Hosea 4

Berean Standard Bible

Chapter summary

The Lord brings a legal case against the children of Israel because truth, loving devotion, and the knowledge of God are absent from the land, replaced by rampant crimes including cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery. Consequently, the land mourns, its inhabitants waste away along with the animals and fish, and the Lord declares that both the people and the priests will be punished for rejecting knowledge and forgetting His law. The population abandons the Lord for promiscuity, wine, and new wine, consulting wooden idols and divining rods while offering sacrifices on mountaintops and hills beneath shady trees. This idolatrous behavior involves the men visiting temple prostitutes, leading to widespread moral failure among daughters and daughters-in-law. Finally, the Lord warns Judah not to follow Israel's guilty path at Gilgal and Beth-aven, describing stubborn Israel as joined to idols, abandoned to their rulers' love of disgrace, and ultimately swept away by a whirlwind.

Summary automatically generated from the Bible text.

Words of Jesus in red

¹Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a case against the people of the land: “There is no truth, no loving devotion, and no knowledge of God in the land! ²Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another. ³Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea disappear. ⁴But let no man contend; let no man offer reproof; for your people are like those who contend with a priest. ⁵You will stumble by day, and the prophet will stumble with you by night; so I will destroy your mother— ⁶My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you as My priests. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children. ⁷The more they multiplied, the more they sinned against Me; they exchanged their Glory for a thing of disgrace. ⁸They feed on the sins of My people and set their hearts on iniquity. ⁹And it shall be like people, like priest. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds. ¹⁰They will eat but not be satisfied; they will be promiscuous but not multiply. For they have abandoned the LORD to give themselves ¹¹to promiscuity, wine, and new wine, which take away understanding. ¹²My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God. ¹³They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is pleasant. And so your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery. ¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go off with prostitutes and offer sacrifices with shrine prostitutes. So a people without understanding will come to ruin. ¹⁵Though you prostitute yourself, O Israel, may Judah avoid such guilt! Do not journey to Gilgal, do not go up to Beth-aven, and do not swear on oath, ‘As surely as the LORD lives!’ ¹⁶For Israel is as obstinate as a stubborn heifer. Can the LORD now shepherd them like lambs in an open meadow? ¹⁷Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone! ¹⁸When their liquor is gone, they turn to prostitution; their rulers dearly love disgrace. ¹⁹The whirlwind has wrapped them in its wings, and their sacrifices will bring them shame.

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Louis Segond 1910 and Berean Standard Bible: public domain. Cross references: open-cross-ref, Creative Commons BY 4.0.