Hosea Chapters 4,5,6,7: Commentary

Hosea Chapters 4-7

4:1 “Because of his experience with Gomer he (Hosea) was better able to see the nation and its whorish behavior toward Jehovah. All about him he saw the kingdom falling apart, its ideals gone, and the doom of captivity facing the nation. Jehovah has a controversy, a lawsuit, a case at law with ‘the inhabitants of the land’” (Hailey p. 147). “Any complacency which the happy ending of the first three chapters may have induced in the reader (if he has begun to picture God as the ever-accommodating husband) is now abruptly shattered. We are suddenly in a court of law, and God is prosecuting. He has no lack of charges to bring” (Kidner p. 46).

4:1 “Because”: Here are the charges against Israel. They are devoid of faithfulness (truth) in their words and actions. There is no kindness or goodness, that is, love for their fellowman, and the people are ignorant of God and His will.

Notice how truth, faithfulness, kindness, mercy, and knowledge all hinge upon one another. People forget that sound doctrine underlies the proper understanding and application of great moral principles, such as faith, mercy and love (1 Corinthians 13:4ff). Smith notes that the rest of the book seems to dwell on these topics: The lack of faithfulness (11:12-14:9), lack of mercy, or kindness (6:4-11:11), and lack of the knowledge of God (4:2-6:3). “The indictment is al the more telling in that it starts with what God pre-eminently looks for. He is weighing Israel in the balance against faithfulness, kindness, and the knowledge of God, only to find her wanting at every point: utterly light on all the things that matter” (Kidner p. 46). Faithfulness would include common honesty or reliability. Kindness describes the loyalty expected of partners in a covenant, and consider God’s expectations here. God was looking for not a bare minimum of godliness, or a decent fear of the Lord, but a fundamental, developed and thorough knowledge. Where God is “known as He is walked with and as His interests are shared and served” (Kidner p. 47).

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4:2 Here violations of five of the Ten Commandments are specifically mentioned.

The expression bloodshed follows bloodshed means that one violent act follows on the heels of another.

4:3 Nature testifies to the sin in the land for it has been made to suffer on account of the sins of man, we tend to forget that the real “pollution” in this world is brought by man’s sin. Evidently, because of such sins the land was experiencing a drought, so severe that even the fish were dying. Drought was one of the curses threatened in the Law for breaking the covenant (Lev. 26:19; Deut. 28:2324).

4:4 “Yet let no one find fault”: It has reached the point that rebuking them is pointless, they are beyond the point of anyone being able to reason with them.

The people of the land have become like those who contend with the priest. The priests were the teachers of the Law (Lev. 10:10-11; Deut. 17:8-11), thus to strive or contend with such a teacher was to reject the word of the Lord. The priests were the final judicial authority, and to rebel against them was to give the nation over to anarchy and lawlessness. “If this language leaves out many links in the chain of causation, it is not hard to supply a few of them once one recognizes violence, lust and perversion as symptoms of the state of mind which will stop at no restraints and will sacrifice a whole future to the cravings of the moment.

Hosea speaks here even more immediately to us, who are approaching the terminal stage of this infection, than to his own generation” (Kidner p. 48).

4:5 As a result, the people along with their professional false prophets would stumble and fall, i.e., perish, “Stumble, fall, like drunkards bereft of reason, helplessly tottering along on their way to destruction…Their prophets were deceivers, like themselves stumbling along, blind leaders of the blind (Luke 6:39)” (Laetsch p. 43). The mother in this verse appears to be the nation as a whole, that is, the nation is viewed as a mother who gives birth to the individuals who compose her.

4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”: Here we see the vital importance of sound doctrine being constantly preached and accepted (2 Timothy 4:2-4). God holds those who should have been the spiritual leaders in the nation (the priests) responsible for this lack of knowledge among the people.

The people lack this knowledge because the priests had rejected the Word of God as being the standard of authority. These priests knew about the Law of God, but had willfully rejected it. Therefore, let us do everything we can to encourage elders, preachers, and teachers to faithfully teach the whole counsel of God to 2

God’s people (Acts 20:27). “What is even more striking than the poor showing of these men is the glory of the task entrusted to them: no less than to be the nation’s spiritual educators…So a spiritually sightless priest is a mortal danger to himself and a disaster to others” (Kidner p. 49).

4:6 As a consequence, these priests will be removed from office and their descendants will not replace them. Unfortunately, these priests had viewed themselves as more “sacrificers” than “educators”.

4:7 “The more they multiplied, the more they sinned against Me”: One would expect that an increase in the number of priests would have positive effects on the nations moral climate. However, in Israel it only brought greater sin.

4:8 “They feed on the sin of My people”: The more the people sinned, the more the priests got to eat the choice meat of the sin offering. The priests were cherishing and longing for the people to sin because they prospered from the abundance of sin offerings brought to the temple. Instead of wanting the people to repent, change their lives, the priests relished the idea that the people were imprisoned in their sins and thus beholden to the “experts”.

4:9 “Like people, like priest”: The office held by the priests would not give them a wavier against God’s judgment. “They would receive no clergy pass out of the impending calamity” (Smith p. 230). In addition, we learn that the spirituality of the people is directly related to the spirituality of its leaders.

Elders or preachers who want the members to be more spiritual need to look at their own level of commitment and example.

4:10 “Ill-gotten gain, riches acquired by fraud and deceit, can and will never satisfy the soul. The hunger for riches, power, or fame, knows no bounds, and quite frequently God punishes greed and coveteousness in the manner described (Haggai 1:6,11; 2:16-17)” (Laetsch p. 45). “The terms of the coming judgment, as initially announced in verse 10, are distinctly appropriate. Food and sex have been these priests’ obsession: food and sex will fail them, the one by shortage the other by sterility—for it is a theme of Scripture and a fact of life that things material are precarious, and things merely sensual frustrating. Our Lord captured both these limitations in a single aphorism: ‘Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again’” (Kidner p. 51).

4:11 Sin removes the ability to think clearly! The term harlotry probably applies to both idolatry and the sinful acts often associated with it. Here is a warning, 3

departing from the faith, going into false doctrine, is just like drinking an intoxicating beverage, you will lose your ability to discern good from evil, right from wrong and truth from error. “In itself, the proverb…makes the point that what unbridled drinking does to blur the mind, unbridled sex will also do in its more subtle way. This is a remark well suited to a pleasure-loving Israel” (Kidner p. 52).

4:12 As a result the people were engaging in pagan worship practices. “The reference to their diviner’s wand probably denotes a mode of divination called rhabdomancy. Two rods were held upright, then allowed to drop while incantations were being uttered. The oracle was referred from the way the sticks fell whether forward, backward, to the right or to the left” (Smith p. 231). And for Israel, who knew the true God, there is no excuse to abandon the living God and turn to a block of wood for guidance, or turn from the Scriptures to “studying the way a stick thrown up at random might fall and point” (Kidner p. 53). A spirit of harlotry, is an attitude or mindset which happens when people decide to reject God. If you reject the truth, then you will naturally gravitate towards whatever falsehood happens to appeal to your selfish side.

4:13 The altars to their false gods were usually erected on the tops of high elevations and hills. In such places their daughters and even their brides committed adultery. “There were harlots plying their trade and sacred prostitutes luring the men, young and old, to ‘do their religion and enjoy it’” (Laestch p. 47). “I will not punish your daughters”: “The daughters and brides would not be held responsible to the same extent as were the fathers and husbands who set the example” (Hailey p. 150). The meaning could also be, that the women wouldn’t be specifically singled out for judgment, because the men frequented these shrines as well. “This society had gone as sex-mad as our own, with promiscuous adolescents and with marriages violated from the start. Hosea takes an unexpected line on this, for instead of castigating the juvenile prostitutes (‘your daughters’) and the roving brides, he asks who has set them this example.

The answer is the men—the very fathers and husbands who felt themselves betrayed” (Kidner p. 53). “So the people without understanding are ruined”: If they continue to refuse to “think” they will be destroyed. “And the folk that won’t think won’t survive. No political initiatives, no social engineering, could save a people in this state of mindless apostasy. Nothing but repentance” (Kidner p. 54).

4:15 Here Judah is warned to avoid the sins of her sister Israel. The expressions, Do not go to Gilgal, or go up to Beth-aven, is a warning to avoid such places where 4

such idolatrous shrines were located. To associate oneself with Israel’s false worship would be contaminating. Beth-aven, which means house of vanity or wickedness, was the new name for Bethel, which meant, “house of God”.

4:15 “And take the oath”: In the midst of this idolatrous, immoral worship the Israelites even had the audacity to employ the Lord’s name in oaths. Yet, even in our own society many immoral people do make references to God quite frequently. “If we want a modern equivalent, it could well be the religious pluralism expressed in the studied neutrality of certain courses on world religions, or of any multi-faith service. ‘Some to St. X’s and blaspheme’, a modern Amos might say. And a modern Hosea, ‘Don’t darken its doors! You must choose between that and God’” (Kidner p. 55).

4:16 Instead of acting like a lamb which follows, Israel had acted like a stubborn cow that refuses to yield to the yoke put upon her by Jehovah. She would not be trained. The word can according to the side reference could also be translated, “Now the Lord will pasture…”. To be pastured in a large field would be mean being subjected to many dangerous enemies. “The Lord will put them to pasture like a lamb in a wide-open space where they can run wild as they please without feeling curbed by the stockade of God’s Law, without His guidance and protection, as helpless lambs, an easy prey to any enemy” (Laestch p. 47).

4:17 “Let him alone”: Israel was to be left to herself and allowed to go to her doom. The word joined means “wedded” or “mated”. In the face of such defiance, there is only one alternative, the Prodigal must be left alone!

4:18 Israel’s rulers failed miserably, loving only shameful deeds. The wind wraps them in its wings pictures the swiftness of the onrushing inescapable hurricane, catching them up, carrying them on its wings, and hurling them into destruction.

Chapter 5 5:1 Hosea addresses all classes of the population: priests, house of Israel, and the house of the king. Here the king and his court are denounced for the first time.

The prophet says that such rulers have been a snare at Mizpah. The city of Mizpah was in Gilead (Judges 10:17). Apparently the leaders had encouraged the people to worship at idolatrous sites and one was located at Mizpeh. Mount Tabor was in northern Israel, about 12 miles SW of the Sea of Galilee. Now both Mizpeh and Tabor had been turned into illegal places for idolatrous worship services. Thus these sites trapped and enmeshed God’s people in false religion.

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5:2 The people are called revolters, and in straying from God’s will they had gone into depth depravity (Romans 1:18ff). Note, one isn’t born depraved but one can certainly live in such a way that one becomes depraved. “A modern prophet would scandalize even the faithful if he started naming the equivalents of apostate Mizpah and Tabor. Among the theological faculties where would he begin? Where would he end? Which of them poses no threat to the faith of its initiates? And among the vocational colleges and seminaries, and societies, movements and churches?” (Kidner p. 57).

5:3 Any attempt to hide from God would be futile. The irony is that while Israel does not know God, yet God knows everything about them (Hebrews 4:12-13).

5:4 People deep in sin still have a freewill and still can change (1 Corinthians 6:911), but the people loved their sinful deeds so much that it had become impossible for them to repent while they were in such a mindset. The key to overcoming sin is to stop loving it and see it for what it really is. “The deep thrust of God’s knowledge, however painful it may initially be, is seen as something to be welcomed, for it means that He knows the worst, and yet persists with us” (Kidner p. 58).

5:5 The arrogance on the behalf of many Israelites testified against them. By its arrogance and self-reliance Israel stood self-condemned. Ephraim is often mentioned side by side with Israel, for Ephraim was the dominant tribe in the north, as Judah was in the south. One cannot continue to think clearly while living in sin. Sadly, Judah wasn’t learning anything, but rather was following the sinful example of her sister Israel. This verse points out another obstacle to reunion with God, “Sin not only alienates: it saddles one with guilt—and guilt is written all over this nation, not by shamefaced looks that normally betray it, but by the very brazenness that would deny it” (Kidner p. 59).

5:6 “No amount of religious zeal could avert the judgment of God. In desperation, the northern citizens would attempt to seek Jehovah with their flocks and herds. Increasing sacrifice was always the solution Israel had to national jeopardy” (Smith p. 235). Yet such sacrifices were useless for they were too little too late, and the motives behind them were not sincere. The sorrow that motivated such sacrifices was not a sorrow for sin, but a mere fear of coming judgment. “So they must learn that God is not the prisoner of His sacraments (sacrifices and rituals). Verse 6 sees them going through the due procedures of

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religion, sparing no expense to gain access to God; but there is nobody at home” (Kidner p. 59).

5:7 The word treacherously, is frequently used for the unfaithfulness of a spouse (Malachi 2:14). In their false religion they had produced illegitimate children, that is, children who hadn’t been raised with a true knowledge of God. They only raised children who were even more unfaithful than themselves. Such religious festivals as the new moon would not bring them any salvation, but such festivals would only result in their destruction, for the people were trusting in such things to deliver them.

5:8 No amount of military preparation can avert judgment. Gibeah, Ramah and Beth-aven were border towns. Ramah was about six miles N of Jerusalem, and Gibeah was midway between the two cities. The expression Behind you, Benjamin!, appears to have been a common cry to rally the soldiers in this area for battle.

5:9 “I declare what is sure”: The threats spoken by Hosea were not idle. All would come to pass (2 Peter 3:9-10).

5:10 The rulers in Judah wouldn’t escape judgment either. Their rulers were like those who moved ancient boundary markers, which was considered the lowest form of wickedness in the ancient world. “To change the boundaries was like ‘claim jumping’, one of the most despicable crimes (Deut. 19:14; Proverbs 22:28) …To be like them is to set aside ruthlessly the legal, vested rights of one’s fellow man, whenever they conflict with one’s selfish interests or desires, to tyrannize and take every possible advantage against the weaker neighbor” (Laetsch p. 53).

On such people God would simply “rain” His wrath.

5:11 Ephraim would perish because they were determined to hold on to human commands, and human wisdom at all cost.

5:12-13 Ephraim and Judah would be slowly consumed by God’s wrath, like a moth eats clothing or rottenness destroys a piece of wood. “Verse 12 presents a quite novel impression of God in action, ‘like a moth’…and like dry rot—for the silent process of decay is His, no less than the march of armies. Both can be well accounted for in natural terms when a nation goes soft” (Kidner p. 61). When Israel finally woke up and realized its true condition, instead of turning to God for help, the nation turned to human alliances and nations, such as Assyria. The people sought a political solution rather than a spiritual one. King Jareb was 7

apparently a nickname for the king of Assyria. “The name means something like King Contentious, or King Combative, or perhaps King Pick-Quarrel” (Smith p.

237). In 738 B.C., the Israelite king Menahem sent tribute to Assyria (2 King 15:19f.). The irony is that the Assyrians, instead of protecting Israel, invaded and devastated the nation. Sadly, man still seeks an economic or political solution for spiritual problems. Let us make sure that we don’t place our trust in the latest program rather than in God’s truth. “When the nation does wake up to its predicament, according to this chapter its reaction is typically shallow. To save its skin—never mind its soul! It flies straight to Assyria, asking itself no questions about the kind of patron it is getting, still less about the kind of cure it really needs” (Kidner p. 62).

5:14-15 Like a lion, God will pounce on Israel and Judah. Finally some people in the nation will come back to God. The lesson taught in Exile will be a painful one, but because of it some people will finally realize the guilt of their sins and come to God for deliverance.

Chapter 6 6:1 Hosea is urging repentance, and an incentive for repentance is God’s mercy.

Yes, He will tear, but He will also heal the nation if they return. While Hosea has acknowledged that God has already set in motion the coming judgment, still He will heal us.

6:2 The expression after two days in this context probably means something like, “in a short time”. The nation will be resurrected, so to speak, from Exile (Ezekiel 37:1-10). Some older commentators thought that this verse anticipated the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but the New Testament never cites it as a fulfilled prophecy for the amount of time that the body of Jesus was in the tomb.

6:3 In view of the availability of such wonderful mercy, the people should press on to know the Lord. “Again the incentive for repentance is a gracious promise of how the Lord would respond to their actions. His going forth is as certain as morning. Just as morning certainly follows night, so God surely comes to the help of them who repent” (Smith p. 239). God comes to the humble as rain, that is, He brings spiritual refreshment.

6:4 “Your loyalty is like a morning cloud”: This is one of the truly great verses in the book. When Israel did repent and did promise to be faithful, such faithfulness was about as short-lived as dew or morning fog. How quickly their 8

promises to change and love God were forgotten. Though the nation might from time to time show signs of improvement, such was only temporary. Compare with Psalm 78:34, 36-37. Their repentance was shallow—like the person who says, “God has to forgive me…that is His job”. What about us? Do we promise to change, but then are found acting the same old way a short time later? How long can we keep away from a habitual sin or sinful attitude?

6:5 As a result, God had repeatedly rebuked them through the prophets and actually brought various judgments upon them. At times God was very pointed with the people and cut them down to size through the preaching of such men like Elijah and Elisha. He had repeatedly tried to reform them and prick their hearts.

6:6 “For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice”: Unfortunately, some people have read this passage with a preconceived notion and have walked away thinking that the text says that God delights in warm feelings and not obedience.

The word translated loyalty includes such concepts as devotion, mercy, and faithfulness. Smith notes that the Hebrew word here, Chesed is very similar to the concept of agape love in the New Testament. Unless sacrifices were offered in the context of obedience and true devotion to God, they were meaningless and even offensive (cf. 1 Samuel 15:22; Micah 6:6-8). Religious busyness can never become a substitute for true obedience from the heart.

6:6 “And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings”: God delights in people who truly know Him, who make the effort to understand His revelation to mankind and seek to bring their thoughts and lives into harmony with His way of thinking. Yet in many religious bodies fanfare, entertainment, feeling good, and superficial religion has become far more popular than true devotion to God and really understanding what He wants us to do.

6:7 “But like Adam”: Adam ignored all the bounty around him and disobeyed simply the one requirement that God had placed on him. Are we like Adam?

Surrounded by all sorts of physical blessings, privileged to have found the truth and the true church and yet allowing ourselves to be allured away from such tremendous blessings?

6:8-10 When men and women are not right with God, society will be filled with violence. In verse 9, the priesthood was so corrupt or was attracting men so corrupt that priests were organized into roving bands of thieves and bandits.

“Shechem was a Levitical city of refuge (Joshua 20:7) on the road from Samaria to 9

Bethel. Pilgrims going to the feasts would be traveling this road carrying with them offerings” (Smith p. 243). Here is the very unromantic social cost of Israel’s unfaithfulness. “Here as ever the tragic and the squalid intertwine” (Kidner p.

68).

Chapter 7 7:1-2 Often people involved in sin somehow think that God either doesn’t see or doesn’t care how they are living, yet sinful deeds surround sinners like witnesses against them. “The final verse in this section, as we have divided it at 7:2, is the most alarming of all, and it breathes a very modern atmosphere. People’s bland dismissal of any question of divine judgment has made repentance virtually unthinkable” (Kidner p. 69).

7:3 The rulers were no different from their subjects. A godly ruler was to oppose injustice within his kingdom (Psalm 101), but these leaders delighted in it.

Apparently, the corrupt Israelite kings were getting their cut from various unlawful activities.

7:4 “Hosea likens the lust of these men to an oven heated by a baker. Evil desires burned constantly in their hearts just as the baker’s oven, which is continually stoked. Between kneading the dough and its leavening, a baker would rest. Similarly the men of Israel rested temporarily after each indulgence before being overcome by lust again” (Smith p. 244). Compare with Peter’s statement about people who have eyes full of adultery (2 Peter 2:14). If we do not control our thoughts, then our minds can become so filled with evil thoughts that our minds constantly are thinking about such things. Merely thinking about evil things can become an addiction (Genesis 6:5). “The picture of the oven that needs no stoking once the fermentation has begun, tells its own story of selfpropagating passion” (Kidner p. 70).

7:5-7 Sinners also mock at those in authority. On some festive occasion for the king, like his birthday, the king caroused with his princes who are called mockers. While they partied with the naïve king, they plotted his overthrow. In the hearts of the princes was the fire of revolution. Following the death of Jeroboam II, in northern Israel there was a definite period of anarchy. Four of the last six kings to rule over Israel were murdered (2 Kings 15). The saddest fact is that none of these kings called upon God even once for help.

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7:8 “Ephraim mixes himself with the nations”: Israel had opted for human wisdom in the realm of dealing with pagan nations. Instead of refusing to be conformed to this world (Roman 12:1-2), the nation had adopted pagan customs.

7:8 “Ephraim has become like a cake not turned”: That is, like a cake cooking on hot coals that has never been turned, burned on one side and raw on the other, hence, worthless, like a bad pancake. “They were cooked in heathenism but uncooked or raw in their relation to God” (Hailey p. 159). The people were not out-and-out followers of Baal, but half-hearted commitment to God is just as bad as no commitment (Revelation 3:14ff). “How better describe a half fed people, a half-cultured society, a half-lived religion, a half-hearted policy, than by a half-baked scone….brings out the loss of conviction which left this people neither one thing nor the other…The gospels demonstrate a better way in their account of the good physician and the friend of sinners: wholly Himself yet wholly accessible, and as compassionate as He was uncompromising” (Kidner p.

73).

7:9 “Yet he does not know it; Gray hairs also are sprinkled upon him, Yet he does not know it”: The spiritual vitality of the nation was being sapped and the people didn’t even know it. Compromise, toleration of false religion, the relaxing of moral standards, situation ethics in business, and alliances with other nations were making the nation prematurely old. The nation was blind to the fact that she was on her last leg.

7:10 In spite of all of this, Israel remained defiant.

7:11 “In its futile foreign policy Israel was like a silly dove without understanding. The picture here is of a bird, which leaves its nest and flies aimlessly here and there. So Israel’s foreign policy shifted back and forth from pro-Egypt to pro-Assyria” (Smith p. 246).

7:12 Yet, all of Israel’s well-laid plans concerning foreign policy will fail. “In accordance with the proclamation to their assembly”: That is, both Amos and Hosea had warned Israel. God would do to the nation exactly what He had promised through the prophets.

7:13-15 The cries from the nation were not cries of repentance, but rather the people were mourning over the loss of various physical comforts. They were more concerned about their bellies than their soul. Are we like this? We get

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really emotional over earthly things, but can seem to get excited about spiritual things?

7:16 God had instructed the nation regarding how to become strong, but they didn’t express any appreciation. Actually, they viewed God as simply one god among many, and one god to be opposed, thwarted, or overruled. Instead of looking up to God, they looked in every other direction for help. Are we like this? When things go wrong, do we immediately seek God in prayer, or do we want to avoid God at all cost? Despite all of God’s blessings, do we regard Him as an enemy? The Israelite leaders were arrogant and boastful, but they would be destroyed in battle. Ironically Israel would be destroyed and the wisdom of such princes would become an object of ridicule among the Egyptians, whose aid they had foolishly sought.

Closing Comments: The church in every age faces the same basic challenge that faced Israel, and a challenge in which they failed during the time of Hosea. Either we face the world and stand for the truth, for we can withdraw into ourselves and melt in our surroundings (Romans 12:1-2).

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