Hosea · chapter 4 of 14
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Hosea 4 is God's formal charge against Israel: there is no faithfulness, love or knowledge of God in the land, and swearing, lying, murder, stealing and adultery abound. God accuses the priests of forgetting his law and profiting from the people's sin. The chapter announces that the people are destroyed for lack of knowledge and that Ephraim is joined to idols.
With Hosea 4 begins the second part of the book, made up of messages of accusation and judgment against Israel. After the symbol of the marriage, the prophetic voice now turns directly to the people and their leaders. The chapter describes a society in which moral ruin and religious corruption reinforce each other.
The prophet summons the children of Israel to hear the word of the Lord, who has a charge against the inhabitants of the land, because there is no faithfulness, no steadfast love and no knowledge of God in the land. There is swearing, lying, murder, stealing and adultery, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and even the fish of the sea.
The charge then turns to the priests, who were supposed to teach the law. God tells them his people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, and because they rejected knowledge, he will reject them as priests; because they forgot the law of their God, he will also forget their children. The more they increased, the more they sinned. They feed on the sin of the people, so that it is like people, like priest. Wine and whoredom take away their understanding. They consult a piece of wood, and their staff gives them an answer, for a spirit of whoredom has led them astray. They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains and under oak, poplar and terebinth.
Though Israel plays the whore, God warns Judah not to become guilty, nor to go to Gilgal or go up to Beth-aven (as Bethel is called here). Israel is stubborn like a stubborn heifer. Ephraim is joined to idols: leave him alone. When their drink is gone, they keep on whoring; their rulers love shame. The wind will wrap them in its wings, and they will be ashamed of their sacrifices.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Lord has a charge against the inhabitants of the land because there is no faithfulness, mercy or knowledge of God. It is the summary of the accusation: the lack of relationship with God shows in everything else.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, says God, and because the priests rejected knowledge, he rejects them. Here the knowledge of God is not only information but relationship and obedience to his law.
The people consult their wood and their staff answers them, because a spirit of whoredom has led them astray. Idolatry offers easy answers that replace the word of the Lord.
Ephraim is joined to idols, and God says leave him alone. It is a terrible phrase of judgment: God hands the people over to their own choice, although his desire is that they return.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Faithfulness, steadfast love and knowledge of God. — Hosea 4:1
Answer: Swearing falsely, lying, murder, stealing and adultery. — Hosea 4:2
Answer: For lack of knowledge: they rejected knowledge and forgot the law of their God. — Hosea 4:6
Answer: They feed on the sin of the people, and the people are like the priest. — Hosea 4:8-9
Answer: Not to become guilty, not to go to Gilgal or go up to Beth-aven, and not to swear falsely by the living Lord. — Hosea 4:15
Answer: That he is joined to idols and should be left alone. — Hosea 4:17
Hosea 4 invites us to ask how well we really know God. The people had worship, priests and sacrifices, but not the knowledge of God, and so injustice spread. In a class or small group you can reflect on how to study the Bible and pray in order to know God beyond religious routine.
The chapter also speaks to those who teach: the responsibility of leaders is great, because when they teach wrongly or for convenience the people suffer. Pastors, teachers and parents can ask whether they are passing on God's word faithfully. And the phrase leave him alone reminds us that God can allow us to follow our own way when we reject him again and again.
Hosea 4 leaves Israel without excuse: its situation comes from forgetting God and his law. In Hosea 5 the message is addressed to the priests, the house of Israel and the house of the king, who are called to hear the judgment, and to Judah, which also stumbles.
In Hosea, knowing God means acknowledging him, obeying him and keeping a loyal relationship with him, not only knowing facts about him. The people had religion but not that knowledge, and the priests, who were to teach the law, were the first to forget it.
Beth-aven means house of wickedness and is a contemptuous name Hosea uses for Bethel, which means house of God. There was a sanctuary there with a golden calf that the prophets considered idolatry.
In Hosea 4:14 God points out that the men who go with cult prostitutes are responsible first. The text shows that leaders and fathers bear the most guilt, not that God ignores the sin of the women.