Hosea 4:1

Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel,.... The people of the ten tribes, as distinct from Judah, Hosea 4:15, the prophet having finished his parables he was ordered to take up and deliver,

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.

HOSEA CHAPTER 4 God’ s judgments against the sins of the people, , and of the priests, , and against their idolatry, . Judah is exhorted to take warning by Israel’ s calamity, . Hear; attend, consider, and duly weigh: it is the hearing of the mind, as well as of the ear, is here required. The word of the Lord; he that speaks is the great God, though the messenger be a man; the message is not man’ s, but it is the word, the message of the sovereign, holy; just, and mighty Jehovah, who ever speaks most important things, things that respect our duty and safety. Ye children of Israel; you of the ten tribes, with whose ancestors my covenant was made, who received the law by the disposition of angels, but have not kept it, you that have turned aside from your God to idols. The Lord; who knoweth your sins, who hateth, threateneth, and will judge, and punish unless you repent, it is he that speaketh, and summoneth you to plead with him. Hath a controversy; just matter of debate or arguing against you; you have wronged him, and he will right himself, yet so that he will be clear in his judgment, all shall see that the just Lord doth justly, and that this people’ s sins are the cause of all their sufferings, that God doth not delight to afflict the children of men. With the inhabitants of the land; who dwell in the cities and towns of Israel, divided from the house of David, and from the house of God; ye that dwell with idolatrous neighbours: it is not a few, but the generality of the inhabitants; it is the whole land I have an action against. There is no truth, no faithfulness, in their minds, words, or works; they cover falsehood with fair words, till they may fitly execute their designed frauds. There is neither plain-heartedness nor constancy in their purposes and words. Nor mercy, kindness or gentleness of mind; all are hardened, and restrain their bowels, which should be opened toward the indigent and necessitous. There is neither compassion nor beneficence among them, they pity not, nor relieve any. Nor knowledge of God; all generally are ignorant, know not what God hath done for them, or what God is in himself, or what candour and truth, or what tenderness and beneficence, he requires in his word; if they have a slight knowledge of those things, yet they consider them not. They have rased the knowledge of God out of their minds. In the land: this speaks the universal ignorance, mercilessness, and unfaithfulness of that age.

Hosea 4:1 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.Ver. 1. Hear the word of the Lord] This is the beginning of a new sermon, or judicial act of God against the ten tribes, which are here convented, convinced, sentenced. It begins with an Oyez, like that of St Paul, Acts 13:16, "Men of Israel, and ye that fear God" (if any such be in so general a defection), "give audience." Ye have heard God’ s mind before parabolically delivered and in types; now hear it in plain terms, that you may "see and understand and be converted, and I may heal you." Hear, and your souls shall live. Hear him that speaketh from heaven, even that excellent speaker as he is called, Daniel 10:4-9, that arch-prophet, whom ye are bound to hear, Deuteronomy 18:18 Matthew 17:5, upon pain of death, Hebrews 12:25, the Lord Christ I mean, who speaketh with authority, and is mighty in word and deed, Acts 10:36. He it was whom Isaiah saw upon his throne, and heard speaking, John 12:41. And it is a rule in divinity, that where the Old Testament bringeth in God appearing and speaking to the patriarchs, prophets, and people, it is to be understood of the Second Person. "Hear, therefore, and give ear; be not proud: for the Lord hath spoken it," Jeremiah 13:15. "The lion hath roared, who will not fear?" Amos 3:8. The Lord God hath spoken, who can but hear and fear, humble and tremble? Ye children of Israel] But oh, how altogether unlike your father! Even as unlike as Jehoiakim (that degenerate plant) was to his father, Josiah, that "plant of renown," Ezekiel 34:29. His heart melted when he heard the law, 2 Chronicles 34:18-19, but Jehoiakim cut it with a penknife and cast it into the fire, Jeremiah 36:23. These were Israel’ s children, and named "the house of Jacob," as those in Micah 2:7; but an empty title yields but an empty comfort at last. Is the spirit of the Lord straitened? (saith the prophet there;) were these Jacob’ s doings? Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly? Were you Israelites indeed, I should not thus lose my sweet words upon you; but you would incline your ears and come unto me, Isaiah 55:3, hear as for life itself: especially since I am sent unto you (as once Ahijah was to Jeroboam’ s wife, 1 Kings 14:6) with heavy tidings, with such a citation or process from heaven as may well be unto you as Samuel’ s message was to Eli, that made both his ears to tingle; or as the handwriting was to Balthasar, that made his knees knock together.

(1) Controversy.—A judicial suit, in which Jehovah is plaintiff as well as judge (Isaiah 1:23; Isaiah 41:21). By the “children of Israel” we are to understand the northern kingdom of the ten tribes, as distinguished from Judah. Mercy.—Better rendered love. The Hebrew word chésed expresses (1) the love of God for Israel under covenant relationship; (2) the corresponding quality in man exhibited to God or towards his fellow-men. (See Hupfeld on Psalms 4:4; and Duhm, Theologie der Propheten, p. 100.)

CHAPTER IV The prophet charges his people with their enormous sins, 1, 2; in consequence of which they are threatened with heavy judgments, 3-5. God himself is then introduced complaining of the ignorance and obstinacy of Israel; and as their priests had a large share in the common guilt, it is declared that they shall be visited with a proportionable share of the common ruin, 6-11. The sins of idolatry and divination are then particularly reproved, 12-14; and Judah admonished to beware of these sins, which would leave her rebellious sister Israel helpless and desolate as a lamb in a desert, 15, 16. In the remaining verses the style is varied, but the subject is the same. Ephraim is given up to idolatry, and the necessary consequence declared to be a bitter draught! Immediately we see him bound in the wings of a mighty tempest, and driven as chaff before the wind, either to destruction or captivity, 17-19. NOTES ON CHAP. IV Verse 1. The Lord hath a controversy] ריב rib, what we should call a lawsuit, in which God is plaintiff, and the Israelites defendants. It is Jehovah versus Israel and Judah. But when has God a controversy with any land? - Answer. When there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. These refer to the minds of the people. But wherever these righteous principles are wanting, there will soon be a vicious practice; hence it is added,

1–3. The people are summoned to hear whereof Jehovah accuses them, viz. the universal prevalence of the most crying sins. The prophet assures them that this is the true cause of the physical calamity which is becoming more and more general in its range.

Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel - The prophet begins here, in a series of pictures as it were, to exhibit the people of Israel to themselves, that they might know that God did not do

1-3. The moral corruption in everyday life. Hear — The prophet solemnly summons Israel to listen to the accusation he brings in the name of Jehovah.