B M 4:1-5:15. Incriminations and Threatenings.
N 6:1-3. Resolve to return.
M 6:4-13:8. Incriminations and Threatenings.
N 13:9-14:8. Invitation to return.
M O 4:1-5. Call to Israel. General.
P 4:6-11. Incriminations, &c.
Q 4:15-19. Warning as to places in Judah.
O 5:1,2. Call to Israel. Particular.
P 5:3-7. Incriminations.
Q 5:8-15. Warning as to places in Judah.
O R j 1-. Call.
k -1,2. Reason.
l 3. Threatening.
R j 4-. Call.
k -4. Reason.
l 5. Threatening.
689-611
Hosea 4)
1 Hear the word of the LORD, you sons of Israel:
for the LORD has a judicial inquiry and cause (cp. 12:2. Isa. 1;18, with 3:13,14. Jer. 25:31. Mic. 6:2) with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor loving-kindness (or grace), nor knowledge (or, acknowledgment. See 2:20. Cp. 4:6; 5:4) of God in the land.
2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood touches blood. (Or, murder follows murder. All are the evils which flow from a want of the knowledge of God. Cp. v.6; 2:20. Rom. 1:21. 1 John 2:3,4; 4:7,8.)
3 Therefore shall the land mourn (cp. Jer. 4:28, and 12:4. Amos 5:16, and 8:8), and every one that dwells therein shall languish, with the very beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yes, the fishes of the sea also shall be gathered [into the ranks of the mourners]. (Polluted until they are inedible by mans poisons and many other things.)
4 Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another:
for your people are as they that strive with the priest. (God's case is not as strong against the people as it is with the priests. See Num. 16:1,&. Deut. 17:12.)
5 Therefore shall you fall in the day, and the prophet (i.e. false prophet) also shall fall with you in the night, and I will destroy your mother. (I.e. Israel, the whole nation is referred to. They don't know who they are.)
P S1 6-11. The Priests. S1 12-14. The People.
6 My people are destroyed (cut off) for lack of knowledge (see 2:20): because you have rejected the knowledge [of Me] (biblically illiterate, and the wonder why the churches aren't blessed), I will also reject you, that you shall be no priest to me: seeing you have forgotten the law of your God (see Deut. 32:18), I will also forget your sons.
7 As they were increased, so they sinned against Me: My glory they have changed into shame. (They are a bunch of 'good time Charlies'.)
8 They eat up the sin-offering of My People (see Lev. 6:26,30. Those sin-offerings should have been wholly burnt, and not eaten), and they lift up their soul (i.e. desire) on their wrong doing.
9 And there shall be, like people, like priest (cp. Isa. 24:2. Jer. 5;31): and I will visit them for their ways, and requite them their doings. (Same fate for all.)
10 For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the LORD. (By not teaching truth.)
11 Idolatry and wine and new wine take away the heart. (= mind. Put for understanding. See Isa. 28:6. Eccles. 7:7.)
12 My People inquire of [habitually] (cp. Jer. 2:27. Hab. 2:19) at their idols made of wood, and their staff declare to them (referring to the divination by rods): for the spirit of idolatry has caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring (i.e. gone away into idolatry. Cp. Ezek. 23:5) from under [the authority]of their God. (As Gomer had left Hosea. Cp. Num. 5:19:29. Ezek. 27:5. Advanced civilization has no idea of what God wants.)
13 They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains (cp. Isa. 1:29, and 57:5,7. Ezek. 6:13, and 20:28. Ref. Deut. 12:2), and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit idolatry, and your spouses shall commit adultery.
14 I will not punish your daughters (who became Temple-women. See next verse) when they commit idolatry, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for [the men] themselves are secluded with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots (Heb. kedeshah = the Temple-women, consecrated to the unclean 'worship' of the Canaanites, by which the foulest corruption became a holy deity. See Gen. 38:21,22. Deut. 23:17): therefore the people that does not understand shall fall [into deception]. (In the guise of religion because of false teaching.)
15 Though you, Israel, play the wanton, yet let not Judah offend (cp. 1:7); and come not you to Gilgal (Jeroboam had erected an idolatrous temple there. See 9:15:12:11. Amos 4:4;5:5. Cp. Judg. 3:19. There, too, they had rejected Yehovah as king [1 Sam. 7;16; 10;8; 11:14,15]), neither go you up to Beth-aven (= house of naught. Put for Beth-el [= the house of God], now profaned by Jeroboam [1 Kings 12:28-33; 13;1. Amos 3:14]. The prophecy fulfilled in Jer. 48:13. See also 2 Kings 10:29; 17:6-23. Amos 7:13), nor swear, The LORD lives. (Cp. Amos 8:14. Zeph. 1:5.)
16 For Israel has been stubborn (restive, or intractable, refractory) as a backsliding heifer (a heifer that will absolutely not line up to the yoke will have no part with it. Kicks, disobedient, jumps fences, whatever she is suppose to be doing, she does the opposite. She cannot be broken to the yolk. Life is to short to put up with troublemakers. Its like those that cannot accept the yolk of God's Commandments. Christ makes that yoke so light. A yoke makes the Lord easier to carry.): now the LORD will feed them as a lamb (= a young ram of more than 1 year old) in an unenclosed space. (I.e. the lands of the heathen. The wolves can nibble on them.)
17 Ephraim is mated (or, united to) to idols: [he can't]let him alone.
18 Their drink is sour (Heb. turned, turned back, thust aside as have turned bad. I.e. traditions of men): they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, "Give you." (Beg, beg, beg. The fact of continual idolatrous worship is changed to the new thought of the rulers continually command, 'Give you [sacrifices]', with contempt for the sacrifices Yahaveh commanded. See 8:13.)
19 The spirit of whoredoms has bound itself up in her skirts (so as to impede her gait), and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices. (Cp. Isa. 1:29. Jer. 2:26.)