They are unfaithful to Yahweh; for they have borne illegitimate children. Now the new moon will devour them with their fields.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    They are unfaithful to Yahweh; for they have borne illegitimate children. Now the new moon will devour them with their fields.

  • KJV King James Version

    They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions.

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    They have dealt treacherously against the LORD, for they have begotten strange children; now shall the new moon devour them with their portions.

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Cross-references (13)

Passages linked to Hosea 5:7 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Hosea 6:7 But they, like Adam, have broken the covenant. They were unfaithful to me, there.
  • Psalms 144:7 Stretch out your hand from above, rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, out of the hands of foreigners,
  • Psalms 144:11 Rescue me, and deliver me out of the hands of foreigners, whose mouths speak deceit, whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
  • Isaiah 48:8 Yes, you didn’t hear. Yes, you didn’t know. Yes, from of old your ear was not opened, for I knew that you dealt very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb.
  • Jeremiah 3:20 “Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel,” says Yahweh.
  • Ezekiel 12:28 “Therefore tell them, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “None of my words will be deferred any more, but the word which I speak will be performed,” says the Lord Yahweh.’ ”
  • Hosea 2:4 Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy; for they are children of unfaithfulness;
  • Nehemiah 13:23-24 In those days I also saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab; and their children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each people.
  • Isaiah 59:13 transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
  • Jeremiah 5:11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,” says Yahweh.
  • Hosea 2:11 I will also cause all her celebrations to cease: her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.
  • Zechariah 11:8 I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me.
  • Malachi 2:11-15 Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of Yahweh which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. Yahweh will cut off, to the man who does this, him who wakes and him who answers, out of the tents of Jacob, and him who offers an offering to Yahweh of Armies. This again you do: you cover Yahweh’s altar with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, because he doesn’t regard the offering any more, neither receives it with good will at your hand. Yet you say, ‘Why?’ Because Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and the wife of your covenant. Did he not make you one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? Why one? He sought godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (14 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain He says that they had acted perfidiously with God,…

He says that they had acted perfidiously with God, for they had violated his covenant. We must bear in mind what I have said before of the mutual faith which God stipulates with us, when he binds himself to us. God then covenants with us on this condition, that he will be our Father and Husband; but he requires from us such obedience as a son ought to render to his father; he requires from us that chastity which a wife owes to her husband. The Prophet now charges the people with unfaithfulness, because they had despised the true God, and prostituted themselves to idols.

And he also aggravates this crime by saying, that they had begotten strange children: for he intimates, that their condition had become so vitiated, that there remained no better hope as to their posterity. Some explain the words, that they had begotten strange children, in this way, — that they had taken wives from heathen nations, contrary to the law. But this sense is very frigid. Others understand, that they had begotten spurious children, because they brought up their children badly, having, from their infancy, attached them to depraved superstitions. This is indeed true, but the prophet, as I have already said, looked further; he meant that the Israelites had not only become alienated from God, but had also taken away every hope as to the future. It may indeed be, and it sometimes happens, that men for a time abandon themselves to many vices, and afterwards return to the right way; but when corruption has so prevailed that the children are infected with the same vices, and impiety itself takes full possession of them, then the state of things is past recovery. We now then see that the Prophet means, that the Israelites were not only covenant-breakers with respect to God, but that they had also led their children into the same perfidy, so that there was no hope of repentance.

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He therefore subjoins the punishment, Devour them shall a month together with their portions Some restrict the word, month, to the times of the new moon, or to the new moons; and these days, we know, were festivals among the Jews: but this seems too far-fetched and strained. The Prophet therefore, I doubt not, takes here a month for a short time; and so the Hebrew scholars explain it, and yet they do not sufficiently unfold this form of speaking. Now, the Prophets are wont to use various figures, when they intend to mark out a short time. Isaiah says, ‘Yet for three years, as the time of a hireling:’ for hirelings were wont to hire themselves for three years; hence he says, This is the time fixed by the Lord as the appointed day. Contracts, also, we know, were then monthly, as they are at this day yearly, both with reference to the interest of money and other exchanges. Since, then, they usually made agreements for single months, the Prophet here, I have no doubt, takes a month metaphorically for a certain and fixed time. I do not therefore agree with the Hebrew scholars, who say that only a short time is expressed by the Prophet, but he expresses not only a short, but also a fixed time; and he did this that the Israelites might not vainly look for any deferring or respite, for hypocrites ever procrastinate and extend time by vain delusions. The Prophet therefore says here, A month shall devour them, which means, “Vengeance is now suspended over their heads, and this they shall not escape.”

And he says, “with their portions”. He intimates here, no doubt, that though they then overflowed with abundance, yet nothing would be a help to them to keep them from being destroyed, for the hand of God was against them. We indeed know, that as long as men are well furnished with provisions and protection, they are not very solicitous about their state, but heedlessly despise whatever dangers there may be in the world: therefore the Prophet says, that though they were opulent and well supplied, though they possessed every kind of defense, yet nothing would avail for their safety, but a month should devour them, together with all their wealth. 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 Their destruction is not far off.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Hos 5:7 They have dealt treacherously against the LORD:…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain They, the whole house of Israel, priests, people, and…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain They have dealt treacherously against the Lord,.... Which was…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Have begotten - They have trained up their children…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 7. Now shall a month devour them] In…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Hos 5:7. They have dealt treacherously against the Lord…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain They have dealt treacherously - Literally, “have cloaked,” and…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Strangers. That is, aliens form God: and therefore they…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain treacherously--as to the marriage covenant (Jer 3:20).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 7. Why Jehovah has withdrawn himself, dealt treacherously] i.e.…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (7) Strange children refers to offspring that followed in…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain They have dealt treacherously against the Lord: for they…

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