6My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to me. Because you have forgotten your God’s law, I will also forget your children.
7As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me. I will change their glory into shame.
8They feed on the sin of my people, and set their heart on their iniquity.
9It will be, like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and will repay them for their deeds.
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to me. Because you have forgotten your God’s law, I will also forget your children.
7 As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me. I will change their glory into shame.
8 They feed on the sin of my people, and set their heart on their iniquity.
9 It will be, like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and will repay them for their deeds.
KJVKing James Version
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
7 As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.
8 They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.
9 And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me; seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.
7 The more they were increased, the more they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into shame.
8 They feed on the sin of My people, and set their heart on their iniquity.
9 And it is like people, like priest; and I will punish him for his ways, and will recompense him his doings.
Isaiah 5:13(v6)Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched with thirst.
Proverbs 19:2(v6)It isn’t good to have zeal without knowledge, nor being hasty with one’s feet and missing the way.
Hosea 6:6(v6)For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
2 Corinthians 4:3-6(v6)Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who are dying, in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the…
Hosea 4:1(v6)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…
Show all 80 cross-references
Matthew 15:8(v6)‘These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
Proverbs 1:30-32(v6)They wanted none of my counsel. They despised all my reproof. Therefore they will eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with…
Isaiah 17:10(v6)For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants,…
Hosea 8:14(v6)For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send a fire on his cities, and…
Malachi 2:7-9(v6)For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Yahweh of Armies. But…
2 Chronicles 15:3(v6)Now for a long time Israel was without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law.
Jeremiah 2:8(v6)The priests didn’t say, ‘Where is Yahweh?’ and those who handle the law didn’t know me. The rulers also transgressed against me, and the…
Malachi 2:1-3(v6)“Now, you priests, this commandment is for you. If you will not listen, and if you will not take it to heart, to give glory to my name,”…
1 Samuel 3:12-15(v6)In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from the beginning even to the end. For I have told him…
Hosea 13:6(vv6–7)According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted. Therefore they have forgotten me.
Isaiah 1:3(v6)The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel doesn’t know. My people don’t consider.”
Jeremiah 4:22(v6)“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,…
Jeremiah 8:7-9(v6)Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times. The turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my…
Job 36:12(v6)But if they don’t listen, they will perish by the sword; they will die without knowledge.
Luke 20:16-18(v6)He will come and destroy these farmers, and will give the vineyard to others.” When they heard that, they said, “May that never be!” But he…
2 Kings 17:16-20(v6)They abandoned all the commandments of Yahweh their God, and made molten images for themselves, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and…
Psalms 119:61(v6)The ropes of the wicked bind me, but I won’t forget your law.
Jeremiah 5:3-4(v6)O Yahweh, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused…
Jeremiah 5:21(v6)‘Hear this now, foolish people without understanding, who have eyes, and don’t see, who have ears, and don’t hear:
Psalms 119:139(v6)My zeal wears me out, because my enemies ignore your words.
Isaiah 3:12(v6)As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people, those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the…
Isaiah 56:10-12(v6)His watchmen are blind. They are all without knowledge. They are all mute dogs. They can’t bark— dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.…
1 Samuel 2:12(v6)Now the sons of Eli were wicked men. They didn’t know Yahweh.
1 Samuel 2:28-36(v6)Didn’t I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me?…
Hosea 2:13(v6)I will visit on her the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense, when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went…
Hosea 4:12(v6)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…
Hosea 8:1(v6)“Put the trumpet to your lips! Something like an eagle is over Yahweh’s house, because they have broken my covenant, and rebelled against…
Hosea 8:12(v6)I wrote for him the many things of my law; but they were regarded as a strange thing.
Matthew 15:14(vv6, 9)Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
Zechariah 11:8-9(v6)I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me. Then I said, “I will not feed…
Matthew 21:41-45(v6)They told him, “He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers, who will give him the…
Mark 12:8-9(v6)They took him, killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the…
Isaiah 27:11(v6)When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding.…
Isaiah 45:20(v6)“Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of…
Isaiah 56:11(v8)Yes, the dogs are greedy. They can never have enough. They are shepherds who can’t understand. They have all turned to their own way, each…
Micah 3:11(v8)Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh,…
Matthew 15:3-6(v6)He answered them, “Why do you also disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your…
Philippians 3:19(v7)whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.
Titus 1:11(v8)whose mouths must be stopped: men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for dishonest gain’s sake.
1 Samuel 2:30(v7)“Therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father should walk before me forever.’ But…
Jeremiah 5:31(v9)The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end…
Matthew 23:16-26(v6)“Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is…
Leviticus 6:26(v8)The priest who offers it for sin shall eat it. It shall be eaten in a holy place, in the court of the Tent of Meeting.
1 Samuel 2:29(v8)Why do you kick at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in my habitation, and honor your sons above me, to make…
Isaiah 24:2(v9)It will be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with…
Isaiah 28:7(v6)They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine.…
Hosea 4:10(v7)They will eat, and not have enough. They will play the prostitute, and will not increase; because they have abandoned giving to Yahweh.
Hosea 10:1(v7)Israel is a luxuriant vine that produces his fruit. According to the abundance of his fruit he has multiplied his altars. As their land has…
Zechariah 11:15-17(v6)Yahweh said to me, “Take for yourself yet again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. For, behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land,…
Malachi 2:9(v7)“Therefore I have also made you contemptible and wicked before all the people, according to the way you have not kept my ways, but have had…
Leviticus 7:6-7(v8)Every male among the priests may eat of it. It shall be eaten in a holy place. It is most holy. “ ‘As is the sin offering, so is the…
Ezra 9:7(v7)Since the days of our fathers we have been exceedingly guilty to this day; and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests, have been…
Psalms 24:4(v8)He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully.
Jeremiah 2:26-27(v7)As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so the house of Israel is ashamed: they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their…
Jeremiah 23:11-12(v9)for both prophet and priest are profane. Yes, in my house I have found their wickedness,” says Yahweh. Therefore their way will be to them…
Hosea 1:4(v9)Yahweh said to him, “Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and will…
Hosea 5:1(v7)“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…
Hosea 6:9(v7)As gangs of robbers wait to ambush a man, so the company of priests murder on the path toward Shechem, committing shameful crimes.
Habakkuk 2:16(v7)You are filled with shame, and not glory. You will also drink, and be exposed! The cup of Yahweh’s right hand will come around to you, and…
Malachi 1:10(v8)“Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you,”…
Romans 16:18(v8)For those who are such don’t serve our Lord, Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the…
Psalms 109:17-18(v9)Yes, he loved cursing, and it came to him. He didn’t delight in blessing, and it was far from him. He clothed himself also with cursing as…
Proverbs 5:22(v9)The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
Isaiah 3:10(v9)Tell the righteous “Good!” For they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
Isaiah 9:14-16(v9)Therefore Yahweh will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed, in one day. The elder and the honorable man is the head, and…
Jeremiah 8:10-12(v9)Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to those who will possess them. For everyone from the least even to the…
Ezekiel 14:3(v8)“Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face. Should I…
Ezekiel 14:7(v8)“ ‘ “For everyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live in Israel, who separates himself from me, and takes his idols into…
Ezekiel 22:26-31(v9)Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common,…
Hosea 8:13(v9)As for the sacrifices of my offerings, they sacrifice meat and eat it; But Yahweh doesn’t accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity,…
Hosea 9:9(v9)They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity. He will punish them for their sins.
Hosea 13:14(v7)I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction?…
Zechariah 1:6(v9)But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, didn’t they overtake your fathers? “Then they repented and said,…
2 Peter 2:3(v8)In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn’t linger, and their destruction will not…
80 distinct cross-references across this passage (82 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (20 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv6–9Here the Prophet distinctly touches on the idleness of…
Here the Prophet distinctly touches on the idleness of the priests, whom the Lord, as it is well known, had set over the people. For though it could not have availed to excuse the people, or to extenuate their fault, that the priests were idle; yet the Prophet justly inveighs against them for not having performed the duty allotted to them by God. But what is said applies not to the priests only; for God, at the same time, indirectly blames the voluntary blindness of the people. For how came it, that pure instruction prevailed not among the Israelites, except that the people especially wished that it should not? Their ignorance, then, as they say, was gross; as is the case with many ungodly men at this day, who not only love darkness, but also draw it around them on every side, that they may have some excuse for their ignorance.
God then does here, in the first place, attack the priests, but he includes also the whole people; for teaching prevailed not, as it ought to have done, among them. The Lord also reproaches the Israelites for their ingratitude; for he had kindled among them the light of celestial wisdom; inasmuch as the law, as it is well known, must have been sufficient to direct men in the right way. It was then as though God himself did shine forth from heaven, when he gave them his law. How, then, did the Israelites perish through ignorance? Even because they closed their eyes against the celestial light, because they deigned not to become teachable, so as to learn the wisdom of the eternal Father. We hence see that the guilt of the people, as it has been said, is not here extenuated, but that God, on the contrary, complains, that they had malignantly suppressed the teaching of the law: for the law was fit to guide them. The people perished without knowledge, because they would perish.
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But the Prophet denounces vengeance on the priests, as well as on the whole people, Because knowledge hast thou rejected, he says, I also will thee reject, so that the priesthood thou shalt not discharge for me. This is specifically addressed to the priests: the Lord accuses them of having rejected knowledge. But knowledge, as Malachi says, was to be sought from their lips, (Malachi 2:7) and Moses also touches on the same point in Deuteronomy 33:10. It was then an extreme wickedness in the priests, as though they wished to subvert God’s sacred order, when they sought the honor and the dignity of the office without the office itself: and such is the case with the Papists of the present day; they are satisfied with its dignity and its wealth. Mitred bishops are prelates, are chief priests; they vauntingly boast that they are the heads of the Church, and would be deemed equal with the Apostles: at the same time, who of them attends to his office? nay, they think that it would be in a manner a disgrace to give attention to their office and to God’s call.
We now then see what the Prophet meant by saying, Because thou hast knowledge rejected, I also will thee reject, so that thou shalt not discharge for me the priesthood. In a word, he shows that the divorce, which the priests attempted to make, was absurd, and contrary to the nature of things, that it was monstrous, and in short impossible. Why? Because they wished to retain the title and its wealth, they wished to be deemed prelates of the Church, without knowledge: God allows not things joined together by a sacred knot to be thus torn asunder. “Dost thou then,” he says, “take to thyself the office without knowledge? Nay, as thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also take to myself the honor of the priesthood, which I previously conferred on thee.”
This is a remarkable passage, and by it we can check the furious boasting of the Papists, when they haughtily force upon us their hierarchy and the order, as they call it, of their clergy, that is, of their corrupt dregs: for God declares by his word, that it is impossible that there should be any priest without knowledge. And further, he would not have priests to be endued with knowledge only, and to be as it were mute; for he would have the treasure deposited with them to be communicated to the whole Church. God then, in speaking of sacerdotal knowledge, includes also preaching. Though one indeed be a literate, as there have been some in our age among the bishops and cardinals, — though then there be such he is not yet to be classed among the learned; for, as it has been said, sacerdotal learning is the treasure of the whole Church. When therefore a boast is made of the priesthood, with no regard to the ministration of the word, it is a mere mockery; for teacher and priest are, as they say, almost convertible terms. We now perceive the meaning of the first clause.
It then follows, Because thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Some confine this latter clause to the priests, and think that it forms a part of the same context: but when any one weighs more fully the Prophet’s words, he will find that this refers to the body of the people.
This Prophet is in his sentences often concise, and so his transitions are various and obscure: now he speaks in his own person, then he assumes the person of God; now he turns his discourse to the people, then he speaks in the third person; now he reproves the priests, then immediately he addresses the whole people. There seemed to be first a common denunciation, ‘Thou shalt fall in the day, the Prophet in the night shall follow, and your mother shall perish.’ The Prophet now, I doubt not, confirms the same judgment in other words: and, in the first place, he advances this proposition, that the priests were idle, and that the people quenched the light of celestial instruction; afterwards he denounces on the priests the judgment they deserved, ‘I will cast thee away,’ he says, ‘from the priesthood;’ now he comes to all the Israelites, and says, Thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Now this fault was doubtless what belonged to the whole people; there was no one exempt from this sin; and this forgetfulness was fitly ascribed to the whole people. For how it happened, that the priests had carelessly shaken off from their shoulders the burden of teaching the people? Even because the people were unwilling to have their ears annoyed: for the ungodly complain that God’s servants are troublesome, when they daily cry against their vices. Hence the people gladly entered into a truce with their teachers, that they might not perform their office: thus the oblivion of God’s law crept in.
As then the Prophet had denounced on the priests their punishment, so he now assures the whole people that God would bring a dreadful judgment on them all, that he would even blot out the whole race of Abraham, I will forget, he says, thy children. Why was this? The Lord had made a covenant with Abraham, which was to continue, and to be confirmed to his posterity: they departed from the true faith, they became spurious children; then God rightly testifies here, that he had a just cause why he should no longer count this degenerate people among the children of Abraham. How so? “For ye have forgotten my law,” he says: “had you remembered the law, I would also have kept my covenant with you: but I will no more remember my covenant, for you have violated it. Your children, therefore, deserve not to be under finch a covenant, inasmuch as ye are such a people.” It follows —
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 translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv6–9That is, the Priests shall be cast off, because…
That is, the Priests shall be cast off, because that for lack of knowledge, they are not able to execute their charge, and instruct others, Deut. 33:3; Mal. 2:7.
Meaning, the whole body of the people, which were weary with hearing the word of God.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv6–9Hos 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of…
Hos 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
Ver. 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge] "My people" (there is the wonder of it), of whom it was wont to be said by the heathen, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people": and well it might: for what nation ever had God so nigh unto them, &c., and statutes and judgments so righteous, &c.? Deu 4:6-8; what nation ever had prophets and priests as they had, to teach Jacob his statutes and Israel his law? Deu 33:10. All means of knowledge they had that might be; so that God might say to them, as once Abijam did to Jeroboam and all Israel, "Ought you not to have known this?" 2Ch 13:5; should ye not all "know the Lord from the least to the greatest?" should not your land be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea? Hab 2:14. Doth not wisdom cry in your streets? and knowledge (in the abundance of means) bow down to you as trees do that are laden with fruit, so that a child may gather them? How is it then that you (my people) are yet so hard and blockish, as rude and ignorant of me and my will, of yourselves and your duties, as the blind Ethnics? For some of you have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. Yea, "who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord’s servant?" Isa 42:19. I speak it with grief and stomach, and therefore I so oft speak it. Surely to whomsoever much is given much is required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more, Luk 12:48. It is a grievous thing to receive the grace of God in vain, 2Co 6:1; and when for the time men might have been teachers, to have need to be taught the very first principles of the oracles of God, Heb 5:12. For if God will pour out his wrath upon the heathen that know him not, Jer 10:25, who yet were left in the dark, to grope after him as they could, Act 17:27; and if the poor philosophers (who had but the rush candle of nature’s dim light to work by) were yet delivered up to a reprobate sense, because they glorified God no better, Rom 1:28; oh the bloody weals that he will make upon the backs of his non-proficients, sots and dullards in his school! Ingentia beneficia, flagitia supplicia.
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Are destroyed] Or, silenced, as Mat 22:12. The Chaldee rendereth it obrutuerunt, they are besotted, and so fitted for destruction; for Deus quem destruit dementat. Ignorance is the mother, not of devotion (as Papists say), but of destruction; and ignorant persons shall be silent in darkness, as holy Hannah hath it; they shall lie down in sorrow, as the prophet Isaiah. And although they always wander and err in heart, as not knowing God’s ways, Psa 95:10-11, yet they cannot go so far wide as to miss hell, where they are sure to suffer both pain of loss and pain of sense; for they shall be "punished with everlasting destruction, in a flame of fire" (there is pain of sense), "from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power" (there is pain of loss), 2Th 2:8-9. Lo, here the portion of all ignorant persons, and withal take notice of a usual and equal proceeding of God’s impartial justice in punishing such. He delights to punish sin in kind, to pay wicked persons in their own coin, to overshoot them in their own bow, to answer them in their own language, as he once did those bold Babel builders, Gen 11:4. Go to, say they; Go to, saith he: Let us build up to heaven, say they; Let us go down, and see that building, saith he: Let us make us a name, say they; Let us confound their language, that they may not so much as know their own names, saith he: Lest we be scattered, say they; Let us scatter them abroad in the world, saith he. Thus God worded it with them, and confuted their folly from point to point. And the like he will do with ignorant people at that great day. Depart from us, say they now to God, Job 21:14; Depart from me, ye cursed, will he then say to them. We desire not the knowledge of thy ways, say they, ibid.; Therefore I have sworn in my wrath, that you shall never enter into my rest, saith he. Ye have loved darkness better than light, ye shall therefore have your belly full of it in the bottom of hell. God loves to retaliate, as we may see here, and go no farther. "Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee; seeing thou hast forgot the law of thy God, I will also" (to cry quittance with thee) "forget thy children." Thus, by giving ignorant persons their own, he will so silence them, and even button up their mouths, that they shall stand speechless, as being self-condemned.
For lack of knowledge] Propter non scientiam, for mere nescience, for such an ignorance as is privative only, and of pure negation, which doth somewhat excuse a tanto, though not a toto; as in that servant that knew not his master’s will, yet did commit things worthy of stripes, and had a few, Luk 12:48. But Israel’s ignorance was more than all this, and a great deal worse. "For did not Israel know?" Rom 10:19, and "have they not heard?" yes, verily. {Hos 4:18} No people under heaven like them for that, Psa 147:19. But they rejected knowledge, and affected ignorance; they hated the light, and loved darkness better. This was the condemnation, the mischief of it, saith our Saviour, who (besides this wilful ignorance, that mother of mischief, and main support of Satan’s kingdom) laid down his life for the nesciences, the not-knowings of his people, δια των αγνοηματων, Heb 9:7, and prayed for his persecutors at his death: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."
Because thou hast rejected knowledge] And that out of an utter hatred of it (as the Greek word made of the Hebrew signifieth, מאם thence μισεω), out of deep disdain, as of a thing below thee, and vile in thine eyes, not worthy of thy pains, or pursuit. Wisdom is the principal thing (saith Solomon, and he meaneth that wisdom that hath the fear of God for its foundation), therefore get wisdom, Pro 4:5. It is here called hadagnath, that knowledge, by an excellence, and with an accent, in opposition to that science, falsely so called, 1Ti 6:20; that knowledge that puffeth up, 1Co 8:1, as it did Joseph Scaliger (that gulf of learning), for whom it had been happy, that he had been ignorant but of this one thing, that he knew so much. It is the "acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness" (as the apostle describeth it, Tit 1:1), that perfects the best part of a man, that confirmeth, settleth, guideth, discerneth, differenceth him from others, who are no better than brutes (though wise in their own generation, as are the fox, serpent, &c.), and maketh his face to shine, Ecc 8:1, as St Stephen’s did, who was taught of God, and mighty in the Scriptures. This holy knowledge was highly prized by Agur, Pro 30:2, but slighted by those two slubbering priests, the sons of Eli, sons of Belial, they knew not the Lord, 1Sa 2:12; they knew him apprehensively, but not effectively; they professed that they knew God, but in their works they denied him, being abominable, and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate, Tit 1:16. "He that saith, I know him" (saith St John, 1Jn 2:4), "and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." Many of these Jeroboam’s priests were ignorant asses; like that bishop of Durkelden, in Scotland, who boasted, yea, thanked God, that he never knew what the Old and New Testament was, and that he would care to know nothing but his Portuise and his Pontifical; or that idol pastor in Germany, who being asked by the visitors, whether he taught his people the Decalogue? answered, that he had not the book so called (Joh. Manl. loc. com.). Others of them, that knew more of God’s mind, yet neither cared to practise it, nor to teach transgressors God’s ways, that sinners might be converted unto him, Psa 51:13.
I will also reject thee] And that with a witness, with an unwonted and extraordinary rejection, as the Hebrew word, Veemaseka (not found elsewhere in the same form), seemeth to import (Tremel. in locum); God will kick such ignoramuses out of the priesthood, cast them out of the hearts of his people, throw them to the dunghill, as unsavoury salt; yea, so reject them, as never to be received again, Eze 44:13. God will shake them out from his house, and from his labour, Neh 5:13 (as the Tirshatha did those apostate priests, Ezr 2:63), and lay them by, as broken vessels of which there is no further use; taking from them even that which they seemed to have, Luk 8:18, and blasting their gifts. See Zec 11:17, {See Trapp on "Zec 11:17"}
Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God] i.e. All that holy learning which thou, being a priest, oughtest to have and to hold in firm and fresh remembrance, for the good of the poor people, which, by thy default, is cut off for lack of knowledge, even the knowledge of the salvation by the remission of their sins, which thou shouldest have given them, Luk 1:77, not by infusion, but by instruction, which is the priest’s proper office. But thou (alas) hast forgotten that little of my law thou once hadst attained unto; and art grown as very a dolt and dotard as Theodorus Gaza (once a great scholar, but), in his dotage so ignorant, that he knew not his letters; he could not read. Nay, thou art not only a silly ass, but a slow belly; all thy care is for fat sacrifices and benefices, thy wits are in thy belly, and thy guts in thy brain; hence thy forgetfulness of my law, and of my people’s welfare. The Arabic translation hath it thus, "Inasmuch as thou hast loved this, and the consolation, therefore I will reject and forget thee," &c. Demas forsook Paul, and embraced this present world; yea, he became afterwards a priest in an idol temple at Thessalonica, as Dorotheus testifieth. The Vulgate Latin translation rendereth this text in the feminine gender, quia oblita est, against all grammar and good reason; for the Lord here speaketh to the priest, and chiefly to the chief priest, qui certe femina non erat, who certainly was not a woman, saith Polanus, who sure was no woman; unless the old interpreter (like another Balaam’s ass) would have this to have been spoken against the see of Rome, wherein Pope Joan sometime sat, A.D. 854. Sure it is, that the arch-priests of Rome are so delighted in the feminine gender, that they had rather attribute the breaking of the serpent’s head to a woman, the Virgin Mary, than to the "man Christ Jesus"; for in their last edition of the Latin Bible, they print, Gen 3:15, Ipsa conteret tibi caput, She shall bruise thine head, &c. Thus Polanus.
I also will forget thy children] Thy spiritual children, say some, even that whole people who saluted their priests (as the Papists do their padres) by the name of father, and observed their institutes. But they do better that understand the text of their natural children, whom God here threateneth to forget, that is, to put them by the priest’s office, as he threatened Eli, 1Sa 2:30, and thrust out Abiathar, 1Ki 2:27, fourscore years after. It is a dreadful thing to be forgotten of God. We take it ill to be forgotten of a friend, and to be as a dead man, out of mind, Psa 31:12. O take heed that God forget not us and our children: that he cast not off the care and keeping of us. He is so liberal a Lord, and doth so little forget our labour of love and patience of hope, as that he provideth for the posterity of his people: Psa 69:36, "The seed also of the servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein." Who then would not hire himself to such a master; who would not remember God’s law and teach it others, if but for his poor children’s sake, who else will rue for it?
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 Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv6–9My people: the divorce was not yet issued out,…
My people: the divorce was not yet issued out, the ten tribes yet were in some sense Ammi. Are destroyed; not only in the prophetic style, are, because ere long they shall most certainly be destroyed, but in the course of the history it is plain in matter of fact; many of them were cut off by Pul king of Assyria, 2Ki 15, and many were destroyed by the bloody and cruel tyranny of Menahem, and more were ruined in their estates by exactions and impositions. The civil wars, the seditions, the usurpations of some and the deposing of others, were things the prophet Hosea lived to see, and I believe speaks of here as things that had already destroyed many.
For lack of knowledge of God, his law, his menaces, his providences, and government of the world. Had they known his holy nature, his jealousy for his own glory, his hatred of sin and his power to punish it, had they known their God, they would either have forborne to sin, or repented of what sins they had committed, and so prevented his wrath. Because thou: the prophet now turns his words from the people to the priests among them. The people’s ignorance was much from the ignorance and profane humour of their priests, and this the prophet doth tacitly charge on the priests, to whom he speaks as to one particular person:
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Thou, who callest thyself, art accounted by the people, and goest under the name of a priest.
Hast rejected knowledge: strange perverseness! they who should direct others, who should be teachers, are and will be ignorant, will not know, reject knowledge; detestest to know, as the Chaldee paraphrase.
I will also reject thee; with equal dislike I will reject time, I will destroy your church constitution, and with that I will destroy your priesthood; and I will do this with detestation and abhorrence too.
Thou hast forgotten the law of thy God: O Israel, and you, O priests, you have all sinned together, slighted and disrespected the law, broken all the precepts of it, set up other gods, other worship, other priests than the law directs.
I will also forget; I will pay thee in thy own coin, I will forget, i. e. slight and disregard.
Thy children; the people of Israel, the whole kingdom of the ten tribes; both those pretended priests and their ghostly children with them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v6God is here proceeding in his controversy both with…
God is here proceeding in his controversy both with the priests and with the people. The people were as those that strove with the priests (Hos 4:4) when they had priests that did their duty; but the generality of them lived in the neglect of their duty, and here is a word for those priests, and for the people that love to have it so, Jer 5:31. And it is observable here how the punishment answers to the sin, and how, for the justifying of his own proceedings, God sets the one over-against the other.
I. The people strove with the priests that should have taught them the knowledge of God; justly therefore were they destroyed for lack of knowledge, Hos 4:6. Note, Those that rebel against the light can expect no other than to perish in the dark. Or it is a charge upon the priests, who should have been still teaching the people knowledge (Ecc 12:9), but they did not, or did it in such a manner that it was as if they had not done it at all, so there was no knowledge of God in the land; and because there was no vision, or none to any purpose, the people perished, Pro 29:18. Note, Ignorance is so far from being the mother of devotion that it is the mother of destruction; lack of knowledge is ruining to any person or people. They are my people that are thus destroyed; their relation to God as his people aggravates both their sin in not taking pains to get the knowledge of that God whose command they were under and with whom they were taken into covenant, and likewise the sin of those who should have taught them; God set his children to school to them, and they never minded them nor took any pains with them.
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II. Both priests and people rejected knowledge; and justly therefore will God reject them. The reason why the people did not learn, and the priests did not teach, was not because they had not the light, but because they hated it - not because they had not ways of coming to the knowledge of God and of communicating it, but because they had no heart to it; they rejected it. They desired not the knowledge of God's ways, but put it from them, and shut their eyes against the light; and therefore "I will also reject thee; I will refuse to take cognizance of thee and to own thee; you will not know me, but bid me depart; I will therefore say, Depart from me, I know you not. Thou shalt be no priest to me." 1. The priests shall be no longer admitted to the privileges, or employed in the services, of the priesthood, nor shall they ever be received again, as we find, Eze 44:13. Note, Ministers that reject knowledge, that are grossly ignorant and scandalous, ought not to be owned as ministers; but that which they seem to have should be taken away, Luk 8:18. 2. The people shall be no longer as they have been, a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood, Exo 19:6. God's people, by rejecting knowledge, forfeit their honour and profane their own crown.
III. They forgot the law of God, neither desired nor endeavoured to retain it in mind, nor to transmit the remembrance of it to their posterity, and therefore justly will God forget them and their children, the people's children; they did not educate them, as they ought to have done, in the knowledge of God and their duty to him, and therefore God will disown them, as not in covenant with him. Note, If parents do not teach their children, when they are young, to remember their Creator, they cannot expect that their Creator should remember them. Or it may be meant of the priests' children; they shall not succeed them in the priests' office, but shall be reduced to poverty, as is threatened against Eli's house, Sa1 2:20.
IV. They dishonoured God with that which was their honour, and justly therefore will God strip them of it, Hos 4:7. It was their honour that they were increased in number, wealth, power, and dignity. The beginning of their nation was small, but in process of time it greatly increased, and grew very considerable; the family of the priests increased wonderfully. But, as they were increased, so they sinned against God. The more populous the nation grew, the more sin was committed and the more profane they were; their wealth, honour, and power, did but make them the more daring in sin. Therefore, says God, will I change their glory into shame. Are their numbers their glory? God will diminish them and make them few. Is their wealth their glory? God will impoverish them and bring them low; so that they shall themselves be ashamed of that which they gloried in. Their priests shall be made contemptible and base, Mal 2:9. Note, That which is our honour, if we dishonour God with it, will sooner or later be turned into shame to us: for those that despise God shall be lightly esteemed, Sa1 2:30.
V. The priests ate up the sin of God's people, and therefore they shall eat and not have enough. 1. They abused the maintenance that was allowed to the priests, to the priests of the house of Aaron, by the law of God, and to the mock-priests of the calves by their constitution (Hos 4:8): They eat up the sin of my people, that is, their sin-offerings. If it be meant of the priests of the calves, it intimates their seizing that which they had no right to; they usurped the revenues of the priests, though they were no priests. If it be meant of those who were legal priests, it intimates their greediness of the profits and perquisites of their office, when they took no care at all to do the duty of it. They feasted upon their part of the offerings of the Lord, but forgot the work for which they were so well paid. They set their heart upon the people's iniquities; they lifted up their soul to them, that is, they were glad then people did commit iniquity, that they might be obliged to bring an offering to make atonement for it, which they should have their share of; the more sins the more sacrifices, and therefore they cared not how much sin people were guilty of. Instead of warning the people against sin, from the consideration of the sacrifices, which showed them what an offence sin was to God, since it needed such an expiation, they emboldened and encouraged the people to sin, since an atonement might be made at so small an expense. Thus they glutted themselves upon the sins of the people, and helped to keep up that which they should have beaten down. Note, It is a very wicked thing to be well pleased with the sins of others because, in some way or other, they may turn to our advantage. 2. God will therefore deny them his blessing upon their maintenance (Hos 4:10): They shall eat and not have enough. Though they have great plenty by the abundance of offerings that are brought in, yet they shall have no satisfaction in it. Either their food shall yield no good nourishment or their greedy appetites shall not be satisfied with it. Note, What is unlawfully gained cannot be comfortably used; no, nor that which is inordinately coveted; it is just that the desires which are insatiable should always be unsatisfied, and that those should never have enough who never know when they have enough. See Mic 6:14; Hag 1:6.
VI. The more they increased the more they sinned (Hos 4:7), and therefore though they commit whoredom, though they take the most wicked methods to multiply their people, yet they shall not increase. Though they have many wives and concubines, as Solomon had, yet they shall not have their families built up thereby in a numerous progeny, any more than he had. Note, Those that hope any way to increase by unlawful means will be disappointed. And therefore God will thus blast all their projects because they have left off to take heed to the Lord; time was when they had some regard to God, and to his authority over them and interest in them, but they have left it off; they take no heed to his word nor to his providences; they do not eye him in either. They forsake him, so as not to take heed to him; they have apostatized to such a degree that they have no manner of regard to God, but are perfectly without God in the world. Note, Those that leave off to take heed to the Lord leave off all good, and can expect no other than that all good should leave them.
VII. The people and the priests did harden one another in sin; and therefore justly shall they be sharers in the punishment (Hos 4:9): There shall be, like people, like priest. So they were in character; people and priest were both alike ignorant and profane, regardless of God and their duty, and addicted to idolatry: and so they shall be in condition; God will bring judgments upon them, that shall be the destruction both of priest and people; the famine that deprives the people of their meat shall deprive the priests of their meat-offerings, Joe 1:9. It is part of the description of a universal desolation that it shall be as with the people, so with the priest, Isa 24:2. God's judgments, when they come with commission, will make no difference. Note, Sharers in sin must expect to be sharers in ruin. Thus God will punish them both for their ways, and reward them for their doings. God will cause their doings to return upon them (so the word is); when a sin is committed the sinner thinks it is gone and he shall hear no more of it, but he shall find it called over again, and made to return, either to his humiliation or to his condemnation.
VIII. They indulged themselves in the delights of sense, to hold up their hearts; but they shall find that they take away their hearts (Hos 4:11): Whoredom, and wine, and new wine take away the heart. Some join this with the foregoing words. They have forsaken the Lord, to take heed to whoredom, and wine, and new wine. Or, Because these have taken away their heart. Their sensual pleasures have taken them off from their devotions and drowned all that is good in them. Or we may take it as a distinct sentence, containing a great truth which we see confirmed by every day's experience, that drunkenness and uncleanness are sins which besot and infatuate men, weaken and enfeeble them. They take away both the understanding and the courage.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv6–9My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,.... This…
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,.... This is not to be understood of those who are the Lord's people by special grace; for they cannot he destroyed, at least with everlasting destruction; God's love to them, his choice of them, covenant with them, the redemption of them by Christ, and the grace of God in them, secure them from such destruction: nor can they perish through want of knowledge; for though they are by nature as ignorant as others, yet it is the determinate will of God to bring them to the knowledge of the truth, in order to salvation; and that same decree which fixes salvation as the end, secures the belief of the truth as the means; and the covenant of grace provides for their knowledge of spiritual things, as well as other spiritual blessings; in consequence of which their minds are enlightened by the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, and they have the knowledge of God and Christ given them, which is life eternal. But this is to he understood of the people of the ten tribes of Israel, who were nationally and nominally the people of God, were so by profession; they called themselves the people of God; and though they were idolaters, yet they professed to worship God in their idols; and as yet God's "loammi" had not taken place upon them; he still sent his prophets among them, to reprove and reform them, and they were not as yet finally rejected by him, and cast out of their land. These may be said to be "destroyed", because they were threatened with destruction, and it was near at hand, they were just upon the brink of it; and because of the certainty of it, and this "through the lack of knowledge": either in the people, who were ignorant of God, his mind, and will, and worship, and without fear and reverence of him, which was the cause of all the abominations they ran into, for which they were threatened with ruin; or in the priests, whose business it was to teach and instruct the people; but instead of teaching them true doctrine, and the true, manner of worship, taught them false doctrine, and led them into superstition and idolatry; and so they perished through the default of the priests in performing their office; which sense is confirmed by what follows:
because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shall be no priest to me; the priests that Jeroboam made were of the lowest of the people, ignorant and illiterate men, Kg1 12:31 and they chose to continue such; they rejected with contempt and abhorrence, as the word signifies, the knowledge of God, and of all divine things; of the law of God, concerning what was to be done, or not to be done, by the people; and of all statutes and ordinances relating to divine worship, and the performance of the priestly office: and though there might be some of Aaron's line that continued in the land of Israel, and in their office; yet these affected the same ignorance, and therefore the Lord threatens them with a rejection from the priesthood; or, however, that they should be no priests to him, or in his account, but should be had in the utmost abhorrence and contempt, The word here used has a letter in it more than usual (s), which may signify the utter rejection of them, and the great contempt they were had in by the Lord; this was to take place, and did, at the captivity by Shalmaneser.
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Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God: which he had given them, who was their God by profession; and which they had forgot as if they never had read or learnt it; and so as not to observe and keep it themselves, nor teach and instruct others in it:
I will also forget thy children; have no regard to them, take no notice and care of them, as if they were never known by him; meaning either the people in general, their disciples and spiritual children; or else their natural children, who should be cut off, and not succeed them in the priesthood. The words are very emphatic, "I will forget them, even I" (t); which expresses the certainty of it more fully, as well as more clearly points at the justness of the retaliation.
(s) the last is superfluous; the reason of the word being so written. Ben Melech confesses his ignorance of. (t) "etiam ego", Pagninus, Montanus, Zanchius, Cocceius, Rivet, Schmidt.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv6–8Destroyed - Many were already cut off by Pul…
Destroyed - Many were already cut off by Pul king of Assyria, and many destroyed by the bloody tyranny of Menahem. Of knowledge - Of God, his law, his providence, his holy nature, his hatred of sin and power to punish it. Because thou - The prophet now turns from the people to the priests, to whom he speaks as to one person. Rejected knowledge - Art and wilt be ignorant. Seeing thou - O Israel, and you O priests, you have broken all the precepts of it. Thy children - The people of Israel, the whole kingdom of the ten tribes.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv6–9Verse 6. My people are destroyed for lack of…
Verse 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge] They have not the knowledge of God, nor of sacred things, nor of their own interest, nor of the danger to which they are exposed. They walk on blindly, and perish.
Because thou hast rejected knowledge] So they might have become wise, had they not rejected the means of improvement.
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Thou shalt be no priest to me] If this be the true reading, there must be reference to some particular priest, well known, to whom these words are personally addressed; unless by priest the whole priesthood is meant, and then it may apply to the priests of Jeroboam's calves.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv6–8Hos 4:6. My people are destroyed for lack of…
Hos 4:6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge — The ignorance of the nature, necessity, and excellence of true religion, which prevailed among the Jews and Israelites, was one principal cause of those sins which drew down such heavy judgments upon them. Because thou hast rejected knowledge — That is, wouldest not use the means of knowledge which thou hadst. “But this lack of knowledge in the people was, in a great measure, owing to the want of that constant instruction which they ought to have received from the priests. The mention of it, therefore, occasions a sudden transition from general threatenings to particular denunciations against the priesthood.” I will also reject thee — The high-priest for the time being, as the representative of the whole order, seems to be here addressed; that thou shalt be no priest to me — “Since the person threatened was to be rejected from being a priest, he was priest at the time when he was threatened; otherwise he had not been a subject of rejection. The person threatened therefore must have been the head, for the time being, of the true Levitical priesthood, not of the intruded priesthood of Jeroboam. This is a proof, that the metropolis, threatened with excision is Jerusalem, not Samaria, and that the ten tribes exclusively are not the subject of this part of the prophecy.” — Bishop Horsley. Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God — Hast neither desired nor endeavoured to understand, or retain it in thy mind, nor to transmit the knowledge and remembrance of it to posterity. I will also forget thy children — Thy offspring, or the people whose priest thou art, and of whom thou oughtest to have taken a fatherly care; I will not look upon them any longer as the seed of Abraham, and children of my covenant.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv6–9My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge -…
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge - “My people are,” not, “is.” This accurately represents the Hebrew . The word “people” speaks of them as a whole; are, relates to the individuals of whom that whole is composed. Together, the words express the utter destruction of the whole, one and all. They are destroyed “for lack of knowledge,” literally, “of the knowledge,” i. e., the only knowledge, which in the creature is real knowledge, that knowledge, of the want of which he had before complained, the knowledge of the Creator. So Isaiah mourns in the same words , “therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge” Isa 6:13. They are destroyed for lack of it, for the true knowledge of God is the life of the soul, true life, eternal life, as our Saviour saith, “This is life eternal, that they should know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent.” The source of this lack of knowledge, so fatal to the people, was the willful rejection of that knowledge by the priest;
Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me - God marks the relation between the sin and the punishment, by retorting on them, as it were, their own acts; and that with great emphasis, “I will utterly reject thee . Those, thus addressed, must have been true priests, scattered up and down in Israel, who, in an irregular way, offered sacrifices for them, and connived at their sins. For God’s sentence on them is, “thou shalt be no priest to me.” But the priests whom Jeroboam consecrated out of other tribes than Levi, were priests not to God, but to the calves. Those then, originally true priests to God, had probably a precarious livelihood, when the true worship of God was deformed by the mixture of the calf-worship, and the people “halted between two opinions;” and so were tempted by poverty also, to withhold from the people unpalatable truth. They shared, then, in the rejection of God’s truth which they dissembled, and made themselves partakers in its suppression. And now, they “despised, were disgusted” with the knowledge of God, as all do in fact despise and dislike it, who prefer ought besides to it. So God repaid their contempt to them, and took away the office, which, by their sinful connivances, they had hoped to retain.
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Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God - This seems to have been the sin of the people. For the same persons could not, at least in the same stage of sin, despise and forget. They who despise or “reject,” must have before their mind that which they “reject.” To reject is willful, conscious, deliberate sin, with a high hand; to “forget,” an act of negligence. The rejection of God’s law was the act of the understanding and will, forgetfulness of it comes from the neglect to look into it; and this, from the distaste of the natural mind for spiritual things, from being absorbed in things of this world, from inattention to the duties prescribed by it, or shrinking from seeing “that” condemned, which is agreeable to the flesh. The priests knew God’s law and “despised” it; the people “forgat” it. In an advanced stage of sin, however, man may come to forget what he once despised; and this is the condition of the hardened sinner.
I will also forget thy children - Literally, “I will forget thy children, I too.” God would mark the more, that His act followed on their’s; they, first; then, He saith, “I too.” He would requite them, and do what it belonged not to His Goodness to do first. Parents who are careless as to themselves, as to their own lives, even as to their own shame, still long that their children should not be as themselves. God tries to touch their hearts, where they are least steeled against Him. He says not, “I will forget thee,” but I will forget those nearest thy heart, “thy children.” God is said to forget, when He acts, as if His creatures were no longer in His mind, no more. the objects of His providence and love.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv6–9Silent. Septuagint, "like those who had," &c. --- Knowledge.…
Silent. Septuagint, "like those who had," &c. --- Knowledge. Jeroboam I had appointed unlawful priests, and some of the house of Aaron went over to him, and were excluded from officiating at Jerusalem, after the captivity, 1 Kings xii. 31., and Ezechiel xliv. 10. Knowledge is always expected of priests, Deuteronomy xvii. 8., and Malachias ii. 7. (Gratian. dist. 38. c. omnes.) (Calmet) --- When the power of sacrificing is withdrawn, all spiritual functions cease, as sacrifice belongs properly to a priest. (Worthington)
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 Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv6–9lack of knowledge--"of God" (Hos 4:1), that is, lack…
lack of knowledge--"of God" (Hos 4:1), that is, lack of piety. Their ignorance was wilful, as the epithet, "My people," implies; they ought to have known, having the opportunity, as the people of God.
thou--O priest, so-called. Not regularly constituted, but still bearing the name, while confounding the worship of Jehovah and of the calves in Beth-el (Kg1 12:29, Kg1 12:31).
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I will . . . forget thy children--Not only those who then were alive should be deprived of the priesthood, but their children who, in the ordinary course would have succeeded them, should be set aside.
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. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv7, 97. They — The priests. Were increased [“multiplied”] —…
7. They — The priests. Were increased [“multiplied”] — Not only in numbers, but also in wealth and prosperity, sharing in the glories of the successful reign of Jeroboam II.
They sinned against me — Prosperity led to moral and religious corruption among the people; the priests instead of stemming the tide of worldliness were carried away by it, and rather encouraged it (Hos_4:8; compare Mic_3:11).
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Change their glory into shame — From their honorable position as representatives of Jehovah they will be cast into shame and degradation. In Hos_4:5-6 the description of sin is followed by announcement of judgment; this is also the order in Hos_4:7 and gives acceptable sense; emendations therefore seem unnecessary. It should be noted, however, that Targum and Peshitto appear to have read “they have changed” instead of “I will change.” That would be an additional description of the priests’ corruption; they have exchanged the glory which was theirs as priests of the true God for the degrading position of priests of the Baalim — not in name, perhaps, but in deed. Ancient Jewish tradition recognizes this as a more accurate text but goes further, declaring that “their glory” was originally “my glory”; that is, they have exchanged the glory of Jehovah for the shameful service of the Baalim. All three readings give satisfactory sense; and in view of the conflicting testimony it may be impossible to say with certainty which is the original.
Hos_4:8 continues the condemnation of the priests. Their holy office they use for selfish and mean ends.
They eat up the sin of my people — Better, with R.V., “They feed on the sin of my people.” It is not necessary to translate sin offering for “sin”; and the question whether sin offering, in the technical sense of the term, was known in the days of Hosea cannot be determined from this passage; it is quite possible that it did exist. In a general sense all offerings may be called sin offerings. The thought is that “the more the people sin the more merrily thrive the priests”; for they receive a share of nearly all the offerings (1Sa_2:13-17).
They (the priests) set their heart — Literally every one his heart. The expression means to cherish a longing for, and thus to encourage (Deu_24:15; Psa_24:4).
Their — The people’s.
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 Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv6–96. My people are destroyed] The prophet cannot escape,…
6. My people are destroyed] The prophet cannot escape, because the people is on the brink of ruin through the prophet’s fault. It is the perfect of prophetic certitude, ‘my people is already as good as destroyed.’
for lack of knowledge] More precisely, by reason of (their) lack of knowledge. The ‘knowledge of God’ is meant (see on Hos_4:1).
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thou hast rejected knowledge] Thou is emphatically expressed in the Hebrew. ‘Knowledge’, viz. of God’s revealed will, was theoretically a deposit in the priestly order (Deu_33:10; Eze_44:23; Mal_2:7). There is no reason to think that the ‘priest-people’ of Israel is addressed; there was no priest-people till after the return from exile.
forgotten … forget] To ‘forget’ what has been committed to one’s charge is the same as to ignore it. The penalty of the priests is not really distinct from that of the people (see Hos_4:9); the priestly office could in no full sense be maintained in captivity.
the law of thy God] ‘Thy God’, because the priest was specially ‘brought near’ to Jehovah. ‘The law’, Heb. tôrâh, will cover oral as well as written instructions (comp. Deu_17:11), but a later passage (Hos_8:12) shows that a written legislation existed in Hosea’s time. The contents of this may be presumed from Hosea’s language to have been, at any rate to a large extent, concerned with applications of religious morality.
thy children] i.e. the members of the priestly caste; ‘thy brethren’ would be more consistent with the figure (comp. ‘thy mother’, Hos_4:5).
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 Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv6, 7, 9(6) For lack of knowledge, which you, O priest,…
(6) For lack of knowledge, which you, O priest, should have kept alive in their hearts. The knowledge of God is life eternal. (Comp. Joh_17:3.) The Lord’s “controversy” repudiates the entire priesthood, as they had rejected the true knowledge of God. They had inclined to calf-worship, had been vacillating respecting Baal, and had connived at moral offences. If, on the other hand, with most commentators, we consider the people themselves as thus addressed, the passage refers to the cessation of the position of priesthood, which every member of the true theocracy ought to have maintained. (Comp. Exo_19:6.) The people should no longer be priests to Jehovah.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv6–9My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Here…
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Here the verb is plural and its subject singular, because, being collective, it comprehends all the individual members of the nation. The word wmdk is rendered
(1) by Jerome in the sense of "silence:" "conticuit populus incus," which he explains to mean "sinking into eternal silence." So also the Chaldee.
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(2) The LXX, understands it in the sense of "likeness:" "My people are like (wmoiwyh ) as if they had no knowledge." Aben Ezra disproves this sense as follows: "This word, if it were from the root signifying "likeness," would have after it el with seghol, as, "To el with seghol whom art thou like in thy greatness?"; (Eze_31:2) but without the word el it has the meaning of "cutting off. So Kimchi: "Here also it has the sense of "cutting off. The article before "knowledge" implies renewed mention and refers to the word in ver. 1; or it may emphasize the word as that knowledge by way of eminence, which surpasses all other knowledge, and without which no other knowledge can really prove a blessing in the end. The knowledge of God is the most excellent of all sciences. Paul counted all things but loss in comparison with its possession; and our blessed Lord himself says, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent;" while the Prophet Isaiah attributed the captivity to its absence: "My people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge." Because thou hast rejected knowledge... seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy Son. The cause of this ignorance is here charged on the unfaithfulness of the priesthood. They rejected knowledge and forgot the Law of their God. The two concluding clauses of this verse may be regarded as "split members" of a single sentence. As rejection implies the presence of the object rejected, while forgetfulness implies its absence from the mind or memory, some have understood rejection of knowledge as the sin of the priest, and forgetfulness that of the people. This separation is not necessary, for what men continue for a time to despise they will by-and-by forget. The forgetfulness is thus an advance upon rejection. The sin of these priests was very great, for, while the priests" lips were required to keep knowledge, they neither preserved that knowledge themselves nor promoted it among the people; hence the indignant and direct address. Thus Kimchi says: "He addresses the priestly order that existed at that time: Thou hast rejected he knowledge for thyself and to teach it to the people, consequently I will reject thee from being a priest unto me. Since thou dost not exercise the office of priest, which is to teach the Law, I will reject thee so that thou shalt not be a priest in my house." I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no priest to me... I will also forget thy children, even I The punishment resembles the offence; the human delinquency is reflected in the Divine retaliation. To make this the more pointed, the "thou on thy part (attah)" at the head of the sentence has its counterpart, or rather is counterbalanced by the "even I" or "I too (gam ani )" at its close. The severity of the punishment is augmented by the threat that, not only the then existing priests, but their sons after them, would be excluded from the honor of the priesthood. This was touching painfully the tenderest part. It needs scarcely be observed that forgetfulness is only spoken of God in a figurative sense, and after the manner of men, that being forgotten which is no longer the object of attention or affection. "The meaning of va," says Kimchi, "is by way of figure, like the man who forgets something and does not take it to heart." The unusual form has been variously accounted for. The Massorites mark the aleph before caph as redundant; it is omitted in several manuscripts of Kennicott and De Rossi, as also some of the early printed editions. Kimchi confesses his ignorance of its use. Olshausen treats it as a copyist"s error; but Ewald "regards it as an Aram-seen pausal form." Some take the reference to be to Israel as a kingdom of priests (Exo_19:6) rather than to the actual priesthood.
Vers. 6-10. Priestly neglect and its consequences.
This section deals with the sin and punishment of the priests, as the preceding one had described the sin and punishment of the people. The priests here referred to were probably Levitical priests still scattered through the northern kingdom, since God speaks of them as his priests; while those which Jeroboam appointed out of other tribes than that of Levi, and from all, even the lowest, ranks of society, were rather priests for the worship of the calves.
I MINISTERIAL UNFAITHFULNESS. The ignorance of the people is here attributed to priestly negligence. They disliked and despised the knowledge of God for themselves, and consequently had no heart for dispensing it to others. The means available for knowing God they did not take advantage of, and accordingly their own ignorance unfitted them for instructing the people. Idleness combined with indifference in the ease of these unfaithful ministers of religion, so that they were neither rightly instructed themselves nor capable of instructing others; while their carelessness increased their incapacity. It is incumbent on all public teachers to be diligent in their private studies; and a fearful responsibility is incurred by those who, appointed to instruct others in religious matters, refuse to take the pains necessary to qualify them for the efficient discharge of such important duty. It is a grievous sin for ministers of religion to serve God with what costs them nothing, and so to feed God"s people with husks instead of the finest of the wheat. How different is the picture our Lord gives us of one who is faithful to such an important trust! "Therefore," he says, "every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.
II THE PUNISHMENT CORRESPONDS TO THEIR SIN. They had rejected Divine knowledge; God rejects their priestly services. They had forgotten the Law from disuse, no doubt having previously forsaken it; God threatens to forget them, and, what was more galling, their children after them, so that the priesthood would be lost to them forever. Wunsche and some others insist that it is the people and not the priesthood that is here addressed; that the whole nation is addressed as a single person, and that consequently the children are the individual members of the nation. Both priests and people were guilty in this matter. Both had shut their eyes upon the light, and the light was at length withdrawn. Both had said, "Depart from us: we desire not the knowledge of thy ways;" and God in turn had virtually said to them, "Depart from me: I know you not." The priests, whose duty was to teach the people knowledge, had been unable or unwilling to do so, and the people remained in ignorance; the people, who should have received the Law from the priests" lips, are represented as striving with, and gainsaying, their spiritual instructors. The consequence was that they destroyed themselves, for the verb nidmu has here the proper reflexive sense of the Niphal; nor is it without knowledge, but because of the want of (mibb"li) the necessary knowledge. The punishment, if it be not a re-echo, yet reminds us of 1Sa_15:26, where Samuel says to Saul, "For thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel." The worst feature of the case was their gross and grievous ingratitude; for just in proportion as, they increased in numbers and in wealth they multiplied transgression; just as of old when Jeshurun waxed fat, he kicked," Kimchi, indeed, in mentioning the exposition of those who regarded the increase as financial rather than numerical, says, "Some interpret "according to their increase" as equivalent to as I increased them in wealth and riches so they sinned after the manner of "when Jeshurun waxed fat he kicked. Their either in number or riches and both we think, are included ministered to the sins of an unthankful people, and afforded occasions of trespassing yet more and more against God. Justly, then, did God turn to shame that which he had given Israel for the Divine glory, but which Israel used for vain-glory. "He," says Pusey," not only gives them shame instead of their glory; he makes the glory itself the means and occasion of their shame. Beauty becomes the occasion of degradation; pride is proverbially near a fall; "vaulting ambition overleaps itself and falls on the "other side;" riches and abundance of population tempt nations to wars which become their destruction, or they invite other and stronger nations to prey upon them." Jehoash"s reproof of Amaziah and the result, as recorded in 2Ki_14:9-14, furnishes a good illustration of this subject.
III GAIN TAKES THE PLACE OF GODLINESS. Whichever interpretation be adopted, the general sense here remains the same. The priests pandered to the sins of the people, and, lest they should lose their influence with them, they connived at and countenanced their sins when they should have sharply censured them. Or they encouraged sin that they might share the sin offerings presented in expiation. What was this in either case but to live by and upon the sin of a people sinful and laden with iniquity? Calvin, who makes the priests and people share the sin in common, says, "There is a collusion between the priests and the people. How so? Because the priests were the associates of robbers, and gladly seized on what was brought; and so they carried on no war, as they ought to have done, with vices, but, on the contrary, urged only the necessity of sacrifices; and it was enough if men brought things plentifully to the temple. The people also themselves showed their contempt for God; for they imagined that, provided they made satisfaction by their ceremonial performances, they would be exempt from punishment. Thus, then, there was an ungodly compact between the priests and the people; the Lord was mocked in the midst of them.
IV WHAT IS GOT BY SIN GIVES NO SATISFACTION. "Ill got, ill gone," is a common proverb and a very pithy one; so with these faithless priests in their ministrations for a sinful people. They said in effect, "The more sin the more sacrifices, and so the greater share of our profits;" but there was no satisfaction in such things and no success by our share of profits;" but there was no satisfaction in such things and no success by them.
1. The pleasures of sin are mostly sensual; they last only for a season a short one; and they afford no real satisfaction even when they do last. "What profit," asks the apostle, "had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
2. The priests, instead of reproving sin, did practically recommend it by their own godless conduct; and the people were well pleased to have it so. Alike in sin, however, they shall be alike in suffering; they helped each other in sin, they must have their share in punishment. The priests abused their position by neither practicing piety themselves nor inculcating its practice on others; the people, freed from all restraint and having no fear of God before their eyes, sinned with a high hand. Both ran to an excess of riot, and both are to be punished with equal severity; neither can reasonably expect to be spared.
3. The root of the evil was their leaving off to take heed to the Lord. The word shamar, here rendered "to take heed to," is very expressive; it means to have a sharp eye upon, then to observe attentively. Applied to a person, it signifies to have the eye steadily set on his will, to meet his wishes, to obey. Thus it is said of one waiting on his master, as in Pro_27:18, "He that waiteth on his master shall be honored;" while in the hundred and twenty-third psalm we have a good practical illustration of the observance indicated: "Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us.
Vers. 6-14. Israel"s guilt and punishment.
Priests and people were guilty alike, and would be overtaken by one common doom.
I THE SIN OF THE PRIESTS.
1. They rejected the knowledge of God (ver. 6). They did not engage in the study of the Divine Law, and their lives were a violation of its precepts.
2. They consequently failed to teach the Law to the people (ver. 6).
3. They connived at the national idolatry, on account of the material profit which they obtained from it (ver. 8). The calf-worship brought them many sacrificial fees; so the priests, instead of rebuking the iniquity, "set their heart" upon its continuance.
II THE SIN OF THE PEOPLE.
1. They willfully forgot the Law of God (ver. 6).
2. The more prosperous they became externally, the more grievously they sinned (ver. 7).
3. They addicted themselves to idolatrous divination, using sometimes teraphim, and sometimes divining rods (ver. 12). In worshipping wooden gods, they showed themselves to be at once wooden-headed and wooden-hearted. (Psa_115:8)
4. They practiced the sensual rites of nature-worship with the temple prostitutes of Ashtaroth, and even were so shameless as sometimes to appear with them at the altar (vers. 13, 14). Impurity in one"s religion is often joined with uncleanness of body.
III THE DOOM THREATENED UPON BOTH. (Ver. 9.)
1. The priests and their sons would be deprived of their office, and the people would lose their high prerogative of being a priestly nation (ver. 6).
2. The glory of the kingdom would be turned into shame by reason of the loss of the numbers, wealth, and power in which they gloried (ver. 7).
3. Their sin would also become its own punishment (vers. 10, 11). The Lord would cause them to "eat of the fruit of their own way." The result would be surfeit, not satisfaction. Their sin would be their torment.
4. God would "give them up to vile affections;" he would cease to correct them for their idolatry and licentiousness, and thus visit them with reprobation (ver. 14).
CONCLUSION. Ver. 11 contains the solemn statement of a great moral truth respecting all sin, and which is specially applicable to sins of sensuality. Who can place confidence in the moral judgments of an adulterer or a fornicator? How sad when such men occupy positions of influence in Church or state! Beware of lust; it doth pollute and foul Whom God in baptism washed with his own blood: It blots thy lesson written in thy soul; The holy lines cannot be understood. How dare those eyes upon a Bible look, Much less towards God, whose lust is all their book! (George Herbert.) C.J.
Ignorance and destruction.
All classes in Israel were guilty of forsaking Jehovah, and all classes were reproached with the same sin. It is usually the case that rebellion against a righteous Lord, and neglect of sincere worship and devotion, are chargeable, if not equally so, upon high and low, learned and ignorant. And when none are free from guilt, none are exempt from condemnation.
I TRUE RELIGION IS BASED UPON KNOWLEDGE. Idolatry and superstition are compatible with ignorance, and are favored by ignorance. But the religion which is alone proper to man and acceptable to God is spiritual, and therefore intelligent. If this was the case with the Mosaic economy, how much more so with the Christian! In the Old Testament, the" fear of the Lord" and "wisdom" were the same; in the New Testament we are taught that life eternal consists in the knowledge of the true God through his Son. A religion of formal assent or observance, a religion of mere feeling and excitement, is vain. Knowledge alone is insufficient, but knowledge is nevertheless indispensable to true Christianity.
II THOSE SPECIALLY QUALIFIED AND APPOINTED AS MINISTERS OF RELIGION ARE BOUND TO DIFFUSE KNOWLEDGE. In Israel the priests and the prophets seem to have been both, if not equally, to blame for the irreligion and defection of the people. The priests taught religious knowledge by symbol, the prophets by word of mouth. Both orders were chargeable with negligence of these sacred and honorable duties. In the new and spiritual kingdom of Christ, there are no officers exactly corresponding to either the priests or the prophets of the Hebrews. But those whose ministry it is especially to teach, and all who by reason of their own gifts and position have the opportunity of imparting spiritual knowledge, are bound to communicate the Word of life.
III THE REJECTION OF KNOWLEDGE ON THE PART OF ANY INVOLVES THEIR OWN REJECTION BY GOD. Lack of knowledge is itself destruction. It is the starving of the soul through defect of spiritual nourishment. "They die without wisdom," is the mournful lamentation of the spectator of moral delinquency am] consequent destruction. Israel was rejected, and punished, was sent into a long captivity, because of religious defection and hardened impenitence. And it is a law of the Divine government that willful ignorance should entail moral deterioration. The plant cannot be taken into the darkness without suffering; its vitality is at once enfeebled, and gradually diminishes until it dies. It is so with the soul; it is so with the nation. This is a solemn warning to those who love moral darkness rather than light. It is an admonition to those who have the light that they walk therein.
IV THE HEAVIEST PENALTY FALLS UPON THOSE THROUGH WHOSE NEGLECT THE PEOPLE ARE LEFT IN SIN. Although a prophet himself, Hosea upbraided those called to the prophetic office who left the people in ignorance, and those priests who encouraged and led the people in sacrifices to the gods of" the heathen. Such were threatened with the Divine displeasure, and assured that they should no more sustain sacred offices, but should be deprived of all that made them honorable. It is ever the case that abuse of trust is worse than neglect of privileges, and that those who not only wander themselves, but lead others astray, as their guilt is greater, shall experience a sorer condemnation. T.
Religious ignorance.
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, 1 will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." These words suggest three things in relation to religious ignorance.
I IT IS DESTRUCTIVE. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Ignorance is not the mother of devotion, it is the mother of destruction.
1. What does it destroy? The growth of the soul in power, beauty, and fruitfulness.
2. How does it destroy? How can the lack of a thing destroy? How can nothing do mischief? The lack of heat and moisture will kill the vegetable kingdom; the lack of air will cause the extinction of all animal life. The soul without knowledge of God is like a plant without heat and moisture; an animal without the salubrious breeze.
II IT IS WILLFUL. "Because thou hast rejected knowledge." There is no culpability in a man being ignorant of some things. He may not have the means, the time, or the faculty for the particular attainment. Not so with the knowledge of God; it comes to him whether he will or not. It comes to him in the objects of nature; it comes to him in the necessary deductions of his reason; it comes to him in the intuitions of his moral nature. Besides, in some cases, as with the Israelites, it comes to man by special revelation. He rejects it. Ignorance of God is ever more a criminal ignorance. "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.
III IT IS GOD-OFFENDING. "I will also reject thee." It is not unnatural or unphilosophic to suppose that the condition of the man ignoring his existence must be to the last degree offensive to him. Hence he deals out retribution.
1. To themselves. "I will also reject thee," etc.
2. To their children. "I will also forget thy children." It is a Divine law springing from the constitution of society, that the iniquities of the fathers shall be visited on their children. Parents cannot do wrong without injuring their offspring. D.T.
Vers. 6-11. Priests and people.
The prophet addresses himself in this section to both priests and people, but chiefly to the priests, whom he regards as mainly responsible for the people"s defection.
I PRIESTS AND PEOPLE ALIKE IN THE REJECTION OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. (Ver. 6)
1. The tack of the knowledge of God. Israel possessed this knowledge of God once. It did not possess it now. There was little right knowledge of God"s character, of God"s Law, and of God"s past gracious dealings. Jehovah was regarded practically as one of the Baals. Destitute of right ideas of his spirituality, holiness, and moral demands, the people in their sinning did not feel how far they were going astray. Right ideas on these subjects could hardly penetrate into minds besotted with wine, whoredom, and the unholy rites of Baal and Astarte worship. In our own land of Bibles and churches, what dense ignorance of God and of Divine things might be found to prevail, if the matter were inquired into!
2. Causes of this lack of knowledge. The knowledge of God was lost, not through any fault on God"s part in not giving the means of knowledge, or in not sufficiently inculcating on the people the importance of using the means. God had given the people a Law; (Hos_8:12) he had laid upon the Levites the duty of teaching and of promoting the knowledge of its requirements; (Deu_33:10 Mal_3:5-7) he had laid the same duty on parents; (Deu_6:6-9) he had warned all of the dangers of inattention and forgetfulness. How, then, came the knowledge to be lost?
(1) The priests failed in teaching. (cf. Mal_2:8) A grave responsibility rests on the teachers of a nation. If they are faithful in duty, the knowledge of God can never be absolutely lost. If they do not teach, it is certain that a large number will always remain uninstructed. Their example has an influence on others.
(2) The people tailed in remembering. The priests had rejected (or despised) knowledge; the people had forgotten the Law of their God. The unfaithfulness of the professed teachers did not wholly exonerate those who were neglected. They had other means of knowledge. Had they been diligent in preserving the knowledge they had, and in handing it down by careful parental instruction, (Psa_78:4) this, aided by the study of the Law itself, would have kept alive true knowledge, and have saved the nation. We are responsible for the use we make even of scant opportunities.
(3) The cause of failure in both cases was a moral one. Neither priests nor people cared to retain God in their knowledge. This was how they allowed the knowledge of him to be lost. (cf. Rom_1:21, Rom_1:28) The departure of the heart from God comes first. There is then the indisposition to hear about him or learn about him. Thus the knowledge of him is lost. Such ignorance is culpable.
3. The fatal effects of this lack of knowledge.
(1) The people were destroyed. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." They had destroyed themselves. How many are thus destroyed who, had they been rightly taught in youth, might now have been foremost in God"s service! Parents, teachers, ministers, cannot too seriously reflect on the measure of their responsibility. (cf. Eze_3:17-21) We must teach men the way of salvation, if we expect them to find it or to walk in it. (Act_10:6, 33 16:17, 31)
(2) God rejected those who had rejected him. "I will reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to be." Place, office, honor, opportunities of usefulness, will be taken from us if we misuse them. (Pro_2:5, Pro_2:16)
(3) The children were lost through the unfaithfulness of the parents. "I will forget thy children.
II PRIESTS AND PEOPLE ALIKE IN SIN. (Vers. 7, 8) The sins alluded to are pride and covetousness.
1. Pride was the sin of the people. As they were increased, so they sinned against me." This is the danger of prosperity. Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked". (Deu_32:15) The heart grows haughty, and rebels at the restraints of the Divine Law. Moses foretold the danger, and warned against it. (Deu_8:10-20) Retribution would correspond in character to the sin. "I will turn their glory into shame.
2. Covetousness was peculiarly the sin of the priests. "They eat up the sin of my people," etc. The reference is to the flesh of the sin offerings, or, more generally, to revenues derived from transgressions (atonement money, etc.). The priests prostituted their sacred office for gain. They were glad at the iniquity of the people, if it brought them more income (cf. the Romish sale of pardons, etc.). It is shameful, under any circumstances, to seek gain by conniving at sin.
III PRIESTS AND PEOPLE ALIKE IN THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. (Vers. 9-11) "Like people, like priest." It is difficult to say which has the greater influence on the other, priest or people. The people are readily corrupted by their leaders. The leaders, on the other hand, are too apt to take their tone from the community. They act and react, and tend to a moral level. Alike in sin, priests and people are made alike in punishment. "I will punish them," etc. The punishment would be:
1. Congruous with the nature of the sin. They shall eat, and not have enough," etc. For plenty there would be substituted scarcity; greed would find its recompense in not having enough to satisfy; the nation that boasted of its increase would be made few in number. This is the general character of God"s punishments.
2. In part wrought out by the sins themselves. Sin strikes round to be its own avenger. Luxury and waste lead to poverty. The greed of the priest overreaches itself, and leads to the altar being deserted, and the office held in contempt. (Jud_1:17:9, 10 1Sa_2:36) Pampered appetite becomes a tyrant and tormentor. Licentiousness diminishes population.
3. Prepared for by infatuation. "Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart." "Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first madden." Infatuation precedes doom. 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 Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv6–9My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Hos_4:6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
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The perils of ignorance
If there is a knowledge on which not only the improvements and the refinements but the very being of society depends, the state of this must be in its nature most deeply awful and interesting. It was the language of pagan philosophy that such a knowledge did exist. The heathen wisdom was enabled to discern that all science, as exercised in its inferior provinces, required some principle of a sublimer nature, which might afford cement, consistence, and basis to every subordinate effort and exertion of the human intellect. In exploring this principle they however failed--and instead of substantial truth, were lost in the delusive twilight of a magnificent though ineffectual and perpetually baffled metaphysical speculation. Those on whom the daystar of revelation arose, found in the distinct discovery of a moral Governor of the universe, and the full and unequivocal display of His attributes, that knowledge which marks the origin, the limits, and the destination of every faculty, talent, and acquisition. When God tells us there is a knowledge for the lack of which a people is destroyed, we must infer that it is the knowledge of Himself, His nature, His providence, and His power. If it be true that knowledge and wisdom are the stability of prosperous times, the converse will equally claim our attention. Inquire into the moral causes of both these propositions. It is not my intention to institute a regular comparison between the various acquisitions and exertions of ourselves and our predecessors. I mark those intellectual habits which interfere with the cultivation of that knowledge which directs, superintends, and sanctifies every portion of wisdom we can acquire. Whatever was the region of science which our predecessors explored, they steadily kept in view the great Source of every good and perfect gift. And this not only in theology proper, but also in history, moral science, and natural philosophy. Every work was in some measure a school of Divine knowledge. Now it is rarely indeed that, except in works directly treating of theology, any pious reference, even when the subject most points to it, is made to the dispensation and moral government of Almighty God. To a variety of causes this may be traced; to none more than to pride, or to its abortion, vanity. This engenders a fondness for paradox, than which nothing can be a greater obstruction to all knowledge, and particularly to the knowledge of God and His dispensations. All paradox, even in its most ingenious forms, is mere debility, and in no instance a mark of energy or strength of mind. It is observable that, in proportion to the love for this, the intellectual appetite is palled and vitiated for the perception and investigation of genuine truth. Hence those mischievous abstractions, which when introduced into religion, morals, and politics have, from causes comparatively mean, produced the most extended and tremendous effects. In a short time there will (we have reason to fear) remain but two kinds of persons among us, either those who think not at all, or those whose imaginations are active indeed, but continually evil. Of these latter it may be said, Their foolish heart was darkened. Of the principles, I do not say of the detail, of political science, a sound theology is the only sure and steady basis. Now we trace the operations by which a destruction so extended in its consequences has been effected. The master-spring of every principle which can permanently secure the stability of a people is the fear and knowledge of Almighty God. The first operation of a principle of atheism, and perhaps one of the most formidable in its consequences, is that which leads political men to conceive of Christianity as a mere auxiliary to the State. Religion was not instituted (in the Divine council I mean) for the purpose of society and government, but society and government for the purposes of religion. As atheism presumptuously attempts to discard a moral government, in order to open a fearless unrestrained indulgence for the impetuosity of passion, so superstition administers, upon a principle of commutation, to those same indulgences. It is utterly subversive of the two grand pillars of the Divine administration, His justice and His mercy. Thus both atheism and superstition are instruments of the general adversary of mankind. Their origin is in the wilful ignorance of God, and their operation in the merciless destruction of His creatures. The present disastrous state of human affairs can only be ascribed to one source, a corruption of morals, produced by a previous depravation of the opinions of mankind. If the events we deplore and deprecate arise from ignorance, error, and false opinion; and this ignorance is specifically the ignorance of Almighty God and His dispensations, to revive and disseminate with activity the principles of a sound, Christian, and orthodox theology will be our best interest, as it is our bounden duty. (T. Rennell, D. D.)
The sin of public teachers
Here made responsible for the ignorance of the people.
1. As ignorance is a very rife and destroying sin in the visible Church, so the guilt thereof doth ofttimes lie in great part at preachers doors.
2. Such as would be able to teach others, ought to take much pains that they may be instructed themselves from God in His Word.
3. The more familiar occasion of converse men have with holy things, wanting holiness, their contempt and dislike of them will be the greater, and their opposition to light have the more perversity and the less infirmity in it.
4. Such as do for a time reject and resist means of knowledge, may at last come to lose the light they had.
5. The more relation any pretend to God, by virtue of their general or particular calling, the Lord will make use thereof to aggravate their sin and unanswerable walking.
6. Unfaithfulness in offices will cast men out of the Church, as unsavoury salt is cast out, which is a sad judgment.
7. It is a righteous judgment on unfaithful ministers that God suffers their posterity to be neglected. (George Hutcheson.)
Lack of knowledge
As if he had said, If they had the knowledge of God, they might have prevented all this, but they were ignorant and sottish people, and this was the forerunner of misery and destruction. The heathens were wont to say that if their god Jupiter would destroy one, he would first besot him; so these people were first besotted and then destroyed. Ignorance is not the mother of devotion, but rather the father and mother too of destruction. In the beginning of this chapter we have the sin of ignorance set forth, here we have its danger. There we had the charge, that they had no knowledge in the land; here we have the judgment, that they are destroyed for want of knowledge. Ignorance is not only the deformity of the soul as blindness is the deformity of the face; though a man or woman have never such a comely face otherwise, yet if they be blind, or have but one eye, it mars their beauty; so ignorance takes away the beauty of the soul; and not only so, but is dangerous and destructive, and that in these respects--
1. The rational creature is very active of itself, and will always be in motion, always working. Then, wanting knowledge, and surrounded by pits and snares, how dangerous is his situation!
2. Mans way is for eternity, and there is but one way that leads to an eternity of happiness, and that lies in the midst of a hundred crossways and bypaths. If he have not light, if he want knowledge, what is to become of him?
3. Man is not only going onward through dangers and byways, but he must go on with his own light. The soul that is ignorant no angel in heaven can help, except as an instrument of God to bring sight into his eyes.
4. The work we are to do about our souls and eternal estates is the most curious and most difficult piece of work, and we must do it by our own light.
5. Blindness in this world makes men objects of pity and compassion, but this ignorance and blindness make men to be the objects of the hatred and curse of God. God gave us light at first, we have brought ignorance upon ourselves. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
Lack of knowledge the destruction of a people
The tide of human affairs is ever throwing up upon the surface of society some one particular subject of special and engrossing interest. One of the prominent subjects of our time is education. It has been forced on the minds of thoughtful men by the lamentable results of allowing an exuberant population to outgrow the means of their moral and religious training, bequeathed by the wisdom and piety of their forefathers. Hosea the prophet was commissioned to denounce Gods just displeasure, and His determination to inflict punishment upon a people that refused to be reformed. God had a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there was no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. It is a serious question how far such language may befit ourselves. It is certain that there is a fearful lack of knowledge of God in our times.
I. What is the knowledge, the lack of which destroys a people? The question is analogous to another, What is education? Are we agreed among ourselves as to what is to be understood by this expression? There is a class of men whose ideas of knowledge and education are almost confined to the acquisition and communication of the facts and principles of physical and general science. Education, in their estimation, is training up the young to be in mature life well-informed and philosophical men: men who can keep pace with and help on the forward movements of an inquiring and intellectual age. But this is not knowledge, in the true and full sense of the term, neither is this education. We are still short of the truth if we define knowledge to be acquaintance with duties as well as facts, with the world within a man, as well as the world without him; and education to be a process of training for the moral as well as the intellectual part of man, the discipline of the will as well as that of the mind. This is well as far as it goes; but it is not the whole truth. It is indeed based upon a false principle, that the inculcation of moral truths, and cultivation of moral habits will suffice to regulate and control the heart and will of man. It dreams of a moral regeneration without an adequate regenerating principle, of moral obedience without a sufficiently constraining motive. It assumes that a man may be lifted up above the influence of evil by presenting to his mind the cold abstraction of goodness. The advocates of these moral systems are ignorant of the materials upon which they would work. They do not know the nature of man. They forget that he is corrupt and depraved. The moral sense of man is so beclouded by sin that to behold the beauty of virtue is neither to love nor to embrace it. Education, in its primary idea, is the knowledge of God in His relation to man: the communication of this knowledge to the heart, through the medium of the understanding. Education is training as well as teaching. It teaches moral duties based upon the knowledge of God as a reconciled Father in Christ Jesus. Education is worthless when severed from religion. Lay the foundation deeply in the principles of true religion, and you may then proceed to build up a goodly superstructure of all that is worthy of the name of useful knowledge.
II. The anxious conditions of society are explained by the lack of this knowledge. Reflecting minds have serious thoughts upon the present aspect of our domestic national affairs. We have been appalled by the frightful statistics of ignorance and vice, of the mass of corruption fermenting amidst our overgrown population. While the prodigious multiplication of human beings has been advancing, there has been no corresponding multiplication cf appliances for the moral and religious training of their souls, either as children or adults. Can it be wondered at that irreligion and infidelity, and principles of anarchy and insubordination, and vice in some of its most revolting forms have overspread these densely peopled districts? We cannot shut our eyes to what is going on around us. A population has grown up unlearned in true knowledge. The demoralising process is going on. It is a self-propagating evil. One uneducated generation begets another, and probably a worse. Our fathers did much for national education, according to the exigencies of their own times. We must follow along their line in this, that religion entered, as a component element, into all their foundations. (W. Nicholson, M. A.)
The danger of a lack of knowledge
I. The persons. My people. A frequent designation of the Israelitish people. Jehovah was emphatically to them a God, and they were emphatically to Him a people. But is Gods greatest goodness to Israel to be compared with the civil and religious privileges with which He has distinguished this favoured country? There is a tendency in nations as well as in individuals to be rendered careless and secure by the long possession of privileges and advantages. And the history of Israel is intended to teach a lesson of national warning.
II. Their condition. My people are destroyed. Notwithstanding all Gods favour towards them, yet He abandoned them to desolation, He gave them over to destruction. And what ground of security has Britain any more than Israel, except in the favour and protection of God? It is impossible for any reflecting person to consider the internal state of our country without feeling that we have within ourselves the elements of destruction, the materials for a wide-wasting desolation.
III. The cause of that condition. For lack of knowledge. Lack of the knowledge of God and religion. This was Gods ground of complaint, and for this He entered into judgment with them. This lack of knowledge was accompanied and followed by a general corruption of morals, as the next words to our text show. When the corruption became general, and the fruit, of this religious ignorance were ripe, God thrust in the sharp sickle of His judgments, and reaped the harvest in His wrath. Observe then the bearing which the state of the collective body of the people as to religious knowledge must have upon the question of national safety and national ruin. If there be a lack of the knowledge of God and His truth in the bulk of the people, the destruction of the nation will be inevitable. And if ruin come upon any land, who are the sufferers? If the body be crushed by a fall, which of the members will escape the anguish? Hence the state of the people is the concern of all. God has bound all classes in one common bond of interest: all must rejoice, or all must suffer together. What then is the state of our population with respect to religious knowledge? And what must be the end of these things? (Thomas Best, M. A.)
Neglect of teaching
God here attacks the priests, but includes the whole people. For teaching prevailed not among them, as it ought to have done. The Lord reproaches the Israelites for their ingratitude, seeing He had kindled among them the light of celestial wisdom. How did the Israelites perish through ignorance? They closed their eyes against the celestial light, because they deigned not to become teachable, so as to learn the wisdom of the eternal Father. We see the guilt of the people in that they had malignantly suppressed the teaching of the law. The people perished without knowledge, because they would perish. (John Calvin.)
The lack of knowledge
I. The statement of the text is no exaggeration. Look at the Jewish nation. The whole nation was a school, and the law was their schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. But it failed--utterly failed--to accomplish this. The enmity of the human heart came out amongst the Jewish people.
II. Some of the endeavours men make to rectify existing evils. Emphatically this is an age of progress; of progress in many things that have rendered man wiser, and the world happier. Philosophy takes a higher range of thought. Literature is nobler and healthier in its tone. Art is purer than Grecian art. Science is not atheistic. Many run to and fro, and knowledge is multiplied. We recognise this progress thankfully; it is all good, though not the highest good. It is all capable of being turned to spiritual advantage. But by it society is not regenerated: there arc social questions of the deepest importance that are not yet settled. There are forms of ignorance most appalling, developments of ignorance most deplorable, and a general spirit of scepticism widely spread. Man has done, and is doing, his very utmost to set the world right, and yet the world continues wrong.
III. The Gospel announces itself as sufficient to meet and to remove all the miseries of humanity.
1. It is this which distinguishes the Gospel from all other schemes. Many things are palliatives, but you can find nothing that pretends to do all the work that man requires to have done for him but the Gospel. Then indifference to the Gospel is the most fearful proof that could be presented to the mind of my voluntary ignorance and sin.
2. We may with confidence say that the Gospel not only professes to do this but has done all this. It has proved itself the great salvation. (W. G. Barrett.)
Religious ignorance
I. It is destructive. It is not the mother of devotion, it is the mother of destruction.
1. What does it destroy? The growth of the soul in power, beauty, and fruitfulness.
2. How does it destroy? How can the lack of a thing destroy? The lack of heat and moisture will kill the vegetable kingdom; the lack of air will cause the extinction of all animal life. The soul without knowledge of God is like a plant without heat or moisture, an animal without the salubrious breeze.
II. It is wilful. No culpability in a man being ignorant of some things. The knowledge of God comes to him whether he will or not. In nature, in reason, in intuitions of his moral being. Ignorance of God is a criminal ignorance.
III. It is God-offending. He deals out retribution--
1. To themselves.
2. To their children.
It is a Divine law springing from the constitution of society, that the iniquities of the fathers shall be visited on their children. (Homilist.)
Ignorance destructive
Ignorance disqualifies a man for those situations in life that require the exercise of wisdom and discretion: it degrades him in society below the rank of those who would otherwise be deemed his equals or inferiors; and it not unfrequently leads to idleness, dissipation, and vice. But ignorance of religion is of infinitely worse consequence, because it ensures the everlasting destruction of the soul.
I. The ignorance of the Christian world. Among nominal Christians there is a great lack of knowledge: an ignorance--
1. Of themselves. Of their blindness, guilt, depravity, helplessness.
2. Of God. Of His holiness, justice, truth.
3. Of Christ. They may confess His Godhead, and acknowledge Him as a Saviour. But what do they know of Him as He is in Himself, or as He is to us?
II. The fatal consequences of this ignorance. Lack of spiritual knowledge--
1. Tends to mens destruction.
2. Will issue in their destruction.
Infer--
1. How carefully should we improve the means of grace,
2. How earnestly should we pray for the teachings of Gods Spirit.
3. How thankful we should be for any measure of Divine knowledge. (Skeletons of Sermons.)
True knowledge for the people
Neither wealth nor political forms of government give knowledge to a people. They may give them, or obtain for them, technical information in most things, but they do not give that know ledge which is the height of wisdom--that knowledge which will guide a man aright in his intercourse with the world. On the contrary, a continuously changing government and an accumulation of wealth have a great tendency to demoralise a nation, and to retard, rather than to foster, the knowledge of that which is righteous and true. As it was in the early ages, so it has continued through the various nations which have existed upon the earth down to the present time; and the Jewish nation fell under the ordinary laws of social progress when they departed from the directions which were given, and the advice which was offered by God Himself. Even the chosen people of the Almighty fell under the power of the tyrant custom; and notwithstanding their advance in civilisation and wealth, they erred and were destroyed for lack of knowledge. Why was this? Because the technical information which they obtained from their teachers was not that which would support the actions of their daily life, was not that which would assist in guiding them through the devious windings of the world in which they lived, but had relation merely to the subject which was then in hand, and was of no further avail when once that subject was laid on one side. As a natural consequence of this narrow and superficial training, the minds of the people generally became contracted until they could not see any political or religious question in its proper bearings, or to its whole extent. They saw what related to the question of the hour, and being content with this, they ultimately sank under a despotism of body and mind; for the mind sank and was debased long before the body felt any evil effects from the narrowing of views which had been going on for some time amongst the people. In the time of Hosea the people were wandering to and fro from lack of knowledge, and the prejudices of the age were being stirred up for the services of party, instead of being laid aside in the desire to teach the people only that which was true. Prejudice is one of the most difficult things which men have to encounter in their desire to obtain a know ledge of the truth. When once the mind has taken up any opinion it lays hold of it as its own, and follows it out regardless of what may be said by others to the contrary. It considers that which it holds to he the truth; and, as a natural consequence, looks upon the sayings of those who oppose it as absolutely false, and without any legitimate foundation upon which to stand. Nor is it in the ordinary course of events worth while to try and disabuse people of their prejudices. And not only do our prejudices impel us to hold with tenacity that which we have taken up as the truth, but they impel us to dislike and to hate those who may differ from us. A man is truly orthodox when he thinks as we think; but let him differ from us only in one jot or tittle, and then his opinions are at once pronounced to be heterodox, and he himself adjudged as an enemy. There are some conclusions which must be admitted by every reflecting mind as soon as they are presented to it, and they must also be acknowledged as truths the moment they are offered for consideration. When we reflect upon the matter for a moment, it is evident that each one ought to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world, because it is clearly an offence against the well-being of society that men should live otherwise. Then let us not be the servants of men, for there is One greater than they. Let us not be the followers of a party, for there is One wiser than it. But let us seek honestly after the truth wherever it may be found; and whilst we hold Augustine as a friend, and Luther and Calvin as friends,--whilst we respect men of every party--let us ever bear in mind that we have a duty to perform far higher than that of clansmen: we have to teach the truth as it is in Jesus, to proclaim His name above that of every other name, and to endeavour above all things to strive manfully to learn and to do that which is right. (F. T. Swinbourne.)
The importance of religious knowledge
Both philosophers and divines agree that the first step to true know ledge is a discovery of our own ignorance; all wise men will confess that the more they know the more a modest sense of the narrow limits of their understanding increases. The recovery of true knowledge, with a constant improvement therein ourselves, and the using our utmost endeavours to propagate it among mankind, are some of the most noble and rational ends of our existence. Not withstanding His severe reproachings and threatenings of Ephraim, how tenderly the Lord expostulates with them! A wilful neglect of true knowledge is represented as the spring of all their provocations and their danger. Ignorance is represented as the occasion of their ruin.
I. The title given to the people who are exposed to this destruction. Still, spite of their sin, they are called My people. This title may be applied to mankind in general, and in a strict manner to those who are known as the elect. Here it is applied to the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, under the name Ephraim. Though they had revolted from Him, God still condescends to own His relation to them. And this relation materially aggravates their crimes.
II. What is this knowledge which is of such importance? Men may be great strangers to philosophy, to human arts, and carnal wisdom, and yet not be involved in that destruction which is certainly connected with the ignorance mentioned in the text. As true religion is the only effectual security of private persons from this ruin, so it is with respect to society. Religious knowledge must be intended in this text.
1. Men might learn much by seriously observing what is presented to their view all round about them; and much more if they would examine their own frame, and reflect on the various warnings of that monitor which is in every breast.
2. It is the knowledge which God has been pleased to reveal, which is chiefly intended here. This was, in Hoseas time, to be found in the books of Moses and the prophets. This is, for us, the knowledge that is conveyed by the Gospel.
III. The sad occasions of the want of this knowledge, especially in what is called a land of light.
1. A thoughtless neglect of those sober reflections to which we are led even by that measure of natural light, which, in the midst of all our depravity, is mercifully continued to us. Observation teaches us what effect negligence will have on our temporal affairs. When men come to divide precious time principally between the cares about the enlargement of their worldly substance, and the various methods their own corruptions will dictate, very little will be left for nobler improvements.
2. The want of the written revelation must Deeds be attended with the most deplorable ignorance. As may be seen in the history of those nations which have wanted this glorious advantage.
3. Ignorance of religion must needs prevail where there is the want of a skilful, faithful, and laborious ministry.
4. A pious education of our youth is another method of cultivating religious knowledge. This foundation must be chiefly laid in family instruction. We have lived to see the day when the impression of religious sentiments on young minds is not only by many laid aside, but such a neglect is defended. It is said to prevent any bar being put to what is called free thinking. The great neglect of family religion, and the pious example which superiors by the laws of reason are indispensably obliged to set before those under their care, as it has long been complained of, if not soon reformed must bring peril on our Churches and on our land.
5. The growth of ignorance among the poorer sort is a matter of peculiar consequence.
6. Among good men there is too great a neglect of application to Heaven for a blessing on such attempts as are made to promote useful knowledge, and of a dependence on the Spirit of God, who is only able to make them successful.
IV. The destruction which is the natural and sad consequence of this ignorance. Reference is first to those temporal calamities which befell these people for their sins; or it relates to future temporal calamities which Hosea predicted. But ignorance persisted in exposes public communities to almost every criminal anal dangerous disorder, and in the end brings on national ruin; and it is big with every spiritual as well as temporal mischief to private persons where it prevails. Ignorance of Divine things keeps the conscience under a fatal stupidity, it exposes men to the devices of the old serpent, and to the crafty attempts of every seducer; it exposes us to every kind of error in conduct, and obstructs our usefulness both in public and in private life.
V. The remedies which should be applied to so dangerous a disease.
1. We should cheerfully and constantly attend on those advantages Heaven has bestowed on us, that we read and hear, that we inquire and meditate, and watch and pray, as those who are convinced that ignorance has been their ruin, and that happiness in this life is absolutely connected with religious knowledge, and that the lives of our souls depend upon it.
2. We should do all we can to promote the influence of religious knowledge on the minds of others, by the careful instruction of our families, and the support of a well-qualified ministry.
VI. Some applications cf what has been said.
1. How deplorable is the state of multitudes among us, who lie under the grossest ignorance.
2. We ought to rejoice in our civil constitution, and to encourage and defend our religious advantages. (Joseph Stennett, D. D.)
Ignorance of God among professing Christians
The ungodliness of Israel in Hoseas time was in a great measure to be traced to ignorance of the true God; an ignorance for which they were responsible, because there was the light of Gods truth in their land. It was peculiarly sinful, inasmuch as it was ignorance in Gods professing people. And the ignorance involved their ruin.
I. The present and future misery of ignorance of God. No real earthly happiness can be enjoyed where there is ignorance of God. The pleasures of sin are not happiness, though they often pass for it. Nor is the pursuit of happiness, or the acquisition of wealth. Happiness must be sought in a knowledge of, and obedience to, the will and ways of God. Where there is the true knowledge of God, there is no real wretchedness, though there may be much tribulation
II. That which aggravates the misery is our relation to God as his people.
1. It aggravates their sin, because it is the bounden duty of every man to seek the knowledge of God as the one thing needful. We are not to wait to have this knowledge forced upon us, we are bound to seek it. If the guilt of Gods people who remain in ignorance of Him be aggravated by their relation to Him, so likewise is the guilt of those aggravated who are bound to teach Gods people. Civil government stands upon religious grounds, and has religious obligations. The Church is the bulwark of every Christian State. (W. J. Brodrick, M. A.)
The necessity of a union between religion and education
I. The necessary connection between religion and education. The word education suggests the idea of preparing the young for the great duties incumbent on them in the various relations of life; and with a view to this object, includes the communication of knowledge, the inculcation of right principles, and the formation of corresponding habits in those who are thus to be the subjects of it. But what are we to understand by the great duties incumbent upon us in the different relations of life? Some think that the end and purpose of their existence have been met when they have fairly performed their present duties, and honourably met their obligations. But these are practical atheists, for they completely exclude God from any right to the homage of His rational creatures, and reduce man to the degradation and wretchedness of a being who, whatever other heights he may attain, is incapable of rising to the knowledge, the love, the service, and the everlasting enjoyment of his Maker. In opposition to such views, we say, that even reason and conscience, above all the Word of God, declare that man is endowed with a nature that renders him capable of communion with the great, eternal, glorious God; nay, that the advancement of the praise of this God is the very end of his existence; and in pursuing this end he secures present and everlasting happiness. This duty may, however, be acknowledged, and yet the proper principles and conduct attending it may be repudiated. If the former view was practical atheism, this is practical infidelity. Milton says. The end of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents, by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love Him, to imitate Him, to be like Him as we may the nearest, by possessing our souls of true virtue, which, being united to the heavenly grace of faith, makes up the highest perfection. Can Christian training be efficiently, and ought it to be exclusively discharged by parents?
II. The importance and advantages of a union between religion and education. Man was originally framed so as to derive happiness from the knowledge, love, and service of God. It is when the love of God is shed abroad on the heart of fallen man that the different parts of his moral constitution will resume, as it were, their proper place and connection, and that he himself will be enabled to act as he was designed for the glory of God, in all the varied relations in which he stands. When religious knowledge is communicated and made effectual for the conversion of the soul to God, man is under the influence of that principle which will most certainly and with increasing strength constrain him to the discharge of every obligation in regard to God, to himself, and to his fellow-creatures, and thus fit him for the attainment of the great end of his being. Put forth this knowledge in all its bearings, and you will do that which, with the Divine blessing, will enable him to discharge with consistency and perseverance, with honour, comfort, and usefulness, the great duties of life. But how sad, and morally helpless, is the condition of those who are allowed to grow up, not only without a religious education, but without an education of any kind! (Abercromby L. Gordon.)
Hindrances to knowledge
Very different and almost opposite things are said of knowledge in the Holy Scriptures. Such may be found in the writings of St. Paul. Following the sound rather than the sense of some of St. Pauls expressions, it has been the fashion with some to decry altogether the value of knowledge, whether on religious or common subjects. What is knowledge? The old definition is, Knowledge is the firm belief of something true, on sufficient grounds. Belief is necessary, but belief is not enough. Fully testing our knowledge, it may be said that we know almost nothing. In later life we become aware of this, and very painfully. But the charge of ignorance (in the true meaning of that word) may be brought as justly against the so-called enlightenment of this age, as against the less showy pretensions of that which is now gone by. Two or three causes for the lack of real knowledge may be given.
1. The multiplication of outward helps and facilities for learning has a direct tendency to counteract true knowledge. It seems to be a condition of knowledge that it shall not come too easily. Knowledge must be fetched by exertions of our own.
2. A misuse of stimulus in the pursuit of knowledge is an impediment. One reason why many of us do not know mere is that we have made knowledge a means instead of an end--a means of getting distinction. The use of emulation as a stimulus to knowledge is a perilous, though it may be a necessary expedient. Be on your guard, too, against a misuse of a temporary stimulus acting upon parts of your nature which are, by comparison, the lower rather than the higher. Emulation is higher than appetite, but it is lower than that to which manly principle and Christian motive appeal.
3. The effect of light reading upon the acquisition of knowledge truly so called. In the days of our fathers, any one who could read at all would scarcely fail to read with a view to knowledge. The supply of amusement by literature, the command of books as a mere pastime, was then scarcely thought of. Now young people greedily devour fictitious tales till indulgence produces a surfeit. Sometimes an absolute vacancy follows upon excess of such reading. Fiction has two legitimate provinces. It is a salutary relaxation for an overwrought brain. And it may be employed as a study of life. But the knowledge, the lack of which destroys, is the knowledge not of things but of per-sons. It is the acquaintance of soul with soul, and spirit with spirit; the contact of the unseen inmost self of man with the unseen inmost essence of another, even of Him in whom man lives, and whom truly to know is eternal life. What we need is to know God. It is no metaphysical, scarcely even a theological, knowledge you need. It is the knowledge as of a friend. (C. J. Vaughan, D. D.)
The evils of ignorance
I. Ignorance is destructive.
1. Destructive of the dignity of man. The faculties of knowledge, reason, judgment, and voluntary determination distinguish us from the beasts that perish, and constitute the true dignity of our nature. But faculties and powers are of little value until they are brought into exercise and directed to their proper objects. Instruction is to man What culture is to the plant. Without it, life is spent in a vacant stupidity, or distracted by irregular imagination and heated passions.
2. Destructive of the usefulness of man. Knowledge constitutes the whole difference betwixt savage and civilised society. To the improvement of the mind all nations have owed the improvement of their condition. Ignorance is the negative of everything good and useful. It not only renders the members of a community useless to each other, it opposes, and frequently triumphs over, all the endeavours of humane and enlightened individuals. The despotism of ignorance is of the most imperious nature. Minds wholly uncultivated are averse to serious thought., and are only conversant with sensible objects. From this springs their aversion to the Gospel; for whoever receives it must become serious and thoughtful.
3. Destructive of virtue. Virtue can no more exist without knowledge, than an animal can exist without life. In proportion as ignorance prevails in society, virtue is destroyed. Ignorant men may possibly be made enthusiasts; they may be made superstitious; but before they can be made rational, steady, and consistent Christians, they must be enlightened. That ignorance is destructive of virtue is proved by facts as well as arguments. Illustration may be taken from the records of heathen nations, and from the history of the Christian Church.
4. Destructive of happiness. There is pleasure in knowledge of a kind more pure and elevated than can possibly be found in any of the gratifications of sense, and for which the latter are but unworthy substitutes. Of the pleasures which spring from knowledge, and especially sacred knowledge, we cannot conceive too highly. To know God, to contemplate the perfections of His nature and the wonders of His hand, to observe His providential regard, to behold the mystery of redemption, the character and undertaking of Jesus,--such subjects, when opened to the mind, not only give pleasure as speculative discoveries and the solutions of distressing doubts, but by awakening virtuous sentiments, kindling an ardent and elevated devotion, producing the present possession of the peace of the Gospel, and the prospect of fulness of joy.
II. To counteract the destructive effects of ignorance is the work of humanity. None oppose the communication of knowledge to the lower ranks of society save those who are altogether unreasonable. Special importance attaches to Sunday school. The dissemination of knowledge may be treated as--
1. A work of humanity;
2. Of patriotism;
3. Of virtue.
Christianity exhibits a Founder who went about doing good; and His disciples in every age have devoted their time, their talents, their property, their influence to the instruction and blessing of mankind. (R. Watson.)
Ignorance destructive
Ignorance disqualifies a man for those situations in life that require the exercise of wisdom and discretion: it degrades him in society below the rank of those who would otherwise be deemed his equals or inferiors; and it not infrequently leads to idleness, dissipation, and vice. Ignorance of religion ensures the everlasting destruction of the soul.
I. The ignorance of the Christian world.
1. An ignorance of themselves. They know little of their blindness, guilt, depravity, helplessness.
2. Ignorance of God. His holiness, justice, truth.
3. Ignorance of Christ. As He is in Himself. As He is to us.
II. The fatal consequences of it. The degrees of criminality attached to ignorance vary according to the opportunities men have enjoyed of obtaining knowledge. A lack of spiritual knowledge--
1. Tends to destruction.
2. Will issue in destruction.
Then--
(1) How carefully should we improve the means of grace!
(2) How earnestly should we pray for the teachings of Gods Spirit!
(3) How thankful should we be for any measure of Divine knowledge! (C. Simeon, M. A.)
Rejecting knowledge
The word used signifies to reject with despite and contempt. Knowledge is rejected in two ways.
1. When the means of knowledge are rejected, then knowledge is rejected.
2. When the directions of our knowledge are rejected, when we refuse to be guided by it, upon this our knowledge decays, and eventually is contemned. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
Lack of knowledge
The lack of this knowledge causes people to perish. Knowing God as a Father, Saviour, Sanctifier, gives the soul the consciousness of pardon, life, purity, power--the power of love--that is almost irresistible. Knowledge is power to the inventor, civil engineer, teacher and lawyer. But the knowledge of God is the greatest power. It enables all, even the weakest, to do great things. Oh, for a knowledge and baptism of power from God. Then everywhere the people that do know God shall do exploits. (H. W. Bailey.)
Ignorance impoverishes
Among the Scotch lairds, there is one whose father died in a poorhouse, like a beggar, notwithstanding his possession of the very same riches his heir at present has at his disposal; but he simply did not know how rich he was. Shortly after his decease, rich metallic ore was discovered on the estate; the mines, which were worked at once, gave such returns, that very soon all mortgages and debts could be paid off, and, moreover, put the present owner in possession of a noblemans fortune. His father possessed no less, but he knew it not. Alas, for how many the blessed Word of God is worth no more than waste paper! Therein are contained the richest promises of fulness of grace, of victory over every enemy, of exceeding glory; but because they do not explore these mines, they live like beggars, who can hardly manage to obtain a morsel of bread. (A. J. Gordon, D. D.)
I will also forget thy children.
Getting at parents through their children
The Lord must in some way find our life that He may either reward or chastise it. In this case He will get at the parents through their children. He would not have done this if there had been any other way into their rebellious and obdurate hearts. We must leave Him to explain Himself in reference to the children; He will do that which is right and merciful; we need not plague ourselves about that aspect of mystery; rather let us fasten attention upon the fact that God means for our good to get at our souls somehow. He will try all the gates, and even if He has to break down the child-gate He will come in. That is the point upon which we are to fix our devout attention. We can of course be tempted in another direction: why attack the children, why conduct Himself towards the innocent as if they were guilty? Why punish the innocent., for those who have transgressed? So we metaphysically fritter away Gods meaning; we endeavour to solve the insoluble, when we might be accepting with grace and gratitude the inevitable, the disciplinary, and the high administration of Divine righteousness. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn vv6–7Hos_4:6. Know.] Lit. the knowledge of God (Hos_4:1), which…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Hos_4:6. Know.] Lit. the knowledge of God (Hos_4:1), which is life to the soul. Reject] Utterly reject thee from being a priestly nation (Exo_19:6); deprived of priestly rank, and made like heathens. God repays in kind; despise the truth, this will suppress it.
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HOMILETICS
IGNORANCE OF GOD: A WARNING TO THE PEOPLE.—Hos_4:6
The prophet had complained that there was no knowledge of God in the land. This was a serious offence in a land of privileges and religious teachers, and an error fatal to the people. All were ignorant. The people and the priests were all to blame. In spite of warning and judgment, by the destruction of one dynasty after another, they would not desist from the sin of Jeroboam. God therefore would deprive the nation of its priestly honour, strip it of its priestly rank, and make it like a heathen nation. The words contain a warning to people and priests.
I. Ignorance of God is inexcusable. Israel had abundant means and opportunities of knowing God. “For did Israel not know?” and “have they not heard?” (Rom_10:18-19). The sound of the gospel was heard, and was sent forth like the voice of nature in all the land. The conversion of the Gentiles and the universality of Christianity were predicted; they had the oracles of God, and were highly exalted above other people. They had no excuse therefore for their unbelief. They possessed the law of God, but neglected to look into it, and forsook it. In this Israel are like many now, who, in the midst of religious ordinances, in a land of Bibles and Christian Sabbaths, disregard, neglect their salvation, and live in total ignorance of God. There is a natural distaste for spiritual things, inattention to religious duties, and an absorption in things of this world, which beget indifference and lead to unbelief. There are persons who are moral but not devout, honest but not prayerful, benevolent but not converted, amiable but not decided, nominal Christians who are not real Christians. Those who forget God are more numerous than the profligate and profane. Ignorance of God seems a small sin, but ignorance is allied with wickedness. To forget God is to exclude the essential parts of religion. It implies that his goodness, holiness, and claims are of no value to us; it is to exclude God from our thoughts and give him no place in our heart and conduct. Hence to be ignorant of God is not to love and fear him; not to live in subjection to his law, nor to aim at his glory as the chief end of life. Yet this is the real, the sad state of thousands in Christian England!
II. Ignorance of God is wilful. “Thou hast rejected knowledge.” To forget is an act of negligence; to reject is a calm, deliberate sin, a positive refusal of God’s kind offers. Not the mere absence of knowledge, a deprivation of it; but a denial of it, an affected ignorance. They hated the light and loved the darkness. There is no guilt in rejecting some things, but to refuse the offers of mercy and despise the revelations of God’s love in his Son, is to sin away all mercy. “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin.” Deliberately and knowingly to forsake God and the services of the sanctuary, is to make common cause with ungodly men and anti-christian synagogues. To suppress by an act of self-will your better knowledge and conviction, is to reserve yourself for future punishment and rejection. If the apostate under the Old Testament was punished with severe penalty, how much greater the punishment of the sinner against greater privileges and fuller light! “Behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.”
III. Ignorance of God is destructive. A man may be ignorant of mathematics, astronomy, and geology, without suffering much; but to be ignorant of God, the chief and highest good, is to rob ourselves of happiness and expose ourselves to death. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
1. Ignorance perpetuates folly. Ignorant men fall into temptations, seek sensual gratifications, and live in error. Knowledge is valuable for its own sake, and when rightly used, preserves from many “foolish lusts.” “Be assured,” says Dr Chalmers, “it is not because the people know much, that they ever become the willing subjects of any factious or unprincipled demagogue. It is just because they know too little. It is just because ignorance is the field on which the quackery of a political impostor ever reaps its most abundant harvest.”
2. Ignorance destroys present enjoyment. The animal has all the instincts necessary to make it happy; but man’s true enjoyment is in the knowledge and love of God. Human beings to fulfil their vocations must have knowledge. We are dependent for happiness upon knowledge. Every evil that curses mankind is connected with ignorance. Hence knowledge is light. Ignorance is a blind guide, and its results are often more fearful than the cause itself. Exclude knowledge from the mind, you turn it into a world of darkness, and rob it of its native element. Thus driven from light, no brilliant genius, no flashes of fancy, can enlighten it. These will scathe like the lightning, rather than bless and cheer, and leave the gloom more horrible. Knowledge is life and health. “That the soul be without knowledge, it is not good.” The words of God are the health and life of the soul. “They are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” Wisdom is the indispensable condition of physical and spiritual health. It promotes temperance, and gives self-restraint. It teaches submission to the Divine will, and leads to the emancipation of our noblest powers and capacities. It secures the fullest and freest development of body and mind in personal life and activity for God. Ignorance is sickness, decay, and death. Knowledge unites to God, but ignorance cuts off from God. “My people are cut off for lack of knowledge” Cut off from the source of life and enjoyment, like a branch lopped off from the tree. Man cannot bear fruit of himself, hence he will perish if not united to God in knowledge and faith.
3. Ignorance destroys future happiness. Eternal life is suspended in knowledge, for men “perish for lack of knowledge.” On the other hand, “This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” Knowledge of all kinds is the proper wealth of our rational nature: but to captivate us with the knowledge of God, it is set forth as the only wealth worth possessing—the only science which conducts to life. And this life not mere unending existence, but growing knowledge and conformity to Christ. Religion on earth consists in the knowledge of God, and blessedness in heaven consists in the vision of God. Well may we pray with Professor Hall, “O Lord, remove our ignorance, that we may know thee; our idleness, that we may seek thee; our unbelief, that we may find and enjoy thee.”
IGNORANCE OF GOD: A WARNING TO THE PRIESTS
I. Priests blamed for the ignorance of the people. They were appointed to teach and warn the people; but were unfaithful to their trust, and suffered the nation to sin.
1. They neglected study. “Thou hast rejected knowledge.” They had the means, but did not improve them. They had the law, but did not read it. The preacher should be wise and teach the people knowledge (Ecc_12:9); should study to make provision for their wants (Mat_13:52); and make full proof of his ministry. But an idle, ignorant minister, is a disgrace to the community, and a curse to the Church. 2. They lived inconsistent lives. They professed to belong to God, but worshipped the calves of Jeroboam. Through poverty, fear, or shame, they withheld, suppressed the truth, and connived at the nation’s sin. They shared in the rejection of God’s truth, and brought themselves under God’s curse. “I will also reject thee.”
II. Priests punished for the ignorance of the people. It was their duty to remove it, but they encouraged it to answer their own selfish ends. Hence they were guilty, partook of the sins of the people, and were deprived of their honour.
1. They were cast out of office themselves. “Thou shalt be no priest to me.” Sad fall! God will not retain idle and ungodly men in office. Those that have no love for Christ and immortal souls, will have no love for their work, and display no activity in it. “Consider this,” says Bishop Taylor, “which is a great truth—that every degree of love to the world is so much taken from the love of God.” “Take heed unto thyself,” lest thou miscarry and become a castaway.
2. They deprived their posterity of honour. “I will also forget thy children.” What will the rising generation be without the means of knowing and loving God? What will the nation become when its “candlestick is removed out of its place”? It is sad to be forgotten of God. The sun does not shine on more wretched creatures, than on the awful masses of our fellow-creatures growing up in ignorance and estrangement from God. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” God only knows how far the ministers of his word are the cause of this destruction. “When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand” (Eze_3:18; cf. Psa_51:14; Act_20:26).
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Rejecting knowledge. Proves—
1. A wrong spirit: (a) hating to be taught, (b) despising the teacher, (c) resolved to sin.
2. A mournful indication: (a) pride, (b) contempt of God, (c) indifference to truth.
3. A fatal result: (a) deadness of conscience, (b) unbelief of heart, (c) utter rejection of God.
Forgetting God.
1. The course, forgetting his love and goodness, word and power, justice and grace.
2. The result: (a) awful, (b) unexpected, (c) universal, (d) inevitable. “Ignorance is so far from being the mother of devotion, that it is the mother of destruction; lack of knowledge is ruining to any person or people [Matt. Henry].”
Parents who are careless as to themselves, as to their own lives, as to their own shame even, still long that their children should not be as themselves. God tries to touch their hearts where they are least steeled against him. He says not I will forget thee, but I will forget those nearest thy heart, thy children [Pusey].
It is the righteous judgment of God upon negligent parents and unfaithful ministers, to requite their children, for their treatment to his. “I will also forget thy children.” Parents cannot do wrong without injuring their children. Ministers cannot neglect their duty without robbing their people. The iniquities of the fathers and teachers shall be visited on their children.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 4
Hos_4:6. Knowledge. Some years ago a vessel sailing on the northern coast of South America was seen to make signals of distress. When hailed by another vessel, they reported themselves as “dying for water!” “Dip it up, then,” was the response; “you are in the mouth of the Amazon river.” There was fresh water all around them, they had nothing to do but to dip it up, and yet they were dying of thirst, because they thought themselves surrounded by the salt sea. How often are men ignorant of their mercies! How sad that they should perish for lack of knowledge! Jesus is near the seeker even when he is tossed upon the oceans of doubt. The sinner has but to stoop down and drink and live; and yet he is ready to perish, as if salvation were hard to find [Spurgeon].
Those are marked for ruin that are deaf to reproof and reject good counsel. “Therefore,” says Bp Pilkington, “let every one keep himself in God’s school-house and learn his lesson diligently. For as the body is nourished with meat, so is the soul with the word of God.”
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.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv6, 8General Information:
General Information:
In Hos 4:6, Yahweh is talking to the priests about the people of Israel. But in Hos 4:7, he is talking about the priests, not to them. It is possible for the translator to follow the example of the UDB, which portrays Yahweh as talking to the priests also in Hos 4:7.
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My people are being destroyed because of the lack of knowledge
This can be stated in active form. AT: "My people are perishing because you, the priests, have not properly taught them about me so that they will obey me" (See: Active or Passive)
knowledge
Here "knowledge" refers to the knowledge of God. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
They exchanged their honor for shame
Possible meanings are 1) "honor" is a metonym that represents Yahweh, and "shame" is a metonym that represents idols. AT: "They have stopped worshiping me, their honorable God, and now worship shameful idols" or 2) some Bible versions translate this as "I will exchange their honor for shame." This means Yahweh will take away the things which the priests honor and cause the priests to be ashamed. (See: Metonymy)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv6, 94:6 Because the priests refused to know the Lord,…
4:6 Because the priests refused to know the Lord, neither did the people know their God. As a result, the people were being destroyed. • A primary function of the priests of Israel was to know, practice, and teach the laws of . . . God. Ironically, these guardians of the law had forgotten it.
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv6–9 Here the Prophet distinctly touches on the idleness of…
Here the Prophet distinctly touches on the idleness of the priests, whom the Lord, as it is well known, had set over the people. For though it could not have availed to excuse the people, or to extenuate their fault, that the priests were idle; yet the Prophet justly inveighs against them for not having performed the duty allotted to them by God. But what is said applies not to the priests only; for God, at the same time, indirectly blames the voluntary blindness of the people. For how came it, that pure instruction prevailed not among the Israelites, except that the people especially wished that it should not? Their ignorance, then, as they say, was gross; as is the case with many ungodly men at this day, who not only love darkness, but also draw it around them on every side, that they may have some excuse for their ignorance.
God then does here, in the first place, attack the priests, but he includes also the whole people; for teaching prevailed not, as it ought to have done, among them. The Lord also reproaches the Israelites for their ingratitude; for he had kindled among them the light of celestial wisdom; inasmuch as the law, as it is well known, must have been sufficient to direct men in the right way. It was then as though God himself did shine forth from heaven, when he gave them his law. How, then, did the Israelites perish through ignorance? Even because they closed their eyes against the celestial light, because they deigned not to become teachable, so as to learn the wisdom of the eternal Father. We hence see that the guilt of the people, as it has been said, is not here extenuated, but that God, on the contrary, complains, that they had malignantly suppressed the teaching of the law: for the law was fit to guide them. The people perished without knowledge, because they would perish.
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But the Prophet denounces vengeance on the priests, as well as on the whole people, Because knowledge hast thou rejected, he says, I also will thee reject, so that the priesthood thou shalt not discharge for me. This is specifically addressed to the priests: the Lord accuses them of having rejected knowledge. But knowledge, as Malachi says, was to be sought from their lips, (Malachi 2:7) and Moses also touches on the same point in Deuteronomy 33:10. It was then an extreme wickedness in the priests, as though they wished to subvert God’s sacred order, when they sought the honor and the dignity of the office without the office itself: and such is the case with the Papists of the present day; they are satisfied with its dignity and its wealth. Mitred bishops are prelates, are chief priests; they vauntingly boast that they are the heads of the Church, and would be deemed equal with the Apostles: at the same time, who of them attends to his office? nay, they think that it would be in a manner a disgrace to give attention to their office and to God’s call.
We now then see what the Prophet meant by saying, Because thou hast knowledge rejected, I also will thee reject, so that thou shalt not discharge for me the priesthood. In a word, he shows that the divorce, which the priests attempted to make, was absurd, and contrary to the nature of things, that it was monstrous, and in short impossible. Why? Because they wished to retain the title and its wealth, they wished to be deemed prelates of the Church, without knowledge: God allows not things joined together by a sacred knot to be thus torn asunder. “Dost thou then,” he says, “take to thyself the office without knowledge? Nay, as thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also take to myself the honor of the priesthood, which I previously conferred on thee.”
This is a remarkable passage, and by it we can check the furious boasting of the Papists, when they haughtily force upon us their hierarchy and the order, as they call it, of their clergy, that is, of their corrupt dregs: for God declares by his word, that it is impossible that there should be any priest without knowledge. And further, he would not have priests to be endued with knowledge only, and to be as it were mute; for he would have the treasure deposited with them to be communicated to the whole Church. God then, in speaking of sacerdotal knowledge, includes also preaching. Though one indeed be a literate, as there have been some in our age among the bishops and cardinals, — though then there be such he is not yet to be classed among the learned; for, as it has been said, sacerdotal learning is the treasure of the whole Church. When therefore a boast is made of the priesthood, with no regard to the ministration of the word, it is a mere mockery; for teacher and priest are, as they say, almost convertible terms. We now perceive the meaning of the first clause.
It then follows, Because thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Some confine this latter clause to the priests, and think that it forms a part of the same context: but when any one weighs more fully the Prophet’s words, he will find that this refers to the body of the people.
This Prophet is in his sentences often concise, and so his transitions are various and obscure: now he speaks in his own person, then he assumes the person of God; now he turns his discourse to the people, then he speaks in the third person; now he reproves the priests, then immediately he addresses the whole people. There seemed to be first a common denunciation, ‘Thou shalt fall in the day, the Prophet in the night shall follow, and your mother shall perish.’ The Prophet now, I doubt not, confirms the same judgment in other words: and, in the first place, he advances this proposition, that the priests were idle, and that the people quenched the light of celestial instruction; afterwards he denounces on the priests the judgment they deserved, ‘I will cast thee away,’ he says, ‘from the priesthood;’ now he comes to all the Israelites, and says, Thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Now this fault was doubtless what belonged to the whole people; there was no one exempt from this sin; and this forgetfulness was fitly ascribed to the whole people. For how it happened, that the priests had carelessly shaken off from their shoulders the burden of teaching the people? Even because the people were unwilling to have their ears annoyed: for the ungodly complain that God’s servants are troublesome, when they daily cry against their vices. Hence the people gladly entered into a truce with their teachers, that they might not perform their office: thus the oblivion of God’s law crept in.
As then the Prophet had denounced on the priests their punishment, so he now assures the whole people that God would bring a dreadful judgment on them all, that he would even blot out the whole race of Abraham, I will forget, he says, thy children. Why was this? The Lord had made a covenant with Abraham, which was to continue, and to be confirmed to his posterity: they departed from the true faith, they became spurious children; then God rightly testifies here, that he had a just cause why he should no longer count this degenerate people among the children of Abraham. How so? “For ye have forgotten my law,” he says: “had you remembered the law, I would also have kept my covenant with you: but I will no more remember my covenant, for you have violated it. Your children, therefore, deserve not to be under finch a covenant, inasmuch as ye are such a people.” It follows —
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 On vv6–9 That is, the Priests shall be cast off, because…
That is, the Priests shall be cast off, because that for lack of knowledge, they are not able to execute their charge, and instruct others, Deut. 33:3; Mal. 2:7.
Meaning, the whole body of the people, which were weary with hearing the word of God.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv6–9 Hos 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of…
Hos 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
Ver. 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge] "My people" (there is the wonder of it), of whom it was wont to be said by the heathen, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people": and well it might: for what nation ever had God so nigh unto them, &c., and statutes and judgments so righteous, &c.? Deu 4:6-8; what nation ever had prophets and priests as they had, to teach Jacob his statutes and Israel his law? Deu 33:10. All means of knowledge they had that might be; so that God might say to them, as once Abijam did to Jeroboam and all Israel, "Ought you not to have known this?" 2Ch 13:5; should ye not all "know the Lord from the least to the greatest?" should not your land be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea? Hab 2:14. Doth not wisdom cry in your streets? and knowledge (in the abundance of means) bow down to you as trees do that are laden with fruit, so that a child may gather them? How is it then that you (my people) are yet so hard and blockish, as rude and ignorant of me and my will, of yourselves and your duties, as the blind Ethnics? For some of you have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. Yea, "who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord’s servant?" Isa 42:19. I speak it with grief and stomach, and therefore I so oft speak it. Surely to whomsoever much is given much is required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more, Luk 12:48. It is a grievous thing to receive the grace of God in vain, 2Co 6:1; and when for the time men might have been teachers, to have need to be taught the very first principles of the oracles of God, Heb 5:12. For if God will pour out his wrath upon the heathen that know him not, Jer 10:25, who yet were left in the dark, to grope after him as they could, Act 17:27; and if the poor philosophers (who had but the rush candle of nature’s dim light to work by) were yet delivered up to a reprobate sense, because they glorified God no better, Rom 1:28; oh the bloody weals that he will make upon the backs of his non-proficients, sots and dullards in his school! Ingentia beneficia, flagitia supplicia.
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Are destroyed] Or, silenced, as Mat 22:12. The Chaldee rendereth it obrutuerunt, they are besotted, and so fitted for destruction; for Deus quem destruit dementat. Ignorance is the mother, not of devotion (as Papists say), but of destruction; and ignorant persons shall be silent in darkness, as holy Hannah hath it; they shall lie down in sorrow, as the prophet Isaiah. And although they always wander and err in heart, as not knowing God’s ways, Psa 95:10-11, yet they cannot go so far wide as to miss hell, where they are sure to suffer both pain of loss and pain of sense; for they shall be "punished with everlasting destruction, in a flame of fire" (there is pain of sense), "from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power" (there is pain of loss), 2Th 2:8-9. Lo, here the portion of all ignorant persons, and withal take notice of a usual and equal proceeding of God’s impartial justice in punishing such. He delights to punish sin in kind, to pay wicked persons in their own coin, to overshoot them in their own bow, to answer them in their own language, as he once did those bold Babel builders, Gen 11:4. Go to, say they; Go to, saith he: Let us build up to heaven, say they; Let us go down, and see that building, saith he: Let us make us a name, say they; Let us confound their language, that they may not so much as know their own names, saith he: Lest we be scattered, say they; Let us scatter them abroad in the world, saith he. Thus God worded it with them, and confuted their folly from point to point. And the like he will do with ignorant people at that great day. Depart from us, say they now to God, Job 21:14; Depart from me, ye cursed, will he then say to them. We desire not the knowledge of thy ways, say they, ibid.; Therefore I have sworn in my wrath, that you shall never enter into my rest, saith he. Ye have loved darkness better than light, ye shall therefore have your belly full of it in the bottom of hell. God loves to retaliate, as we may see here, and go no farther. "Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee; seeing thou hast forgot the law of thy God, I will also" (to cry quittance with thee) "forget thy children." Thus, by giving ignorant persons their own, he will so silence them, and even button up their mouths, that they shall stand speechless, as being self-condemned.
For lack of knowledge] Propter non scientiam, for mere nescience, for such an ignorance as is privative only, and of pure negation, which doth somewhat excuse a tanto, though not a toto; as in that servant that knew not his master’s will, yet did commit things worthy of stripes, and had a few, Luk 12:48. But Israel’s ignorance was more than all this, and a great deal worse. "For did not Israel know?" Rom 10:19, and "have they not heard?" yes, verily. {Hos 4:18} No people under heaven like them for that, Psa 147:19. But they rejected knowledge, and affected ignorance; they hated the light, and loved darkness better. This was the condemnation, the mischief of it, saith our Saviour, who (besides this wilful ignorance, that mother of mischief, and main support of Satan’s kingdom) laid down his life for the nesciences, the not-knowings of his people, δια των αγνοηματων, Heb 9:7, and prayed for his persecutors at his death: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."
Because thou hast rejected knowledge] And that out of an utter hatred of it (as the Greek word made of the Hebrew signifieth, מאם thence μισεω), out of deep disdain, as of a thing below thee, and vile in thine eyes, not worthy of thy pains, or pursuit. Wisdom is the principal thing (saith Solomon, and he meaneth that wisdom that hath the fear of God for its foundation), therefore get wisdom, Pro 4:5. It is here called hadagnath, that knowledge, by an excellence, and with an accent, in opposition to that science, falsely so called, 1Ti 6:20; that knowledge that puffeth up, 1Co 8:1, as it did Joseph Scaliger (that gulf of learning), for whom it had been happy, that he had been ignorant but of this one thing, that he knew so much. It is the "acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness" (as the apostle describeth it, Tit 1:1), that perfects the best part of a man, that confirmeth, settleth, guideth, discerneth, differenceth him from others, who are no better than brutes (though wise in their own generation, as are the fox, serpent, &c.), and maketh his face to shine, Ecc 8:1, as St Stephen’s did, who was taught of God, and mighty in the Scriptures. This holy knowledge was highly prized by Agur, Pro 30:2, but slighted by those two slubbering priests, the sons of Eli, sons of Belial, they knew not the Lord, 1Sa 2:12; they knew him apprehensively, but not effectively; they professed that they knew God, but in their works they denied him, being abominable, and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate, Tit 1:16. "He that saith, I know him" (saith St John, 1Jn 2:4), "and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." Many of these Jeroboam’s priests were ignorant asses; like that bishop of Durkelden, in Scotland, who boasted, yea, thanked God, that he never knew what the Old and New Testament was, and that he would care to know nothing but his Portuise and his Pontifical; or that idol pastor in Germany, who being asked by the visitors, whether he taught his people the Decalogue? answered, that he had not the book so called (Joh. Manl. loc. com.). Others of them, that knew more of God’s mind, yet neither cared to practise it, nor to teach transgressors God’s ways, that sinners might be converted unto him, Psa 51:13.
I will also reject thee] And that with a witness, with an unwonted and extraordinary rejection, as the Hebrew word, Veemaseka (not found elsewhere in the same form), seemeth to import (Tremel. in locum); God will kick such ignoramuses out of the priesthood, cast them out of the hearts of his people, throw them to the dunghill, as unsavoury salt; yea, so reject them, as never to be received again, Eze 44:13. God will shake them out from his house, and from his labour, Neh 5:13 (as the Tirshatha did those apostate priests, Ezr 2:63), and lay them by, as broken vessels of which there is no further use; taking from them even that which they seemed to have, Luk 8:18, and blasting their gifts. See Zec 11:17, {See Trapp on "Zec 11:17"}
Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God] i.e. All that holy learning which thou, being a priest, oughtest to have and to hold in firm and fresh remembrance, for the good of the poor people, which, by thy default, is cut off for lack of knowledge, even the knowledge of the salvation by the remission of their sins, which thou shouldest have given them, Luk 1:77, not by infusion, but by instruction, which is the priest’s proper office. But thou (alas) hast forgotten that little of my law thou once hadst attained unto; and art grown as very a dolt and dotard as Theodorus Gaza (once a great scholar, but), in his dotage so ignorant, that he knew not his letters; he could not read. Nay, thou art not only a silly ass, but a slow belly; all thy care is for fat sacrifices and benefices, thy wits are in thy belly, and thy guts in thy brain; hence thy forgetfulness of my law, and of my people’s welfare. The Arabic translation hath it thus, "Inasmuch as thou hast loved this, and the consolation, therefore I will reject and forget thee," &c. Demas forsook Paul, and embraced this present world; yea, he became afterwards a priest in an idol temple at Thessalonica, as Dorotheus testifieth. The Vulgate Latin translation rendereth this text in the feminine gender, quia oblita est, against all grammar and good reason; for the Lord here speaketh to the priest, and chiefly to the chief priest, qui certe femina non erat, who certainly was not a woman, saith Polanus, who sure was no woman; unless the old interpreter (like another Balaam’s ass) would have this to have been spoken against the see of Rome, wherein Pope Joan sometime sat, A.D. 854. Sure it is, that the arch-priests of Rome are so delighted in the feminine gender, that they had rather attribute the breaking of the serpent’s head to a woman, the Virgin Mary, than to the "man Christ Jesus"; for in their last edition of the Latin Bible, they print, Gen 3:15, Ipsa conteret tibi caput, She shall bruise thine head, &c. Thus Polanus.
I also will forget thy children] Thy spiritual children, say some, even that whole people who saluted their priests (as the Papists do their padres) by the name of father, and observed their institutes. But they do better that understand the text of their natural children, whom God here threateneth to forget, that is, to put them by the priest’s office, as he threatened Eli, 1Sa 2:30, and thrust out Abiathar, 1Ki 2:27, fourscore years after. It is a dreadful thing to be forgotten of God. We take it ill to be forgotten of a friend, and to be as a dead man, out of mind, Psa 31:12. O take heed that God forget not us and our children: that he cast not off the care and keeping of us. He is so liberal a Lord, and doth so little forget our labour of love and patience of hope, as that he provideth for the posterity of his people: Psa 69:36, "The seed also of the servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein." Who then would not hire himself to such a master; who would not remember God’s law and teach it others, if but for his poor children’s sake, who else will rue for it?
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 On vv6–9 My people: the divorce was not yet issued out,…
My people: the divorce was not yet issued out, the ten tribes yet were in some sense Ammi. Are destroyed; not only in the prophetic style, are, because ere long they shall most certainly be destroyed, but in the course of the history it is plain in matter of fact; many of them were cut off by Pul king of Assyria, 2Ki 15, and many were destroyed by the bloody and cruel tyranny of Menahem, and more were ruined in their estates by exactions and impositions. The civil wars, the seditions, the usurpations of some and the deposing of others, were things the prophet Hosea lived to see, and I believe speaks of here as things that had already destroyed many.
For lack of knowledge of God, his law, his menaces, his providences, and government of the world. Had they known his holy nature, his jealousy for his own glory, his hatred of sin and his power to punish it, had they known their God, they would either have forborne to sin, or repented of what sins they had committed, and so prevented his wrath. Because thou: the prophet now turns his words from the people to the priests among them. The people’s ignorance was much from the ignorance and profane humour of their priests, and this the prophet doth tacitly charge on the priests, to whom he speaks as to one particular person:
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Thou, who callest thyself, art accounted by the people, and goest under the name of a priest.
Hast rejected knowledge: strange perverseness! they who should direct others, who should be teachers, are and will be ignorant, will not know, reject knowledge; detestest to know, as the Chaldee paraphrase.
I will also reject thee; with equal dislike I will reject time, I will destroy your church constitution, and with that I will destroy your priesthood; and I will do this with detestation and abhorrence too.
Thou hast forgotten the law of thy God: O Israel, and you, O priests, you have all sinned together, slighted and disrespected the law, broken all the precepts of it, set up other gods, other worship, other priests than the law directs.
I will also forget; I will pay thee in thy own coin, I will forget, i. e. slight and disregard.
Thy children; the people of Israel, the whole kingdom of the ten tribes; both those pretended priests and their ghostly children with them.
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 On v6 God is here proceeding in his controversy both with…
God is here proceeding in his controversy both with the priests and with the people. The people were as those that strove with the priests (Hos 4:4) when they had priests that did their duty; but the generality of them lived in the neglect of their duty, and here is a word for those priests, and for the people that love to have it so, Jer 5:31. And it is observable here how the punishment answers to the sin, and how, for the justifying of his own proceedings, God sets the one over-against the other.
I. The people strove with the priests that should have taught them the knowledge of God; justly therefore were they destroyed for lack of knowledge, Hos 4:6. Note, Those that rebel against the light can expect no other than to perish in the dark. Or it is a charge upon the priests, who should have been still teaching the people knowledge (Ecc 12:9), but they did not, or did it in such a manner that it was as if they had not done it at all, so there was no knowledge of God in the land; and because there was no vision, or none to any purpose, the people perished, Pro 29:18. Note, Ignorance is so far from being the mother of devotion that it is the mother of destruction; lack of knowledge is ruining to any person or people. They are my people that are thus destroyed; their relation to God as his people aggravates both their sin in not taking pains to get the knowledge of that God whose command they were under and with whom they were taken into covenant, and likewise the sin of those who should have taught them; God set his children to school to them, and they never minded them nor took any pains with them.
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II. Both priests and people rejected knowledge; and justly therefore will God reject them. The reason why the people did not learn, and the priests did not teach, was not because they had not the light, but because they hated it - not because they had not ways of coming to the knowledge of God and of communicating it, but because they had no heart to it; they rejected it. They desired not the knowledge of God's ways, but put it from them, and shut their eyes against the light; and therefore "I will also reject thee; I will refuse to take cognizance of thee and to own thee; you will not know me, but bid me depart; I will therefore say, Depart from me, I know you not. Thou shalt be no priest to me." 1. The priests shall be no longer admitted to the privileges, or employed in the services, of the priesthood, nor shall they ever be received again, as we find, Eze 44:13. Note, Ministers that reject knowledge, that are grossly ignorant and scandalous, ought not to be owned as ministers; but that which they seem to have should be taken away, Luk 8:18. 2. The people shall be no longer as they have been, a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood, Exo 19:6. God's people, by rejecting knowledge, forfeit their honour and profane their own crown.
III. They forgot the law of God, neither desired nor endeavoured to retain it in mind, nor to transmit the remembrance of it to their posterity, and therefore justly will God forget them and their children, the people's children; they did not educate them, as they ought to have done, in the knowledge of God and their duty to him, and therefore God will disown them, as not in covenant with him. Note, If parents do not teach their children, when they are young, to remember their Creator, they cannot expect that their Creator should remember them. Or it may be meant of the priests' children; they shall not succeed them in the priests' office, but shall be reduced to poverty, as is threatened against Eli's house, Sa1 2:20.
IV. They dishonoured God with that which was their honour, and justly therefore will God strip them of it, Hos 4:7. It was their honour that they were increased in number, wealth, power, and dignity. The beginning of their nation was small, but in process of time it greatly increased, and grew very considerable; the family of the priests increased wonderfully. But, as they were increased, so they sinned against God. The more populous the nation grew, the more sin was committed and the more profane they were; their wealth, honour, and power, did but make them the more daring in sin. Therefore, says God, will I change their glory into shame. Are their numbers their glory? God will diminish them and make them few. Is their wealth their glory? God will impoverish them and bring them low; so that they shall themselves be ashamed of that which they gloried in. Their priests shall be made contemptible and base, Mal 2:9. Note, That which is our honour, if we dishonour God with it, will sooner or later be turned into shame to us: for those that despise God shall be lightly esteemed, Sa1 2:30.
V. The priests ate up the sin of God's people, and therefore they shall eat and not have enough. 1. They abused the maintenance that was allowed to the priests, to the priests of the house of Aaron, by the law of God, and to the mock-priests of the calves by their constitution (Hos 4:8): They eat up the sin of my people, that is, their sin-offerings. If it be meant of the priests of the calves, it intimates their seizing that which they had no right to; they usurped the revenues of the priests, though they were no priests. If it be meant of those who were legal priests, it intimates their greediness of the profits and perquisites of their office, when they took no care at all to do the duty of it. They feasted upon their part of the offerings of the Lord, but forgot the work for which they were so well paid. They set their heart upon the people's iniquities; they lifted up their soul to them, that is, they were glad then people did commit iniquity, that they might be obliged to bring an offering to make atonement for it, which they should have their share of; the more sins the more sacrifices, and therefore they cared not how much sin people were guilty of. Instead of warning the people against sin, from the consideration of the sacrifices, which showed them what an offence sin was to God, since it needed such an expiation, they emboldened and encouraged the people to sin, since an atonement might be made at so small an expense. Thus they glutted themselves upon the sins of the people, and helped to keep up that which they should have beaten down. Note, It is a very wicked thing to be well pleased with the sins of others because, in some way or other, they may turn to our advantage. 2. God will therefore deny them his blessing upon their maintenance (Hos 4:10): They shall eat and not have enough. Though they have great plenty by the abundance of offerings that are brought in, yet they shall have no satisfaction in it. Either their food shall yield no good nourishment or their greedy appetites shall not be satisfied with it. Note, What is unlawfully gained cannot be comfortably used; no, nor that which is inordinately coveted; it is just that the desires which are insatiable should always be unsatisfied, and that those should never have enough who never know when they have enough. See Mic 6:14; Hag 1:6.
VI. The more they increased the more they sinned (Hos 4:7), and therefore though they commit whoredom, though they take the most wicked methods to multiply their people, yet they shall not increase. Though they have many wives and concubines, as Solomon had, yet they shall not have their families built up thereby in a numerous progeny, any more than he had. Note, Those that hope any way to increase by unlawful means will be disappointed. And therefore God will thus blast all their projects because they have left off to take heed to the Lord; time was when they had some regard to God, and to his authority over them and interest in them, but they have left it off; they take no heed to his word nor to his providences; they do not eye him in either. They forsake him, so as not to take heed to him; they have apostatized to such a degree that they have no manner of regard to God, but are perfectly without God in the world. Note, Those that leave off to take heed to the Lord leave off all good, and can expect no other than that all good should leave them.
VII. The people and the priests did harden one another in sin; and therefore justly shall they be sharers in the punishment (Hos 4:9): There shall be, like people, like priest. So they were in character; people and priest were both alike ignorant and profane, regardless of God and their duty, and addicted to idolatry: and so they shall be in condition; God will bring judgments upon them, that shall be the destruction both of priest and people; the famine that deprives the people of their meat shall deprive the priests of their meat-offerings, Joe 1:9. It is part of the description of a universal desolation that it shall be as with the people, so with the priest, Isa 24:2. God's judgments, when they come with commission, will make no difference. Note, Sharers in sin must expect to be sharers in ruin. Thus God will punish them both for their ways, and reward them for their doings. God will cause their doings to return upon them (so the word is); when a sin is committed the sinner thinks it is gone and he shall hear no more of it, but he shall find it called over again, and made to return, either to his humiliation or to his condemnation.
VIII. They indulged themselves in the delights of sense, to hold up their hearts; but they shall find that they take away their hearts (Hos 4:11): Whoredom, and wine, and new wine take away the heart. Some join this with the foregoing words. They have forsaken the Lord, to take heed to whoredom, and wine, and new wine. Or, Because these have taken away their heart. Their sensual pleasures have taken them off from their devotions and drowned all that is good in them. Or we may take it as a distinct sentence, containing a great truth which we see confirmed by every day's experience, that drunkenness and uncleanness are sins which besot and infatuate men, weaken and enfeeble them. They take away both the understanding and the courage.
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 On vv6–9 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,.... This…
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,.... This is not to be understood of those who are the Lord's people by special grace; for they cannot he destroyed, at least with everlasting destruction; God's love to them, his choice of them, covenant with them, the redemption of them by Christ, and the grace of God in them, secure them from such destruction: nor can they perish through want of knowledge; for though they are by nature as ignorant as others, yet it is the determinate will of God to bring them to the knowledge of the truth, in order to salvation; and that same decree which fixes salvation as the end, secures the belief of the truth as the means; and the covenant of grace provides for their knowledge of spiritual things, as well as other spiritual blessings; in consequence of which their minds are enlightened by the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, and they have the knowledge of God and Christ given them, which is life eternal. But this is to he understood of the people of the ten tribes of Israel, who were nationally and nominally the people of God, were so by profession; they called themselves the people of God; and though they were idolaters, yet they professed to worship God in their idols; and as yet God's "loammi" had not taken place upon them; he still sent his prophets among them, to reprove and reform them, and they were not as yet finally rejected by him, and cast out of their land. These may be said to be "destroyed", because they were threatened with destruction, and it was near at hand, they were just upon the brink of it; and because of the certainty of it, and this "through the lack of knowledge": either in the people, who were ignorant of God, his mind, and will, and worship, and without fear and reverence of him, which was the cause of all the abominations they ran into, for which they were threatened with ruin; or in the priests, whose business it was to teach and instruct the people; but instead of teaching them true doctrine, and the true, manner of worship, taught them false doctrine, and led them into superstition and idolatry; and so they perished through the default of the priests in performing their office; which sense is confirmed by what follows:
because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shall be no priest to me; the priests that Jeroboam made were of the lowest of the people, ignorant and illiterate men, Kg1 12:31 and they chose to continue such; they rejected with contempt and abhorrence, as the word signifies, the knowledge of God, and of all divine things; of the law of God, concerning what was to be done, or not to be done, by the people; and of all statutes and ordinances relating to divine worship, and the performance of the priestly office: and though there might be some of Aaron's line that continued in the land of Israel, and in their office; yet these affected the same ignorance, and therefore the Lord threatens them with a rejection from the priesthood; or, however, that they should be no priests to him, or in his account, but should be had in the utmost abhorrence and contempt, The word here used has a letter in it more than usual (s), which may signify the utter rejection of them, and the great contempt they were had in by the Lord; this was to take place, and did, at the captivity by Shalmaneser.
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Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God: which he had given them, who was their God by profession; and which they had forgot as if they never had read or learnt it; and so as not to observe and keep it themselves, nor teach and instruct others in it:
I will also forget thy children; have no regard to them, take no notice and care of them, as if they were never known by him; meaning either the people in general, their disciples and spiritual children; or else their natural children, who should be cut off, and not succeed them in the priesthood. The words are very emphatic, "I will forget them, even I" (t); which expresses the certainty of it more fully, as well as more clearly points at the justness of the retaliation.
(s) the last is superfluous; the reason of the word being so written. Ben Melech confesses his ignorance of. (t) "etiam ego", Pagninus, Montanus, Zanchius, Cocceius, Rivet, Schmidt.
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 On vv6–8 Destroyed - Many were already cut off by Pul…
Destroyed - Many were already cut off by Pul king of Assyria, and many destroyed by the bloody tyranny of Menahem. Of knowledge - Of God, his law, his providence, his holy nature, his hatred of sin and power to punish it. Because thou - The prophet now turns from the people to the priests, to whom he speaks as to one person. Rejected knowledge - Art and wilt be ignorant. Seeing thou - O Israel, and you O priests, you have broken all the precepts of it. Thy children - The people of Israel, the whole kingdom of the ten tribes.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv6–9 Verse 6. My people are destroyed for lack of…
Verse 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge] They have not the knowledge of God, nor of sacred things, nor of their own interest, nor of the danger to which they are exposed. They walk on blindly, and perish.
Because thou hast rejected knowledge] So they might have become wise, had they not rejected the means of improvement.
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Thou shalt be no priest to me] If this be the true reading, there must be reference to some particular priest, well known, to whom these words are personally addressed; unless by priest the whole priesthood is meant, and then it may apply to the priests of Jeroboam's calves.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Hos 4:6. My people are destroyed for lack of…
Hos 4:6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge — The ignorance of the nature, necessity, and excellence of true religion, which prevailed among the Jews and Israelites, was one principal cause of those sins which drew down such heavy judgments upon them. Because thou hast rejected knowledge — That is, wouldest not use the means of knowledge which thou hadst. “But this lack of knowledge in the people was, in a great measure, owing to the want of that constant instruction which they ought to have received from the priests. The mention of it, therefore, occasions a sudden transition from general threatenings to particular denunciations against the priesthood.” I will also reject thee — The high-priest for the time being, as the representative of the whole order, seems to be here addressed; that thou shalt be no priest to me — “Since the person threatened was to be rejected from being a priest, he was priest at the time when he was threatened; otherwise he had not been a subject of rejection. The person threatened therefore must have been the head, for the time being, of the true Levitical priesthood, not of the intruded priesthood of Jeroboam. This is a proof, that the metropolis, threatened with excision is Jerusalem, not Samaria, and that the ten tribes exclusively are not the subject of this part of the prophecy.” — Bishop Horsley. Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God — Hast neither desired nor endeavoured to understand, or retain it in thy mind, nor to transmit the knowledge and remembrance of it to posterity. I will also forget thy children — Thy offspring, or the people whose priest thou art, and of whom thou oughtest to have taken a fatherly care; I will not look upon them any longer as the seed of Abraham, and children of my covenant.
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 On vv6–9 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge -…
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge - “My people are,” not, “is.” This accurately represents the Hebrew . The word “people” speaks of them as a whole; are, relates to the individuals of whom that whole is composed. Together, the words express the utter destruction of the whole, one and all. They are destroyed “for lack of knowledge,” literally, “of the knowledge,” i. e., the only knowledge, which in the creature is real knowledge, that knowledge, of the want of which he had before complained, the knowledge of the Creator. So Isaiah mourns in the same words , “therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge” Isa 6:13. They are destroyed for lack of it, for the true knowledge of God is the life of the soul, true life, eternal life, as our Saviour saith, “This is life eternal, that they should know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent.” The source of this lack of knowledge, so fatal to the people, was the willful rejection of that knowledge by the priest;
Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me - God marks the relation between the sin and the punishment, by retorting on them, as it were, their own acts; and that with great emphasis, “I will utterly reject thee . Those, thus addressed, must have been true priests, scattered up and down in Israel, who, in an irregular way, offered sacrifices for them, and connived at their sins. For God’s sentence on them is, “thou shalt be no priest to me.” But the priests whom Jeroboam consecrated out of other tribes than Levi, were priests not to God, but to the calves. Those then, originally true priests to God, had probably a precarious livelihood, when the true worship of God was deformed by the mixture of the calf-worship, and the people “halted between two opinions;” and so were tempted by poverty also, to withhold from the people unpalatable truth. They shared, then, in the rejection of God’s truth which they dissembled, and made themselves partakers in its suppression. And now, they “despised, were disgusted” with the knowledge of God, as all do in fact despise and dislike it, who prefer ought besides to it. So God repaid their contempt to them, and took away the office, which, by their sinful connivances, they had hoped to retain.
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Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God - This seems to have been the sin of the people. For the same persons could not, at least in the same stage of sin, despise and forget. They who despise or “reject,” must have before their mind that which they “reject.” To reject is willful, conscious, deliberate sin, with a high hand; to “forget,” an act of negligence. The rejection of God’s law was the act of the understanding and will, forgetfulness of it comes from the neglect to look into it; and this, from the distaste of the natural mind for spiritual things, from being absorbed in things of this world, from inattention to the duties prescribed by it, or shrinking from seeing “that” condemned, which is agreeable to the flesh. The priests knew God’s law and “despised” it; the people “forgat” it. In an advanced stage of sin, however, man may come to forget what he once despised; and this is the condition of the hardened sinner.
I will also forget thy children - Literally, “I will forget thy children, I too.” God would mark the more, that His act followed on their’s; they, first; then, He saith, “I too.” He would requite them, and do what it belonged not to His Goodness to do first. Parents who are careless as to themselves, as to their own lives, even as to their own shame, still long that their children should not be as themselves. God tries to touch their hearts, where they are least steeled against Him. He says not, “I will forget thee,” but I will forget those nearest thy heart, “thy children.” God is said to forget, when He acts, as if His creatures were no longer in His mind, no more. the objects of His providence and love.
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 On vv6–9 Silent. Septuagint, "like those who had," &c. --- Knowledge.…
Silent. Septuagint, "like those who had," &c. --- Knowledge. Jeroboam I had appointed unlawful priests, and some of the house of Aaron went over to him, and were excluded from officiating at Jerusalem, after the captivity, 1 Kings xii. 31., and Ezechiel xliv. 10. Knowledge is always expected of priests, Deuteronomy xvii. 8., and Malachias ii. 7. (Gratian. dist. 38. c. omnes.) (Calmet) --- When the power of sacrificing is withdrawn, all spiritual functions cease, as sacrifice belongs properly to a priest. (Worthington)
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 On vv6–9 lack of knowledge--"of God" (Hos 4:1), that is, lack…
lack of knowledge--"of God" (Hos 4:1), that is, lack of piety. Their ignorance was wilful, as the epithet, "My people," implies; they ought to have known, having the opportunity, as the people of God.
thou--O priest, so-called. Not regularly constituted, but still bearing the name, while confounding the worship of Jehovah and of the calves in Beth-el (Kg1 12:29, Kg1 12:31).
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I will . . . forget thy children--Not only those who then were alive should be deprived of the priesthood, but their children who, in the ordinary course would have succeeded them, should be set aside.
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 On vv7, 9 7. They — The priests. Were increased [“multiplied”] —…
7. They — The priests. Were increased [“multiplied”] — Not only in numbers, but also in wealth and prosperity, sharing in the glories of the successful reign of Jeroboam II.
They sinned against me — Prosperity led to moral and religious corruption among the people; the priests instead of stemming the tide of worldliness were carried away by it, and rather encouraged it (Hos_4:8; compare Mic_3:11).
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Change their glory into shame — From their honorable position as representatives of Jehovah they will be cast into shame and degradation. In Hos_4:5-6 the description of sin is followed by announcement of judgment; this is also the order in Hos_4:7 and gives acceptable sense; emendations therefore seem unnecessary. It should be noted, however, that Targum and Peshitto appear to have read “they have changed” instead of “I will change.” That would be an additional description of the priests’ corruption; they have exchanged the glory which was theirs as priests of the true God for the degrading position of priests of the Baalim — not in name, perhaps, but in deed. Ancient Jewish tradition recognizes this as a more accurate text but goes further, declaring that “their glory” was originally “my glory”; that is, they have exchanged the glory of Jehovah for the shameful service of the Baalim. All three readings give satisfactory sense; and in view of the conflicting testimony it may be impossible to say with certainty which is the original.
Hos_4:8 continues the condemnation of the priests. Their holy office they use for selfish and mean ends.
They eat up the sin of my people — Better, with R.V., “They feed on the sin of my people.” It is not necessary to translate sin offering for “sin”; and the question whether sin offering, in the technical sense of the term, was known in the days of Hosea cannot be determined from this passage; it is quite possible that it did exist. In a general sense all offerings may be called sin offerings. The thought is that “the more the people sin the more merrily thrive the priests”; for they receive a share of nearly all the offerings (1Sa_2:13-17).
They (the priests) set their heart — Literally every one his heart. The expression means to cherish a longing for, and thus to encourage (Deu_24:15; Psa_24:4).
Their — The people’s.
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 On vv6–9 6. My people are destroyed] The prophet cannot escape,…
6. My people are destroyed] The prophet cannot escape, because the people is on the brink of ruin through the prophet’s fault. It is the perfect of prophetic certitude, ‘my people is already as good as destroyed.’
for lack of knowledge] More precisely, by reason of (their) lack of knowledge. The ‘knowledge of God’ is meant (see on Hos_4:1).
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thou hast rejected knowledge] Thou is emphatically expressed in the Hebrew. ‘Knowledge’, viz. of God’s revealed will, was theoretically a deposit in the priestly order (Deu_33:10; Eze_44:23; Mal_2:7). There is no reason to think that the ‘priest-people’ of Israel is addressed; there was no priest-people till after the return from exile.
forgotten … forget] To ‘forget’ what has been committed to one’s charge is the same as to ignore it. The penalty of the priests is not really distinct from that of the people (see Hos_4:9); the priestly office could in no full sense be maintained in captivity.
the law of thy God] ‘Thy God’, because the priest was specially ‘brought near’ to Jehovah. ‘The law’, Heb. tôrâh, will cover oral as well as written instructions (comp. Deu_17:11), but a later passage (Hos_8:12) shows that a written legislation existed in Hosea’s time. The contents of this may be presumed from Hosea’s language to have been, at any rate to a large extent, concerned with applications of religious morality.
thy children] i.e. the members of the priestly caste; ‘thy brethren’ would be more consistent with the figure (comp. ‘thy mother’, Hos_4:5).
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 On vv6, 7, 9 (6) For lack of knowledge, which you, O priest,…
(6) For lack of knowledge, which you, O priest, should have kept alive in their hearts. The knowledge of God is life eternal. (Comp. Joh_17:3.) The Lord’s “controversy” repudiates the entire priesthood, as they had rejected the true knowledge of God. They had inclined to calf-worship, had been vacillating respecting Baal, and had connived at moral offences. If, on the other hand, with most commentators, we consider the people themselves as thus addressed, the passage refers to the cessation of the position of priesthood, which every member of the true theocracy ought to have maintained. (Comp. Exo_19:6.) The people should no longer be priests to Jehovah.
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 On vv6–9 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Here…
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Here the verb is plural and its subject singular, because, being collective, it comprehends all the individual members of the nation. The word wmdk is rendered
(1) by Jerome in the sense of "silence:" "conticuit populus incus," which he explains to mean "sinking into eternal silence." So also the Chaldee.
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(2) The LXX, understands it in the sense of "likeness:" "My people are like (wmoiwyh ) as if they had no knowledge." Aben Ezra disproves this sense as follows: "This word, if it were from the root signifying "likeness," would have after it el with seghol, as, "To el with seghol whom art thou like in thy greatness?"; (Eze_31:2) but without the word el it has the meaning of "cutting off. So Kimchi: "Here also it has the sense of "cutting off. The article before "knowledge" implies renewed mention and refers to the word in ver. 1; or it may emphasize the word as that knowledge by way of eminence, which surpasses all other knowledge, and without which no other knowledge can really prove a blessing in the end. The knowledge of God is the most excellent of all sciences. Paul counted all things but loss in comparison with its possession; and our blessed Lord himself says, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent;" while the Prophet Isaiah attributed the captivity to its absence: "My people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge." Because thou hast rejected knowledge... seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy Son. The cause of this ignorance is here charged on the unfaithfulness of the priesthood. They rejected knowledge and forgot the Law of their God. The two concluding clauses of this verse may be regarded as "split members" of a single sentence. As rejection implies the presence of the object rejected, while forgetfulness implies its absence from the mind or memory, some have understood rejection of knowledge as the sin of the priest, and forgetfulness that of the people. This separation is not necessary, for what men continue for a time to despise they will by-and-by forget. The forgetfulness is thus an advance upon rejection. The sin of these priests was very great, for, while the priests" lips were required to keep knowledge, they neither preserved that knowledge themselves nor promoted it among the people; hence the indignant and direct address. Thus Kimchi says: "He addresses the priestly order that existed at that time: Thou hast rejected he knowledge for thyself and to teach it to the people, consequently I will reject thee from being a priest unto me. Since thou dost not exercise the office of priest, which is to teach the Law, I will reject thee so that thou shalt not be a priest in my house." I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no priest to me... I will also forget thy children, even I The punishment resembles the offence; the human delinquency is reflected in the Divine retaliation. To make this the more pointed, the "thou on thy part (attah)" at the head of the sentence has its counterpart, or rather is counterbalanced by the "even I" or "I too (gam ani )" at its close. The severity of the punishment is augmented by the threat that, not only the then existing priests, but their sons after them, would be excluded from the honor of the priesthood. This was touching painfully the tenderest part. It needs scarcely be observed that forgetfulness is only spoken of God in a figurative sense, and after the manner of men, that being forgotten which is no longer the object of attention or affection. "The meaning of va," says Kimchi, "is by way of figure, like the man who forgets something and does not take it to heart." The unusual form has been variously accounted for. The Massorites mark the aleph before caph as redundant; it is omitted in several manuscripts of Kennicott and De Rossi, as also some of the early printed editions. Kimchi confesses his ignorance of its use. Olshausen treats it as a copyist"s error; but Ewald "regards it as an Aram-seen pausal form." Some take the reference to be to Israel as a kingdom of priests (Exo_19:6) rather than to the actual priesthood.
Vers. 6-10. Priestly neglect and its consequences.
This section deals with the sin and punishment of the priests, as the preceding one had described the sin and punishment of the people. The priests here referred to were probably Levitical priests still scattered through the northern kingdom, since God speaks of them as his priests; while those which Jeroboam appointed out of other tribes than that of Levi, and from all, even the lowest, ranks of society, were rather priests for the worship of the calves.
I MINISTERIAL UNFAITHFULNESS. The ignorance of the people is here attributed to priestly negligence. They disliked and despised the knowledge of God for themselves, and consequently had no heart for dispensing it to others. The means available for knowing God they did not take advantage of, and accordingly their own ignorance unfitted them for instructing the people. Idleness combined with indifference in the ease of these unfaithful ministers of religion, so that they were neither rightly instructed themselves nor capable of instructing others; while their carelessness increased their incapacity. It is incumbent on all public teachers to be diligent in their private studies; and a fearful responsibility is incurred by those who, appointed to instruct others in religious matters, refuse to take the pains necessary to qualify them for the efficient discharge of such important duty. It is a grievous sin for ministers of religion to serve God with what costs them nothing, and so to feed God"s people with husks instead of the finest of the wheat. How different is the picture our Lord gives us of one who is faithful to such an important trust! "Therefore," he says, "every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.
II THE PUNISHMENT CORRESPONDS TO THEIR SIN. They had rejected Divine knowledge; God rejects their priestly services. They had forgotten the Law from disuse, no doubt having previously forsaken it; God threatens to forget them, and, what was more galling, their children after them, so that the priesthood would be lost to them forever. Wunsche and some others insist that it is the people and not the priesthood that is here addressed; that the whole nation is addressed as a single person, and that consequently the children are the individual members of the nation. Both priests and people were guilty in this matter. Both had shut their eyes upon the light, and the light was at length withdrawn. Both had said, "Depart from us: we desire not the knowledge of thy ways;" and God in turn had virtually said to them, "Depart from me: I know you not." The priests, whose duty was to teach the people knowledge, had been unable or unwilling to do so, and the people remained in ignorance; the people, who should have received the Law from the priests" lips, are represented as striving with, and gainsaying, their spiritual instructors. The consequence was that they destroyed themselves, for the verb nidmu has here the proper reflexive sense of the Niphal; nor is it without knowledge, but because of the want of (mibb"li) the necessary knowledge. The punishment, if it be not a re-echo, yet reminds us of 1Sa_15:26, where Samuel says to Saul, "For thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel." The worst feature of the case was their gross and grievous ingratitude; for just in proportion as, they increased in numbers and in wealth they multiplied transgression; just as of old when Jeshurun waxed fat, he kicked," Kimchi, indeed, in mentioning the exposition of those who regarded the increase as financial rather than numerical, says, "Some interpret "according to their increase" as equivalent to as I increased them in wealth and riches so they sinned after the manner of "when Jeshurun waxed fat he kicked. Their either in number or riches and both we think, are included ministered to the sins of an unthankful people, and afforded occasions of trespassing yet more and more against God. Justly, then, did God turn to shame that which he had given Israel for the Divine glory, but which Israel used for vain-glory. "He," says Pusey," not only gives them shame instead of their glory; he makes the glory itself the means and occasion of their shame. Beauty becomes the occasion of degradation; pride is proverbially near a fall; "vaulting ambition overleaps itself and falls on the "other side;" riches and abundance of population tempt nations to wars which become their destruction, or they invite other and stronger nations to prey upon them." Jehoash"s reproof of Amaziah and the result, as recorded in 2Ki_14:9-14, furnishes a good illustration of this subject.
III GAIN TAKES THE PLACE OF GODLINESS. Whichever interpretation be adopted, the general sense here remains the same. The priests pandered to the sins of the people, and, lest they should lose their influence with them, they connived at and countenanced their sins when they should have sharply censured them. Or they encouraged sin that they might share the sin offerings presented in expiation. What was this in either case but to live by and upon the sin of a people sinful and laden with iniquity? Calvin, who makes the priests and people share the sin in common, says, "There is a collusion between the priests and the people. How so? Because the priests were the associates of robbers, and gladly seized on what was brought; and so they carried on no war, as they ought to have done, with vices, but, on the contrary, urged only the necessity of sacrifices; and it was enough if men brought things plentifully to the temple. The people also themselves showed their contempt for God; for they imagined that, provided they made satisfaction by their ceremonial performances, they would be exempt from punishment. Thus, then, there was an ungodly compact between the priests and the people; the Lord was mocked in the midst of them.
IV WHAT IS GOT BY SIN GIVES NO SATISFACTION. "Ill got, ill gone," is a common proverb and a very pithy one; so with these faithless priests in their ministrations for a sinful people. They said in effect, "The more sin the more sacrifices, and so the greater share of our profits;" but there was no satisfaction in such things and no success by our share of profits;" but there was no satisfaction in such things and no success by them.
1. The pleasures of sin are mostly sensual; they last only for a season a short one; and they afford no real satisfaction even when they do last. "What profit," asks the apostle, "had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
2. The priests, instead of reproving sin, did practically recommend it by their own godless conduct; and the people were well pleased to have it so. Alike in sin, however, they shall be alike in suffering; they helped each other in sin, they must have their share in punishment. The priests abused their position by neither practicing piety themselves nor inculcating its practice on others; the people, freed from all restraint and having no fear of God before their eyes, sinned with a high hand. Both ran to an excess of riot, and both are to be punished with equal severity; neither can reasonably expect to be spared.
3. The root of the evil was their leaving off to take heed to the Lord. The word shamar, here rendered "to take heed to," is very expressive; it means to have a sharp eye upon, then to observe attentively. Applied to a person, it signifies to have the eye steadily set on his will, to meet his wishes, to obey. Thus it is said of one waiting on his master, as in Pro_27:18, "He that waiteth on his master shall be honored;" while in the hundred and twenty-third psalm we have a good practical illustration of the observance indicated: "Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us.
Vers. 6-14. Israel"s guilt and punishment.
Priests and people were guilty alike, and would be overtaken by one common doom.
I THE SIN OF THE PRIESTS.
1. They rejected the knowledge of God (ver. 6). They did not engage in the study of the Divine Law, and their lives were a violation of its precepts.
2. They consequently failed to teach the Law to the people (ver. 6).
3. They connived at the national idolatry, on account of the material profit which they obtained from it (ver. 8). The calf-worship brought them many sacrificial fees; so the priests, instead of rebuking the iniquity, "set their heart" upon its continuance.
II THE SIN OF THE PEOPLE.
1. They willfully forgot the Law of God (ver. 6).
2. The more prosperous they became externally, the more grievously they sinned (ver. 7).
3. They addicted themselves to idolatrous divination, using sometimes teraphim, and sometimes divining rods (ver. 12). In worshipping wooden gods, they showed themselves to be at once wooden-headed and wooden-hearted. (Psa_115:8)
4. They practiced the sensual rites of nature-worship with the temple prostitutes of Ashtaroth, and even were so shameless as sometimes to appear with them at the altar (vers. 13, 14). Impurity in one"s religion is often joined with uncleanness of body.
III THE DOOM THREATENED UPON BOTH. (Ver. 9.)
1. The priests and their sons would be deprived of their office, and the people would lose their high prerogative of being a priestly nation (ver. 6).
2. The glory of the kingdom would be turned into shame by reason of the loss of the numbers, wealth, and power in which they gloried (ver. 7).
3. Their sin would also become its own punishment (vers. 10, 11). The Lord would cause them to "eat of the fruit of their own way." The result would be surfeit, not satisfaction. Their sin would be their torment.
4. God would "give them up to vile affections;" he would cease to correct them for their idolatry and licentiousness, and thus visit them with reprobation (ver. 14).
CONCLUSION. Ver. 11 contains the solemn statement of a great moral truth respecting all sin, and which is specially applicable to sins of sensuality. Who can place confidence in the moral judgments of an adulterer or a fornicator? How sad when such men occupy positions of influence in Church or state! Beware of lust; it doth pollute and foul Whom God in baptism washed with his own blood: It blots thy lesson written in thy soul; The holy lines cannot be understood. How dare those eyes upon a Bible look, Much less towards God, whose lust is all their book! (George Herbert.) C.J.
Ignorance and destruction.
All classes in Israel were guilty of forsaking Jehovah, and all classes were reproached with the same sin. It is usually the case that rebellion against a righteous Lord, and neglect of sincere worship and devotion, are chargeable, if not equally so, upon high and low, learned and ignorant. And when none are free from guilt, none are exempt from condemnation.
I TRUE RELIGION IS BASED UPON KNOWLEDGE. Idolatry and superstition are compatible with ignorance, and are favored by ignorance. But the religion which is alone proper to man and acceptable to God is spiritual, and therefore intelligent. If this was the case with the Mosaic economy, how much more so with the Christian! In the Old Testament, the" fear of the Lord" and "wisdom" were the same; in the New Testament we are taught that life eternal consists in the knowledge of the true God through his Son. A religion of formal assent or observance, a religion of mere feeling and excitement, is vain. Knowledge alone is insufficient, but knowledge is nevertheless indispensable to true Christianity.
II THOSE SPECIALLY QUALIFIED AND APPOINTED AS MINISTERS OF RELIGION ARE BOUND TO DIFFUSE KNOWLEDGE. In Israel the priests and the prophets seem to have been both, if not equally, to blame for the irreligion and defection of the people. The priests taught religious knowledge by symbol, the prophets by word of mouth. Both orders were chargeable with negligence of these sacred and honorable duties. In the new and spiritual kingdom of Christ, there are no officers exactly corresponding to either the priests or the prophets of the Hebrews. But those whose ministry it is especially to teach, and all who by reason of their own gifts and position have the opportunity of imparting spiritual knowledge, are bound to communicate the Word of life.
III THE REJECTION OF KNOWLEDGE ON THE PART OF ANY INVOLVES THEIR OWN REJECTION BY GOD. Lack of knowledge is itself destruction. It is the starving of the soul through defect of spiritual nourishment. "They die without wisdom," is the mournful lamentation of the spectator of moral delinquency am] consequent destruction. Israel was rejected, and punished, was sent into a long captivity, because of religious defection and hardened impenitence. And it is a law of the Divine government that willful ignorance should entail moral deterioration. The plant cannot be taken into the darkness without suffering; its vitality is at once enfeebled, and gradually diminishes until it dies. It is so with the soul; it is so with the nation. This is a solemn warning to those who love moral darkness rather than light. It is an admonition to those who have the light that they walk therein.
IV THE HEAVIEST PENALTY FALLS UPON THOSE THROUGH WHOSE NEGLECT THE PEOPLE ARE LEFT IN SIN. Although a prophet himself, Hosea upbraided those called to the prophetic office who left the people in ignorance, and those priests who encouraged and led the people in sacrifices to the gods of" the heathen. Such were threatened with the Divine displeasure, and assured that they should no more sustain sacred offices, but should be deprived of all that made them honorable. It is ever the case that abuse of trust is worse than neglect of privileges, and that those who not only wander themselves, but lead others astray, as their guilt is greater, shall experience a sorer condemnation. T.
Religious ignorance.
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, 1 will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." These words suggest three things in relation to religious ignorance.
I IT IS DESTRUCTIVE. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Ignorance is not the mother of devotion, it is the mother of destruction.
1. What does it destroy? The growth of the soul in power, beauty, and fruitfulness.
2. How does it destroy? How can the lack of a thing destroy? How can nothing do mischief? The lack of heat and moisture will kill the vegetable kingdom; the lack of air will cause the extinction of all animal life. The soul without knowledge of God is like a plant without heat and moisture; an animal without the salubrious breeze.
II IT IS WILLFUL. "Because thou hast rejected knowledge." There is no culpability in a man being ignorant of some things. He may not have the means, the time, or the faculty for the particular attainment. Not so with the knowledge of God; it comes to him whether he will or not. It comes to him in the objects of nature; it comes to him in the necessary deductions of his reason; it comes to him in the intuitions of his moral nature. Besides, in some cases, as with the Israelites, it comes to man by special revelation. He rejects it. Ignorance of God is ever more a criminal ignorance. "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.
III IT IS GOD-OFFENDING. "I will also reject thee." It is not unnatural or unphilosophic to suppose that the condition of the man ignoring his existence must be to the last degree offensive to him. Hence he deals out retribution.
1. To themselves. "I will also reject thee," etc.
2. To their children. "I will also forget thy children." It is a Divine law springing from the constitution of society, that the iniquities of the fathers shall be visited on their children. Parents cannot do wrong without injuring their offspring. D.T.
Vers. 6-11. Priests and people.
The prophet addresses himself in this section to both priests and people, but chiefly to the priests, whom he regards as mainly responsible for the people"s defection.
I PRIESTS AND PEOPLE ALIKE IN THE REJECTION OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. (Ver. 6)
1. The tack of the knowledge of God. Israel possessed this knowledge of God once. It did not possess it now. There was little right knowledge of God"s character, of God"s Law, and of God"s past gracious dealings. Jehovah was regarded practically as one of the Baals. Destitute of right ideas of his spirituality, holiness, and moral demands, the people in their sinning did not feel how far they were going astray. Right ideas on these subjects could hardly penetrate into minds besotted with wine, whoredom, and the unholy rites of Baal and Astarte worship. In our own land of Bibles and churches, what dense ignorance of God and of Divine things might be found to prevail, if the matter were inquired into!
2. Causes of this lack of knowledge. The knowledge of God was lost, not through any fault on God"s part in not giving the means of knowledge, or in not sufficiently inculcating on the people the importance of using the means. God had given the people a Law; (Hos_8:12) he had laid upon the Levites the duty of teaching and of promoting the knowledge of its requirements; (Deu_33:10 Mal_3:5-7) he had laid the same duty on parents; (Deu_6:6-9) he had warned all of the dangers of inattention and forgetfulness. How, then, came the knowledge to be lost?
(1) The priests failed in teaching. (cf. Mal_2:8) A grave responsibility rests on the teachers of a nation. If they are faithful in duty, the knowledge of God can never be absolutely lost. If they do not teach, it is certain that a large number will always remain uninstructed. Their example has an influence on others.
(2) The people tailed in remembering. The priests had rejected (or despised) knowledge; the people had forgotten the Law of their God. The unfaithfulness of the professed teachers did not wholly exonerate those who were neglected. They had other means of knowledge. Had they been diligent in preserving the knowledge they had, and in handing it down by careful parental instruction, (Psa_78:4) this, aided by the study of the Law itself, would have kept alive true knowledge, and have saved the nation. We are responsible for the use we make even of scant opportunities.
(3) The cause of failure in both cases was a moral one. Neither priests nor people cared to retain God in their knowledge. This was how they allowed the knowledge of him to be lost. (cf. Rom_1:21, Rom_1:28) The departure of the heart from God comes first. There is then the indisposition to hear about him or learn about him. Thus the knowledge of him is lost. Such ignorance is culpable.
3. The fatal effects of this lack of knowledge.
(1) The people were destroyed. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." They had destroyed themselves. How many are thus destroyed who, had they been rightly taught in youth, might now have been foremost in God"s service! Parents, teachers, ministers, cannot too seriously reflect on the measure of their responsibility. (cf. Eze_3:17-21) We must teach men the way of salvation, if we expect them to find it or to walk in it. (Act_10:6, 33 16:17, 31)
(2) God rejected those who had rejected him. "I will reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to be." Place, office, honor, opportunities of usefulness, will be taken from us if we misuse them. (Pro_2:5, Pro_2:16)
(3) The children were lost through the unfaithfulness of the parents. "I will forget thy children.
II PRIESTS AND PEOPLE ALIKE IN SIN. (Vers. 7, 8) The sins alluded to are pride and covetousness.
1. Pride was the sin of the people. As they were increased, so they sinned against me." This is the danger of prosperity. Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked". (Deu_32:15) The heart grows haughty, and rebels at the restraints of the Divine Law. Moses foretold the danger, and warned against it. (Deu_8:10-20) Retribution would correspond in character to the sin. "I will turn their glory into shame.
2. Covetousness was peculiarly the sin of the priests. "They eat up the sin of my people," etc. The reference is to the flesh of the sin offerings, or, more generally, to revenues derived from transgressions (atonement money, etc.). The priests prostituted their sacred office for gain. They were glad at the iniquity of the people, if it brought them more income (cf. the Romish sale of pardons, etc.). It is shameful, under any circumstances, to seek gain by conniving at sin.
III PRIESTS AND PEOPLE ALIKE IN THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. (Vers. 9-11) "Like people, like priest." It is difficult to say which has the greater influence on the other, priest or people. The people are readily corrupted by their leaders. The leaders, on the other hand, are too apt to take their tone from the community. They act and react, and tend to a moral level. Alike in sin, priests and people are made alike in punishment. "I will punish them," etc. The punishment would be:
1. Congruous with the nature of the sin. They shall eat, and not have enough," etc. For plenty there would be substituted scarcity; greed would find its recompense in not having enough to satisfy; the nation that boasted of its increase would be made few in number. This is the general character of God"s punishments.
2. In part wrought out by the sins themselves. Sin strikes round to be its own avenger. Luxury and waste lead to poverty. The greed of the priest overreaches itself, and leads to the altar being deserted, and the office held in contempt. (Jud_1:17:9, 10 1Sa_2:36) Pampered appetite becomes a tyrant and tormentor. Licentiousness diminishes population.
3. Prepared for by infatuation. "Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart." "Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first madden." Infatuation precedes doom. 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 On vv6–9 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Hos_4:6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
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The perils of ignorance
If there is a knowledge on which not only the improvements and the refinements but the very being of society depends, the state of this must be in its nature most deeply awful and interesting. It was the language of pagan philosophy that such a knowledge did exist. The heathen wisdom was enabled to discern that all science, as exercised in its inferior provinces, required some principle of a sublimer nature, which might afford cement, consistence, and basis to every subordinate effort and exertion of the human intellect. In exploring this principle they however failed--and instead of substantial truth, were lost in the delusive twilight of a magnificent though ineffectual and perpetually baffled metaphysical speculation. Those on whom the daystar of revelation arose, found in the distinct discovery of a moral Governor of the universe, and the full and unequivocal display of His attributes, that knowledge which marks the origin, the limits, and the destination of every faculty, talent, and acquisition. When God tells us there is a knowledge for the lack of which a people is destroyed, we must infer that it is the knowledge of Himself, His nature, His providence, and His power. If it be true that knowledge and wisdom are the stability of prosperous times, the converse will equally claim our attention. Inquire into the moral causes of both these propositions. It is not my intention to institute a regular comparison between the various acquisitions and exertions of ourselves and our predecessors. I mark those intellectual habits which interfere with the cultivation of that knowledge which directs, superintends, and sanctifies every portion of wisdom we can acquire. Whatever was the region of science which our predecessors explored, they steadily kept in view the great Source of every good and perfect gift. And this not only in theology proper, but also in history, moral science, and natural philosophy. Every work was in some measure a school of Divine knowledge. Now it is rarely indeed that, except in works directly treating of theology, any pious reference, even when the subject most points to it, is made to the dispensation and moral government of Almighty God. To a variety of causes this may be traced; to none more than to pride, or to its abortion, vanity. This engenders a fondness for paradox, than which nothing can be a greater obstruction to all knowledge, and particularly to the knowledge of God and His dispensations. All paradox, even in its most ingenious forms, is mere debility, and in no instance a mark of energy or strength of mind. It is observable that, in proportion to the love for this, the intellectual appetite is palled and vitiated for the perception and investigation of genuine truth. Hence those mischievous abstractions, which when introduced into religion, morals, and politics have, from causes comparatively mean, produced the most extended and tremendous effects. In a short time there will (we have reason to fear) remain but two kinds of persons among us, either those who think not at all, or those whose imaginations are active indeed, but continually evil. Of these latter it may be said, Their foolish heart was darkened. Of the principles, I do not say of the detail, of political science, a sound theology is the only sure and steady basis. Now we trace the operations by which a destruction so extended in its consequences has been effected. The master-spring of every principle which can permanently secure the stability of a people is the fear and knowledge of Almighty God. The first operation of a principle of atheism, and perhaps one of the most formidable in its consequences, is that which leads political men to conceive of Christianity as a mere auxiliary to the State. Religion was not instituted (in the Divine council I mean) for the purpose of society and government, but society and government for the purposes of religion. As atheism presumptuously attempts to discard a moral government, in order to open a fearless unrestrained indulgence for the impetuosity of passion, so superstition administers, upon a principle of commutation, to those same indulgences. It is utterly subversive of the two grand pillars of the Divine administration, His justice and His mercy. Thus both atheism and superstition are instruments of the general adversary of mankind. Their origin is in the wilful ignorance of God, and their operation in the merciless destruction of His creatures. The present disastrous state of human affairs can only be ascribed to one source, a corruption of morals, produced by a previous depravation of the opinions of mankind. If the events we deplore and deprecate arise from ignorance, error, and false opinion; and this ignorance is specifically the ignorance of Almighty God and His dispensations, to revive and disseminate with activity the principles of a sound, Christian, and orthodox theology will be our best interest, as it is our bounden duty. (T. Rennell, D. D.)
The sin of public teachers
Here made responsible for the ignorance of the people.
1. As ignorance is a very rife and destroying sin in the visible Church, so the guilt thereof doth ofttimes lie in great part at preachers doors.
2. Such as would be able to teach others, ought to take much pains that they may be instructed themselves from God in His Word.
3. The more familiar occasion of converse men have with holy things, wanting holiness, their contempt and dislike of them will be the greater, and their opposition to light have the more perversity and the less infirmity in it.
4. Such as do for a time reject and resist means of knowledge, may at last come to lose the light they had.
5. The more relation any pretend to God, by virtue of their general or particular calling, the Lord will make use thereof to aggravate their sin and unanswerable walking.
6. Unfaithfulness in offices will cast men out of the Church, as unsavoury salt is cast out, which is a sad judgment.
7. It is a righteous judgment on unfaithful ministers that God suffers their posterity to be neglected. (George Hutcheson.)
Lack of knowledge
As if he had said, If they had the knowledge of God, they might have prevented all this, but they were ignorant and sottish people, and this was the forerunner of misery and destruction. The heathens were wont to say that if their god Jupiter would destroy one, he would first besot him; so these people were first besotted and then destroyed. Ignorance is not the mother of devotion, but rather the father and mother too of destruction. In the beginning of this chapter we have the sin of ignorance set forth, here we have its danger. There we had the charge, that they had no knowledge in the land; here we have the judgment, that they are destroyed for want of knowledge. Ignorance is not only the deformity of the soul as blindness is the deformity of the face; though a man or woman have never such a comely face otherwise, yet if they be blind, or have but one eye, it mars their beauty; so ignorance takes away the beauty of the soul; and not only so, but is dangerous and destructive, and that in these respects--
1. The rational creature is very active of itself, and will always be in motion, always working. Then, wanting knowledge, and surrounded by pits and snares, how dangerous is his situation!
2. Mans way is for eternity, and there is but one way that leads to an eternity of happiness, and that lies in the midst of a hundred crossways and bypaths. If he have not light, if he want knowledge, what is to become of him?
3. Man is not only going onward through dangers and byways, but he must go on with his own light. The soul that is ignorant no angel in heaven can help, except as an instrument of God to bring sight into his eyes.
4. The work we are to do about our souls and eternal estates is the most curious and most difficult piece of work, and we must do it by our own light.
5. Blindness in this world makes men objects of pity and compassion, but this ignorance and blindness make men to be the objects of the hatred and curse of God. God gave us light at first, we have brought ignorance upon ourselves. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
Lack of knowledge the destruction of a people
The tide of human affairs is ever throwing up upon the surface of society some one particular subject of special and engrossing interest. One of the prominent subjects of our time is education. It has been forced on the minds of thoughtful men by the lamentable results of allowing an exuberant population to outgrow the means of their moral and religious training, bequeathed by the wisdom and piety of their forefathers. Hosea the prophet was commissioned to denounce Gods just displeasure, and His determination to inflict punishment upon a people that refused to be reformed. God had a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there was no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. It is a serious question how far such language may befit ourselves. It is certain that there is a fearful lack of knowledge of God in our times.
I. What is the knowledge, the lack of which destroys a people? The question is analogous to another, What is education? Are we agreed among ourselves as to what is to be understood by this expression? There is a class of men whose ideas of knowledge and education are almost confined to the acquisition and communication of the facts and principles of physical and general science. Education, in their estimation, is training up the young to be in mature life well-informed and philosophical men: men who can keep pace with and help on the forward movements of an inquiring and intellectual age. But this is not knowledge, in the true and full sense of the term, neither is this education. We are still short of the truth if we define knowledge to be acquaintance with duties as well as facts, with the world within a man, as well as the world without him; and education to be a process of training for the moral as well as the intellectual part of man, the discipline of the will as well as that of the mind. This is well as far as it goes; but it is not the whole truth. It is indeed based upon a false principle, that the inculcation of moral truths, and cultivation of moral habits will suffice to regulate and control the heart and will of man. It dreams of a moral regeneration without an adequate regenerating principle, of moral obedience without a sufficiently constraining motive. It assumes that a man may be lifted up above the influence of evil by presenting to his mind the cold abstraction of goodness. The advocates of these moral systems are ignorant of the materials upon which they would work. They do not know the nature of man. They forget that he is corrupt and depraved. The moral sense of man is so beclouded by sin that to behold the beauty of virtue is neither to love nor to embrace it. Education, in its primary idea, is the knowledge of God in His relation to man: the communication of this knowledge to the heart, through the medium of the understanding. Education is training as well as teaching. It teaches moral duties based upon the knowledge of God as a reconciled Father in Christ Jesus. Education is worthless when severed from religion. Lay the foundation deeply in the principles of true religion, and you may then proceed to build up a goodly superstructure of all that is worthy of the name of useful knowledge.
II. The anxious conditions of society are explained by the lack of this knowledge. Reflecting minds have serious thoughts upon the present aspect of our domestic national affairs. We have been appalled by the frightful statistics of ignorance and vice, of the mass of corruption fermenting amidst our overgrown population. While the prodigious multiplication of human beings has been advancing, there has been no corresponding multiplication cf appliances for the moral and religious training of their souls, either as children or adults. Can it be wondered at that irreligion and infidelity, and principles of anarchy and insubordination, and vice in some of its most revolting forms have overspread these densely peopled districts? We cannot shut our eyes to what is going on around us. A population has grown up unlearned in true knowledge. The demoralising process is going on. It is a self-propagating evil. One uneducated generation begets another, and probably a worse. Our fathers did much for national education, according to the exigencies of their own times. We must follow along their line in this, that religion entered, as a component element, into all their foundations. (W. Nicholson, M. A.)
The danger of a lack of knowledge
I. The persons. My people. A frequent designation of the Israelitish people. Jehovah was emphatically to them a God, and they were emphatically to Him a people. But is Gods greatest goodness to Israel to be compared with the civil and religious privileges with which He has distinguished this favoured country? There is a tendency in nations as well as in individuals to be rendered careless and secure by the long possession of privileges and advantages. And the history of Israel is intended to teach a lesson of national warning.
II. Their condition. My people are destroyed. Notwithstanding all Gods favour towards them, yet He abandoned them to desolation, He gave them over to destruction. And what ground of security has Britain any more than Israel, except in the favour and protection of God? It is impossible for any reflecting person to consider the internal state of our country without feeling that we have within ourselves the elements of destruction, the materials for a wide-wasting desolation.
III. The cause of that condition. For lack of knowledge. Lack of the knowledge of God and religion. This was Gods ground of complaint, and for this He entered into judgment with them. This lack of knowledge was accompanied and followed by a general corruption of morals, as the next words to our text show. When the corruption became general, and the fruit, of this religious ignorance were ripe, God thrust in the sharp sickle of His judgments, and reaped the harvest in His wrath. Observe then the bearing which the state of the collective body of the people as to religious knowledge must have upon the question of national safety and national ruin. If there be a lack of the knowledge of God and His truth in the bulk of the people, the destruction of the nation will be inevitable. And if ruin come upon any land, who are the sufferers? If the body be crushed by a fall, which of the members will escape the anguish? Hence the state of the people is the concern of all. God has bound all classes in one common bond of interest: all must rejoice, or all must suffer together. What then is the state of our population with respect to religious knowledge? And what must be the end of these things? (Thomas Best, M. A.)
Neglect of teaching
God here attacks the priests, but includes the whole people. For teaching prevailed not among them, as it ought to have done. The Lord reproaches the Israelites for their ingratitude, seeing He had kindled among them the light of celestial wisdom. How did the Israelites perish through ignorance? They closed their eyes against the celestial light, because they deigned not to become teachable, so as to learn the wisdom of the eternal Father. We see the guilt of the people in that they had malignantly suppressed the teaching of the law. The people perished without knowledge, because they would perish. (John Calvin.)
The lack of knowledge
I. The statement of the text is no exaggeration. Look at the Jewish nation. The whole nation was a school, and the law was their schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. But it failed--utterly failed--to accomplish this. The enmity of the human heart came out amongst the Jewish people.
II. Some of the endeavours men make to rectify existing evils. Emphatically this is an age of progress; of progress in many things that have rendered man wiser, and the world happier. Philosophy takes a higher range of thought. Literature is nobler and healthier in its tone. Art is purer than Grecian art. Science is not atheistic. Many run to and fro, and knowledge is multiplied. We recognise this progress thankfully; it is all good, though not the highest good. It is all capable of being turned to spiritual advantage. But by it society is not regenerated: there arc social questions of the deepest importance that are not yet settled. There are forms of ignorance most appalling, developments of ignorance most deplorable, and a general spirit of scepticism widely spread. Man has done, and is doing, his very utmost to set the world right, and yet the world continues wrong.
III. The Gospel announces itself as sufficient to meet and to remove all the miseries of humanity.
1. It is this which distinguishes the Gospel from all other schemes. Many things are palliatives, but you can find nothing that pretends to do all the work that man requires to have done for him but the Gospel. Then indifference to the Gospel is the most fearful proof that could be presented to the mind of my voluntary ignorance and sin.
2. We may with confidence say that the Gospel not only professes to do this but has done all this. It has proved itself the great salvation. (W. G. Barrett.)
Religious ignorance
I. It is destructive. It is not the mother of devotion, it is the mother of destruction.
1. What does it destroy? The growth of the soul in power, beauty, and fruitfulness.
2. How does it destroy? How can the lack of a thing destroy? The lack of heat and moisture will kill the vegetable kingdom; the lack of air will cause the extinction of all animal life. The soul without knowledge of God is like a plant without heat or moisture, an animal without the salubrious breeze.
II. It is wilful. No culpability in a man being ignorant of some things. The knowledge of God comes to him whether he will or not. In nature, in reason, in intuitions of his moral being. Ignorance of God is a criminal ignorance.
III. It is God-offending. He deals out retribution--
1. To themselves.
2. To their children.
It is a Divine law springing from the constitution of society, that the iniquities of the fathers shall be visited on their children. (Homilist.)
Ignorance destructive
Ignorance disqualifies a man for those situations in life that require the exercise of wisdom and discretion: it degrades him in society below the rank of those who would otherwise be deemed his equals or inferiors; and it not unfrequently leads to idleness, dissipation, and vice. But ignorance of religion is of infinitely worse consequence, because it ensures the everlasting destruction of the soul.
I. The ignorance of the Christian world. Among nominal Christians there is a great lack of knowledge: an ignorance--
1. Of themselves. Of their blindness, guilt, depravity, helplessness.
2. Of God. Of His holiness, justice, truth.
3. Of Christ. They may confess His Godhead, and acknowledge Him as a Saviour. But what do they know of Him as He is in Himself, or as He is to us?
II. The fatal consequences of this ignorance. Lack of spiritual knowledge--
1. Tends to mens destruction.
2. Will issue in their destruction.
Infer--
1. How carefully should we improve the means of grace,
2. How earnestly should we pray for the teachings of Gods Spirit.
3. How thankful we should be for any measure of Divine knowledge. (Skeletons of Sermons.)
True knowledge for the people
Neither wealth nor political forms of government give knowledge to a people. They may give them, or obtain for them, technical information in most things, but they do not give that know ledge which is the height of wisdom--that knowledge which will guide a man aright in his intercourse with the world. On the contrary, a continuously changing government and an accumulation of wealth have a great tendency to demoralise a nation, and to retard, rather than to foster, the knowledge of that which is righteous and true. As it was in the early ages, so it has continued through the various nations which have existed upon the earth down to the present time; and the Jewish nation fell under the ordinary laws of social progress when they departed from the directions which were given, and the advice which was offered by God Himself. Even the chosen people of the Almighty fell under the power of the tyrant custom; and notwithstanding their advance in civilisation and wealth, they erred and were destroyed for lack of knowledge. Why was this? Because the technical information which they obtained from their teachers was not that which would support the actions of their daily life, was not that which would assist in guiding them through the devious windings of the world in which they lived, but had relation merely to the subject which was then in hand, and was of no further avail when once that subject was laid on one side. As a natural consequence of this narrow and superficial training, the minds of the people generally became contracted until they could not see any political or religious question in its proper bearings, or to its whole extent. They saw what related to the question of the hour, and being content with this, they ultimately sank under a despotism of body and mind; for the mind sank and was debased long before the body felt any evil effects from the narrowing of views which had been going on for some time amongst the people. In the time of Hosea the people were wandering to and fro from lack of knowledge, and the prejudices of the age were being stirred up for the services of party, instead of being laid aside in the desire to teach the people only that which was true. Prejudice is one of the most difficult things which men have to encounter in their desire to obtain a know ledge of the truth. When once the mind has taken up any opinion it lays hold of it as its own, and follows it out regardless of what may be said by others to the contrary. It considers that which it holds to he the truth; and, as a natural consequence, looks upon the sayings of those who oppose it as absolutely false, and without any legitimate foundation upon which to stand. Nor is it in the ordinary course of events worth while to try and disabuse people of their prejudices. And not only do our prejudices impel us to hold with tenacity that which we have taken up as the truth, but they impel us to dislike and to hate those who may differ from us. A man is truly orthodox when he thinks as we think; but let him differ from us only in one jot or tittle, and then his opinions are at once pronounced to be heterodox, and he himself adjudged as an enemy. There are some conclusions which must be admitted by every reflecting mind as soon as they are presented to it, and they must also be acknowledged as truths the moment they are offered for consideration. When we reflect upon the matter for a moment, it is evident that each one ought to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world, because it is clearly an offence against the well-being of society that men should live otherwise. Then let us not be the servants of men, for there is One greater than they. Let us not be the followers of a party, for there is One wiser than it. But let us seek honestly after the truth wherever it may be found; and whilst we hold Augustine as a friend, and Luther and Calvin as friends,--whilst we respect men of every party--let us ever bear in mind that we have a duty to perform far higher than that of clansmen: we have to teach the truth as it is in Jesus, to proclaim His name above that of every other name, and to endeavour above all things to strive manfully to learn and to do that which is right. (F. T. Swinbourne.)
The importance of religious knowledge
Both philosophers and divines agree that the first step to true know ledge is a discovery of our own ignorance; all wise men will confess that the more they know the more a modest sense of the narrow limits of their understanding increases. The recovery of true knowledge, with a constant improvement therein ourselves, and the using our utmost endeavours to propagate it among mankind, are some of the most noble and rational ends of our existence. Not withstanding His severe reproachings and threatenings of Ephraim, how tenderly the Lord expostulates with them! A wilful neglect of true knowledge is represented as the spring of all their provocations and their danger. Ignorance is represented as the occasion of their ruin.
I. The title given to the people who are exposed to this destruction. Still, spite of their sin, they are called My people. This title may be applied to mankind in general, and in a strict manner to those who are known as the elect. Here it is applied to the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, under the name Ephraim. Though they had revolted from Him, God still condescends to own His relation to them. And this relation materially aggravates their crimes.
II. What is this knowledge which is of such importance? Men may be great strangers to philosophy, to human arts, and carnal wisdom, and yet not be involved in that destruction which is certainly connected with the ignorance mentioned in the text. As true religion is the only effectual security of private persons from this ruin, so it is with respect to society. Religious knowledge must be intended in this text.
1. Men might learn much by seriously observing what is presented to their view all round about them; and much more if they would examine their own frame, and reflect on the various warnings of that monitor which is in every breast.
2. It is the knowledge which God has been pleased to reveal, which is chiefly intended here. This was, in Hoseas time, to be found in the books of Moses and the prophets. This is, for us, the knowledge that is conveyed by the Gospel.
III. The sad occasions of the want of this knowledge, especially in what is called a land of light.
1. A thoughtless neglect of those sober reflections to which we are led even by that measure of natural light, which, in the midst of all our depravity, is mercifully continued to us. Observation teaches us what effect negligence will have on our temporal affairs. When men come to divide precious time principally between the cares about the enlargement of their worldly substance, and the various methods their own corruptions will dictate, very little will be left for nobler improvements.
2. The want of the written revelation must Deeds be attended with the most deplorable ignorance. As may be seen in the history of those nations which have wanted this glorious advantage.
3. Ignorance of religion must needs prevail where there is the want of a skilful, faithful, and laborious ministry.
4. A pious education of our youth is another method of cultivating religious knowledge. This foundation must be chiefly laid in family instruction. We have lived to see the day when the impression of religious sentiments on young minds is not only by many laid aside, but such a neglect is defended. It is said to prevent any bar being put to what is called free thinking. The great neglect of family religion, and the pious example which superiors by the laws of reason are indispensably obliged to set before those under their care, as it has long been complained of, if not soon reformed must bring peril on our Churches and on our land.
5. The growth of ignorance among the poorer sort is a matter of peculiar consequence.
6. Among good men there is too great a neglect of application to Heaven for a blessing on such attempts as are made to promote useful knowledge, and of a dependence on the Spirit of God, who is only able to make them successful.
IV. The destruction which is the natural and sad consequence of this ignorance. Reference is first to those temporal calamities which befell these people for their sins; or it relates to future temporal calamities which Hosea predicted. But ignorance persisted in exposes public communities to almost every criminal anal dangerous disorder, and in the end brings on national ruin; and it is big with every spiritual as well as temporal mischief to private persons where it prevails. Ignorance of Divine things keeps the conscience under a fatal stupidity, it exposes men to the devices of the old serpent, and to the crafty attempts of every seducer; it exposes us to every kind of error in conduct, and obstructs our usefulness both in public and in private life.
V. The remedies which should be applied to so dangerous a disease.
1. We should cheerfully and constantly attend on those advantages Heaven has bestowed on us, that we read and hear, that we inquire and meditate, and watch and pray, as those who are convinced that ignorance has been their ruin, and that happiness in this life is absolutely connected with religious knowledge, and that the lives of our souls depend upon it.
2. We should do all we can to promote the influence of religious knowledge on the minds of others, by the careful instruction of our families, and the support of a well-qualified ministry.
VI. Some applications cf what has been said.
1. How deplorable is the state of multitudes among us, who lie under the grossest ignorance.
2. We ought to rejoice in our civil constitution, and to encourage and defend our religious advantages. (Joseph Stennett, D. D.)
Ignorance of God among professing Christians
The ungodliness of Israel in Hoseas time was in a great measure to be traced to ignorance of the true God; an ignorance for which they were responsible, because there was the light of Gods truth in their land. It was peculiarly sinful, inasmuch as it was ignorance in Gods professing people. And the ignorance involved their ruin.
I. The present and future misery of ignorance of God. No real earthly happiness can be enjoyed where there is ignorance of God. The pleasures of sin are not happiness, though they often pass for it. Nor is the pursuit of happiness, or the acquisition of wealth. Happiness must be sought in a knowledge of, and obedience to, the will and ways of God. Where there is the true knowledge of God, there is no real wretchedness, though there may be much tribulation
II. That which aggravates the misery is our relation to God as his people.
1. It aggravates their sin, because it is the bounden duty of every man to seek the knowledge of God as the one thing needful. We are not to wait to have this knowledge forced upon us, we are bound to seek it. If the guilt of Gods people who remain in ignorance of Him be aggravated by their relation to Him, so likewise is the guilt of those aggravated who are bound to teach Gods people. Civil government stands upon religious grounds, and has religious obligations. The Church is the bulwark of every Christian State. (W. J. Brodrick, M. A.)
The necessity of a union between religion and education
I. The necessary connection between religion and education. The word education suggests the idea of preparing the young for the great duties incumbent on them in the various relations of life; and with a view to this object, includes the communication of knowledge, the inculcation of right principles, and the formation of corresponding habits in those who are thus to be the subjects of it. But what are we to understand by the great duties incumbent upon us in the different relations of life? Some think that the end and purpose of their existence have been met when they have fairly performed their present duties, and honourably met their obligations. But these are practical atheists, for they completely exclude God from any right to the homage of His rational creatures, and reduce man to the degradation and wretchedness of a being who, whatever other heights he may attain, is incapable of rising to the knowledge, the love, the service, and the everlasting enjoyment of his Maker. In opposition to such views, we say, that even reason and conscience, above all the Word of God, declare that man is endowed with a nature that renders him capable of communion with the great, eternal, glorious God; nay, that the advancement of the praise of this God is the very end of his existence; and in pursuing this end he secures present and everlasting happiness. This duty may, however, be acknowledged, and yet the proper principles and conduct attending it may be repudiated. If the former view was practical atheism, this is practical infidelity. Milton says. The end of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents, by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love Him, to imitate Him, to be like Him as we may the nearest, by possessing our souls of true virtue, which, being united to the heavenly grace of faith, makes up the highest perfection. Can Christian training be efficiently, and ought it to be exclusively discharged by parents?
II. The importance and advantages of a union between religion and education. Man was originally framed so as to derive happiness from the knowledge, love, and service of God. It is when the love of God is shed abroad on the heart of fallen man that the different parts of his moral constitution will resume, as it were, their proper place and connection, and that he himself will be enabled to act as he was designed for the glory of God, in all the varied relations in which he stands. When religious knowledge is communicated and made effectual for the conversion of the soul to God, man is under the influence of that principle which will most certainly and with increasing strength constrain him to the discharge of every obligation in regard to God, to himself, and to his fellow-creatures, and thus fit him for the attainment of the great end of his being. Put forth this knowledge in all its bearings, and you will do that which, with the Divine blessing, will enable him to discharge with consistency and perseverance, with honour, comfort, and usefulness, the great duties of life. But how sad, and morally helpless, is the condition of those who are allowed to grow up, not only without a religious education, but without an education of any kind! (Abercromby L. Gordon.)
Hindrances to knowledge
Very different and almost opposite things are said of knowledge in the Holy Scriptures. Such may be found in the writings of St. Paul. Following the sound rather than the sense of some of St. Pauls expressions, it has been the fashion with some to decry altogether the value of knowledge, whether on religious or common subjects. What is knowledge? The old definition is, Knowledge is the firm belief of something true, on sufficient grounds. Belief is necessary, but belief is not enough. Fully testing our knowledge, it may be said that we know almost nothing. In later life we become aware of this, and very painfully. But the charge of ignorance (in the true meaning of that word) may be brought as justly against the so-called enlightenment of this age, as against the less showy pretensions of that which is now gone by. Two or three causes for the lack of real knowledge may be given.
1. The multiplication of outward helps and facilities for learning has a direct tendency to counteract true knowledge. It seems to be a condition of knowledge that it shall not come too easily. Knowledge must be fetched by exertions of our own.
2. A misuse of stimulus in the pursuit of knowledge is an impediment. One reason why many of us do not know mere is that we have made knowledge a means instead of an end--a means of getting distinction. The use of emulation as a stimulus to knowledge is a perilous, though it may be a necessary expedient. Be on your guard, too, against a misuse of a temporary stimulus acting upon parts of your nature which are, by comparison, the lower rather than the higher. Emulation is higher than appetite, but it is lower than that to which manly principle and Christian motive appeal.
3. The effect of light reading upon the acquisition of knowledge truly so called. In the days of our fathers, any one who could read at all would scarcely fail to read with a view to knowledge. The supply of amusement by literature, the command of books as a mere pastime, was then scarcely thought of. Now young people greedily devour fictitious tales till indulgence produces a surfeit. Sometimes an absolute vacancy follows upon excess of such reading. Fiction has two legitimate provinces. It is a salutary relaxation for an overwrought brain. And it may be employed as a study of life. But the knowledge, the lack of which destroys, is the knowledge not of things but of per-sons. It is the acquaintance of soul with soul, and spirit with spirit; the contact of the unseen inmost self of man with the unseen inmost essence of another, even of Him in whom man lives, and whom truly to know is eternal life. What we need is to know God. It is no metaphysical, scarcely even a theological, knowledge you need. It is the knowledge as of a friend. (C. J. Vaughan, D. D.)
The evils of ignorance
I. Ignorance is destructive.
1. Destructive of the dignity of man. The faculties of knowledge, reason, judgment, and voluntary determination distinguish us from the beasts that perish, and constitute the true dignity of our nature. But faculties and powers are of little value until they are brought into exercise and directed to their proper objects. Instruction is to man What culture is to the plant. Without it, life is spent in a vacant stupidity, or distracted by irregular imagination and heated passions.
2. Destructive of the usefulness of man. Knowledge constitutes the whole difference betwixt savage and civilised society. To the improvement of the mind all nations have owed the improvement of their condition. Ignorance is the negative of everything good and useful. It not only renders the members of a community useless to each other, it opposes, and frequently triumphs over, all the endeavours of humane and enlightened individuals. The despotism of ignorance is of the most imperious nature. Minds wholly uncultivated are averse to serious thought., and are only conversant with sensible objects. From this springs their aversion to the Gospel; for whoever receives it must become serious and thoughtful.
3. Destructive of virtue. Virtue can no more exist without knowledge, than an animal can exist without life. In proportion as ignorance prevails in society, virtue is destroyed. Ignorant men may possibly be made enthusiasts; they may be made superstitious; but before they can be made rational, steady, and consistent Christians, they must be enlightened. That ignorance is destructive of virtue is proved by facts as well as arguments. Illustration may be taken from the records of heathen nations, and from the history of the Christian Church.
4. Destructive of happiness. There is pleasure in knowledge of a kind more pure and elevated than can possibly be found in any of the gratifications of sense, and for which the latter are but unworthy substitutes. Of the pleasures which spring from knowledge, and especially sacred knowledge, we cannot conceive too highly. To know God, to contemplate the perfections of His nature and the wonders of His hand, to observe His providential regard, to behold the mystery of redemption, the character and undertaking of Jesus,--such subjects, when opened to the mind, not only give pleasure as speculative discoveries and the solutions of distressing doubts, but by awakening virtuous sentiments, kindling an ardent and elevated devotion, producing the present possession of the peace of the Gospel, and the prospect of fulness of joy.
II. To counteract the destructive effects of ignorance is the work of humanity. None oppose the communication of knowledge to the lower ranks of society save those who are altogether unreasonable. Special importance attaches to Sunday school. The dissemination of knowledge may be treated as--
1. A work of humanity;
2. Of patriotism;
3. Of virtue.
Christianity exhibits a Founder who went about doing good; and His disciples in every age have devoted their time, their talents, their property, their influence to the instruction and blessing of mankind. (R. Watson.)
Ignorance destructive
Ignorance disqualifies a man for those situations in life that require the exercise of wisdom and discretion: it degrades him in society below the rank of those who would otherwise be deemed his equals or inferiors; and it not infrequently leads to idleness, dissipation, and vice. Ignorance of religion ensures the everlasting destruction of the soul.
I. The ignorance of the Christian world.
1. An ignorance of themselves. They know little of their blindness, guilt, depravity, helplessness.
2. Ignorance of God. His holiness, justice, truth.
3. Ignorance of Christ. As He is in Himself. As He is to us.
II. The fatal consequences of it. The degrees of criminality attached to ignorance vary according to the opportunities men have enjoyed of obtaining knowledge. A lack of spiritual knowledge--
1. Tends to destruction.
2. Will issue in destruction.
Then--
(1) How carefully should we improve the means of grace!
(2) How earnestly should we pray for the teachings of Gods Spirit!
(3) How thankful should we be for any measure of Divine knowledge! (C. Simeon, M. A.)
Rejecting knowledge
The word used signifies to reject with despite and contempt. Knowledge is rejected in two ways.
1. When the means of knowledge are rejected, then knowledge is rejected.
2. When the directions of our knowledge are rejected, when we refuse to be guided by it, upon this our knowledge decays, and eventually is contemned. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
Lack of knowledge
The lack of this knowledge causes people to perish. Knowing God as a Father, Saviour, Sanctifier, gives the soul the consciousness of pardon, life, purity, power--the power of love--that is almost irresistible. Knowledge is power to the inventor, civil engineer, teacher and lawyer. But the knowledge of God is the greatest power. It enables all, even the weakest, to do great things. Oh, for a knowledge and baptism of power from God. Then everywhere the people that do know God shall do exploits. (H. W. Bailey.)
Ignorance impoverishes
Among the Scotch lairds, there is one whose father died in a poorhouse, like a beggar, notwithstanding his possession of the very same riches his heir at present has at his disposal; but he simply did not know how rich he was. Shortly after his decease, rich metallic ore was discovered on the estate; the mines, which were worked at once, gave such returns, that very soon all mortgages and debts could be paid off, and, moreover, put the present owner in possession of a noblemans fortune. His father possessed no less, but he knew it not. Alas, for how many the blessed Word of God is worth no more than waste paper! Therein are contained the richest promises of fulness of grace, of victory over every enemy, of exceeding glory; but because they do not explore these mines, they live like beggars, who can hardly manage to obtain a morsel of bread. (A. J. Gordon, D. D.)
I will also forget thy children.
Getting at parents through their children
The Lord must in some way find our life that He may either reward or chastise it. In this case He will get at the parents through their children. He would not have done this if there had been any other way into their rebellious and obdurate hearts. We must leave Him to explain Himself in reference to the children; He will do that which is right and merciful; we need not plague ourselves about that aspect of mystery; rather let us fasten attention upon the fact that God means for our good to get at our souls somehow. He will try all the gates, and even if He has to break down the child-gate He will come in. That is the point upon which we are to fix our devout attention. We can of course be tempted in another direction: why attack the children, why conduct Himself towards the innocent as if they were guilty? Why punish the innocent., for those who have transgressed? So we metaphysically fritter away Gods meaning; we endeavour to solve the insoluble, when we might be accepting with grace and gratitude the inevitable, the disciplinary, and the high administration of Divine righteousness. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv6–7 Hos_4:6. Know.] Lit. the knowledge of God (Hos_4:1), which…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Hos_4:6. Know.] Lit. the knowledge of God (Hos_4:1), which is life to the soul. Reject] Utterly reject thee from being a priestly nation (Exo_19:6); deprived of priestly rank, and made like heathens. God repays in kind; despise the truth, this will suppress it.
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HOMILETICS
IGNORANCE OF GOD: A WARNING TO THE PEOPLE.—Hos_4:6
The prophet had complained that there was no knowledge of God in the land. This was a serious offence in a land of privileges and religious teachers, and an error fatal to the people. All were ignorant. The people and the priests were all to blame. In spite of warning and judgment, by the destruction of one dynasty after another, they would not desist from the sin of Jeroboam. God therefore would deprive the nation of its priestly honour, strip it of its priestly rank, and make it like a heathen nation. The words contain a warning to people and priests.
I. Ignorance of God is inexcusable. Israel had abundant means and opportunities of knowing God. “For did Israel not know?” and “have they not heard?” (Rom_10:18-19). The sound of the gospel was heard, and was sent forth like the voice of nature in all the land. The conversion of the Gentiles and the universality of Christianity were predicted; they had the oracles of God, and were highly exalted above other people. They had no excuse therefore for their unbelief. They possessed the law of God, but neglected to look into it, and forsook it. In this Israel are like many now, who, in the midst of religious ordinances, in a land of Bibles and Christian Sabbaths, disregard, neglect their salvation, and live in total ignorance of God. There is a natural distaste for spiritual things, inattention to religious duties, and an absorption in things of this world, which beget indifference and lead to unbelief. There are persons who are moral but not devout, honest but not prayerful, benevolent but not converted, amiable but not decided, nominal Christians who are not real Christians. Those who forget God are more numerous than the profligate and profane. Ignorance of God seems a small sin, but ignorance is allied with wickedness. To forget God is to exclude the essential parts of religion. It implies that his goodness, holiness, and claims are of no value to us; it is to exclude God from our thoughts and give him no place in our heart and conduct. Hence to be ignorant of God is not to love and fear him; not to live in subjection to his law, nor to aim at his glory as the chief end of life. Yet this is the real, the sad state of thousands in Christian England!
II. Ignorance of God is wilful. “Thou hast rejected knowledge.” To forget is an act of negligence; to reject is a calm, deliberate sin, a positive refusal of God’s kind offers. Not the mere absence of knowledge, a deprivation of it; but a denial of it, an affected ignorance. They hated the light and loved the darkness. There is no guilt in rejecting some things, but to refuse the offers of mercy and despise the revelations of God’s love in his Son, is to sin away all mercy. “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin.” Deliberately and knowingly to forsake God and the services of the sanctuary, is to make common cause with ungodly men and anti-christian synagogues. To suppress by an act of self-will your better knowledge and conviction, is to reserve yourself for future punishment and rejection. If the apostate under the Old Testament was punished with severe penalty, how much greater the punishment of the sinner against greater privileges and fuller light! “Behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.”
III. Ignorance of God is destructive. A man may be ignorant of mathematics, astronomy, and geology, without suffering much; but to be ignorant of God, the chief and highest good, is to rob ourselves of happiness and expose ourselves to death. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
1. Ignorance perpetuates folly. Ignorant men fall into temptations, seek sensual gratifications, and live in error. Knowledge is valuable for its own sake, and when rightly used, preserves from many “foolish lusts.” “Be assured,” says Dr Chalmers, “it is not because the people know much, that they ever become the willing subjects of any factious or unprincipled demagogue. It is just because they know too little. It is just because ignorance is the field on which the quackery of a political impostor ever reaps its most abundant harvest.”
2. Ignorance destroys present enjoyment. The animal has all the instincts necessary to make it happy; but man’s true enjoyment is in the knowledge and love of God. Human beings to fulfil their vocations must have knowledge. We are dependent for happiness upon knowledge. Every evil that curses mankind is connected with ignorance. Hence knowledge is light. Ignorance is a blind guide, and its results are often more fearful than the cause itself. Exclude knowledge from the mind, you turn it into a world of darkness, and rob it of its native element. Thus driven from light, no brilliant genius, no flashes of fancy, can enlighten it. These will scathe like the lightning, rather than bless and cheer, and leave the gloom more horrible. Knowledge is life and health. “That the soul be without knowledge, it is not good.” The words of God are the health and life of the soul. “They are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” Wisdom is the indispensable condition of physical and spiritual health. It promotes temperance, and gives self-restraint. It teaches submission to the Divine will, and leads to the emancipation of our noblest powers and capacities. It secures the fullest and freest development of body and mind in personal life and activity for God. Ignorance is sickness, decay, and death. Knowledge unites to God, but ignorance cuts off from God. “My people are cut off for lack of knowledge” Cut off from the source of life and enjoyment, like a branch lopped off from the tree. Man cannot bear fruit of himself, hence he will perish if not united to God in knowledge and faith.
3. Ignorance destroys future happiness. Eternal life is suspended in knowledge, for men “perish for lack of knowledge.” On the other hand, “This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” Knowledge of all kinds is the proper wealth of our rational nature: but to captivate us with the knowledge of God, it is set forth as the only wealth worth possessing—the only science which conducts to life. And this life not mere unending existence, but growing knowledge and conformity to Christ. Religion on earth consists in the knowledge of God, and blessedness in heaven consists in the vision of God. Well may we pray with Professor Hall, “O Lord, remove our ignorance, that we may know thee; our idleness, that we may seek thee; our unbelief, that we may find and enjoy thee.”
IGNORANCE OF GOD: A WARNING TO THE PRIESTS
I. Priests blamed for the ignorance of the people. They were appointed to teach and warn the people; but were unfaithful to their trust, and suffered the nation to sin.
1. They neglected study. “Thou hast rejected knowledge.” They had the means, but did not improve them. They had the law, but did not read it. The preacher should be wise and teach the people knowledge (Ecc_12:9); should study to make provision for their wants (Mat_13:52); and make full proof of his ministry. But an idle, ignorant minister, is a disgrace to the community, and a curse to the Church. 2. They lived inconsistent lives. They professed to belong to God, but worshipped the calves of Jeroboam. Through poverty, fear, or shame, they withheld, suppressed the truth, and connived at the nation’s sin. They shared in the rejection of God’s truth, and brought themselves under God’s curse. “I will also reject thee.”
II. Priests punished for the ignorance of the people. It was their duty to remove it, but they encouraged it to answer their own selfish ends. Hence they were guilty, partook of the sins of the people, and were deprived of their honour.
1. They were cast out of office themselves. “Thou shalt be no priest to me.” Sad fall! God will not retain idle and ungodly men in office. Those that have no love for Christ and immortal souls, will have no love for their work, and display no activity in it. “Consider this,” says Bishop Taylor, “which is a great truth—that every degree of love to the world is so much taken from the love of God.” “Take heed unto thyself,” lest thou miscarry and become a castaway.
2. They deprived their posterity of honour. “I will also forget thy children.” What will the rising generation be without the means of knowing and loving God? What will the nation become when its “candlestick is removed out of its place”? It is sad to be forgotten of God. The sun does not shine on more wretched creatures, than on the awful masses of our fellow-creatures growing up in ignorance and estrangement from God. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” God only knows how far the ministers of his word are the cause of this destruction. “When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand” (Eze_3:18; cf. Psa_51:14; Act_20:26).
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Rejecting knowledge. Proves—
1. A wrong spirit: (a) hating to be taught, (b) despising the teacher, (c) resolved to sin.
2. A mournful indication: (a) pride, (b) contempt of God, (c) indifference to truth.
3. A fatal result: (a) deadness of conscience, (b) unbelief of heart, (c) utter rejection of God.
Forgetting God.
1. The course, forgetting his love and goodness, word and power, justice and grace.
2. The result: (a) awful, (b) unexpected, (c) universal, (d) inevitable. “Ignorance is so far from being the mother of devotion, that it is the mother of destruction; lack of knowledge is ruining to any person or people [Matt. Henry].”
Parents who are careless as to themselves, as to their own lives, as to their own shame even, still long that their children should not be as themselves. God tries to touch their hearts where they are least steeled against him. He says not I will forget thee, but I will forget those nearest thy heart, thy children [Pusey].
It is the righteous judgment of God upon negligent parents and unfaithful ministers, to requite their children, for their treatment to his. “I will also forget thy children.” Parents cannot do wrong without injuring their children. Ministers cannot neglect their duty without robbing their people. The iniquities of the fathers and teachers shall be visited on their children.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 4
Hos_4:6. Knowledge. Some years ago a vessel sailing on the northern coast of South America was seen to make signals of distress. When hailed by another vessel, they reported themselves as “dying for water!” “Dip it up, then,” was the response; “you are in the mouth of the Amazon river.” There was fresh water all around them, they had nothing to do but to dip it up, and yet they were dying of thirst, because they thought themselves surrounded by the salt sea. How often are men ignorant of their mercies! How sad that they should perish for lack of knowledge! Jesus is near the seeker even when he is tossed upon the oceans of doubt. The sinner has but to stoop down and drink and live; and yet he is ready to perish, as if salvation were hard to find [Spurgeon].
Those are marked for ruin that are deaf to reproof and reject good counsel. “Therefore,” says Bp Pilkington, “let every one keep himself in God’s school-house and learn his lesson diligently. For as the body is nourished with meat, so is the soul with the word of God.”
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.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv6, 8 General Information:
General Information:
In Hos 4:6, Yahweh is talking to the priests about the people of Israel. But in Hos 4:7, he is talking about the priests, not to them. It is possible for the translator to follow the example of the UDB, which portrays Yahweh as talking to the priests also in Hos 4:7.
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My people are being destroyed because of the lack of knowledge
This can be stated in active form. AT: "My people are perishing because you, the priests, have not properly taught them about me so that they will obey me" (See: Active or Passive)
knowledge
Here "knowledge" refers to the knowledge of God. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
They exchanged their honor for shame
Possible meanings are 1) "honor" is a metonym that represents Yahweh, and "shame" is a metonym that represents idols. AT: "They have stopped worshiping me, their honorable God, and now worship shameful idols" or 2) some Bible versions translate this as "I will exchange their honor for shame." This means Yahweh will take away the things which the priests honor and cause the priests to be ashamed. (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
people of God
reject
priest
law
children
multiply
sin
honor
shame
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 On vv6, 9 4:6 Because the priests refused to know the Lord,…
4:6 Because the priests refused to know the Lord, neither did the people know their God. As a result, the people were being destroyed. • A primary function of the priests of Israel was to know, practice, and teach the laws of . . . God. Ironically, these guardians of the law had forgotten it.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.