Hosea 7:4

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Hosea 7:4

Hosea 7:4. They are all adulterers The expression may be here metaphorical, implying that they were apostates from God, to whose service they were engaged by the most solemn bond and covenant: compare Jeremiah 9:2; James 4:4. If the words be understood literally, the prophet compares the heat of their lust to the flame of an oven heated; or, as Bishop Horsley renders it, “Over-heated by the baker.” Who ceaseth from raising after he has kneaded the dough, until it be leavened Vulgate, ... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Hosea 7:1-7

Treachery, robbery and murder (6:7-7:7)Priests and common citizens alike are guilty of treachery, robbery and murder. Hosea again names the places where they have practised these evils. He announces that the people, along with all their religious ceremonies and sacrifices, are repulsive to God (7-10). God wants to give blessings to his people, but they prevent such blessings because they refuse to repent. They prefer to continue with their cheating, stealing and violence (11-7:2).The death of... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Hosea 7:4

all = all of them (kings, princes, and People are idolaters). "All" is put by Figure of speech Synecdoche (of Genus), for the greater part. adulterers: i.e. idolaters. See note on Hosea 1:2 . as = [hot] like. ceaseth = leaves off. raising = stoking it. after he hath kneaded, &c. = from [the time of] kneading the dough until it is ready for the fire. Then he heats the oven to stop the fermentation. Even so these idolaters. See note on "baker", Hosea 7:6 . read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Hosea 7:4

"They are all adulterers; they are as an oven heated by the baker; he ceases to stir the fire, from the kneading of the dough, until it be leavened."This message of the heated oven is to be understood in the sense of a banked fire, ready to flare up at any time. The ovens of Hosea's times were bell-shaped adobe furnaces in which fires were built; when they were ready to be used, the fire was taken out and the hot interior was used for baking. A fire left in the oven for a long period, such as... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Hosea 7:4

Hosea 7:4. They are all adulterers— In this and the following verses, Hosea makes a twofold comparison of the Israelites to an oven, and to dough. Jeroboam the son of Nebat set fire to his own oven, and put the leaven in his dough; and afterwards went to sleep; leaving an opportunity to the fire to heat his oven, and the leaven to raise his dough. This prince, determining to make his subjects relinquish their ancient religion, set fire in some measure to his oven, and mixed his dough with... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Hosea 7:4

4. who ceaseth from raising—rather, "heating" it, from an Arabic root, "to be hot." So the Septuagint. Their adulterous and idolatrous lust is inflamed as the oven of a baker who has it at such a heat that he ceaseth from heating it only from the time that he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened; he only needs to omit feeding it during the short period of the fermentation of the bread. Compare :-, "that cannot cease from sin" [HENDERSON]. read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Hosea 7:1-7

Internal corruption 7:1-7This section focuses on Israel’s domestic sins. read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Hosea 7:4

The Israelites as a whole were all adulterers, both physically and spiritually. Their passion for wickedness was like the fire in a baker’s oven: very hot and constantly burning."The oven was so hot that a baker could cease tending the fire during an entire night-while the dough he had mixed was rising-and then, with a fresh tending of the fire in the morning, have sufficient heat for baking at that time." [Note: Wood, "Hosea," pp. 196-97. See Stuart, p. 119, for a fuller description of the... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 7:1-16

Corruption of the CourtIn this chapter the tone again becomes despondent. How can Israel be saved when her iniquity is so deep, so glaring, so obstinate? Samaria is especially instanced as the centre of a wicked and corrupt government sustained by a lawless people and false teachers. Hosea dwells chiefly on some plot which ended in regicide and the reliance on foreign powers which meant want of faith in God.2. They fail to realise how patent in God’s sight their iniquity is, while they attempt... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Hosea 7:4

(4) Render, ceaseth heating from the kneading of the dough till its leavening. The baker is unremitting in his exertions to keep up the heat of the oven, the smouldering fire being fed on camel’s dung and the like fuel, except when he is obliged to occupy himself with preparing the dough for baking—an apt image of the incessant burning rage of lust and violence. read more

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