My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God.
Parallel Translations
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My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God.
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My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.
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My people ask counsel at their stock, and their staff declareth unto them; for the spirit of harlotry hath caused them to err, and they have gone astray from under their God.
Cross-references (18)
Passages linked to Hosea 4:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Jeremiah 2:27 who tell wood, ‘You are my father,’ and a stone, ‘You have given birth to me,’ for they have turned their back to me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, ‘Arise, and save us!’
- Hosea 5:4 Their deeds won’t allow them to turn to their God; for the spirit of prostitution is within them, and they don’t know Yahweh.
- Habakkuk 2:19 Woe to him who says to the wood, ‘Awake!’ or to the mute stone, ‘Arise!’ Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all within it.
- Numbers 15:39 It shall be to you for a fringe, that you may see it, and remember all Yahweh’s commandments, and do them; and that you don’t follow your own heart and your own eyes, after which you used to play the prostitute;
- Deuteronomy 31:16 Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers. This people will rise up and play the prostitute after the strange gods of the land where they go to be among them, and will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them.
- Isaiah 44:18-20 They don’t know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see; and their hearts, that they can’t understand. No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, “I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?” He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”
- Leviticus 17:7 They shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to the goat idols, after which they play the prostitute. This shall be a statute forever to them throughout their generations.’
- Leviticus 20:5 then I will set my face against that man and against his family, and will cut him off, and all who play the prostitute after him to play the prostitute with Molech, from among their people.
- 2 Chronicles 21:13 but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the prostitute like Ahab’s house did, and also have slain your brothers of your father’s house, who were better than yourself,
- Psalms 73:27 For, behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you.
- Jeremiah 3:1-3 “They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me,” says Yahweh. “Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat waiting for them by the road, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness. Therefore the showers have been withheld and there has been no latter rain; yet you have had a prostitute’s forehead and you refused to be ashamed.
- Jeremiah 10:8 But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood.
- Ezekiel 16:1-63 Again Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations; and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says to Jerusalem: “Your origin and your birth is of the land of the Canaanite. An Amorite was your father, and your mother was a Hittite. As for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut. You weren’t washed in water to cleanse you. You weren’t salted at all, nor wrapped in blankets at all. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you, to have compassion on you; but you were cast out in the open field, because you were abhorred in the day that you were born. “ ‘ “When I passed by you, and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you, ‘Though you are in your blood, live!’ Yes, I said to you, ‘Though you are in your blood, live!’ I caused you to multiply as that which grows in the field, and you increased and grew great, and you attained to excellent ornament. Your breasts were formed, and your hair grew; yet you were naked and bare. “ ‘ “Now when I passed by you, and looked at you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore to you, and entered into a covenant with you,” says the Lord Yahweh, “and you became mine. “ ‘ “Then washed I you with water. Yes, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil. I clothed you also with embroidered work, and put sealskin sandals on you. I dressed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I decked you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands, and put a chain on your neck. I put a ring on your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were decked with gold and silver. Your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered work. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and you prospered to royal estate. Your renown went out among the nations for your beauty; for it was perfect, through my majesty which I had put on you,” says the Lord Yahweh. “ ‘ “But you trusted in your beauty, and played the prostitute because of your renown, and poured out your prostitution on everyone who passed by. It was his. You took some of your garments, and made for yourselves high places decked with various colors, and played the prostitute on them. This shall not happen, neither shall it be. You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and played the prostitute with them. You took your embroidered garments, covered them, and set my oil and my incense before them. My bread also which I gave you, fine flour, oil, and honey, with which I fed you, you even set it before them for a pleasant aroma; and so it was,” says the Lord Yahweh. “ ‘ “Moreover you have taken your sons and your daughters, whom you have borne to me, and you have sacrificed these to them to be devoured. Was your prostitution a small matter, that you have slain my children, and delivered them up, in causing them to pass through the fire to them? In all your abominations and your prostitution you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, and were wallowing in your blood. “ ‘ “It has happened after all your wickedness. Woe, woe to you!” says the Lord Yahweh, “that you have built for yourselves a vaulted place, and have made yourselves a lofty place in every street. You have built your lofty place at the head of every way, and have made your beauty an abomination, and have opened your feet to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your prostitution. You have also committed sexual immorality with the Egyptians, your neighbors, great of flesh; and have multiplied your prostitution, to provoke me to anger. See therefore, I have stretched out my hand over you, and have diminished your portion, and delivered you to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your lewd way. You have played the prostitute also with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; yes, you have played the prostitute with them, and yet you weren’t satisfied. You have moreover multiplied your prostitution to the land of merchants, to Chaldea; and yet you weren’t satisfied with this. “ ‘ “How weak is your heart,” says the Lord Yahweh, “since you do all these things, the work of an impudent prostitute; in that you build your vaulted place at the head of every way, and make your lofty place in every street, and have not been as a prostitute, in that you scorn pay. “ ‘ “A wife who commits adultery! Who takes strangers instead of her husband! People give gifts to all prostitutes; but you give your gifts to all your lovers, and bribe them, that they may come to you on every side for your prostitution. You are different from other women in your prostitution, in that no one follows you to play the prostitute; and whereas you give hire, and no hire is given to you, therefore you are different.” ’ “Therefore, prostitute, hear Yahweh’s word: ‘The Lord Yahweh says, “Because your filthiness was poured out, and your nakedness uncovered through your prostitution with your lovers; and because of all the idols of your abominations, and for the blood of your children, that you gave to them; therefore see, I will gather all your lovers, with whom you have taken pleasure, and all those who you have loved, with all those who you have hated. I will even gather them against you on every side, and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. I will judge you, as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy. I will also give you into their hand, and they will throw down your vaulted place, and break down your lofty places. They will strip you of your clothes, and take your beautiful jewels. They will leave you naked and bare. They will also bring up a company against you, and they will stone you with stones, and thrust you through with their swords. They will burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women. I will cause you to cease from playing the prostitute, and you will also give no hire any more. So I will cause my wrath toward you to rest, and my jealousy will depart from you. I will be quiet, and will not be angry any more. “ ‘ “Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have raged against me in all these things; therefore, behold, I also will bring your way on your head,” says the Lord Yahweh: “and you shall not commit this lewdness with all your abominations. “ ‘ “Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb against you, saying, ‘As is the mother, so is her daughter.’ You are the daughter of your mother, who loathes her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite. Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells at your left hand, she and her daughters; and your younger sister, who dwells at your right hand, is Sodom with her daughters. Yet you have not walked in their ways, nor done their abominations; but soon you were more corrupt than they in all your ways. As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters. “ ‘ “Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters. She also didn’t strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. They were arrogant, and committed abomination before me. Therefore I took them away when I saw it. Samaria hasn’t committed half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters by all your abominations which you have done. You also bear your own shame yourself, in that you have given judgment for your sisters; through your sins that you have committed more abominable than they, they are more righteous than you. Yes, be also confounded, and bear your shame, in that you have justified your sisters. “ ‘ “I will reverse their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of your captives among them; that you may bear your own shame, and may be ashamed because of all that you have done, in that you are a comfort to them. Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, will return to their former estate; and Samaria and her daughters will return to their former estate; and you and your daughters will return to your former estate. For your sister Sodom was not mentioned by your mouth in the day of your pride, before your wickedness was uncovered, as at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all who are around her, the daughters of the Philistines, who despise you all around. You have borne your lewdness and your abominations,” says Yahweh. “ ‘For the Lord Yahweh says: “I will also deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant. Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish to you an everlasting covenant. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed, when you receive your sisters, your elder sisters and your younger; and I will give them to you for daughters, but not by your covenant. I will establish my covenant with you. Then you will know that I am Yahweh; that you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more, because of your shame, when I have forgiven you all that you have done,” says the Lord Yahweh.’ ”
- Ezekiel 21:21 For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination. He shook the arrows back and forth. He consulted the teraphim. He looked in the liver.
- Ezekiel 23:1-49 Yahweh’s word came again to me, saying, “Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. They played the prostitute in Egypt. They played the prostitute in their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their youthful nipples were caressed there. Their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah. “Oholah played the prostitute when she was mine. She doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors, who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. She gave herself as a prostitute to them, all of them the choicest men of Assyria. She defiled herself with the idols of whoever she lusted after. She hasn’t left her prostitution since leaving Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her. They caressed her youthful nipples; and they poured out their prostitution on her. “Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, on whom she doted. These uncovered her nakedness. They took her sons and her daughters; and they killed her with the sword. She became a byword among women; for they executed judgments on her. “Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lusting than she, and in her prostitution which was more depraved than the prostitution of her sister. She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and rulers, her neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. I saw that she was defiled. They both went the same way. “She increased her prostitution; for she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with red, dressed with belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like princes, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth. As soon as she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them into Chaldea. The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution. She was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them. So she uncovered her prostitution and uncovered her nakedness. Then my soul was alienated from her, just like my soul was alienated from her sister. Yet she multiplied her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of Egypt. She lusted after their lovers, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. Thus you called to memory the lewdness of your youth, in the caressing of your nipples by the Egyptians because of your youthful breasts. “Therefore, Oholibah, the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom your soul is alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side: the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa, Koa, and all the Assyrians with them; all of them desirable young men, governors and rulers, princes and men of renown, all of them riding on horses. They will come against you with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples. They will set themselves against you with buckler, shield, and helmet all around. I will commit the judgment to them, and they will judge you according to their judgments. I will set my jealousy against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will take away your nose and your ears. Your remnant will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and your daughters; and the rest of you will be devoured by the fire. They will also strip you of your clothes, and take away your beautiful jewels. Thus I will make your lewdness to cease from you, and remove your prostitution from the land of Egypt; so that you will not lift up your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.’ “For the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of them whom you hate, into the hand of them from whom your soul is alienated. They will deal with you in hatred, and will take away all your labor, and will leave you naked and bare. The nakedness of your prostitution will be uncovered, both your lewdness and your prostitution. These things will be done to you, because you have played the prostitute after the nations, and because you are polluted with their idols. You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.’ “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘You will drink of your sister’s cup, which is deep and large. You will be ridiculed and held in derision. It contains much. You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of your sister Samaria. You will even drink it and drain it out. You will gnaw the broken pieces of it, and will tear your breasts; for I have spoken it,’ says the Lord Yahweh. “Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back, therefore you also bear your lewdness and your prostitution.’ ” Yahweh said moreover to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations. For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through the fire to them to be devoured. Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths. For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and behold, they have done this in the middle of my house. “Furthermore you sisters have sent for men who come from far away, to whom a messenger was sent, and behold, they came; for whom you washed yourself, painted your eyes, decorated yourself with ornaments, and sat on a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, whereupon you set my incense and my oil. “The voice of a multitude being at ease was with her. With men of the common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on their hands, and beautiful crowns on their heads. Then I said of her who was old in adulteries, ‘Now they will play the prostitute with her, and she with them.’ They went in to her, as they go in to a prostitute. So they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women. Righteous men will judge them with the judgment of adulteresses and with the judgment of women who shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands. “For the Lord Yahweh says: ‘I will bring up a mob against them, and will give them to be tossed back and forth and robbed. The company will stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords. They will kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire. “ ‘Thus I will cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to be lewd like you. They will recompense your lewdness on you, and you will bear the sins of your idols. Then you will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.’ ”
- Hosea 9:1 Don’t rejoice, Israel, to jubilation like the nations; for you were unfaithful to your God. You love the wages of a prostitute at every grain threshing floor.
- Micah 2:11 If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood lies: “I will prophesy to you of wine and of strong drink;” he would be the prophet of this people.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11 even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie;
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Explain this verse (18 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain The Prophet calls here the Israelites the people of…
The Prophet calls here the Israelites the people of God, not to honor them, but rather to increase their sin; for the more heinous was the perfidy of the people, that having been chosen, they had afterwards forsaken their heavenly Father. Hence My people: there is here an implied comparison between all other nations and the seed of Abraham, whom God had adopted; “This is, forsooth! the people whom I designed to be sacred to myself, whom of all nations in the world I have taken to myself: they are my heritage. Now this people, who ought to be mine, consult their own wood, and their staff answers them!” We hence see that it was a grievous and severe reprobation when the Lord reminded them of the invaluable kindness with which he had favored the children of Abraham.
So at this day our guilt will be more grievous, if we continue not in the pure worship of God, since God has called us to himself and designed us to be his peculiar flock. The same thing that the Prophet brought against the Israelites may be also brought against the Papists; for as soon as infants are born among them, the Lord signs them with the sacred symbol of baptism; they are therefore in some sense (aliqua ex parte) the people of God. We see, at the same time, how gross and abominable are the superstitions which prevail among them: there are none more stupid than they are. Even the Turks and the Saracenes are wise when compared with them. How great, then, and how shameful is this baseness, that the Papists, who boast themselves to be the people of God, should go astray after their own mad follies!
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But the Prophet says the Israelites “consulted” their own wood, or inquired of wood. He no doubt accuses them here of having transferred the glory of the only true God to their own idols, or fictitious gods. They consult, he says, their own wood, and the staff answers them. He seems, in the second clauses to allude to the blind: as when a blind man asks his staff, so he says the Israelites asked counsel of their wood and staff. Some think that superstitions then practiced are here pointed out. The augurs we know used a staff; and it is probable that diviners in the East employed also a staff, or some such thing, in performing their incantations. Others explain these words allegorically, as though wood was false religion, and staff the ungodly prophets. But I am inclined to hold to simplicity. It then seems to me more probable, that the Israelites, as I have already stated, are here condemned for consulting wood or dead idols, instead of the only true God; and that it was the same thing as if a blind man was to ask counsel of his staff, though the staff be without any reason or sense. A staff is indeed useful, but for a different purpose. And thus the Prophet not only contemptuously, but also ironically, exposes to scorn the folly of those who consult their gods of wood and stone; for to do so will no more avail them than if one had a staff for his counselor.
He then subjoins, for the spirit of fornication has deceived them Here again the Prophet aggravates their guilt, inasmuch as no common blame was to be ascribed to the Israelites; for they were, he says, wholly given to fornication The spirit, then, of fornication deceived them: it was the same as if one inflamed with lust ran headlong into evil; as we see to be the case with brutal men when carried away by a blind and shameful passion; for then every distinction between right and wrong disappears from their eyes — no choice is made, no shame is felt. As then such heat of lust is wont sometimes to seize men, that they distinguish nothing, so the Prophet says with the view of shaming the people the more, that they were like those given to fornication, who no longer exercise any judgment, who are restrained by no shame. The spirit, then, of fornication has deceived them: but as this similitude often meets us, I shall not dwell upon it.
They have played the wanton, he says, that they may not obey the Lord. He does not say simply, ‘from their God,’ but ‘from under’ מתחת, metachet, They have then played the wanton, that they might no more obey God, or continue under his government. We may hence learn what is our spiritual chastity, even when God rules us by his word, when we go not here and there and rashly follow our own superstitions. When we abide then under the government of our God, and with fixed eyes look on him, then we chastely preserve our faithfulness to him. But when we follow idols, we then play the wanton and depart from God. Let us now proceed —
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 Thus he speaketh by derision in calling them his…
Thus he speaketh by derision in calling them his people, which now for their sins they were not: for they sought help of stocks and sticks.
They are carried away with a rage.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Hos 4:12 My people ask counsel at their stocks,…
Hos 4:12 My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused [them] to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.
Ver. 12. My people ask counsel at their stocks] That is, at their images, which are here called stocks in contempt, as Hezekiah called the brazen serpent (when it was idolized by the people) Nehushtan, or, a piece of brass; and as Julius Palmer, martyr, called the rood in Paul’s a jackanapes; and as the poet, in contempt of his own god Priapus, brings him in saying
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“ Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum. ”
So the prophet cries shame upon the house of Israel for saying to a stock, Thou art my father, and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth, Jer 2:27 Isa 44:11. But to such senseless practices men fall many times when they grow sensual; see 2Th 2:10 Rev 17:5. Spiritual whoredom and bodily go usually together. Rivet tells us here of a nobleman that went out of the church from hearing mass into the very next house, where he kept a whore; and said to the bystanders, a lupanari ad missam unum tantum esse passum, that there is but one step from the mass to a whore house.
And their staff] That is, saith Kimchi, their false prophets, upon whom they lean, and by whom they are led, as a blind man by his staff. But I rather think it is meant of rhabdomancy, {a} a kind of odd way of divining by rods and staves, as Nebuchadnezzar is brought in doing, Eze 21:22, and was common in those eastern parts. Or else hereby are meant the soothsayers’ and magicians’ rods, as Exo 7:12 Heb 11:21. It is said that Jacob worshipped leaning upon the top of his staff, and thereby lifting up his body to do reverence to God, where the Vulgate text, omitting the preposition, hath committed a manifest error, in saying that Jacob worshipped the top of his rod or staff; as if there had been some picture there engraven. The Hebrew is, towards the bed’s heads. And it is certain that Jacob worshipped none but God; and bowed himself either towards the bed’s head, or leaning upon his staff, to testify his humility, faith, and hope, which adoration how far it was from the worshipping of images (which the Papists urge from this place), who seeth not?
For the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err] That unclean spirit, Zec 13:2, the devil (who is ειδωλοχαρης, as Synesius saith, a delighter in idols), drives them satanico impetu, to commit whoredom, both spiritual and corporal, with strength of affection. Now, if that spirit of error, 1Jn 4:6, and of giddiness, Isa 19:14, cause men to err, and carry them with a vehement impetus to idol worship (which indeed is devil worship), what wonder? Men that are that way bent know not of what spirit they are; little think that they are acted and agitated by the devil. O pray with David, Psa 143:10, that that good Spirit of God may lead us into all truth and holiness.
And they are gone a whoring from under their God] i.e. from under the yoke of his obedience; they are gone out of his precincts, and therefore also out of his protection; as a whore that forsaketh her husband, and is therefore worthily cast off.
{a} Divination by means of a rod or wand; spec. the art of discovering ores, springs of water, etc., in the earth by means of a divining rod. ŒD.
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 My people; whom I chose, brought out of Egypt,…
My people; whom I chose, brought out of Egypt, and settled in this land, wire are not yet cast off, though they deserve it, who call themselves my people.
Ask counsel; inquire about future things, and what shall befall them. I threaten from heaven, they believe not me, but flatter themselves it will be better than my prophets say it will, and they inquire of their idolatrous priests concerning their fate.
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At their stocks; wooden statues or idols with which their priests consult, and make them give answer suiting to the hope of these people.
Their staff declareth unto them: this was another kind of forbidden consulting with the devil; an art much in use in those times and places. You read of this Eze 21:2. These were parts of their sottish idolatry. So they thought, they believed what their false prophets reported from the staff or stock. Unparalleled folly! not to believe God speaking from heaven, but at the same time believe a stock or staff, that knows not in whose hand it is, or what use it is put to.
The spirit of whoredoms; a heart addicted to and insnared with whoredoms, spiritual and corporal.
Hath caused them to err; hath blinded, misled, and deceived them. So Isa 40:20; 44:14,18.
And they have gone a whoring from under their God; so they have left their God, refusing to be under his guidance, endeavouring to evade his corrections, and to fortify themselves, rebel-like, against his armies raised to chastise them, trusting herein to idols.
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 In these verses we have, as before,
In these verses we have, as before,
I. The sins charged upon the people of Israel, for which God had a controversy with them, and they are,
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1. Spiritual whoredom, or idolatry. They have in them a spirit of whoredoms, a strong inclination to that sin; the bent and bias of their hearts are that way; it is their own iniquity; they are carried out towards it with an unaccountable violence, and this causes them to err. Note, The errors and mistakes of the judgment are commonly owing to the corrupt affections; men therefore have a good opinion of sin, because they have a disposition towards it. And having such erroneous notions of idols, and such passionate motions towards them, no marvel that with such a head and such a heart they have gone a whoring from under their God, Hos 4:12. They ought to have been in subjection to him as their head and husband, to have been under his guidance and command, but they revolted from their allegiance, and put themselves under the guidance and protection of false gods. So (Hos 4:15) Israel has played the harlot; their conduct in the worship of their idols was like that of a harlot, wanton and impudent. And (Hos 4:16), Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer, as an untamed heifer (so some), or as a perverse or refractory one (so others), as a heifer that is turned loose runs madly about the pasture, or, if put under the yoke (which seems rather to be alluded to here), will draw back instead of going forward, will struggle to get her neck out of the yoke and her feet out of the furrow. Thus unruly, ungovernable, untractable, were the people of Israel. They had begun to draw in the yoke of God's ordinances, but they drew back, as children of Belial, that will not endure the yoke; and when the prophets were sent with the goads of reproof, to put them forward, they kicked against the pricks, and ran backwards. The sum of all is (Hos 4:17), Ephraim is joined to idols, is perfectly wedded to them; his affections are glued to them, and his heart is upon them. There are two instances given of their spiritual whoredom, in both which they gave that honour to their idols which is due to God only: - (1.) They consulted them as oracles, and used those arts of divination which they had learned from their idolatrous priests (Hos 4:12): My people ask counsel at their stocks, their wooden gods; they apply to them for advice and direction in what they should do and for information concerning the event. They say to a stock, Thou art my father (Jer 2:27); and, if it were indeed a father, it were worthy of this honour; but it was a great affront to God, who was indeed their Father, and whose lively oracles they had among them, with which they had liberty to consult at any time, thus to ask counsel at their stocks. And they expect that their staff should declare to them what course they should take and what the event should be. It is probable that this refers to some wicked methods of divination used among the Gentiles, and which the Jews learned from them, by a piece of wood, or by a staff, like Nebuchadnezzar's divining by his arrows, Eze 21:21. Note, Those who forsake the oracles of God, to take their measures from the world and the flesh, do in effect but consult with their stocks and their staves. (2.) They offered sacrifice to them as gods, whose favour they wanted and whose wrath they dreaded and deprecated (Hos 4:13): They sacrifice to them, to atone and pacify them, and burn incense to them, to please and gratify them, and hope by both to recommend themselves to them. God had pitched upon the place where he would record his name; but they, having forsaken that, chose places for their irreligious rites which pleased their own fancies; they chose, [1.] High places, upon the tops of the mountains and upon the hills, foolishly imagining that the height of the ground gave them some advantage in their approaches towards heaven. [2.] Shady places, under oaks, and poplars, and elms, because the shadow thereof is pleasant to them, especially in those hot countries, and therefore they thought it was pleasing to their gods; or they fancied that a thick shade befriends contemplation, possesses the mind with something of awe, and therefore is proper for devotion.
2. Corporal whoredom is another crime here charged upon them: They have committed whoredom continually, Hos 4:18. They drove a trade of uncleanness; it was not a single act now and then, but their constant practice, as it is of many that have eyes full of adultery and which cannot cease from that sin, Pe2 2:14. Now the abominable filthiness and lewdness that was found in Israel is here spoken of, (1.) As a concomitant of their idolatry; their false gods drew them to it; for the devil whom they worshipped, though a spirit, is an unclean spirit. Those that worshipped idols were separated with harlots, and they sacrificed with harlots; for because they liked not to retain God in their knowledge, but dishonoured him, therefore God gave them up to vile affections, by the indulging of which they dishonoured themselves, Rom 1:24, Rom 1:28. (2.) As a punishment of it. The men that worshipped idols were separated with harlots that attended the idolatrous rites, as in the worship of Baal-peor, Num 25:1, Num 25:2. To punish them for that God gave up their wives and daughters to the like vile affections: They committed whoredom and adultery (Hos 4:13), which could not but be a great grief and reproach to their husbands and parents; for those that are not chaste themselves desire to have their wives and daughters so. But thus they might read their sin in their punishment, as David's adultery was punished in the debauching of his concubines by his own son, Sa2 12:11. Note, When the same sin in others is made men's grief and affliction which they have themselves been guilty of they must own that the Lord is righteous.
3. The perverting of justice, Hos 4:18. Their rulers (be it spoken to their shame) do love, Give ye, that is, they love bribes, and have it continually in their mouths, Give, give. They are given to filthy lucre; every one that has any business with them must expect to be asked, What will you give? Though, as rulers, they are bound by office to do justice, yet none can have justice done them without a fee; and you may be sure that for a fee they will do injustice. Note, The love of money is the ruin of equity and the root of all iniquity. But of all men it is a shame for rulers (who should be men fearing God and hating covetousness) to love Give ye. Perhaps this is intended in that part of the charge here, Their drink is sour; it is dead; it is gone. Justice, duly administered, is refreshing, like drink to the thirsty, but when it is perverted, and rulers take rewards either to acquit the guilty or to condemn the innocent, the drink is sour; they turn judgment into wormwood, Amo 5:7. Or it may refer in general to the depraved morals of the whole nation; they had lost all their life and spirit, and were as offensive to God as dead and sour drink is to us. See Deu 32:32, Deu 32:33.
II. The tokens of God's wrath against them for their sins. 1. Their wives and daughters should not be punished for the injury and disgrace they did to their families (Hos 4:14): I will not punish your daughters; and, not being punished for their sin, they would go on in it. Note, The impunity of one sinner is sometimes made the punishment of another. Or, "I will not punish them as I will punish you; for you must own, as Judah did concerning his daughter-in-law, that they are more righteous than you," Gen 38:26. 2. They themselves should prosper for a while, but their prosperity should help to destroy them. It comes in as a token of God's wrath (Hos 4:16): The Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place; they shall have a fat pasture, and a large one, in which they shall be fed to the full, and fed of the best, but it shall be only to prepare them for the slaughter, as a lamb is that is so fed. If they wax fat and kick, they do but wax fat for the butcher. But others make them feed as a lamb on the common, a large place indeed, but where it has short grass and lies exposed. The Shepherd of Israel will turn them both out of his pastures and out of his protection. 3. No means should be used to bring them to repentance (Hos 4:17): "Ephraim is joined to idols, is in love with them and addicted to them, and therefore let him alone, as Hos 4:4, Let no man reprove him. Let him be given up to his own heart's lusts, and walk in his own counsel; we would have healed him, and he would not be healed, therefore forsake him," See what their end will be, Deu 32:20. Note, It is a sad and sore judgment for any man to be let alone in sin, for God to say concerning a sinner, "He is joined to his idols, the world and the flesh; he is incurably proud, covetous, or profane, an incurable drunkard or adulterer; let him alone; conscience, let him alone; minister, let him alone; providences, let him alone. Let nothing awaken him till the flames of hell do it." The father corrects not the rebellious son any more when he determines to disinherit him. "Those that are not disturbed in their sin will be destroyed for their sin." 4. They should be hurried away with a swift and shameful destruction (Hos 4:19): The wind has bound her up in her wings, to carry her away into captivity, suddenly, violently, and irresistibly; he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, Psa 58:9. And then they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices, ashamed of their sin in offering sacrifice to idols, ashamed of their folly in putting themselves to such an expense upon gods that have no power to help them, and thereby making that God their enemy who has almighty power to destroy them. Note, There are sacrifices that men will one day be ashamed of. Those that have sacrificed their time, strength, honour, and all their comforts, to the world and the flesh, will shortly be ashamed of it. Yea, and those that bring to God blind, and lame, and heartless sacrifices, will be ashamed of them too.
III. The warning given to Judah not to sin after the similitude of Israel's transgression. It is said in the close of Hos 4:14, Those that do not understand shall fall; those must needs fall that do not understand how to avoid, or get over, the stumbling-blocks they meet with (and therefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall), particularly the two tribes (Hos 4:15): Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend. Though Israel be given to idolatry, yet let not Judah take the infection. Now, 1. This was a very needful caution. The men of Israel were brethren, and near neighbours, to the men of Judah; Israel was more numerous, and at this time in a prosperous condition, and therefore there was danger lest the men of Judah should learn their way and get a snare to their souls. Note, The nearer we are to the infection of sin the more need we have to stand upon our guard. 2. It was a very rational caution: "Let Israel play the harlot, yet let not Judah do so; for Judah has greater means of knowledge than Israel, has the temple and priesthood, and a king of the house of David; from Judah Shiloh is to come; and for Judah God has reserved great blessings in store; therefore let not Judah offend, for more is expected from them than from Israel, they will have more to answer for if they do offend, and from them God will take it more unkindly. If Israel play the harlot, let not Judah do so too, for then God will have no professing people in the world." God bespeaks Judah here, as Christ does the twelve, when many turned their backs upon him, Will you also go away? Joh 6:67. Note, Those that have hitherto kept their integrity should, for that reason, still hold it fast, even in times of general apostasy. Now, to preserve Judah from offending as Israel had done, two rules are here given: - (1.) That they might not be guilty of idolatry they must keep at a distance from the places of idolatry: Come not you unto Gilgal, where all their wickedness was (Hos 9:15; Hos 12:11); there they multiplied transgression (Amo 4:4); and perhaps they contracted a veneration for that place because there it was said to Joshua, The place where thou standest is holy ground (Jos 5:15); therefore they are forbidden to enter into Gilgal, Amo 5:5. And for the same reason they must not go up to Bethel, here called the house of vanity, for so Bethaven signifies, not the house of God, as Bethel signifies. Note, Those that would be kept from sin, and not fall into the devil's hands, must studiously avoid the occasions of sin and not come upon the devil's ground. (2.) That they might not be guilty of idolatry they must take heed of profaneness, and not swear, The Lord liveth. They are commanded to swear, The Lord liveth in truth and righteousness (Jer 4:2); and therefore that which is here forbidden is swearing so in untruth and unrighteousness, swearing rashly and lightly, or falsely and with deceit, or swearing by the Lord and the idol, Zep 1:5. Note, 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 that can make a jest of the true God will make a god of any thing.
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 My people ask counsel at their stocks,.... Or "at…
My people ask counsel at their stocks,.... Or "at his wood" (a), or stick; his wooden image, as the Targum; their wooden gods, their idols made of wood, mere stocks and blocks, without life or sense, and much less reason and understanding, and still less divinity. Reference is here had either to the matter of which an idol was made, being the trunk of a tree, or a block of wood; as the poet (b) introduces Priapus saying, "olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum": or to sticks of wood themselves, without being put into any form or shape; for so it is reported (c), that the ancient idolaters used to receive for gods, with great veneration, trees or pieces of wood, having the bark taken off; particularly the Carians worshipped for Diana a piece of wood, not hewed, squared, or planed (d): though the first seems rather to be the sense here; and either was extremely foolish. And yet such was the stupidity of this people, whom God had formerly chose for his people and had distinguished them by his favours from others, and they had professed themselves to be his people, and as yet were not utterly cast off, as to forsake him and his divine oracles, and all methods of knowing his will; as to ask counsel of such wooden deities in matters of moment and difficulty, what should be done by them, or concerning things to come.
And their staff declareth unto them; what methods are to be taken by them in the present case, or what shall come to pass, as they fancy; that is, either their idol, made of a staff or stick of wood, or a little image carried on a staff; such as probably were the teraphim they consulted, instead of the Urim and Thummim; and imagined they declared to them what they should do, or what would befall them. Kimchi's father interprets it of the false prophets on whom they depended, and whose declarations they received as oracles. Perhaps some respect is had to a sort of divination used among the Heathens by rods and staves, called "rhabdomancy", which the Jews had learnt of them; like that by arrows used by Nebuchadnezzar, Eze 21:21. This was performed by setting up a stick or staff, and as that fell, so they judged and determined what was to be done. The manner, according to Theophylact on the place, was this,
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"they set up two rods, and muttered some verses and enchantments; and then the rods falling through the influence of demons, they considered how they fell, whether forward or backward, to the right or the left; and so gave answers to the foolish people, using the fall of the rods for signs.''
The Jews take this to be forbid by that negative precept, Deu 18:10, "there shall not be found among you any that useth divination". So Jarchi and Baal Hatturim on that text explain a diviner by one that holds his staff; and the former adds and says, shall I go, or shall I not go? as it is said, "my people ask counsel at their stocks", &c.; the manner of which they thus describe (e),
"when they are about to go on a journey, they inquire before they set out, i.e. whether it will be prosperous or not; and the diviner takes a branch of a tree, and takes off the bark on one side, and leaves it on the other, and then throws it out of his hand; if, when it falls, the bark is uppermost, he says, this is a man; then he casts it again, and if the white is uppermost, this is a woman; to a man, and after that a woman, this is a good sign, and he goes his journey, or does what be desires to do: but if the white appears first, and after that the bark, then he says, to a woman, and after that a man, and he forbears (that is, to go on his journey, or do what he desired): but if the bark is uppermost in both (throws), or the white uppermost in both, to a man after a man, and a woman after a woman, then his journey (as to the success of it) is between both; and so they say they do in the land of Slavonia.''
And from the Slavonians, Grotius says, the Germans took this way of divination, of which Tacitus (f) gives an account; and it seems by him that the Chaldeans also had it, from whom the Jews might have it. This way of divination by the staff is a little differently given in Hascuni: (g) the diviner measures his staff with his finger, or with his hand; one time he says, I will go; another time, I will not go; but if it happens, at the end of the staff, I will not go, he goes not.
For the spirit of whoredom hath caused them to err; a violent inclination and bias of mind to idolatry, which is spiritual adultery, and a strong affection for it, stirred up by an evil spirit, the devil; which so wrought upon them, and influenced them, as to cause them to wander from the true God, and his worship, as follows:
and they have gone a whoring from under their God; or
"erred from the worship of their God,''
as the Targum; from the true God, who stood in the relation of a husband to them; but, led by a spirit of error, they departed from him, and committed spiritual adultery, that is, idolatry; which is explained and enlarged upon in the next verse.
(a) "in ligno suo", V. L. Montanus, Calvin; "liguum suum", Pagninus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. (b) Horat. Sermon. l. 1. Satyr. 8. (c) Alexand. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 26. (d) Arnobius adv. Gentes, l. 6. p. 232. (e) Moses Kotsensis praecept. neg. 52. (f) De Moribus German. c. 10. (g) Apud Drusium in Deut. xviii. 10.
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 Stocks - Wooden statues. The spirit of whoredom -…
Stocks - Wooden statues. The spirit of whoredom - A heart ensnared with whoredoms, spiritual and corporal. Caused them to err - Hath blinded, and deceived them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 12. At their stocks] They consult their wooden…
Verse 12. At their stocks] They consult their wooden gods.
And their staff declareth] They use divination by rods; see the note on Eze 21:21, where this sort of divination (rabdomancy) is explained.
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 4:12. My people ask counsel at their stocks…
Hos 4:12. My people ask counsel at their stocks — Hebrew, בעצו, at their wood, that is, the images of their idols made of wood; these they consulted as oracles, that they might foretel to them what was to come, or give them advice, what measures to take. And their staff declares unto them — They seek to know things by means of rods, by which they think they can divine. This refers to a kind of divination by rods or staves, which was anciently practised in the East, of which different accounts are given by ancient writers. Some say, the person consulting measured his staff by spans, or by the length of his finger, saying as he measured it, “I will go, or I will not go; I will do such a thing, or I will not do it;” and as the last span fell out so he determined. Others, however, as Cyril and Theophylact, give a different account of the matter, and say, it was performed by erecting two sticks, after which they muttered forth a certain charm, and then according as the sticks fell backward or forward, to the right or left, they gave advice in any affair. The same kind of divination seems to be intended with that used by the Chaldeans, concerning which see the note on Eze 21:21. For the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err — For their fondness for idolatry hath caused them to fall into all these absurd errors, through the example of the idolatrous nations whom they loved to imitate. They have gone a whoring from their God — They have left their God, the true God, and his laws, to follow the worship, customs, and rites of heathen idolaters.
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 My people ask counsel at - (literally, “on”) their…
My people ask counsel at - (literally, “on”) their stocks They ask habitually ; and that, in dependence “on their stocks.” The word “wood” is used of the idol made of it, to bring before them the senselessness of their doings, in that they asked counsel of the senseless wood. Thus Jeremiah reproaches them for “saying to a stock, my father” Jer 2:27; and Habakkuk, “Woe unto him that saith to the wood, awake” Hab 2:19.
And their staff declareth unto them - Many sorts of this superstition existed among the Arabs and Chaldees. They were different ways of drawing lots, without any dependence upon the true God to direct it. This was a part of their senselessness, of which the prophet had just said, that their sins took away their hearts. The tenderness of the word, “My people,” aggravates both the stupidity and the ingratitude of Israel. They whom the Living God owned as His own people, they who might have asked of Him, asked of a stock or a staff.
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For the spirit of whoredoms - It has been thought of old, that the evil spirits assault mankind in a sort of order and method, different spirits bending all their energies to tempt him to different sins . And this has been founded on the words of Holy Scripture, “a lying spirit,” “an unclean spirit,” “a spirit of jealousy,” and our Lord said of the evil spirit whom the disciples could not cast out; “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting” Mat 17:21. Hence, it has been thought that “some spirits take delight in uncleanness and defilement of sins; others urge on to blasphemies; others, to anger and fury; others take delight in gloom; others are soothed with vainglory and pride; and that each instills into man’s heart that vice in which he takes pleasure himself; yet that all do not urge their own perversenesses at once, but in turn, as opportunity of time or place, or man’s own susceptibility, invites them” . Or the word, “spirit of whoredoms,” may mean the vehemence with which people were whirled along by their evil passions, whether by their passionate love of idolatry, or by the fleshly sin which was so often bound up with their idolatry.
They have gone a whoring from under their God - The words “from under” continue the image of the adulteress wife, by which God had pictured the faithlessness of His people. The wife was spoken of as “under her husband Num 5:19, Num 5:29; Eze 23:5, i. e., under his authority; she withdrew herself “from under” him, when she withdrew herself from his authority, and gave herself to another. So Israel, being wedded to God, estranged herself from Him, withdrew herself from His obedience, cast off all reverence to Him, and prostituted herself to her idols.
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 Staff. It was customary to use this mode of…
Staff. It was customary to use this mode of divination, (Ezechiel xxi. 21.) and likewise incense, ver. 13. --- Oak. These terms are variously rendered as the trees and stones mentioned in Scripture, will probably never be ascertained.
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Instances of their understanding ("heart") being "taken away."
Instances of their understanding ("heart") being "taken away."
stocks--wooden idols (Jer 2:27; Hab 2:19).
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staff--alluding to divination by rods (see on Eze 21:21-22). The diviner, says ROSENMULLER, threw a rod from him, which was stripped of its bark on one side, not on the other: if the bare side turned uppermost, it was a good omen; if the side with the bark, it was a bad omen. The Arabs used two rods, the one marked God bids, the other, God forbids; whichever came out first, in drawing them out of a case, gave the omen for, or against, an undertaking.
declareth--that is, is consulted to inform them of future events.
spirit of whoredoms--a general disposition on the part of all towards idolatry (Hos 5:4).
err--go astray from the true God.
from under their God--They have gone away from God under whom they were, as a wife is under the dominion of her husband.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 12. Stocks — Literally, wood, or tree. May refer…
12. Stocks — Literally, wood, or tree. May refer (1), as in Hab_2:19; Jer_2:27; Jer_10:8, to idolatrous images; or (2) to images thought to represent Jehovah, such as the calves at Beth-el and Dan (Hos_8:4-5); or (3) to tree cult, which survived for some time in Israel (Hos_4:13; compare Isa_1:29-31) and which is not unknown to-day (S.I. Curtis, Primitive Semitic Religions To-day, pp. 90ff.); or (4) to rabdomancy (see next clause), practiced among the Semites, the Scythians, the Germans, and other ancient nations. (3) is the most probable.
Ask counsel — Consult through the oracle the divine will concerning proposed undertakings. The oracle of Jehovah alone was legitimate and was frequently consulted (2Sa_2:1; Jdg_1:1); but the contemporaries of Hosea were using illegitimate means.
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Their staff declareth unto them — Upon staves they depend for divine direction. Marti sees here also a reference to tree cult; the staff he takes to mean a small sacred tree or the branch of a tree. Most commentators think that the prophet has in mind rabdomancy. Cyril of Alexandria calls this practice an invention of the Chaldeans; he describes the method of procedure as follows: Two staves were held upright, and while incantations were murmured over them they were allowed to fall; the oracle was determined from the direction in which the staves fell, whether forward or backward, to the right or to the left (Eze_21:21). These practices are inspired by the spirit of whoredoms — The impulse to practice whoredom which had taken possession of the people (Zec_13:2). 12b reads literally, They have played the harlot from under their God; they played the harlot, and thus freed themselves from the control of Jehovah. The expression is not quite the same as that in Hos_1:2. In this verse also, as in 11, 13, 14, the expression might, perhaps, be understood in a literal sense, the immoralities and the spiritual apostasy were closely connected, but many commentators interpret Hos_4:12 as referring to spiritual whoredom.
Hos_4:13 describes in greater detail the religious corruption.
Tops of the mountains… hills — Natural or artificial elevations were favorite spots for the erection of altars and sanctuaries; hence the designation high place for the local sanctuaries (Amo_7:9; 1Sa_9:12, etc. See article “High Place” in Hastings’s Dictionary of the Bible).
Burn incense — See on Hos_2:13. Oaks… poplars… elms [“terebinths”] — Probably a survival of tree worship, though the next clause would seem to indicate that the places under these trees were selected on account of the shade (see on Hos_4:12 and reference there). The trees mentioned are the most stately in Palestine, and would therefore receive special attention. The oaks flourished especially east of the Jordan, where they are still found. Tristram describes one thirty-seven feet in circumference with foliage having a circumference of ninety-one yards. The terebinth is frequently mentioned as a sacred tree. It grows in Palestine to a height of fifteen to twenty feet. Now the tree is comparatively rare west of the Jordan; there are still fine specimens in the territory of Moab. The poplar, literally, white tree, is mentioned only twice in the Old Testament, here and in Gen_30:37. Some commentators identify it with the storax tree, chiefly because of the similarity between the Hebrew and the Arabic names. An objection to the view that this is the tree in the mind of Hosea is the fact that the storax is “nothing more than a very bushy shrub, rarely more than twelve feet in height, and neither from its size nor from its form would it be selected as a tree under the shadow of which sacrifices or incense might be offered.” More likely the prophet has in mind the white poplar, which Tristram says he saw in various parts of Galilee, of the Lebanon, and of Mount Hermon.
The shadow thereof is good — The shade made these spots desirable; if the prophet thinks of tree cult, the thought may be implied that from these trees went out special virtue and power.
Therefore — Because of the conditions described in 11-13a; it introduces the reference to punishment in 14; 13b is a subordinate clause; 13b and 14a might be translated, “Therefore, though your daughters play the harlot… commit adultery, I will not punish your daughters.…” This removes the difficulty felt by some commentators concerning the loose connection between 13a and 13b. The pronominal suffixes of the second person in 13b and 14a are peculiar, since the persons addressed there are in 14b referred to in the third person. Marti proposes to change all the suffixes into the third person. To do this, or to change the third into the second, would result in a smoother reading. Commit whoredom [“play the harlot”] — The context makes it clear that the immoralities are those connected with the religious cult; they had crept from the Canaanitish religion into that of Israel. Originally there was probably behind the giving up of chastity in honor of the deity the desire to offer the most precious possession, but this motive was soon forgotten. In the worship of Jehovah these practices were out of place; and had the people known him they would have understood that they were an abomination to him.
Spouses — R.V., “brides”; margin, “daughters-in-law”; designation of a young wife; here in general, wives.
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 12. My people ask counsel at their stocks] Lit.,…
12. My people ask counsel at their stocks] Lit., ‘My people—he asketh counsel at his wood.’ Jehovah alone can give oracular ‘counsel’; not the teraphim, nor yet the bull-images of Jehovah. The latter did, indeed, seem to the Israelites to bring Jehovah near to their consciousness, but it was not the true Jehovah, who could not be represented by images (Hos_8:6) and hated the rites of the Israelitish worship (Hos_9:15); Hosea therefore calls them ‘wood’; comp. Hab_2:19; Jer_2:27; Jer_10:8. There is a touch of melancholy in ‘my people’; comp. Isa_3:12.
their staff declareth unto them] ‘Declareth’, with reference to secret things, as Isa_43:9; Isa_44:7. The ‘staff’ is probably the diviner’s wand; so in Eze_21:21 the king of Babylon combines consultation of the teraphim with divination by arrows, which is merely another form of rhabdomanteia (Sept. substitutes ‘wands’, ῥάβδον, for ‘arrows’). Wands were one of the recognized instruments of soothsaying, in both East and West; see Pococke, Specimen Historiae Arabum, p. 327; Azraki, The Chronicles of the city of Mecca, Arabic and German by Wüstenfeld, 1. 73; Herodotus iv. 67; Tacitus, Germ. 10. Pococke however thinks ‘staff’ is synonymous with ‘stocks’, and that a staff is meant which had an idol carved at the top.
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the spirit of whoredoms] i.e. an impulse prompting them to whoredom (in the literal sense, to avoid tautology); comp. ‘spirit of perverseness’ (Isa_19:14), ‘spirit of uncleanness’ (Zec_13:2), ‘spirit of jealousy’ (Num_5:14).
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 (12) Their stocks.—Blocks of wood fashioned into idols (Heb.,…
(12) Their stocks.—Blocks of wood fashioned into idols (Heb., his wood, the collective singular being maintained).
Their staff.—Cyril regarded this as referring to divinations by means of rods (ῥαβδομαντεία), which were placed upright, and after the repetition of incantations, allowed to fall, the forecast of the future being interpreted from the manner in which they fell. But perhaps the “staff” may refer, like the “stocks,” to the idol itself. The Canaanite goddess Asherah was worshipped under this form.
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 Vers. 12-14. The first of these verses exhibits the…
Vers. 12-14. The first of these verses exhibits the private life of the people as depraved by sin and folly; the second their public life as degraded by idolatry and lewdness; while the third points to the corresponding chastisement and its cause. My people ask counsel at their stocks (literally, wood), and their staff declareth unto them. Rashi explains "stocks," or literally, "wood," to mean "a graven image made out of wood;" while Aben Ezra prefaces his exposition of this by an observation which serves well as a link of connection between the eleventh and twelfth verses. It is as follows: "The sign that they are in reality without heart, is that my people turn to ask counsel of its stocks and wood." Kimchi not inaptly remarks, "They are like the blind man to whom his staff points out the way in which he should go." The stupidity of idolatry and the sin of divination are hero combined. By the "wood" is meant an idol carved out of wood; while the staff may likewise have an image carved at the top for idolatrous purposes, or it may denote mode of divination by a staff which by the way it fell determined their course. Theophylaet explains this method of divination as follows: They set up two rods, and muttered some verses and enchantments; and then the rods falling through the influence of demons, they considered how they fell, whether forward or backward, to the right or the left, and so gave answers to the foolish people, using the fall of the rods for signs." Cyril, who attributes the invention of rabdomancy to the Chaldeans, gives the same account of this method of divination. Herodotus mentions a mode of divination prevalent among the Scythians by means of willow rods; and Tacitus informs us that the Germans divined by a rod cut from a fruit-bearing tree. "They (the Germans) cut a twig from a fruit tree, and divide it into small pieces, which, distinguished by certain marks, are thrown promiscuously on a white garment. Then the priest or "the canton, it" the occasion be public if private, the master of the family after an invocation of the gods, with his eyes lifted up to heaven, thrice takes out each piece, and as they come up, interprets their signification according to the marks fixed upon them." The sin and folly of any people consulting an idol of wood about the success or otherwise of an undertaking, or deciding whether by a species of teraphim or staff divination, is sufficiently obvious. But the great aggravation of Israel"s sin arose from the circumstance not obscurely hinted by the possessive "my" attached to "people." That a people like Israel, whom God had chosen from among the nations of the earth and distinguished by special tokens of Divine favor, and to whom he had given the ephod with the truly oracular Urim and Thummim, should forsake him and the means he had given them of knowing his will, and turn aside to gods of wood, evinced at once stupidity unaccountable and sin inexcusable. "The prophet," says Calvin, "calls here the Israelites the people of God, not to honor them, but rather to increase their sin; for the more heinous was the perfidy of the people, that, having been chosen, they had afterwards forsaken their heavenly Father.... Now this people, that ought to be mine, consult their own wood, and their staff answers them!" For the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a-whoring from under their God. In this part of the verse the prophet attempts to account for the extreme folly and heinous sin of Israel, as described in the first clause. It was an evil spirit, some demoniac power, that had inspired them with an insuperable fondness for idolatry, which in prophetic language is spiritual adultery. The consequence was a sad departure from the true God and a sinful wandering away from his worship, notwithstanding his amazing condescension and love by which he placed himself in the relation of a husband towards them.
Vers. 12-14. Sin"s fatuity.
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The people had parted with the knowledge of the true God, and had become possessed of a spirit of whoredoms. See the effects.
I THEY WEST AFTER SENSELESS FOLLIES. "My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them" (ver. 12). The spirit of sin is a spirit of "error." It robs men of their better judgment. No limit can be put to the wanderings of the mind under its influence. The worship of a "stock" is absurd enough, even when the devotee knows no better. But that Israel, who had "been once enlightened," and had known the true God, should go back to "stocks" and "staffs," was a singular instance of fatuity. When the soul has abandoned God, there is no anticipating what crazes it will adopt, what "will-o"-the-wisps" it will follow after (the follies of society, the credulity of skepticism, etc.).
II THEY FELL VICTIMS TO SUPERSTITION. "They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains," etc. (ver. 13). They attached a superstitious importance to mountains, hills, trees, groves, etc., in connection with their worship. The mountains lifted them nearer to heaven; (Num_22:41 Num_23:14, Num_23:28) the shade of the trees filled them with awe, True religion delivers from superstition, irreligion leaves men a prey to it. Feelings of a superstitious nature become with many a substitute for religion. They seek, in the materialistic accompaniments of worship, a satisfaction which the worship itself would not afford them (altars, ritual, architectural gloom, vestments, etc.).
III THEY WERE BEGUILED INTO GROSS IMMORALITY. "Therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses daughters-in-law shall commit adultery" (ver. 13). The seductions of the place, the character of the worship, and the exciting behavior indulged in at the altar, paved the way for lewd practices. These were incorporated as a part of most heathen worship. The heart which has cast off the fear of God is only too eagerly prepared for licentious conduct. Lust is one of the commonest forms of sin.
IV THEY SET AS EVIL EXAMPLE TO THEIR JUNIORS. "I will not punish your daughters," etc. (ver. 14). The unblushing conduct of the parents in going to the public altars with immoral women made it impossible to blame too severely the younger generation, who simply followed the example set them by their elders. Thus corruption was propagated, and the most shameless deeds were flaunted in the light of open day.
V THEY BROUGHT DOWN ON THEMSELVES THE VENGEANCE OF GOD. "Therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall" (ver. 14). The origin of all was the not understanding. They are destroyed for lack of knowledge (ver. 6). 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 Their staff declareth unto them.
Hos_4:12
Their staff declareth unto them.
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Rhabdomania, or divining by the stick or staff
There was a kind of idolatry which the Jews had, a way to ask counsel by the staff, and with this the prophet here charges them. The Romans practised the same, calling it divination by rods, sticks, arrows, or staves. There were four ways in which they divined with these things. The first was to put arrows or staves into a closed case, having the names written on them of what they divined about; and then, drawing out one or two, they determined their business according to what they found written; thus their staff declared unto them either good or bad. A second was by casting up staves or arrows into the air, and according as they fell, on the right hand or on the left, before or behind, so they divined their good or ill luck, as they called it. A third way was this, they used to peel off the bark of some part of a stick, and then cast it up, and divined according to which part of the pith, either black or white, appeared first. A fourth was, as we find in the Roman antiquities, that their augurs or soothsayers used to sit upon the top of a tower or castle, in clear and fair weather, with a crooked staff in their hand, which the Latins call Lituus, and having quartered out the regions of heaven, so far as to answer their purpose, and offered sacrifices and prayers, they stretched it forth upon the head of the person or thing they would divine for, and so foreboded good or ill luck, according to what at that time they observed in the heavens, the birds flying, etc. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 4:12 They ask a piece of wood for advice!…
4:12 They ask a piece of wood for advice! For millennia, people have worshiped natural objects such as wood and stones that they believed embodied spirits and gods (Jer 2:27). Biblical religion completely rejects such practices and beliefs (Exod 20:4-5; Isa 44:19).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.