The Lord's Covenant Lawsuit Against Israel's Knowledge-Less Rebellion

Hos 4:6 This thought is carried out still further in the second strophe, Hos 4:6-10. Hos 4:6. “My nation is destroyed for lack of knowledge; for thou, the knowledge hast thou rejected, and so do I reject thee from being a priest to me. Thou didst forget the law of thy God; thy sons will I also forget. ” The speaker is Jehovah: my nation, that is to say, the nation of Jehovah.

This nation perishes for lack of the knowledge of God and His salvation. Hadda‛ath ( the knowledge) with the definite article points back to da‛ath Elōhı̄m (knowledge of God) in Hos 4:1. This knowledge Israel might have drawn from the law, in which God had revealed His counsel and will (Deu 30:15), but it would not. It rejected the knowledge and forgot the law of its God, and would be rejected and forgotten by God in consequence.

In 'attâh ( thou ) it is not the priests who are addressed - the custodians of the law and promoters of divine knowledge in the nation - but the whole nation of the ten tribes which adhered to the image-worship set up by Jeroboam, with its illegal priesthood (1Ki 12:26-33), in spite of all the divine threats and judgments, through which one dynasty after another was destroyed, and would not desist from this sin of Jeroboam. The Lord would therefore reject it from being priest, i.

e. , would deprive it of the privilege of being a priestly nation (Exo 19:6), would strip it of the privilege of being a priestly nation (Exo 19:6), would strip it of its priestly rank, and make it like the heathen. According to Olshausen ( Heb. Gram. p. 179), the anomalous form אמאסאך is only a copyist’s error for אמאסך; but Ewald (§247, e) regards it as an Aramaean pausal form.

“Thy sons,” the children of the national community, regarded as a mother, are the individual members of the nation.

Hos 4:7 “The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; their glory will I change into shame. ” כּרבּם, “according to their becoming great,” does not refer to the increase of the population only (Hos 9:11), but also to its growing into a powerful nation, to the increase of its wealth and prosperity, in consequence of which the population multiplied.

The progressive increase of the greatness of the nation was only attended by increasing sin. As the nation attributed to its own idols the blessings upon which its prosperity was founded, and by which it was promoted (cf. Hos 2:7), and looked upon them as the fruit and reward of its worship, it was strengthened in this delusion by increasing prosperity, and more and more estranged from the living God.

The Lord would therefore turn the glory of Ephraim, i. e. , its greatness or wealth, into shame. כּבודם is probably chosen on account of its assonance with כּרבּם. For the fact itself, compare Hos 2:3, Hos 2:9-11.

Hos 4:8 “The sin of my people they eat, and after their transgression do they lift up their soul. ” The reproof advances from the sin of the whole nation to the sin of the priesthood. For it is evident that this is intended, not only from the contents of the present verse, but still more from the commencement of the next. Chatta'th ‛ammı̄ (the sin of my people) is the sin-offering of the people, the flesh of which the priests were commanded to eat, to wipe away the sin of the people (see Lev 6:26, and the remarks upon this law at Lev 10:17).

The fulfilment of this command, however, became a sin on the part of the priests, from the fact that they directed their soul, i. e. , their longing desire, to the transgression of the people; in other words, that they wished the sins of the people to be increased, in order that they might receive a good supply of sacrificial meat to eat. The prophet evidently uses the word chattâ'th , which signifies both sin and sin-offering, in a double sense, and intends to designate the eating of the flesh of the sin-offering as eating or swallowing the sin of the people.

נשׂא נפשׁ אל, to lift up or direct the soul after anything, i. e. , to cherish a longing for it, as in Deu 24:15, etc. The singular suffix attached to naphshō (his soul) is to be taken distributively: “(they) every one his soul. ”

Hos 4:9 “Therefore it will happen as to the people so to the priest; and I will visit his ways upon him, and I repay to him his doing. ” Since the priests had abused their office for the purpose of filling their own bellies, they would perish along with the nation. The suffixes in the last clauses refer to the priest, although the retribution threatened would fall upon the people also, since it would happen to the priest as to the people.

This explains the fact that in Hos 4:10 the first clause still applies to the priest; whereas in the second clause the prophecy once more embraces the entire nation.

Hos 4:10 “They will eat, and not be satisfied; they commit whoredom, and do not increase: for they have left off taking heed to Jehovah. ” The first clause, which still refers to the priests on account of the evident retrospect in ואכלוּ to יאכלוּ in Hos 4:8, is taken from the threat in Lev 26:16. The following word hiznū , to practise whoredom (with the meaning of the kal intensified as in Lev 26:18, not to seduce to whoredom), refers to the whole nation, and is to be taken in its literal sense, as the antithesis לא יפרצוּ requires.

Pârats , to spread out, to increase in number, as in Exo 1:12 and Gen 28:14. In the last clause Lשׁמר belongs to Jehovah: they have given up keeping Jehovah, i. e. , giving heed to Him (cf. Zec 11:11). This applies to the priests as well as to the people. Therefore God withdraws His blessing from both, so that those who eat are not satisfied, and those who commit whoredom do not increase.

Hos 4:11-12 The allusion to whoredom leads to the description of the idolatrous conduct of the people in the third strophe, Hos 4:11-14, which is introduced with a general sentence. Hos 4:11. “Whoring and wine and new wine take away the heart ( the understanding”) . Zenūth is licentiousness in the literal sense of the word, which is always connected with debauchery.

What is true of this, namely, that it weakens the mental power, shows itself in the folly of idolatry into which the nation has fallen. Hos 4:12. “My nation asks its wood, and its stick prophesies to it: for a spirit of whoredom has seduced, and they go away whoring from under their God. ” שׁאל בּעצו is formed after בּיהוה, to ask for a divine revelation of the idols made of wood (Jer 10:3; Hab 2:19), namely, the teraphim (cf.

Hos 3:4, and Eze 21:26). This reproof is strengthened by the antithesis my nation, i. e. , the nation of Jehovah, the living God, and its wood, the wood made into idols by the people. The next clause, “and its stick is showing it,” sc. future events ( higgı̄d as in Isa 41:22-23, etc.) , is supposed by Cyril of Alexandria to refer to the practice of rhabdomancy, which he calls an invention of the Chaldaeans, and describes as consisting in this, that two rods were held upright, and then allowed to fall while forms of incantation were being uttered; and the oracle was inferred from the way in which they fell, whether forwards or backwards, to the right or to the left.

The course pursued was probably similar to that connected with the use of the wishing rods. The people do this because a spirit of whoredom has besotted them. By rūăch zenūnı̄m the whoredom is represented as a demoniacal power, which has seized upon the nation. Zenūnı̄m probably includes both carnal and spiritual whoredom, since idolatry, especially the Asherah-worship, was connected with gross licentiousness.

The missing object to התעה may easily be supplied from the context. זנה מתּחת אל, which differs from זנה מאחרי (Hos 1:2), signifies “to whore away from under God,” i. e. , so as to withdraw from subjection to God.

Hos 4:11-12 The allusion to whoredom leads to the description of the idolatrous conduct of the people in the third strophe, Hos 4:11-14, which is introduced with a general sentence. Hos 4:11. “Whoring and wine and new wine take away the heart ( the understanding”) . Zenūth is licentiousness in the literal sense of the word, which is always connected with debauchery.

What is true of this, namely, that it weakens the mental power, shows itself in the folly of idolatry into which the nation has fallen. Hos 4:12. “My nation asks its wood, and its stick prophesies to it: for a spirit of whoredom has seduced, and they go away whoring from under their God. ” שׁאל בּעצו is formed after בּיהוה, to ask for a divine revelation of the idols made of wood (Jer 10:3; Hab 2:19), namely, the teraphim (cf.

Hos 3:4, and Eze 21:26). This reproof is strengthened by the antithesis my nation, i. e. , the nation of Jehovah, the living God, and its wood, the wood made into idols by the people. The next clause, “and its stick is showing it,” sc. future events ( higgı̄d as in Isa 41:22-23, etc.) , is supposed by Cyril of Alexandria to refer to the practice of rhabdomancy, which he calls an invention of the Chaldaeans, and describes as consisting in this, that two rods were held upright, and then allowed to fall while forms of incantation were being uttered; and the oracle was inferred from the way in which they fell, whether forwards or backwards, to the right or to the left.

The course pursued was probably similar to that connected with the use of the wishing rods. The people do this because a spirit of whoredom has besotted them. By rūăch zenūnı̄m the whoredom is represented as a demoniacal power, which has seized upon the nation. Zenūnı̄m probably includes both carnal and spiritual whoredom, since idolatry, especially the Asherah-worship, was connected with gross licentiousness.

The missing object to התעה may easily be supplied from the context. זנה מתּחת אל, which differs from זנה מאחרי (Hos 1:2), signifies “to whore away from under God,” i. e. , so as to withdraw from subjection to God.

Hos 4:13 This whoredom is still further explained in the next verse. Hos 4:13. “They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and upon the hills they burn incense, under oak and poplar and terebinth, for their shadow is good; therefore your daughters commit whoredom, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery. ” Mountain-tops and hills were favourite places for idolatrous worship; because men thought, that there they were nearer to heaven and to the deity (see at Deu 12:2).

From a comparison of these and other passages, e. g. , Jer 2:20 and Jer 3:6, it is evident that the following words, “under oak,” etc. , are not to be understood as signifying that trees standing by themselves upon mountains and hills were selected as places for idolatrous worship; but that, in addition to mountains and hills, green shady trees in the plains and valleys were also chosen for this purpose.

By the enumeration of the oak, the poplar ( lı̄bhneh , the white poplar according to the Sept. in loc. and the Vulg. at Gen 37:30, or the storax-tree, as the lxx render it at Gen 37:30), and the terebinth, the frequent expression “under every green tree” (Deu 12:2; 1Ki 14:23; Jer 2:20; Jer 3:6) is individualized. Such trees were selected because they gave a good shade, and in the burning lands of the East a shady place fills the mind with sacred awe.

על־כּן, therefore, on that account, i. e. , not because the shadow of the trees invites to it, but because the places for idolatrous worship erected on every hand presented an opportunity for it; therefore the daughters and daughters-in-law carried on prostitution there. The worship of the Canaanitish and Babylonian goddess of nature was associated with prostitution, and with the giving up of young girls and women (compare Movers, Phönizier , i.

pp. 583, 595ff.)

Hos 4:14 “I will not visit it upon your daughters that they commit whoredom, nor upon your daughters-in-law that they commit adultery; for they themselves go aside with harlots, and with holy maidens do they sacrifice: and the nation that does not see is ruined. ” God would not punish the daughters and daughters-in-law for their whoredom, because the elder ones did still worse.

“So great was the number of fornications, that all punishment ceased, in despair of any amendment” (Jerome). With כּי הם God turns away from the reckless nation, as unworthy of being further addressed or exhorted, in righteous indignation at such presumptuous sinning, and proceed to speak about it in the third person: for “ they (the fathers and husbands, not 'the priest,' as Simson supposes, since there is no allusion to them here) go,” etc.

פּרד, piel in an intransitive sense, to separate one’s self, to go aside for the purpose of being alone with the harlots. Sacrificing with the qedēshōth , i. e. , with prostitutes, or Hetairai (see at Gen 38:14), may have taken its rise in the prevailing custom, viz. , that fathers of families came with their wives to offer yearly sacrifices, and the wives shared in the sacrificial meals (1Sa 1:3.)

Coming to the altar with Hetairai instead of their own wives, was the climax of shameless licentiousness. A nation that had sunk so low and had lost all perception must perish. לבט = Arab. lbṭ : to throw to the earth; or in the niphal , to cast headlong into destruction (Pro 10:8, Pro 10:10).

Hos 4:15 A different turn is now given to the prophecy, viz. , that if Israel would not desist from idolatry, Judah ought to beware of participating in the guilt of Israel; and with this the fourth strophe (Hos 4:15-19) is introduced, containing the announcement of the inevitable destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes. Hos 4:15. “If thou commit whoredom, O Israel, let not Judah offend!

Come ye not to Gilgal, go not up to Bethaven, and swear ye not by the life of Jehovah. ” אשׁם, to render one’s self guilty by participating in the whoredom, i. e. , the idolatry, of Israel. This was done by making pilgrimages to the places of idolatrous worship in that kingdom, viz. , to Gilgal , i. e. , not the Gilgal in the valley of the Jordan, but the northern Gilgal upon the mountains, which has been preserved in the village of Jiljilia to the south-west of Silo (Seilun; see at Deu 11:30 and Jos 8:35).

In the time of Elijah and Elisha it was the seat of a school of the prophets (2Ki 2:1; 2Ki 4:38); but it was afterwards chosen as the seat of one form of idolatrous worship, the origin and nature of which are unknown (compare Hos 9:15; Hos 12:12; Amo 4:4; Amo 5:5). Bethaven is not the place of that name mentioned in Jos 7:2, which was situated to the south-east of Bethel; but, as Amo 4:4 and Amo 5:5 clearly show, a name which Hosea adopted from Amo 5:5 for Bethel (the present Beitin ), to show that Bethel, the house of God, had become Bethaven, a house of idols, through the setting up of the golden calf there (1Ki 12:29).

Swearing by the name of Jehovah was commanded in the law (Deu 6:13; Deu 10:20; compare Jer 4:2); but this oath was to have its roots in the fear of Jehovah, to be simply an emanation of His worship. The worshippers of idols, therefore, were not to take it into their mouths. The command not to swear by the life of Jehovah is connected with the previous warnings.

Going to Gilgal to worship idols, and swearing by Jehovah, cannot go together. The confession of Jehovah in the mouth of an idolater is hypocrisy, pretended piety, which is more dangerous than open ungodliness, because it lulls the conscience to sleep.

Hos 4:16 The reason for this warning is given in Hos 4:16. , viz. , the punishment which will fall upon Israel. Hos 4:16. “For Israel has become refractory like a refractory cow; now will Jehovah feed them like a lamb in a wide field. ” סורר, unmanageable, refractory (Deu 21:18, cf. Zec 7:11). As Israel would not submit to the yoke of the divine law, it should have what it desired.

God would feed it like a lamb, which being in a wide field becomes the prey of wolves and wild beasts, i. e. , He would give it up to the freedom of banishment and dispersion among the nations.

Hos 4:17 “Ephraim is joined to idols, let it alone. ” חבוּר עצבּים, bound up with idols, so that it cannot give them up. Ephraim, the most powerful of the ten tribes, is frequently used in the loftier style of the prophets for Israel of the ten tribes. הנּח־לו, as in 2Sa 16:11; 2Ki 23:18, let him do as he likes, or remain as he is. Every attempt to bring the nation away from its idolatry is vain.

The expression hannach - lō does not necessitate the assumption, however, that these words of Jehovah are addressed to the prophets. They are taken from the language of ordinary life, and simply mean: it may continue in its idolatry, the punishment will not long be delayed.

Hos 4:18-19 “Their drinking has degenerated; whoring they have committed whoredom; their shields have loved, loved shame. Hos 4:19. The wind has wrapt it up in its wings, so that they are put to shame because of their sacrifices. ” סר from סוּר, to fall off, degenerate, as in Jer 2:21. סבא is probably strong, intoxicating wine (cf. Isa 1:22; Nah 1:10); here it signifies the effect of this wine, viz.

, intoxication. Others take sâr in the usual sense of departing, after 1Sa 1:14, and understand the sentence conditionally: “when their intoxication is gone, they commit whoredom. ” But Hitzig has very properly object to this, that it is intoxication which leads to licentiousness, and not temperance. Moreover, the strengthening of hisnū by the inf. abs. is not in harmony with this explanation.

The hiphil hiznâh is used in an emphatic sense, as in Hos 4:10. The meaning of the last half of the verse is also a disputed point, more especially on account of the word הבוּ, which only occurs here, and which can only be the imperative of יהב (הבוּ for הבוּ), or a contraction of אהבוּ. All other explanations are arbitrary. But we are precluded from taking the word as an imperative by קלון, which altogether confuses the sense, if we adopt the rendering “their shields love 'Give ye' - shame.

” We therefore prefer taking הבוּ as a contraction of אהבוּ, and אהבוּ הבוּ as a construction resembling the pealal form, in which the latter part of the fully formed verb is repeated, with the verbal person as an independent form (Ewald, §120), viz. , “their shields loved, loved shame,” which yields a perfectly suitable thought. The princes are figuratively represented as shields , as in Ps.

47:10, as the supporters and protectors of the state. They love shame, inasmuch as they love the sin which brings shame. This shame will inevitably burst upon the kingdom. The tempest has already seized upon the people, or wrapt them up with its wings (cf. Psa 18:11; Psa 104:3), and will carry them away (Isa 57:13). צרר, literally to bind together, hence to lay hold of, wrap up.

Rūăch , the wind, or tempest, is a figurative term denoting destruction, like רוּח קדים in Hos 13:15 and Eze 5:3-4. אותהּ refers to Ephraim represented as a woman, like the suffix attached to מגנּיה in Hos 4:18. יבשׁוּ מזּבחותם, to be put to shame on account of their sacrifices, i. e. , to be deceived in their confidence in their idols ( bōsh with min as in Hos 10:6; Jer 2:36; Jer 12:13, etc.)

, or to discover that the sacrifices which they offered to Jehovah, whilst their heart was attached to the idols, did not save from ruin. The plural formation זבחות for זבחים only occurs here, but it has many analogies in its favour, and does not warrant our altering the reading into מזבּחותם, after the Sept. ἐκ τῶν θυσιατηρίων, as Hitzig proposes; whilst the inadmissibility of this proposal is sufficiently demonstrated by the fact that there is nothing to justify the omission of the indispensable מן, and the cases which Hitzig cites as instances in which min is omitted (viz.

, Zec 14:10; Psa 68:14, and Deu 23:11) are based upon a false interpretation.

Hos 4:18-19 “Their drinking has degenerated; whoring they have committed whoredom; their shields have loved, loved shame. Hos 4:19. The wind has wrapt it up in its wings, so that they are put to shame because of their sacrifices. ” סר from סוּר, to fall off, degenerate, as in Jer 2:21. סבא is probably strong, intoxicating wine (cf. Isa 1:22; Nah 1:10); here it signifies the effect of this wine, viz.

, intoxication. Others take sâr in the usual sense of departing, after 1Sa 1:14, and understand the sentence conditionally: “when their intoxication is gone, they commit whoredom. ” But Hitzig has very properly object to this, that it is intoxication which leads to licentiousness, and not temperance. Moreover, the strengthening of hisnū by the inf. abs. is not in harmony with this explanation.

The hiphil hiznâh is used in an emphatic sense, as in Hos 4:10. The meaning of the last half of the verse is also a disputed point, more especially on account of the word הבוּ, which only occurs here, and which can only be the imperative of יהב (הבוּ for הבוּ), or a contraction of אהבוּ. All other explanations are arbitrary. But we are precluded from taking the word as an imperative by קלון, which altogether confuses the sense, if we adopt the rendering “their shields love 'Give ye' - shame.

” We therefore prefer taking הבוּ as a contraction of אהבוּ, and אהבוּ הבוּ as a construction resembling the pealal form, in which the latter part of the fully formed verb is repeated, with the verbal person as an independent form (Ewald, §120), viz. , “their shields loved, loved shame,” which yields a perfectly suitable thought. The princes are figuratively represented as shields , as in Ps.

47:10, as the supporters and protectors of the state. They love shame, inasmuch as they love the sin which brings shame. This shame will inevitably burst upon the kingdom. The tempest has already seized upon the people, or wrapt them up with its wings (cf. Psa 18:11; Psa 104:3), and will carry them away (Isa 57:13). צרר, literally to bind together, hence to lay hold of, wrap up.

Rūăch , the wind, or tempest, is a figurative term denoting destruction, like רוּח קדים in Hos 13:15 and Eze 5:3-4. אותהּ refers to Ephraim represented as a woman, like the suffix attached to מגנּיה in Hos 4:18. יבשׁוּ מזּבחותם, to be put to shame on account of their sacrifices, i. e. , to be deceived in their confidence in their idols ( bōsh with min as in Hos 10:6; Jer 2:36; Jer 12:13, etc.)

, or to discover that the sacrifices which they offered to Jehovah, whilst their heart was attached to the idols, did not save from ruin. The plural formation זבחות for זבחים only occurs here, but it has many analogies in its favour, and does not warrant our altering the reading into מזבּחותם, after the Sept. ἐκ τῶν θυσιατηρίων, as Hitzig proposes; whilst the inadmissibility of this proposal is sufficiently demonstrated by the fact that there is nothing to justify the omission of the indispensable מן, and the cases which Hitzig cites as instances in which min is omitted (viz.

, Zec 14:10; Psa 68:14, and Deu 23:11) are based upon a false interpretation.

Hos 5:1 With the words “Hear ye this,” the reproof of the sins of Israel makes a new start, and is specially addressed to the priests and the king’s house, i. e. , the king and his court, to announce to the leaders of the nation the punishment that will follow their apostasy from God and their idolatry, by which they have plunged the people and the kingdom headlong into destruction.

Hos 5:1-5 form the first strophe. Hos 5:1. “Hear ye this, ye priests; and give heed thereto, O house of Israel; and observe it, O house of the king! for the judgment applies to you; for ye have become a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor. ” By the word “ this,” which points back to Hos 5:4, the prophecy that follows is attached to the preceding one.

Beside the priests and the king’s house, i. e. , the royal family, in which the counsellors and adjutants surrounding the king are probably included, the house of Israel, that is to say, the people of the ten tribes regarded as a family, is summoned to hear, because what was about to be announced applied to the people and kingdom as a whole. There is nothing to warrant our understanding by the “house of Israel,” the heads of the nation or elders.

Lâkjem hammishpât does not mean, It rests with you to know or to defend the right; nor, “Ye ought to hear the reproof,” as Hitzig explains it, for mishpât in this connection signifies neither “the maintenance of justice” nor “a reproof,” but the judgment about to be executed by God, τὸ κρίμα (lxx). The thought is this, The judgment will fall upon you; and lâkhem refers chiefly to the priests and the king’s house, as the explanatory clause which follows clearly shows.

It is impossible to determine with certainty what king’s house is intended. Probably that of Zechariah or Menahem; possibly both, since Hosea prophesied in both reigns, and merely gives the quintessence of his prophetical addresses in his book. Going to Asshur refers rather to Menahem than to Zechariah (comp. 2Ki 15:19-20). In the figures employed, the bird-trap ( pach ) and the net spread for catching birds, it can only be the rulers of the nation who are represented as a trap and net, and the birds must denote the people generally who are enticed into the net of destruction and caught (cf.

Hos 9:8). Mizpah , as a parallel to Tabor, can only be the lofty Mizpah of Gilead (Jdg 10:17; Jdg 11:29) or Ramah-Mizpah, which probably stood upon the site of the modern es-Salt (see at Deu 4:43); so that, whilst Tabor represents the land on this side of the Jordan, Mizpah, which resembled it in situation, is chosen to represent the land to the east of the river.

Both places were probably noted as peculiarly adapted for bird-catching, since Tabor is still thickly wooded. The supposition that they had been used as places of sacrifice in connection with idolatrous worship, cannot be inferred from the verse before us, nor is it rendered probable by other passages.

Hos 5:2 This accusation is still further vindicated in Hos 5:2. , by a fuller exposure of the moral corruption of the nation. Hos 5:2. “And excesses they have spread out deeply; but I am a chastisement to them all. ” The meaning of the first half of the verse, which is very difficult, and has been very differently interpreted by both ancient and modern expositors, has been brought out best by Delitzsch (Com.

on Psa 101:3), who renders it, “they understand from the very foundation how to spread out transgressions. ” For the word שׂטים the meaning transgressions is well established by the use of סטים in Psa 101:3, where Hengstenberg, Hupfeld, and Delitzsch all agree that this is the proper rendering (see Ewald’s philological defence of it at §146, e). In the psalm referred to, however, the expression עשׂה סטים also shows that shachătâh is the inf.

piel , and sētı̄m the accusative of the object. And it follows from this that shachătâh neither means to slaughter or slaughter sacrifices, nor can be used for שׁחתה in the sense of acting injuriously, but that it is to be interpreted according to the shâchūth in 1Ki 10:16-17, in the sense of stretching, stretching out; so that there is no necessity to take שׁחט in the sense of שׁטח, as Delitzsch does, though the use of עלוה for עולה in Hos 10:9 may no doubt be adduced in its support.

שׂטים, from שׂטה (to turn aside, Num 5:12, Num 5:19), are literally digressions or excesses, answering to the hiznâh in Hos 5:3, the leading sin of Israel. “They have deepened to stretch out excesses,” i. e. , they have gone to great lengths, or are deeply sunken in excesses, - a thought quite in harmony with the context, to which the threat is appended. “I (Jehovah) am a chastisement to them all, to the rulers as well as to the people;” i.

e. , I will punish them all (cf. Hos 5:12), because their idolatrous conduct is well known to me. The way is thus prepared for the two following verses.

Hos 5:3-4 “I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou hast committed whoredom; Israel has defiled itself. Hos 5:4. Their works do not allow to return to their God, for the spirit of whoredom is in them, and they know not Jehovah. ” By עתּה, the whoredom of Ephraim is designated as in fact lying before them, and therefore undeniable; but not, as Hitzig supposes, an act which has taken place once for all, viz.

, the choice of a king, by which the severance of the kingdoms and the previous idolatry had been sanctioned afresh. נטמא, defiled by whoredom, i. e. , idolatry. Their works do not allow them to return to their God, because the works are merely an emanation of the character and state of the heart, and in their hearts the demon of whoredom has its seat (cf. Hos 4:12), and the knowledge of the Lord is wanting; that is to say, the demoniacal power of idolatry has taken complete possession of the heart, and stifled the knowledge of the true God.

The rendering, “they do not direct their actions to this,” is incorrect, and cannot be sustained by an appeal to the use of נתן לב in Jdg 15:1 and 1Sa 24:8. , or to Jdg 3:28.

Hos 5:3-4 “I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou hast committed whoredom; Israel has defiled itself. Hos 5:4. Their works do not allow to return to their God, for the spirit of whoredom is in them, and they know not Jehovah. ” By עתּה, the whoredom of Ephraim is designated as in fact lying before them, and therefore undeniable; but not, as Hitzig supposes, an act which has taken place once for all, viz.

, the choice of a king, by which the severance of the kingdoms and the previous idolatry had been sanctioned afresh. נטמא, defiled by whoredom, i. e. , idolatry. Their works do not allow them to return to their God, because the works are merely an emanation of the character and state of the heart, and in their hearts the demon of whoredom has its seat (cf. Hos 4:12), and the knowledge of the Lord is wanting; that is to say, the demoniacal power of idolatry has taken complete possession of the heart, and stifled the knowledge of the true God.

The rendering, “they do not direct their actions to this,” is incorrect, and cannot be sustained by an appeal to the use of נתן לב in Jdg 15:1 and 1Sa 24:8. , or to Jdg 3:28.