My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God. My peopleThis phrase emphasizes the intimate relationship between God and the Israelites. The Hebrew word for "people" is "עַם" (am), which signifies a collective group bound by covenant. Despite their waywardness, God still claims them as His own, highlighting His enduring love and commitment. consult their wooden idols
The act of consulting idols reflects a deep-seated spiritual adultery. The Hebrew word for "idols" is "עֲצַבִּים" (atsabbim), often associated with sorrow or pain, indicating the futility and emptiness of idol worship. Historically, wooden idols were common in Canaanite religion, representing a departure from the worship of the one true God. and their divining rods inform them
Divining rods, or "מַקְלוֹת" (maqelot), were tools used in ancient practices to seek guidance from false gods. This practice is condemned in the Bible as it reflects a reliance on creation rather than the Creator. The use of such objects signifies a rejection of divine wisdom and a turn towards superstition. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray
The "spirit of prostitution" is a metaphor for Israel's unfaithfulness. The Hebrew word "רוּחַ" (ruach) can mean spirit, wind, or breath, suggesting an unseen force driving them away from God. Prostitution here symbolizes idolatry and covenant unfaithfulness, akin to marital infidelity. they are unfaithful to their God
Unfaithfulness, or "זָנָה" (zanah), is a recurring theme in Hosea, illustrating Israel's betrayal of their covenant with God. This phrase underscores the gravity of their sin, not just as a breach of law, but as a personal betrayal of a relationship with God, who is depicted as a faithful husband to His people. Persons / Places / Events 1. HoseaA prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, called by God to deliver messages of judgment and redemption. 2. IsraelThe Northern Kingdom, often depicted as unfaithful to God, engaging in idolatry and spiritual adultery. 3. Wooden IdolsObjects of worship made from wood, representing the false gods that Israel turned to instead of the one true God. 4. Divining RodsTools used in ancient practices to seek guidance or revelation, indicative of Israel's reliance on pagan practices. 5. Spirit of ProstitutionA metaphor for Israel's unfaithfulness to God, likening their idolatry to adultery. Teaching Points Idolatry's DeceptionIdolatry leads to spiritual blindness and estrangement from God. We must be vigilant against modern forms of idolatry, such as materialism or self-worship. Faithfulness to GodJust as Israel was called to be faithful, Christians are called to remain true to God, avoiding spiritual adultery by prioritizing Him above all else. The Danger of SyncretismMixing true worship with pagan practices dilutes faith and leads to spiritual confusion. We must guard against incorporating secular or non-biblical practices into our worship. Repentance and RestorationGod desires repentance and offers restoration. Like Israel, we are called to turn back to God and seek His forgiveness and healing. The Role of the Holy SpiritUnlike the "spirit of prostitution," the Holy Spirit leads us into truth and faithfulness. We should seek His guidance in all aspects of life. Bible Study Questions 1. What are some modern "wooden idols" or "divining rods" that people might turn to today instead of God? 2. How does the metaphor of a "spirit of prostitution" help us understand the seriousness of spiritual unfaithfulness? 3. In what ways can we ensure that our worship remains pure and undiluted by secular influences? 4. How can we apply the lessons from Hosea 4:12 to strengthen our personal relationship with God? 5. What steps can we take to recognize and repent from any form of idolatry in our lives, drawing from other biblical teachings? Connections to Other Scriptures Exodus 20:3-5The commandment against idolatry, highlighting God's demand for exclusive worship. Jeremiah 2:13Israel's forsaking of God, the "spring of living water," for broken cisterns that cannot hold water, symbolizing their pursuit of false gods. James 4:4The New Testament warning against friendship with the world, equating it with spiritual adultery. People HoseaPlaces Beth-aven, Gilgal, JezreelTopics FALSE, Astray, A-whoring, Cause, Caused, Causeth, Consult, Counsel, Declareth, Departing, Diviner's, Err, Gives, Harlot, Harlotry, Idol, Indeed, Informs, Inquire, Leads, Led, Lewdness, News, Oracles, Play, Played, Prostitution, Rod, Spirit, Staff, Stick, Stock, Stocks, Tree, Unfaithful, Wand, Wandering, Whoredom, Whoredoms, Whoring, Wood, WoodenDictionary of Bible Themes Hosea 4:12 4552 wood
5064 spirit, emotional
5889 ingratitude Hosea 4:6-13 7233 Israel, northern kingdom Hosea 4:10-12 4514 stick
6243 adultery, spiritual
8840 unfaithfulness, to God Hosea 4:10-13 8764 forgetting God Hosea 4:10-14 6239 prostitution Hosea 4:10-15 6189 immorality, examples Hosea 4:10-19 8705 apostasy, in OT Hosea 4:12-13 7442 shrine 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 4:12 NIVHosea 4:12 NLTHosea 4:12 ESVHosea 4:12 NASBHosea 4:12 KJV
Hosea 4:12 Commentaries
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