Hosea 4

1 ye children of Israel. The northern kingdom: cp. ver. 15.

2. By swearing, etc. Or, as R.V., “There is nought but swearing,” etc.

blood toucheth blood. “Bloodshed follows bloodshed.”

3. Therefore shall the land mourn. See note on ii. 21.

4 let no man strive, etc. This is rather a statement of fact, “No man strives or rebukes another.”

5 the prophet also shall fall (stumble) with thee in the night. By day and by night the common people, the prophets, yea, the whole nation (see ii. 4), shall feel My anger.

thy mother. The nation or the tribe.

6 thou hast rejected knowledge. This is addressed to the priests of Israel. They have rejected the knowledge of God and He refuses to acknowledge them as His priests.

8. They eat up the sin of My people. Probably, “the sin-offering.” These false priests earnestly upheld the wicked image-worship of the people for the sake of their own profit.

9 like people, like priest. The one shall share the fate of the other: see Isa. xxiv. 2.

11. Whoredom and wine and new wine. The prophet now turns from the priests to the people: cp. Prov. ii. 19; xxiii. 29-35, and notes. Licentiousness and drunkenness are the causes of that stupidity which leads Israel to take a stock for his god, and a stick for his prophet (12).

12 their staff declareth unto them. Some have understood this to refer to rod-divination, but it seems better to regard “staff” as meaning “twig,” referring to the tree-cultus (see Peake’s Commentary).

13 elms. Rather, “terebinths.”

your spouses (or, daughters-in-law) shall commit adultery. Omit “shall” (R.V.). The idolatrous worship to which the Israelites were prone was connected with gross licentiousness: cp. Judges ii. 13.

14. I will not punish, etc. I will not single them out for punishment, as though they were the chief offenders: the whole people are implicated, and shall “fall,” or “be overthrown” (R.V.).

15 let not Judah offend. To make his appeals more impressive, the prophet enjoins Judah to have nothing to do with the debased sister-kingdom.

Gilgal . . . Beth-aven. The sacred associations connected with Gilgal and Bethel in the history of the Israelites (Gen. xxviii. 10-22; xxxv. 1-7; 1 Sam. x. 3, 8; xi. 14, 15; xv. 21, 33) seem to have led to the establishment of false worship there. Hence the prophets denounce these places (see ix. 15; xii. 11; Amos iv. 4, 5); and, instead of calling the latter “Bethel,” the house of God, they transfer to it the name of a neighbouring village, “Beth-aven,” the house of vanity, referring to the unprofitableness of sin.

16. Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer. Rather, “Israel is stubborn, as a stubborn heifer”; as in Deut. xxi. 18.

as a lamb in a large place. They wish to range at large; they shall do so, unprotected.

17. Ephraim is joined to idols. Ephraim, as the leading tribe, gives its name to the kingdom of Israel.

18. Their drink is sour, etc. Rather, “Their carousal is over, they commit whoredom (i.e., they turn from wine to lewdness); her shields (or rulers) desperately love shame. [Therefore] the wind binds her (the nation) in its wings (i.e., to carry it away), and they shall be ashamed,” etc.