Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea disappear. Therefore the land mournsThe Hebrew word for "mourns" is "אבל" (aval), which conveys a deep sense of lamentation and sorrow. In the context of Hosea, this mourning is not just a human emotion but a reflection of the land's response to the spiritual and moral decay of its inhabitants. The land, often seen as a blessing from God, is depicted as suffering due to the people's unfaithfulness. This imagery underscores the interconnectedness of creation and humanity, where the physical environment is impacted by spiritual realities. and all who dwell in it will waste away
The phrase "waste away" comes from the Hebrew "אמל" (amal), suggesting a withering or languishing. This indicates a comprehensive decline affecting all inhabitants, both human and animal. Historically, this can be seen as a consequence of the covenantal curses outlined in Deuteronomy, where disobedience leads to desolation. The spiritual infidelity of the people results in tangible, physical consequences, emphasizing the seriousness of turning away from God. with the beasts of the field
The inclusion of "beasts of the field" highlights the extent of the devastation. In the Hebrew context, animals were part of the created order that God declared good. Their suffering is a testament to the pervasive impact of sin. This phrase serves as a reminder of humanity's role as stewards of creation, a role that is compromised when they are unfaithful to God. and the birds of the air
The "birds of the air" are often seen as symbols of freedom and life. Their decline signifies a disruption in the natural order. In biblical literature, birds are sometimes used to illustrate God's provision and care (as in Matthew 6:26). Their suffering in Hosea 4:3 is a poignant illustration of the loss of divine protection and blessing due to Israel's sin. and even the fish of the sea disappear
The phrase "fish of the sea" disappearing is particularly striking, as fish were a staple of sustenance and economic activity. The Hebrew word "אסף" (asaf) implies being gathered or taken away, suggesting a complete removal. This serves as a metaphor for the totality of judgment that comes upon the land. The disappearance of fish, creatures of the sea, completes the triad of land, air, and sea, symbolizing the comprehensive nature of the curse due to Israel's unfaithfulness. Persons / Places / Events 1. HoseaA prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Hosea's ministry was marked by his call to the Israelites to return to God amidst their unfaithfulness. 2. IsraelThe Northern Kingdom, often depicted as unfaithful to God, leading to divine judgment. 3. The LandRepresents the physical territory of Israel, which suffers due to the people's sins. 4. Beasts, Birds, and FishSymbolize the entirety of creation affected by human sinfulness. 5. JudgmentThe event of divine retribution due to Israel's persistent disobedience and idolatry. Teaching Points The Consequences of SinSin has far-reaching effects, impacting not only individuals but the entire creation. Our actions have environmental and communal consequences. Creation's Response to SinThe natural world is deeply connected to human morality. When we stray from God's ways, creation itself suffers. Call to RepentanceHosea's message is a call to return to God. Recognizing the impact of our sin should lead us to repentance and restoration. Stewardship of CreationAs stewards of God's creation, we have a responsibility to care for the environment, recognizing its connection to our spiritual health. Hope for RestorationDespite the current mourning, there is hope for renewal and restoration through repentance and God's mercy. Bible Study Questions 1. How does Hosea 4:3 illustrate the connection between human sin and environmental degradation? 2. In what ways can we see the effects of sin on creation in today's world, and how should this influence our actions as Christians? 3. How does the concept of creation mourning in Hosea relate to Paul's description of creation groaning in Romans 8? 4. What steps can we take to fulfill our role as stewards of God's creation in light of the teachings in Hosea 4:3? 5. How can the message of Hosea 4:3 inspire us to seek personal and communal repentance and restoration? Connections to Other Scriptures Genesis 3The curse on the ground due to Adam's sin parallels the mourning of the land in Hosea, showing the impact of sin on creation. Romans 8Paul speaks of creation groaning, awaiting redemption, which connects to the land mourning in Hosea. Jeremiah 12Jeremiah laments the desolation of the land due to the wickedness of its inhabitants, similar to Hosea's message. Isaiah 24Describes the earth languishing under the weight of its inhabitants' sins, echoing Hosea's prophecy. Revelation 11Speaks of God's judgment on those who destroy the earth, aligning with the consequences seen in Hosea. People HoseaPlaces Beth-aven, Gilgal, JezreelTopics Air, Along, Animals, Beast, Beasts, Birds, Die, Disappear, Dry, Dwell, Dweller, Dwelleth, Dwells, Dying, Field, Fish, Fishes, Fowl, Fowls, Heaven, Heavens, Languish, Languishes, Mourn, Mourns, Removed, Sky, Therein, Waste, Wasted, Weak, Yea, YesDictionary of Bible Themes Hosea 4:3 4266 sea
4642 fish
6142 decay
7785 shepherd, occupation Hosea 4:1-3 5201 accusation
7259 promised land, later history
8764 forgetting God Hosea 4:2-3 4029 world, human beings in Library 'Let Him Alone'
'Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.'--HOSEA iv. 17. The tribe of Ephraim was the most important member of the kingdom of Israel; consequently its name was not unnaturally sometimes used in a wider application for the whole of the kingdom, of which it was the principal part. Being the 'predominant partner,' its name was used alone for that of the whole firm, just as in our own empire, we often say 'England,' meaning thereby the three kingdoms: England, Scotland, and Ireland. So 'Ephraim' here …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureThe Life, as Amplified by Mediaeval Biographers.
1. His Early Years.--Ephraim, according to this biography, was a Syrian of Mesopotamia, by birth, and by parentage on both sides. His mother was of Amid (now Diarbekr) a central city of that region; his father belonged to the older and more famous City of Nisibis, not far from Amid but near the Persian frontier, where he was priest of an idol named Abnil (or Abizal) in the days of Constantine the Great (306-337). This idol was afterwards destroyed by Jovian (who became Emperor in 363 after the …
Ephraim the Syrian—Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian Instruction for the Ignorant:
BEING A SALVE TO CURE THAT GREAT WANT OF KNOWLEDGE, WHICH SO MUCH REIGNS BOTH IN YOUNG AND OLD. PREPARED AND PRESENTED TO THEM IN A PLAIN AND EASY DIALOGUE, FITTED TO THE CAPACITY OF THE WEAKEST. 'My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.'--Hosea 4:6 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. This little catechism is upon a plan perfectly new and unique. It was first published as a pocket volume in 1675, and has been republished in every collection of the author's works; and recently in a separate tract. …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Beth-El. Beth-Aven.
Josephus thus describes the land of Benjamin; "The Benjamites' portion of land was from the river Jordan to the sea, in length: in breadth, it was bounded by Jerusalem and Beth-el." Let these last words be marked, "The breadth of the land of Benjamin was bounded by Jerusalem and Beth-el." May we not justly conclude, from these words, that Jerusalem and Beth-el were opposite, as it were, in a right line? But if you look upon the maps, there are some that separate these by a very large tract of land, …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica Of Orders.
Of this sacrament the Church of Christ knows nothing; it was invented by the church of the Pope. It not only has no promise of grace, anywhere declared, but not a word is said about it in the whole of the New Testament. Now it is ridiculous to set up as a sacrament of God that which can nowhere be proved to have been instituted by God. Not that I consider that a rite practised for so many ages is to be condemned; but I would not have human inventions established in sacred things, nor should it be …
Martin Luther—First Principles of the Reformation "For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus Hath Made Me Free from the Law of Sin and Death. "
Rom. viii. 2.--"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." You know there are two principal things in the preceding verse,--the privilege of a Christian, and the property or character of a Christian. He is one that never enters into condemnation; He that believeth shall not perish, John iii. 15. And then he is one that walks not after the flesh, though he be in the flesh, but in a more elevate way above men, after the guiding and leading …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning Epistle cxxi. To Leander, Bishop of Hispalis (Seville).
To Leander, Bishop of Hispalis (Seville). Gregory to Leander, Bishop of Spain. I have the epistle of thy Holiness, written with the pen of charity alone. For what the tongue transferred to the paper had got its tincture from the heart. Good and wise men were present when it was read, and at once their bowels were stirred with emotion. Everyone began to seize thee in his heart with the hand of love, for that in that epistle the sweetness of thy disposition was not to be heard, but seen. All severally …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great That the Ruler Relax not his Care for the Things that are Within in his Occupation among the Things that are Without, nor Neglect to Provide
The ruler should not relax his care for the things that are within in his occupation among the things that are without, nor neglect to provide for the things that are without in his solicitude for the things that are within; lest either, given up to the things that are without, he fall away from his inmost concerns, or, occupied only with the things that are within bestow not on his neighbours outside himself what he owes them. For it is often the case that some, as if forgetting that they have …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great The Prophet Amos.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS. It will not be necessary to extend our preliminary remarks on the prophet Amos, since on the main point--viz., the circumstances under which he appeared as a prophet--the introduction to the prophecies of Hosea may be regarded as having been written for those of Amos also. For, according to the inscription, they belong to the same period at which Hosea's prophetic ministry began, viz., the latter part of the reign of Jeroboam II., and after Uzziah had ascended the …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Seasonable Counsel: Or, Advice to Sufferers.
BY JOHN BUNYAN. London: Printed for Benjamin Alsop, at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry, 1684. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. THIS valuable treatise was first published in a pocket volume in 1684, and has only been reprinted in Whitfield's edition of Bunyan's works, 2 vols. folio, 1767. No man could have been better qualified to give advice to sufferers for righteousness' sake, than John Bunyan: and this work is exclusively devoted to that object. Shut up in a noisome jail, under the iron hand of …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Joy
'The fruit of the Spirit is joy.' Gal 5:52. The third fruit of justification, adoption, and sanctification, is joy in the Holy Ghost. Joy is setting the soul upon the top of a pinnacle - it is the cream of the sincere milk of the word. Spiritual joy is a sweet and delightful passion, arising from the apprehension and feeling of some good, whereby the soul is supported under present troubles, and fenced against future fear. I. It is a delightful passion. It is contrary to sorrow, which is a perturbation …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity The Third Commandment
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.' Exod 20: 7. This commandment has two parts: 1. A negative expressed, that we must not take God's name in vain; that is, cast any reflections and dishonour on his name. 2. An affirmative implied. That we should take care to reverence and honour his name. Of this latter I shall speak more fully, under the first petition in the Lord's Prayer, Hallowed be thy name.' I shall …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments The Doctrine
OF THE LAW AND GRACE UNFOLDED; OR, A DISCOURSE TOUCHING THE LAW AND GRACE; THE NATURE OF THE ONE, AND THE NATURE OF THE OTHER; SHOWING WHAT THEY ARE, AS THEY ARE THE TWO COVENANTS; AND LIKEWISE, WHO THEY BE, AND WHAT THEIR CONDITIONS ARE, THAT BE UNDER EITHER OF THESE TWO COVENANTS: Wherein, for the better understanding of the reader, there are several questions answered touching the law and grace, very easy to be read, and as easy to be understood, by those that are the sons of wisdom, the children …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 The Prophet Hosea.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS. That the kingdom of Israel was the object of the prophet's ministry is so evident, that upon this point all are, and cannot but be, agreed. But there is a difference of opinion as to whether the prophet was a fellow-countryman of those to whom he preached, or was called by God out of the kingdom of Judah. The latter has been asserted with great confidence by Maurer, among others, in his Observ. in Hos., in the Commentat. Theol. ii. i. p. 293. But the arguments …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Hosea
The book of Hosea divides naturally into two parts: i.-iii. and iv.-xiv., the former relatively clear and connected, the latter unusually disjointed and obscure. The difference is so unmistakable that i.-iii. have usually been assigned to the period before the death of Jeroboam II, and iv.-xiv. to the anarchic period which succeeded. Certainly Hosea's prophetic career began before the end of Jeroboam's reign, as he predicts the fall of the reigning dynasty, i. 4, which practically ended with Jeroboam's …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Hosea 4:3 NIVHosea 4:3 NLTHosea 4:3 ESVHosea 4:3 NASBHosea 4:3 KJV
Hosea 4:3 Commentaries
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