Hosea 4:2

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Hosea 4:1-5

Here is, I. The court set, and both attendance and attention demanded: ?Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for to you is the word of this conviction sent, whether you will hear or whether you will forbear.? Whom may God expect to give him a fair hearing, and take from him a fair warning, but the children of Israel, his own professing people? Yea, they will be ready enough to hear when God speaks comfortably to them; but are they willing to hear when he has a controversy with... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 4:2

By swearing, and lying ,.... Which some join together, and make but one sin of it, false swearing, so Jarchi and Kimchi; but that swearing itself signifies, as the Targum interprets it; for it not only takes in all cursing and imprecations, profane oaths, and taking the name of God in vain, and swearing by the creatures, but may chiefly design perjury; which, though one kind of "lying", may be distinguished from it here; the latter intending "lying" in common, which the devil is the father... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 4:2

By swearing, and lying - Where there is no truth there will be lies and perjury; for false swearing is brought in to confirm lying statements. And when there is no mercy, killing, slaying, and murders, will be frequent. And where there is no knowledge of God, no conviction of his omnipresence and omniscience, private offenses, such as stealing, adulteries, etc., will prevail. These, sooner or later, break out, become a flood, and carry all before them. Private stealing will assume the form... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 4:2

Verse 2 But after having said that they were full of perfidiousness and cruelty, he adds, By cursing, and lying, and killing, etc. , אלה, ale, means to swear: some explain it in this place as signifying to forswear; and others read the two together, אלה וכחש, ale ucachesh, to swear and lie, that is to deceive by swearing. But as אלה “alah” means often to curse, the Prophet here, I doubt not, condemns the practice of cursing, which was become frequent and common among the people. But he... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 4:1-2

A corrupt people and an expostulating God. "Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood." In the previous chapters the prophet's language had been highly and somewhat perplexingly symbolical. It is so much so in the short chapter... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 4:1-5

Israel's sin and consequent suffering. The prophet is Jehovah's mouth-piece, and as such he calls on his fellow-men to hear the word of the Lord; he thus speaks by commission and with authority. Having thus claimed an attentive hearing in his Master's Name, he denounces Israel's sins, and declares the judgments that await them. In this discharge of his duty the prophet has a twofold object in view. By his timely and truthful warning he hopes to reclaim some, at least, of his countrymen, and... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 4:1-5

The Lord's lawsuit. The introduction to the Book of Hoses consists of a symbolical narrative, contained in Hosea 1-3. The body of the book is occupied with discourses, which are full of mingled reproaches, threatenings, and promises. Hosea 4:1-19 . evidently reflects the condition of the nation during the interregnum which followed the death of Jeroboam II . The key-word of the first strophe ( Hosea 4:1-5 ) is the word "controversy" ( Hosea 4:1 ), used in the sense of a legal... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 4:1-5

The Lord's controversy. God had a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. The essential part of the indictment was that they had forsaken him . "There is no knowledge of God in the land." Hence— I. A FEARFUL OVERFLOWING OF IMMORALITY . 1. With the knowledge of God there had departed also "truth and mercy" ( Hosea 4:1 ). "Truth" and "mercy," or "kindness," are root-principles of morals. The subversion of them is the subversion of morality in its foundations. These... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 4:2

Having given a picture of Israel negatively, he next presents the positive side. The absence of the virtues specified implies the presence of the opposite vices. In the most vivid and impressive manner the prophet, instead of enumerating prosaically the vices so prevalent at the time, expresses them more emphatically by a species of exclamation, using read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Hosea 4:2

By swearing, and lying ... - Literally, “swearing or cursing” , “and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery!” The words in Hebrew are nouns of action. The Hebrew form is very vivid and solemn. It is far more forcible than if he had said, “They swear, lie, kill, and steal.” It expresses that these sins were continual, that nothing else (so to speak) was going on; that it was all one scene of such sins, one course of them, and of nothing besides; as we say more familiarly, “It... read more

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