Hosea 4:12 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Hosea 4:12-19

In these verses we have, as before, I. The sins charged upon the people of Israel, for which God had a controversy with them, and they are, 1. Spiritual whoredom, or idolatry. They have in them a spirit of whoredoms, a strong inclination to that sin; the bent and bias of their hearts are that way; it is their own iniquity; they are carried out towards it with an unaccountable violence, and this causes them to err. Note, The errors and mistakes of the judgment are commonly owing to the corrupt... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 4:12

My people ask counsel at their stocks ,.... Or "at his wood" F1 בעצו "in ligno suo", V. L. Montanus, Calvin; "liguum suum", Pagninus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. , or stick; his wooden image, as the Targum; their wooden gods, their idols made of wood, mere stocks and blocks, without life or sense, and much less reason and understanding, and still less divinity. Reference is here had either to the matter of which an idol was made, being the trunk of a tree, or a block of wood;... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 4:12

At their stocks - They consult their wooden gods. And their staff declareth - They use divination by rods; see the note on Ezekiel 21 (note), where this sort of divination (rabdomancy) is explained. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 4:12

Verse 12 The Prophet calls here the Israelites the people of God, not to honor them, but rather to increase their sin; for the more heinous was the perfidy of the people, that having been chosen, they had afterwards forsaken their heavenly Father. Hence My people: there is here an implied comparison between all other nations and the seed of Abraham, whom God had adopted; “This is, forsooth! the people whom I designed to be sacred to myself, whom of all nations in the world I have taken to... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 4:6-14

Israel's guilt and punishment. Priests and people were guilty alike, and would be overtaken by one common doom. I. THE SIN OF THE PRIESTS . 1. They rejected the knowledge of God ( Hosea 4:6 ). They did not engage in the study of the Divine Law, and their lives were a violation of its precepts. 2. They consequently failed to teach the Law to the people ( Hosea 4:6 ). 3. They connived at the national idolatry, on account of the material profit which they obtained... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 4:11-14

Faults in the life breed errors in the brain, and errors ¢n the brain produce in turn faults in the life. Thus it was with Israel. Debauchery and drunkenness, and this to an extreme degree, had darkened the understanding, hardened the heart, paralyzed the will, and seared the conscience. In this enfeebled state of their intellectual and moral powers, they had recourse, in cases of doubt or difficulty, not to the high priest, or prophets of God, or Divine Word, for guidance and direction, but... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 4:12-14

The first of these verses exhibits the private life of the people as depraved by sin and folly; the second their public life as degraded by idolatry and lewdness; while the third points to the corresponding chastisement and its cause. My people ask counsel at their stocks (literally, wood ), and their staff declareth unto them . Rashi explains "stocks," or literally, "wood," to mean "a graven image made out of wood;" while Aben Ezra prefaces his exposition of this by an observation... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 4:12-14

Sin's fatuity. The people had parted with the knowledge of the true God, and had become possessed of a spirit of whoredoms. See the effects. I. THEY WEST AFTER SENSELESS FOLLIES . "My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them" ( Hosea 4:12 ). The spirit of sin is a spirit of "error." It robs men of their better judgment. No limit can be put to the wanderings of the mind under its influence. The worship of a "stock" is absurd enough, even when the... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Hosea 4:12

My people ask counsel at - (literally, “on”) their stocks They ask habitually ; and that, in dependence “on their stocks.” The word “wood” is used of the idol made of it, to bring before them the senselessness of their doings, in that they asked counsel of the senseless wood. Thus Jeremiah reproaches them for “saying to a stock, my father” Jeremiah 2:27; and Habakkuk, “Woe unto him that saith to the wood, awake” Habakkuk 2:19.And their staff declareth unto them - Many sorts of this superstition... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Hosea 4:12

Hosea 4:12. My people ask counsel at their stocks Hebrew, בעצו , at their wood, that is, the images of their idols made of wood; these they consulted as oracles, that they might foretel to them what was to come, or give them advice, what measures to take. And their staff declares unto them They seek to know things by means of rods, by which they think they can divine. This refers to a kind of divination by rods or staves, which was anciently practised in the East, of which different... read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Hosea 4:12-19

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 4:12

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 4:12

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 4:12

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 4:6-14

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 4:11-14

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 4:12-14

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 4:12-14

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Hosea 4:12

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Hosea 4:12

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