them in life. The want of one neutralizes the effect of the other. A man may be truthful, and yet not merciful. Just in his dealings to others, yet “as hard as flint.” Mercy has been urged upon man from the very beginning to counteract his selfishness and cruelty. “It becomes the throned monarch better than his crown”, and “earthly power doth then show likest God’s when mercy seasons justice.” Kindness evokes kindness, and our own happiness is increased by our benevolence. “Kind words cost little.” Friendly conduct may meet with ungrateful return; but absence of gratitude on the part of the receiver cannot destroy the pleasure of the giver. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” (c) “Nor knowledge of God.” There was no sense of honesty and obligation, no justice nor humanity. Truth and benevolence had been disregarded. The fragmentary man was seen in disordered society and ignorance of God in a land specially his own, and which should have presented his glory and preserved his name. The knowledge of God is a necessity of our moral nature, and lies at the foundation of all morality and religion. Man can have no obligation to mere laws of nature, and feel no sense of responsibility to an impersonal being. God has revealed himself in his works and word. We are related to him as intelligent and moral beings. We owe duty to ourselves and our fellow-men because God wills and commands it. But God is not recognized, and then forgotten in motive and duty. God is not seen through his works, and in Israel and England we have a succession of human beings instructed in the laws and duties of society, with the character and even the existence of the law-giver omitted. We have the means of knowing and worship ping God, but no true, practical knowledge of God. The supreme influence of God is lost in the family and in the land, in custom and law, hence a spirit of subordination and licentiousness. We have sound creeds but ungodly lives; theoretic, but little practical knowledge of God. If men “hold the truth in unrighteousness,” check the development of it in their lives, and reject the knowledge of God; they begin the downward course to idolatry and grossest sin. The history of the heathen world and the results of the French Revolution prove this knowledge to be the safeguard of the people, to be necessary
(1) to preserve mental vigour. If the knowledge of God is not thought worth keeping in the mind, then the mind itself will become worthless and degenerate, “a reprobate mind” (Rom_1:28).
(2) to preserve true morality. Progressive vice, penal suffering, and fearful lusts are the certain results of rejecting the knowledge of God. “If there be not a God, we must invent one,” cried one of the leading spirits of France. “Some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.”
2. A corrupt morality. “Swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery,” were common practices. These, and nothing but these, were seen all around. Religion and morality are bound together. Without the one there can be no true existence of the other. Ignorance of God is a source of wrong practice, a source of all evils. Where there is no love and truth, no regard to God, there will be vices contrary to these virtues. When the soul or the land is empty of good, it will be full of evil. Evils of every description abounded in Israel. Society was penetrated with vice and profligacy. Perjury and falsehood corrupted the morals and manners of the people. Religion and virtue were swamped. Family and home were alike tainted. Domestic purity, religious sanctity, no longer restrained and bound society together. The laws by which God had fenced the estate, the life, and character of men were broken; violence and bloodshed knew no bounds, carried everything before them, and like a flood swept the nation to ruin.
III. The nation punished. “Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away,” &c. General depravity produces general punishment. God in judgment sent a universal drought, such as that which prevailed in the reign of Ahab. Vegetation was to suffer, animal life decay, and sea and land groaned beneath the visitation. If man will not love God, neither shall God’s creatures help man. For man’s interests and theirs are bound together in the wondrous providence of God.
1. Man’s sins affect inanimate creation. Man was not made for the earth, but the earth was made for man. By successive steps and gradual events the earth was prepared and fitted to be his residence. For him power had stilled the conflict of chaos and restored “the reign of law.” For his sake goodness had beautified the earth and clothed it with vegetation. In wisdom the various animals were subject to his control, and he had dominion over all the earth. Man had to replenish, subdue, and govern the earth (Gen_1:28). (a) Man is related to material creation by his physical nature. His name (Adam), man, is formed from the (adamah) material of which his body is composed. He is related to the physical laws of the universe as a physical being, and is amenable to gravitation, mechanical force, and chemical action. As an organized being he is subject to organic laws. Every great characteristic by which vegetable life is distinguished from inorganic matter and animal life, is found in him. He also possesses animal instincts like the inferior creatures. Thus man’s constitution in its threefold character, of physical, organic, and sentient, “took up the strain of creation which had preceded his coming, in praise of the power, and wisdom, and goodness of God.” (b) Man has brought a curse upon material creation by his first sin. The earth is not like the garden of Eden in which he was placed at first; “cursed is the ground for thy sake.” It does not yield its produce with its original ease and abundance. We have disorder and decay, malformation and barrenness. “Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth,” with all our toil and daily labour. When man fell from his original position with God, the earth lost its fruitfulness and dignity, and now “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain” under its bondage and corruption, and is waiting for its freedom and greater blessing (Rom_8:20-22). (c) Man injures material creation by his immoral conduct. Material forces are largely at his command. He can change and create; beautify and adorn impair and destroy. Solomon saw the field of the slothful “all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.” (Pro_24:30-31). A life of mere animal sensual indulgence, manual or mental sloth will bring to poverty. Idleness and neglect will bring drought and failure of crops (Hag_1:2-11). Vice, idolatry, and licentiousness will spread their effects and spoil the face of nature. Creation is in sympathy with man, responds to his moral life, and is blessed or wasted by his moral conduct. In peace and plenty, under the benediction and providence of God, the valleys shout and sing for joy. In famine and war, under the curse and sin of man, “the land shall mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish.” “How long shall the land mourn and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein?” (Jer_12:4; Psa_107:34).
2. Man’s sins affect the animal creation. We should regard the animal world with due feeling. Life in its lowest form is the gift of God. We should not abuse any creature which God pronounced good and intended for our welfare. The inferior creatures have been useful to man and subservient to his interests in many ways. (a) They have been a source of sustenance. (b) A source of commerce. (c) The means of training his powers of body and mind. But they have been punished for man’s idolatry. Their growth and continuance have been hindered by man’s sin. As necessities of life they have been cut off, and as objects of adoration they have been smitten with the plague. “He turned their waters into blood and slew their fish” (Psa_105:29). Internal blessing and outward prosperity shall go hand in hand when man is restored to right relation with God. Then shall the original promise be fulfilled, and God will give peace in the land; rid it of evil beasts: and its inhabitants shall lie down, and nothing shall disturb their rest (Lev_26:6).
IV. The nation punished without mercy. They had rejected God, and God would leave them to their fate. They had despised the priests, and he would slay their prophets. By degrees they had hardened themselves and grown stubborn in sin, and thus ripened themselves for destruction. When the Lord has a controversy with a people and they will not hear, it is useless to strive with them. They who resist the Spirit and the ministers of God, resist God himself. “He that despiseth you despiseth me.” Their state is most desperate and deplorable.
1. Punishment without intermission. “Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night.” There would be no time free from destruction, night and day calamities should never cease. Darkness would be no protection, and day would be no security. Terror by night found them helpless and exposed. Arrows from cunning foes and with deadly aims flew by day. Pestilence, shrouded in mystery, marched on unseen, to infect the home and alarm the city. Destruction wasted at noon-day, and there was no shield nor buckler. This reminds us of the Great Plague of London, when evil befell the city, and its inhabitants were stricken with death.
2. Punishment without exemption. People and prophets fell together. God’s judgments are impartial. Rank and title, wealth and worldly distinctions, are of no avail. “Label men how you please,” says Herbert Spencer, “with titles of ‘upper,’ and ‘middle,’ and ‘lower,’ you cannot prevent them from being units of the same society, acted upon by the same spirit of the age, moulded after the same type of character. The mechanical law, that action and reaction are equal, has its moral analogue. The deed of one man to another tends to produce a like effect upon both, be the deed good or bad. In whatever rank you see corruption, be assured it equally pervades all ranks; be assured it is the symptom of a bad social diathesis. Whilst the virus of depravity exists in one part of the body-politic, no other part can remain healthy.” Man’s evil character and influence blend and bind him up with others. Not a particle is lost, but the whole is taken up and produces its results in the general community. Collectively and individually the destruction of all is declared. Root and branch they were to be cut off. As a nation they could not escape. “I will destroy thy mother,” and as individuals they could not flatter themselves with hope. “Thou shalt fall.”
3. Punishment without human sympathy. “Let no man strive nor reprove another.” Man is forbidden to interfere or aid. God will implead them, and none can contradict or evade his judgments. We know not how to judge. We condemn and acquit without cause. We are ignorant and helpless ourselves. “None can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.” All are alike guilty, condemned and exposed to death. Christ alone can deliver us. The redemption of the soul is precious, but human efforts, gold and silver, and a world of rubies, could not purchase it. Riches cannot ward off judgment, nor tears avail with God. The Scripture hath concluded, shut up as in a prison, all in unbelief, not that God might condemn, but that he might have mercy upon all men (Gal_3:22).
4. Punishment without Divine help. Criminals are sometimes recommended to mercy and delivered from punishment; but Israel was stubborn and incorrigible, and God forbids any to remonstrate or reprove. Christian reproof and expostulation bring sinners to repentance and are of immense service in setting them right. It is one of the duties of friendship. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend.” But when men hate reproof and defy the judgments of God, then they are let alone to reap their folly. Their doom is certain: “Thou shalt fall,” and “I will destroy.” “He that is filthy, let him be filthy still.” “The fruit of sin in time,” says Chalmers, “when arrived at full and finished maturity, is just the fruit of sin through eternity. It is merely the sinner reaping what he has sown. It makes no violent or desultory step, from sin in time to hell in eternity. The one emerges from the other, as does the fruit from the flower. It is simply that the sinner be filled with his own ways, and that he eat the fruit of his own devices.”
A TERRIBLE DEPRIVATION.—Hos_4:3-5
The words lead us to consider a lamentable deprivation—a deprivation that comes upon the people in consequence of their heinous iniquities. Two remarks are suggested concerning this deprivation.
I. It is a deprivation both of material and spiritual good. First: Of material good.
(1) A deprivation of health. “Every one that dwelleth therein shall languish.” The physical frame loses its wonted elasticity and vigour, and succumbs to decay and depression. “Languish,” like a dying man on his couch. Sin is inimical to the bodily health and vigour of men and nations; it insidiously saps the constitution.
(2) A deprivation of the means of subsistence. “The beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.” Literally this refers to one of those droughts that occasionally occur in the East, and is ever one of the greatest calamities. What a dependent creature man is! The beasts of the field, the fowls of heaven, and the fish of the sea can do better without him, but he cannot do without them. How soon the Eternal can destroy those means of his subsistence! One hot blast of pestilential air could do the whole. It is a deprivation, secondly: Of spiritual good. “Let no man strive nor reprove another; for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.” The meaning seems to be that their presumptuous guilt was as great as that of one who refused to obey the priest when giving judgment in the name of Jehovah, and who, according to law, for that cause was to be put to death (Deu_17:12). One of the greatest spiritual blessings of mankind is the strife and reproof of godly men. The expostulations and admonitions of Christly friends, parents, teachers, what on earth is more valuable, is so essential as these? Yet these are to be taken away. “Let no man strive nor reprove another.” The time comes with the sinner when God says, “My spirit shall no more strive with thee; Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone.” Men have become so dog-like in nature that holy things are not to be presented to them; so swinish, that you are to cast before them no more pearls (Mat_7:6).
II. It is a deprivation leading to a terrible doom. First: The destruction of priests and people. “Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night.” The meaning is that no time, night or day, shall be free from slaughter, both of the people and the priests. This was literally true of the ten tribes at this time. And it is true in a more general and universal sense. God’s law is, that “evil shall slay the wicked;” and it is always slaying them, whether they be priests or people—the laity or the clergy. If they are not true to God, day and night they are being slain. Secondly: The destruction of the social state. “And I will destroy thy mother.” Who was the mother? The Israelitish state. And it was destroyed. England is our mother, and our mother will be destroyed unless we banish sin from our midst [The Homilist].
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
An expostulating God, Hos_4:1. “Hear ye the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel,” &c.
1. It is a marvellous controversy. God might forsake, but he strives with men. Princes might hold a controversy with princes, and nations with nations, but for God to plead with his creatures is wondrous love.
2. It is a just controversy. There is abundant reason for it. We have broken his covenant, reproached his name, and been ungrateful for his favours. The demands of moral government, the interests of the universe, require some rectification, some settlement of matters.
3. It is a continual controversy. God is speaking now day by day by his word and servants, carrying on the controversy yet with the most guilty and rebellious, seeking to convince them of sin, and leave them without excuse.
4. It is a hopeless controversy. The sinner has no excuse, no argument or right on his side. He has sinned against light and truth, the voice of conscience and the warnings of providence. “Let them bring forth their witnesses,” as I do mine, “that they may be justified” in their works and ways. “Or let them hear and say it is truth;” let them hear the arguments on my side, and say, after due consideration, if truth is not with me, and that I am perfectly reasonable in my requirements. The sinner is “speechless” now and will have no plea at the judgment day. The potsherd of the earth may strive with the potsherds, but man is unequal in strife with God. “Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker!”
Truth and mercy.
1. Rooted in the knowledge of God.
2. Related one to another.
3. Opposite to the five sins mentioned in Hos_4:2, swearing, lying, killing, stealing, and incontinency. “Truth and love are mutually conditions, the one of the other. ‘Truth cannot be sustained without mercy; and mercy without truth makes men negligent; so that the one ought to be mingled with the other’ [Jerome]. They both have their roots in the knowledge of God, of which they are the fruit (Jer_22:16; Isa_11:9); for the knowledge of God is not merely ‘an acquaintance with his nature and will’ [Hitzig], but knowledge of the love, faithfulness, and compassion of God, resting upon the experience of the heart. Such knowledge not only produces fear of God, but also love and truthfulness towards brethren (cf. Eph_4:32; Col_3:12). Where this is wanting injustice gains the upper hand” [Keil].
Speculative and practical knowledge are bound up together through the oneness of the relation of the soul to God, whether in its thoughts of him or acts towards him. Wrong practice corrupts belief, and misbelief corrupts practice [Pusey].
Priest-strivers.
1. Strife against the means of knowledge. Priests were repositories of knowledge, the oracles and guides of the people (Mal_2:7).
2. Strife against Divine authority. All difficult cases were taken to the priests (Deu_17:8-12), who pronounced judgment, and those who refused the sentence were put to death. They represented God’s authority, and spoke in God’s name.
3. Strife against spiritual interests. (a) Even here they, priest-strivers, are often left alone. Let not man strive with those who strive with God; reproof will only irritate and not correct them. (b) Hereafter they suffer the consequence of their evil ways. “To strive then with the priest was the highest contumacy, and such was their whole life and conduct. It was the character of the whole kingdom of Israel. For they had thrown off the authority of the family of Aaron which God had appointed. Their political existence was based upon the rejection of that authority. The national character influences the individual. When the whole policy is formed on disobedience and revolt, individuals will not tolerate interference. As they had rejected the priest, so would, and did, they reject the prophets. St Stephen gives it as a characteristic of the Jews, “Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do ye” [Pusey].
Hos_4:5. When false prophets flatter and soothe the people in sin, when sinners rebel against Divine authority and reject Divine teaching, they hasten on their ruin. No degree of prosperity, no human aid, and no mere Church or State can save them from sudden, unexpected, and fearful fall. “Thou shalt fall in the day, and I will destroy thy mother.”
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 4
Hos_4:1-5. When God has a “controversy” with a people he appeals to conscience as a witness to his cause. He demands and should secure earnest heed. The speaker is great. The cause is most important, and concerns our spiritual and eternal welfare. If we cannot plead excuse now, how can we stand before the judgment-seat at last?
Consideration is the duty of the Church. Faith cometh by hearing, and every faculty of the mind should be bent to receive Divine teaching.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain Spiritual abandonment.
Hos 4:17
Spiritual abandonment.
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I. We are apt to be surprised at the proneness of the Israelites to the sin of idolatry. And yet it may be doubted whether we have not a great deal in common with idolaters. Let us see what the idolatry of the Israelites was. There was given unto them a religion; it came direct from God. Of their religious system it was the singular characteristic that the chief acts of devotion could only be performed at one place. To Mount Sion the tribes went up for all their solemn observances, three times a year. At other seasons they were scattered over the country, cut off from the possibility of united worship. This, doubtless, was the cause of their manifold idolatry. God had taught them a religious system—that system contained some practical difficulties; it seemed, indeed, to check devotion. The Jews sought to remedy this by self-invented plans; the issue was apostasy. In the history of the Church of Christ we find much that is analogous. It was a zeal for religion which prostrated Israel at the feet of idols; it is zeal without knowledge which makes men forsake the catholic faith for crude theories of their own.
II. And now as to the punishment. "Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone." To forsake God is to forsake our own mercies. The judgment threatened in the text is one which would reduce us to the position of Satan himself. For what will follow from God letting a man alone? He will experience no further promptings and warnings, but be left unrestrained by any secret reluctance to work all manner of evil. Memory and conscience have each a home in that lost spirit; but the whispers of the Holy One are never heard therein; and conscience has no voice to move to good, but wields only the fiery scourge for evil done or doing.
Bishop Woodford, Occasional Sermons, vol. i., p. 32.
These are very solemn words, whichever way we take them; but the way in which they are generally understood is distinctly a misunderstanding. They are not intended as a threatening of the cessation of the Divine pleadings with an obstinate transgressor; there are no people about whom God says that they are so wedded to their sin that it is useless to try to do anything with them; and they are not a commandment to God’s servants to fling up in despair, or in impatience, the effort to benefit obstinate and stiffnecked evildoers. The context distinctly shows us that this is not the meaning; and the Book in which they occur is one long pleading with this very Ephraim, just because he is "joined to idols."
I. Ephraim is another name for the northern kingdom of Israel; one of the two halves into which the nation was divided. Hosea was a prophet of the northern nation, and his whole activity was devoted precisely not to letting Ephraim (that is, his countrymen of Israel) alone. But it is the people of the other, the neighbouring, kingdom that are addressed; and what is meant by letting alone is plainly enough expressed for us in a previous verse: "Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, let not Judah offend." The sin of the northern kingdom in the calf-worship is held up as a warning to Judah, which is besought and commanded to keep clear of all complicity therewith, and to avoid entangling alliances with backsliding Israel. This, and this only, is the purpose of our text—a plea with Judah to stand apart from association with evildoers.
II. It is a very bad sign of a Christian man when his chosen companions are people that have no sympathy with him in his religion. Of course there are many things—such as differences of position, culture, and temperament—which cannot but modify the association of Christian people with one another; but still, if you are a Christian man, and the brother most unlike to you in all these particulars, there is a far deeper sympathy, or at least there ought to be, than there is between you and the irreligious man that is most like you in them all. In the measure in which we walk in this world, separate from it because we are joined to Christ, in that measure will our faith be strong, and shall we be doing our Master’s will.
A. Maclaren, Christian Commonwealth, Sept. 16th, 1886.
References: Hos 4:17.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix., No. 1140; Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 201; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 24. Hos 5:7.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 349. Hos 5:13.—W. Aitken, The Love of the Father; p. 193.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Condemnation of the Priesthood
Condemnation of the Priesthood
An arraignment against Israel as a whole, because of all manner of wickedness against God and man. Prophet and priest, who ought to have taught them better, are only too like them in character, and must share their doom. In Hos_4:15-17 there is an appeal to Judah not to follow the idolatrous practices of Israel.
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1. Controversy] i.e. a lawsuit: cp. Isa_3:13, Isa_3:14.
2. By swearing] RV 'There is nought but swearing.' Break out] commit acts of violence. Blood toucheth blood] The whole land is covered with the blood of the murdered, a strong expression to denote the frequency of murder: cp. Isa_28:8.
3. The whole land (with its animal and vegetable life) is polluted by their sin, and must share their punishment: cp. Jer_4:23, etHosea
4. Thy people, etc.] The reading here seems corrupt. We should probably read, 'thy people are as they that strive with Me. O priest, thou shalt stumble,' etc., Hos_4:5-6 being addressed to the priest.
5. The prophet] i.e. the class of prophets who said what they knew would please their hearers: cp. 1Ki_22:11-12; Isa_30:10; Jer_5:31.
Mother] i.e. the nation: see on Hos_2:2.
6. Lack of knowledge] The priests should have instructed the people in God's law (i.e. His moral teaching), and were therefore responsible for their ignorance. Instead of that they had wilfully refused even to learn themselves. Thy children] i.e. the whole body of priests, who only sinned worse as they increased in number.
8. They eat up] RV 'they feed on.' The priests enriched themselves with the sin-offerings, and with this aim encouraged instead of checking sin: cp. Ezekiel 34. Set their heart] i.e. took delight in, because it paid so well.
9. Like.. priest] Priest and people had sinned alike, and would be punished alike.
10. Eat.. enough, etc.] Greed and lust were both violations of God's natural laws, and would therefore have an un natural result.
11. Heart] here probably as the seat of 'the understanding' (RV).
12. Cp. Jer 11:27. Idols were frequently made out of stumps and stems of trees, and were not only worshipped, but sometimes used for oracular purposes. Such a thing proved how senseless the people had become.
Whoredom is here faithlessness to Jehovah; but as such rites as those referred to were characterised by gross licentiousness, the metaphor is especially appropriate.
13. The summits of hills were the most frequent situations for sanctuaries in primitive times; hence the 'high places.' Elms] RV 'terebinths.' Trees were often connected with sacred rites: cp. Isa_1:29; Isa_57:5. Therefore] Such faithlessness towards Jehovah would be punished by the faithlessness of their daughters.
14. I will not punish] They have no right to ask Jehovah to punish sins in their daughters or their brides, which in another form they commit themselves in their impure rites.
15. Let.. offend] Hosea appeals to Judah not to imitate Israel's sins. Gilgal (that of Benjamin: cp. 1Sa_13:8) and Bethel ('house of God,' here contemptuously called Bethaven, 'house of vanity,' i.e. idolatry) were two of the most important Israelitish sanctuaries: see Amo_4:4, Amo_4:5. The latter had been a sanctuary since the days of Jacob (Gen_28:22; Gen_35:1-8; Jdg_21:2). Nor swear.. liveth] Hosea is here condemning the use of Jehovah's name in oaths, because that name has been so profaned by its association with idolatrous symbols.
16. Slideth back.. heifer] RV 'hath behaved himself stubbornly like a stubborn heifer,' as yet not fully trained to bear the yoke, which jibs instead of going obediently forward. Now the Lord will feed them, etc.] better, 'now would the Lord feed them,' etc. He would gladly have treated them as docile lambs, not as stubborn heifers. Others understand it as an exclamation: 'Israel is stubborn and self-willed. How then can the Lord feed them as a lamb in a wide pasture I'
A large place] always in Scripture used as a symbol of safety (Psa_18:19; Psa_118:5).
17. Ephraim] i.e. Israel. Let him alone] a general exhortation to any who might seek to meddle with idolatrous Israel.
18. Their drink is sour] RM 'their carouse is over.' Hosea is referring to some idolatrous festival. With shame.. Give ye] RV 'dearly love shame,' with reference probably to licentious practices connected with idolatrous feasts.
19. Wings] RM 'skirts': a curious metaphor to express the completeness of their punishment. They would be carried off without reprieve by the wind of judgment. They.. sacrifices] RM 'Their altars shall be put to shame,' i.e. by being destroyed.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain CHAPTER 4 The Lord’s Controversy with His People
II. THE MESSAGE OF EXPOSTULATION, JUDGMENT, AND MERCY
CHAPTER 4 The Lord’s Controversy with His People
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1. The condition of the people (Hos 4:1-5)
2. The loss of their priestly relation (Hos 4:6-11)
3. Israel’s idolatry (Hos 4:12-19)
Hos 4:1-5. This chapter begins with a terse description of the condition of the professing people of God. First, we have the negative side--no truth, no mercy, no knowledge of God. And there was no truth, because they had rejected the Word of the Lord, hence the result no mercy and no knowledge of God. It is so still whenever and wherever the Word of God is set aside. Then follows the positive evil which was so prominent in their midst: Swearing, lying, killing, stealing, committing adultery, and abundant shedding of blood. Such was the continued moral condition of the house of Israel, the ten tribes. It was all the result of having rejected the Word of the Lord and having turned away from Him. The result of unbelief, destructive criticism and denial of the truth is today, as it was then, swearing, lying, stealing, killing and the immoralities of our times. Therefore judgment would overtake all, even the land itself.
Hos 4:6-11. The people were destroyed for lack of knowledge, the knowledge of God and His truth. They had lost their place of nearness to the Lord, their priestly character into which the Lord had called the nation Exo 19:1-25. Therefore they would be rejected to be no longer in priestly relationship to Jehovah. And the priestly class was as corrupt as the people--“like people like priests.” They were to be punished for their ways and their doings.
Hos 4:12-19. Having left Jehovah they had turned to idols, asked counsel of a piece of wood and practiced divination. This abominable idol worship was practiced upon the tops of mountains. There, under trees, they gave themselves over to the vile rites of Baal-peor and Ashtaroth, both men and women abandoned themselves to the grossest sins of the flesh. And the Lord threatens that He would leave them alone in their vileness and not correct them, that they might be brought back. The first chapter of Romans is illustrated by Hos 4:14; they glorified not God, became idolators and then God gave them up to their vile affections.
Then there is a warning to the house of Judah in Hos 4:15. The most sacred places, like Gilgal, had become the scene of the idolatry of the ten tribes. Bethel, the house of God, became a Beth-aven, the house of vanity. If Judah offended and committed the same whoredoms, she would not escape judgment. The warning was unheeded.
“Ephraim (the ten tribes) is joined to idols; let him alone.” Ephraim was too far gone; further remonstrance’s would not help, and so the evil is permitted to go unchecked, to run its full course.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The First Part of the Accusation
The First Part of the Accusation
v. 1. Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel, Jehovah here both raising the accusation and pronouncing the sentence of punishment; for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, just cause for complaint, a matter which ought to be decided in a court of justice and the punishment dictated, because there is no truth, which makes intercourse between human beings dependable, nor mercy, neighborly compassion, nor knowledge of God in the land, these three virtues being mentioned together in many other passages of the Bible.
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v. 2. (By) swearing, a forbidden use of the name of God, and lying, against the Eighth Commandment, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, these vices being general, these transgressions common, they break out, bursting through the restraint of the Law of God, eager to be engaged in crimes of the worst kind, and blood toucheth blood, one act of bloodshed following another.
v. 3. Therefore shall the land mourn, the moral corruption of its inhabitants resulting in the physical destruction of the land and its products, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, as though wilting in a universal drought, with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven, all of whom would be affected by the punishment descending upon the land; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away, so that they would disappear and perish. In spite of the approaching punishment, however, the people persisted in their wickedness.
v. 4. Yet let no man strive nor reprove another, that is, conditions being as they are, all attempts to change the corruption would be vain; for thy people are as they that strive with the priest, that is, they are rebellious against the decisions which the priests were authorized to make in minor controversies, Deu 17:12, they no longer regarded the authority established by God.
v. 5. Therefore shalt thou, Israel, fall in the day, stumbling and falling in broad daylight, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, for neither day nor night would be free from some form of slaughter, and I will destroy thy mother, the entire nation being cut off on account of its transgressions.
v. 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because they refused to acknowledge Jehovah. Because thou hast rejected knowledge, so freely offered in the preaching of the prophets of God, I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no priest to Me, no longer a priestly people, as set forth Exo 19:6; seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy God, His holy will, as revealed so abundantly, I will also forget thy children, the entire congregation of Israel.
v. 7. As they were increased, namely, in population, wealth, and power, so they sinned against Me, their transgression increasing in the same proportion; therefore will I change their glory into shame, so that their greatness and prosperity would become a mockery in the eyes of the heathen.
v. 8. They eat up the sin of My people, namely, when the priests consumed the sin-offering, as a part of an act of worship intended to remove the guilt of the worshipers, Lev 6:19; Lev 10:17, and they set their heart on their iniquity, lusting after the transgressions of the people, instead of doing all in their power to suppress them. Since the priests lived upon the sins of the people, they wished for nothing more earnestly than that the people would keep on sinning more and more, namely, in idolatry.
v. 9. And there shall be, in consequence of this situation, like people, like priest, the people following their spiritual leaders in their hypocrisy and therefore both of them together sharing the punishment of the Lord following upon such wickedness; and I will punish them. for their ways and reward them their doings, for the position and wealth of the priests would not prevent their being compelled to share the same fate with the rest of the nation.
v. 10. For they shall eat, in unsatiable greediness, and not have enough; they shall commit whoredom, the entire nation being involved in immoral practices, and shall not increase, namely, in number, by growth in population, because they have left off to take heed to the Lord, they no longer pay any attention to His holy will. They who forsake the Lord must sooner or later pay the penalty of their sin.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
This chapter begins Yahweh's argument against the unfaithful Israelites.
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Yahweh has a lawsuit against the inhabitants of the land
Yahweh stating that the people of Israel have sinned against him and broken his covenant is spoken of as if Yahweh were accusing them in court. (See: Metaphor)
lawsuit
This is a complaint by one person against another person in a court of law. See how you translated this in Hosea 2:2.
The people have broken all bounds
Here "bounds" stands for the limits of what the law allows. AT: "The people have disobeyed the law in every possible way" (See: Metaphor)
bloodshed comes after bloodshed
Here "bloodshed" stands for "murder" which often involves making the victim bleed. AT: "you commit one murder after another" (See: Abstract Nouns and Metonymy)
translationWords
word of God
people group
Israel
Yahweh
true
covenant faithfulness
know
God
curse
adultery
bind
bloodshed
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 4:1–14:9 This diverse collection of Hosea’s prophecies is presented…
4:1–14:9 This diverse collection of Hosea’s prophecies is presented in roughly chronological order, from early in his ministry during the reign of Jeroboam II until just before the destruction of Israel in 722 BC. Hosea presents God’s charges against Israel, tells them of the severe consequences for their sin, and concludes with a divine promise of future restoration.
4:1 The Lord has brought charges against you: Hosea issued a divine indictment against Israel for breaking their covenant with the Lord (see also Isa 3:13; Mic 6:2). The charges first focus on sins of omission, the qualities that should characterize the people of Israel but were absent. In Israel there is no faithfulness, no kindness, no knowledge of God. These theologically rich words describe the inward trust and devotion from which godly lives should spring.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.