Hosea 10:4
New International Version
They make many promises, take false oaths and make agreements; therefore lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.

New Living Translation
They spout empty words and make covenants they don’t intend to keep. So injustice springs up among them like poisonous weeds in a farmer’s field.

English Standard Version
They utter mere words; with empty oaths they make covenants; so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

Berean Standard Bible
They speak mere words; with false oaths they make covenants. So judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.

King James Bible
They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.

New King James Version
They have spoken words, Swearing falsely in making a covenant. Thus judgment springs up like hemlock in the furrows of the field.

New American Standard Bible
They speak mere words, With worthless oaths they make covenants; And judgment sprouts like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

NASB 1995
They speak mere words, With worthless oaths they make covenants; And judgment sprouts like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

NASB 1977
They speak mere words, With worthless oaths they make covenants; And judgment sprouts like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

Legacy Standard Bible
They speak mere words; With worthless oaths they cut covenants; And judgment flourishes like gall in the furrows of the field.

Amplified Bible
They have spoken empty (disingenuous) words, Swearing falsely to make covenants [they intend to break]; Therefore, judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

Christian Standard Bible
They speak mere words, taking false oaths while making covenants. So lawsuits break out like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
They speak mere words, taking false oaths while making covenants. So lawsuits break out like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.

American Standard Version
They speak vain words, swearing falsely in making covenants: therefore judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
They have spoken words of false harvests; they have cut off the covenant and they paid judgment like a tangle of thorns in a field of barren land

Brenton Septuagint Translation
and what should a king do for us, speaking false professions as his words? he will make a covenant: judgment shall spring up as a weed on the soil of the field.

Contemporary English Version
Israel, you break treaties and don't keep promises; you turn justice into poisonous weeds where healthy plants should grow.

Douay-Rheims Bible
You speak words of an unprofitable vision, and you shall make a covenant: and judgment shall spring up as bitterness in the furrows of the field.

English Revised Version
They speak vain words, swearing falsely in making covenants: therefore judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
They say many things. They lie when they take oaths, and they make promises they don't intend to keep. That's why lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.

Good News Translation
They utter empty words and make false promises and useless treaties. Justice has become injustice, growing like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.

International Standard Version
Their word is falsely given as they make their agreements; so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.

JPS Tanakh 1917
They speak words, They swear falsely, they make covenants; Thus judgment springeth up as hemlock In the furrows of the field.

Literal Standard Version
They have spoken words, | To swear falsehood in making a covenant, | And flourished as a poisonous herb has judgment, on the furrows of a field.

Majority Standard Bible
They speak mere words; with false oaths they make covenants. So judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.

New American Bible
They make promises, swear false oaths, and make covenants, While lawsuits sprout like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field!

NET Bible
They utter empty words, taking false oaths and making empty agreements. Therefore legal disputes sprout up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a plowed field.

New Revised Standard Version
They utter mere words; with empty oaths they make covenants; so litigation springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

New Heart English Bible
They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants. Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

Webster's Bible Translation
They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.

World English Bible
They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants. Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

Young's Literal Translation
They have spoken words, To swear falsehood in making a covenant, And flourished as a poisonous herb hath judgment, on the furrows of a field.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Retribution for Israel's Sin
3Surely now they will say, “We have no king, for we do not revere the LORD. What can a king do for us?” 4They speak mere words; with false oaths they make covenants. So judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field. 5The people of Samaria will fear for the calf of Beth-aven. Indeed, its people will mourn with its idolatrous priests—those who rejoiced in its glory—for it has been taken from them into exile.…

Cross References
Deuteronomy 31:16
And the LORD said to Moses, "You will soon rest with your fathers, and these people will rise up and prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake Me and break the covenant I have made with them.

Deuteronomy 31:17
On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and afflictions will befall them. On that day they will say, 'Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is no longer with us?'

2 Kings 17:3
Shalmaneser king of Assyria attacked him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute.

2 Kings 17:4
But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea had conspired to send envoys to King So of Egypt, and that he had not paid tribute to the king of Assyria as in previous years. Therefore the king of Assyria arrested Hoshea and put him in prison.

Ezekiel 17:13
He took a member of the royal family and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath. Then he carried away the leading men of the land,

Hosea 4:2
Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.

Amos 5:7
There are those who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness to the ground.


Treasury of Scripture

They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springs up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.

swearing.

Hosea 6:7
But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.

2 Kings 17:3,4
Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents…

Ezekiel 17:13-19
And hath taken of the king's seed, and made a covenant with him, and hath taken an oath of him: he hath also taken the mighty of the land: …

thus.

Deuteronomy 29:18
Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;

Isaiah 5:7
For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

Isaiah 59:13-15
In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood…

Jump to Previous
Covenant Covenants Falsehood Falsely Field Fields Flourished Foolish Furrows Hemlock Herb Judgment Lawsuits Making Mere Oaths Ploughed Poisonous Promises Punishment Speak Spring Springeth Springs Sprouts Swear Swearing Utter Weeds Words Worthless
Jump to Next
Covenant Covenants Falsehood Falsely Field Fields Flourished Foolish Furrows Hemlock Herb Judgment Lawsuits Making Mere Oaths Ploughed Poisonous Promises Punishment Speak Spring Springeth Springs Sprouts Swear Swearing Utter Weeds Words Worthless
Hosea 10
1. Israel is reproved and threatened for their impiety and idolatry,
12. and exhorted to repentance.














(4) Judgment--i.e., Divine judgments shall prevail not as a blessing, but as a curse; not as a precious harvest, but as a poisonous plant (poppy or hemlock) in the ridges of the field.

Verse 4. - God, by the prophet, had charged Israel with fruitlessness, or with bringing forth fruit to themselves; with perverting the bounties of his providence in promoting idolatry; with their division of heart, or deceitfulness of heart. He had also threatened to punish them for their sin, and to deprive them of the means of sinning by destroying the instruments thereof, and to prevent their obtaining any help from their king, proving to them the folly of depending on him. He now proceeds, in this and following verses (4-8), to point out their moral corruption, the usual consequence or concomitant of irreligion and of false religion, instancing their deceptive dealing in the common affairs of life and their perjury in public compacts or covenants, as also their general unrighteousness. He threatens to destroy their idols to the distress of their worshippers and ministering priests as well as of their chief city. He threatens further to cause their calf-idols to be carried into captivity, pouring shame and contempt on their enterprises; to cut off their king; to leave the places of their idol-worship desolate, filling the people with distress and despair because of all their sins. They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant. In this fourth verse the prophet deplores the absence of truth, faithfulness, and loyalty to duty. This expression, "they have spoken words," is generally understood to signify

(a) "empty words," "false words," only words and no more, like the Latin verba alicui dare. Thus their vain, deceitful, lying words in private transactions and common affairs of everyday life would correspond to their perjury in public treaties and covenants. Their words were deceitful and their oaths falsehood. In their ordinary business transactions they used words, empty words, words without truth, corresponding thereto; in international concerns they had pursued the same course of falsifying and covenant-breaking. After entering into an engagement with the Assyrian king Shalmaneser, they made a covenant with So King of Egypt, as we read in 2 Kings 17:4, "And the King of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So King of Egypt, and brought no present to the King of Assyria, as he had done year by year." In this latter case they acted as covenant-breakers, and at the same time contravened the Divine command, which forbade them entering into covenants with foreigners. The first clause, however, is understood by some

(b) in the sense of "deliberating.' Thus Kimchi understands it, erroneously referring it to Jeroboam and his countrymen; thus: "Jeroboam and his companions took counsel what they should do in order to strengthen the government in his hand, and they deliberated (or held consultation) that the people should not go up to Jerusalem to the house of the sanctuary; and for this purpose they bound themselves by oath and made a covenant. But their oath was a vain one, because their oath was intended to frustrate the words of the Law and the command of God, and to make images for their worship." The words אָללֺוֹת ָשוְא have been explained by some

(1) as "oaths of vanity," that is, oaths by vanity or an idol, as an oath of Jehovah is an oath by Jehovah, אָלות being taken for a noun in the plural; . . .

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
They speak
דִּבְּר֣וּ (dib·bə·rū)
Verb - Piel - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 1696: To arrange, to speak, to subdue

mere words;
דְבָרִ֔ים (ḏə·ḇā·rîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 1697: A word, a matter, thing, a cause

with false
שָׁ֖וְא (šāw)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7723: Evil, idolatry, uselessness

oaths
אָל֥וֹת (’ā·lō·wṯ)
Verb - Qal - Infinitive absolute
Strong's 422: To adjure, imprecate

they make
כָּרֹ֣ת (kā·rōṯ)
Verb - Qal - Infinitive absolute
Strong's 3772: To cut, to destroy, consume, to covenant

covenants.
בְּרִ֑ית (bə·rîṯ)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 1285: A covenant

So judgment
מִשְׁפָּ֔ט (miš·pāṭ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4941: A verdict, a sentence, formal decree, divine law, penalty, justice, privilege, style

springs up
וּפָרַ֤ח (ū·p̄ā·raḥ)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 6524: To break forth as a, bud, bloom, to spread, to fly, to flourish

like poisonous weeds
כָּרֹאשׁ֙ (kā·rōš)
Preposition-k, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7219: A poisonous plant, the poppy, poison

in
עַ֖ל (‘al)
Preposition
Strong's 5921: Above, over, upon, against

the furrows
תַּלְמֵ֥י (tal·mê)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 8525: A bank, terrace

of a field.
שָׂדָֽי׃ (śā·ḏāy)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7704: Field, land


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OT Prophets: Hosea 10:4 They make promises swearing falsely in making (Ho Hs Hos.)
Hosea 10:3
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