TEXT [Commentary]

  II.   Divine and Prophetic Perspectives on Unfaithful Israel (4:1–14:8)

A.   Opening Complaints against Israel (4:1–7:16)

1.   The threefold indictment (4:1-14)

1 Hear the word of the LORD, O people of Israel!

The LORD has brought charges against you, saying:

“There is no faithfulness, no kindness,

no knowledge of God in your land.

2 You make vows and break them;

you kill and steal and commit adultery.

There is violence everywhere—

one murder after another.

3 That is why your land is in mourning,

and everyone is wasting away.

Even the wild animals, the birds of the sky,

and the fish of the sea are disappearing.

4 “Don’t point your finger at someone else

and try to pass the blame!

My complaint, you priests,

is with you.[*]

5 So you will stumble in broad daylight,

and your false prophets will fall with you in the night.

And I will destroy Israel, your mother.

6 My people are being destroyed

because they don’t know me.

Since you priests refuse to know me,

I refuse to recognize you as my priests.

Since you have forgotten the laws of your God,

I will forget to bless your children.

7 The more priests there are,

the more they sin against me.

They have exchanged the glory of God

for the shame of idols.[*]

8 “When the people bring their sin offerings, the priests get fed.

So the priests are glad when the people sin!

9 ‘And what the priests do, the people also do.’

So now I will punish both priests and people

for their wicked deeds.

10 They will eat and still be hungry.

They will play the prostitute and gain nothing from it,

for they have deserted the LORD

11 to worship other gods.

“Wine has robbed my people

of their understanding.

12 They ask a piece of wood for advice!

They think a stick can tell them the future!

Longing after idols

has made them foolish.

They have played the prostitute,

serving other gods and deserting their God.

13 They offer sacrifices to idols on the mountaintops.

They go up into the hills to burn incense

in the pleasant shade of oaks, poplars, and terebinth trees.

“That is why your daughters turn to prostitution,

and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

14 But why should I punish them

for their prostitution and adultery?

For your men are doing the same thing,

sinning with whores and shrine prostitutes.

O foolish people! You refuse to understand,

so you will be destroyed.

NOTES

4:1 Hear the word of the LORD. The Lord’s oracle begins with an imperative; the same occurs in several units in chs 4–14 (e.g., 5:1, 8; 8:1; 9:1; 10:12; 14:1). Here commences the portion of the book where Hosea first records God’s oracle and then, under divine direction (cf. 1:1), comments on it.

brought charges against you. The NLT rendering is in harmony with those suggestions that God’s presentation came in the form of a lawsuit against the offending people (e.g., Wolff 1974:66; Stuart 1987:72-87). For contrary views, see Garrett 1997:108-109; Hubbard 1989:96; Andersen and Freedman 1980:331-333. As Sweeney (2000:42) points out, although there is legal language here, “The existence of a clearly defined covenant lawsuit speech is increasingly questioned by scholars, however, in that no standard literary structure or terminology is apparent throughout all of the various examples of the form that have been put forward, and there are great difficulties in portraying YHWH as both plaintiff and judge in a legal proceeding.”

no faithfulness, no kindness, no knowledge of God. The word rendered “faithfulness” is commonly translated “truth.” The charge is a basic lack of integrity that displays itself in word and deed. For the issue concerning the translation of “faithfulness” or “faith,” see the commentary on Hab 2:4. For kindness, see the note and commentary on Jonah 2:8. The Lord’s loving-kindness has not been reproduced in the people’s lives. Israel’s knowledge of God was also flawed both in theory and in practice.

4:2 commit adultery. Israel’s shameful behavior is in clear violation of the Mosaic law. “All these wrongs relate directly or indirectly to the Decalogue, the normative expression of Yahweh’s will for the nation” (McComiskey 1992:57). In addition, such conduct is condemned frequently in various places in the OT, especially in the legal pronouncements of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.

violence . . . murder. These two crimes are linked together in Ezek 18:10-13 in the case of a son whose violent and sinful ways led to murder. Stuart (1987:76) proposes that the noun translated “murder” (lit., “bloodshed”) should be read as “idols,” and the passage is therefore a condemnation of the rampant idolatry in the northern kingdom.

4:3 your land is in mourning. Lit., “the land mourns.” Joel similarly reported desperate conditions in the land (Joel 1:10-12, 17). Isaiah predicted that such will mark God’s judgment of the earth in future days (Isa 24:1-5).

the wild animals, the birds . . . the fish. Several commentators find an allusion to the creation and flood accounts here. God’s creative work is reversed and “the animal kingdom is pictured in language that outstrips the flood story” (Hubbard 1989:98). Similar imagery is known elsewhere in the prophets (e.g., Jer 4:23-28; see also comments on Zeph 1:2-3). For fuller details, see Patterson 1991:298-302.

4:4-5 priests . . . prophets . . . Israel. All segments of Israel’s social fabric stand guilty before the Lord. The sins of the spiritual leadership have contaminated all areas of society. Therefore, the nation (doubtless including Israel’s civil leadership) was doomed to destruction.

4:6 they don’t know me. Knowledge is an important theme in the book. Here God’s previous charge is restated. Israel’s basic problem was its failure to know God as God. God, however, had full knowledge of Israel and its sin (5:3). All Israel should at least know that its sin would lead to the day of reckoning (9:7). Therefore, God’s people must repent and come to a living knowledge of the Lord so that they may again experience his healing and restoration (6:1-3).

4:7 They have exchanged the glory of God. The NLT follows the lead of the traditional Masoretic emendation (the Tiqqune Sopherim), a reading attested in the Peshitta and the Targum and followed by some English versions (e.g., NIV, NJB, NRSV). The MT, however, reads: “I will exchange their glory,” a reading followed by the LXX, Vulgate, and several English versions (e.g., KJV, NKJV, NASB, REB, GW). The latter rendering understands the verb as predicting a judgment against the priests. Their present honored position will be exposed for the disgrace that it is and will be dealt with accordingly.

4:10 prostitute. Israel’s involvement in the ritual prostitution of the Canaanite fertility rites reflected its spiritual adultery (cf. 4:12). Because this spoke so grievously of Israel’s violation of the covenant, prostitution is a key theme in the book. See the helpful study of Stuart (1987:19-23).

4:13 They go up into the hills . . . in the pleasant shade of oaks, poplars, and terebinth trees. Similar language describing Israel’s participation in Canaanite fertility rites occurs elsewhere in the OT (e.g., Deut 12:2; 1 Kgs 14:23; 2 Kgs 17:10; Jer 2:20; 3:6; Ezek 6:13). Ritual prostitution supposedly insured the fertility of birth and the produce of the land. Moreover, because the sacrifices would be eaten by the participants and because of the sensual pleasure involved in the practice, the rites associated with Baal worship were extremely attractive. Stuart (1987:82) suggests that “many of the sacrifices offered at these ‘high places’ were probably dedicated syncretistically to Yahweh, whatever other Baal-Asherah overtones may have attended the worship.” Certainly religious syncretism is hinted at strongly in Hosea and condemned elsewhere in the OT (e.g., Zeph 1:5). For Baalism and religious syncretism, see Patterson 1991:303-304.

4:14 why should I punish them. God’s punishing Israel’s cult prostitutes alone would be unfair, for Israel’s men were as guilty as they. All Israel must suffer God’s judgment.

COMMENTARY [Text]

Hosea called his hearers to pay attention, for he would declare the Lord’s very words. God’s oracle clearly points out the toxic condition of Israel’s religious experience. The Lord told the people plainly that there was neither a sense of integrity nor any demonstration of the loving-kindness that comes from a vital, living relationship with its covenant Lord. Nor was there any real commitment to God. The order is climactic: God’s people really did not know him, nor had they grasped God’s covenantal standards. The sins abounding throughout the land violated the Decalogue and the tenets of Hebrew law. All Israel stood guilty before the Lord, beginning with the leadership.

Worse still, Israel’s priests and many of the prophets had abandoned their duty of leading God’s people into a deeper, consistent walk with God. Rather, they had led them into the shame and disgrace of idolatry and its associated evils. For their part, the priests had encouraged Israel to worship Baal. It was all for selfish reasons. Indeed, they sold themselves to the people as indispensable to their religious experience. Thereby they hoped to enjoy not only prestige but personal gain. The three basic areas of sin—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16)—thus surfaced in those who should have been leading the people in renouncing them.

How foolish of God’s people! They had given themselves over to a religious system that cannot achieve what it promises to do. For it is Yahweh alone who ensured the fertility of the land and the resultant prosperity, not Baal or any false god. Indeed, God attempted to make this clear by sending natural calamities upon the land, but with no results in the hearts of the people. Therefore, they could expect even worse calamity.

Hosea’s Israel stands as an example to every believer of the disastrous results of failing to submit to God and his standards. Where God and his will are not acknowledged or are even spurned for selfish ends, the marks of judgment will eventually be found. Where no fidelity to God exists, there can be no acts of godly loving-kindness. As in the case of Israel, Christians who claim the name of God can fall into a similar danger of divine chastisement. For it is one thing to confess God in dogma but another to let him truly be Lord of one’s life. How easy it is to be carried away with self and to live for personal gain—such can only lead to spiritual ruin.

Christian leaders are especially to be warned, for they know they are accountable to God (Heb 13:17). God will condemn those ministers who fail to preach the whole counsel of God, who instead tell people whatever they want to hear (2 Tim 4:3). Christian leadership is a sacred trust that requires total fidelity to the Lord and the Word of God (cf. Acts 20:26; 1 Cor 4:2).

Not only believers and Christian leaders are to be warned; where sins such as those detailed in this passage are rampant in a nation, its spiritual and moral fiber are weakened and its collapse will inevitably occur. The parade of the passing of great nations is a grim reminder of this fact. The declaration of Scripture remains true: “Godliness makes a nation great, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Prov 14:34).