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

◄ Hosea 10:4 ►

Parallel Verses

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Darby Bible Translation
They speak mere words, swearing falsely in making a covenant; therefore shall judgment spring up as hemlock in the furrows of the fields.

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.

Cross References

Deuteronomy 31:16
And the LORD said to Moses, Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, where they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.

Deuteronomy 31:17
Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come on us, because our God is not among us?

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

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: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.

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

Hosea 4:2
By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood touches blood.

Amos 5:7
You who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,

Amos 6:12
Shall horses run on the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for you have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock:

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Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

10:1-8 A vine is only valuable for its fruit; but Israel now brought no fruit to perfection. Their hearts were divided. God is the Sovereign of the heart; he will have all, or none. Were the stream of the heart wholly after God, it would run strongly, and bear down all before it. Their pretences to covenant with God were false. Even the proceeding of justice was as poisonous hemlock. Alas, how empty a vine is the visible church even at this day! But all earthly prosperity is but a collection of bubbles, soon destroyed like foam upon the water. Sinners will in vain seek shelter from that Judge, whom they now despise as a Saviour.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

4. words—mere empty words.

swearing falsely in making a covenant—breaking their engagement to Shalmaneser (2Ki 17:4), and making a covenant with So, though covenants with foreigners were forbidden.

judgment … as hemlock—that is, divine judgment shall spring up as rank, and as deadly, as hemlock in the furrows (De 29:18; Am 5:7; 6:12). Gesenius translates, "poppy." Grotius, "darnel."