Hosea 4 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Hosea 4

The Lord Accuses Israel

4:1   Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel,
    for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.
  There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,
    and no knowledge of God in the land;
2   there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;
    they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
3   Therefore the land mourns,
    and all who dwell in it languish,
  and also the beasts of the field
    and the birds of the heavens,
    and even the fish of the sea are taken away.
4   Yet let no one contend,
    and let none accuse,
    for with you is my contention, O priest.¹
5   You shall stumble by day;
    the prophet also shall stumble with you by night;
    and I will destroy your mother.
6   My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;
    because you have rejected knowledge,
    I reject you from being a priest to me.
  And since you have forgotten the law of your God,
    I also will forget your children.
7   The more they increased,
    the more they sinned against me;
    I will change their glory into shame.
8   They feed on the sin² of my people;
    they are greedy for their iniquity.
9   And it shall be like people, like priest;
    I will punish them for their ways
    and repay them for their deeds.
10   They shall eat, but not be satisfied;
    they shall play the whore, but not multiply,
  because they have forsaken the LORD
    to cherish 11 whoredom, wine, and new wine,
    which take away the understanding.
12   My people inquire of a piece of wood,
    and their walking staff gives them oracles.
  For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray,
    and they have left their God to play the whore.
13   They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains
    and burn offerings on the hills,
  under oak, poplar, and terebinth,
    because their shade is good.
  Therefore your daughters play the whore,
    and your brides commit adultery.
14   I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore,
    nor your brides when they commit adultery;
  for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes
    and sacrifice with cult prostitutes,
  and a people without understanding shall come to ruin.
15   Though you play the whore, O Israel,
    let not Judah become guilty.
  Enter not into Gilgal,
    nor go up to Beth-aven,
    and swear not, “As the LORD lives.”
16   Like a stubborn heifer,
    Israel is stubborn;
  can the LORD now feed them
    like a lamb in a broad pasture?
17   Ephraim is joined to idols;
    leave him alone.
18   When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring;
    their rulers³ dearly love shame.
19   A wind has wrapped them⁴ in its wings,
    and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Footnotes

[1] 4:4 Or for your people are like those who contend with the priest
[2] 4:8 Or sin offering
[3] 4:18 Hebrew shields
[4] 4:19 Hebrew her

Commentary

v1-10: Details of Israel's unfaithfulness.

v1: As in 2.2, the Lord brings an accusation against Israel. There is no faithfulness, no love, and no knowledge of God; as the people rejected the worship of the true God, they became ignorant of Him, and faithfulness and love died out.

v2-3: Sins abound, as restraint is cast off. Unless there is repentance, judgment will fall, see 2.3.

v4-5: Amongst the people, there is criticism against the priests, and the (false) prophets are untrustworthy.

v6: The people reject the knowledge of God, and therefore He rejects them. In particular, the priests and prophets are picked out for judgment. The reference to the law is not simply specific prohibitions and commands, but the whole way of life set down in the Law of God.

v7: The priests of Israel were appointed from any tribe, and therefore the numbers increased. Some saw the increasing number as a sign of God's blessing. The reality exposed here is that the priests encourage sins.

They exchanged their Glory for something shameful and disgraceful, see Rom 1.23,25.

v8: They set their hearts on wickedness, not on the Lord. The cease obeying the Lord. There is widespread corruption among the people.

v9-10: Punishment on the disobedient. The role or priest or prophet cannot exempt any from such punishment.

v11: A desire for pleasure brings bondage, much worse than the slavery in Egypt. Sin robs us of spiritual understanding.

v12-13: Idolatry picked out; they depart from the true God, and seek the "shade" of idolatry. There remains a promise to those who remain under the Lord's shade (14.7), finding His protection.

Through this, the Lord still refers to Israel as "my people," for there is deep sorrow in His words.

v14: The adulterous women are less guilty than the men; they lack understanding, therefore they are less guilty.

In earlier history there was a set process by which a suspicious husband could bring his wife before the priests (Num 5). It is suggested that such process was rarely used when first introduced. Yet, by the time of Hosea the practice had ceased, so the Lord would have to intervene and punish directly - such was the moral decline in the land

v15: The warning to Judah not to follow the ways of Israel, and not to go to those places which had become centres of idolatry.

v16-17: The people speak of being free, and the Lord will give them their desire. Yet they will learn through their backslidings (Jer 2.19); by bitter experience they will see the folly of departing from the Lord.

v18: They are persistent in wrong doing.

v19: Sudden judgment, like a whirlwind.