Hosea 4:13

They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains,.... The highest part of them, nearest to the heavens, where they built their altars to idols, and offered sacrifice unto them, as we often read in

They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom,

They, both priests and people, sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains; where their altars were sometimes to God, sometimes to idols: these were the high places, chosen out by themselves, and where their sacrifices offered to God were esteemed little else than idolatry, . Burn incense upon the hills; another piece of idolatry they practised, which as it usually was joined to their sacrifices, so is it here added by the prophet. This idolatry abounded in Israel, where without control it had been in use ever since their revolt, if not before: a wood so deep-rooted, that the best kings of Judah could not quite extirpate it. Under oaks; some say pines, or the alder. Poplars; the white poplar. Elms; or lime-tree, or the tree whose boughs stretched out together cast a pleasant shadow. Under all these it is certain the ancient heathen did perform their idolatrous services; so did this people choose all these great trees which, having many and great boughs, do afford the darkest and coolest recesses, . Because the shadow thereof is good; convenient for the sacrificers, while the smoke and smell of the sacrifice went up through the boughs, and the coolness of the shady place kept their persons from sultry heat; it may be they thought (as the heathen did) that the numen, deity, delighted to dwell or be often in such places. Therefore; for these sins of yours, though you account them no sins, for your harmonizing with heathenish superstitions; for your leaving my temple, and, against my commands, sacrificing where best liketh you. Your daughters shall commit whoredom; shall dishonour themselves and their families by their lewdness and unlawful converse with fornicators. The sin of the fathers is thus punished, that they might see God’ s just hand punishing, and the sin punished. Here is spiritual whoredom punished with giving up daughters to their wandering lusts. Your spouses shall commit adultery; or, spouses of your sons, as the French version; a great unhappiness to any family, to be disparaged and wronged by adulteresses, and a grievous punishment, where or whensoever executed; and this is here foretold it will be so, not countenanced.

Hosea 4:13 They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof [is] good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery.Ver. 13 They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, &c.] As nearer to heaven; and in an apish imitation of the patriarchs, who, before the tabernacle was set up, sacrificed in high places (as Abraham on Mount Moriah, &c.), that their bodies being mounted, aloof, they might the better lift up their hearts and eyes to heaven, saying, as it were, to all worldly cares and cogitations, as Abraham did to his servants whom he left at the foot of the hill, "Abide you here with the ass," Genesis 22:5. Jerome upon this place hath his note: Israel, saith he, loveth high places, for they have forsaken the high God; and they love the shadow, having left the substance. But what could be more absurd than to think, as they did, that God, who is omnipresent, was nearer to them on hills and high places, and farther off them in valleys. See Isaiah 57:7 Ezekiel 6:13. This they had partly also learned of the heathens; from whom nevertheless God had shut them up, as it were, in an island (so their land is called, Isaiah 20:6), that having little commerce with them, they might not learn their manners. But our nature is very catching this way; and doth as easily draw and suck idolatry to it as the lode stone doth iron, or turpentine fire. Under oaks, and poplars, and elms, because the shadow thereof is good] So they proceed from one evil to another; for sin is infinite, and when a man is fallen down one round of hell’ s ladder he knows not where he shall stop, or how he shall step back. These idolaters, as they had their high places in imitation of the patriarchs, so their groves of shady trees consecrated to their idols; to strike reverence into their hearts, as they conceited, and for the greater solemnity. Sin comes commonly clothed with a show of reason, Exodus 1:10. Come, let us deal wisely, say they: yet every oppressor is a fool, Proverbs 28:16. It will so blear the understanding that a man shall think he hath reason to be mad, and that there is some sense in sinning. But especially will worship hath a show of wisdom, Colossians 2:23, or the reason of wisdom, as the word there signifieth, the very quintessence of it. Hence the Papists write rationals, whole volumes of reason for their rites and ceremonies in divine service, - the shadow is good, say these, therefore we get under trees. (See Dr Sheldon’ s Mark of the Beast, serm.) And John Hunt, a blasphemous Papist, in his humble appendix to King James, chap.

(13) The tops of the hills were continually chosen for idolatrous temples, i.e., “high places.” Poplar—i.e., the white poplar, not the storax of the LXX., which is a shrub only a few feet high. Elms should be “terebinth tree” (’çlah).

Verse 13. Under oaks] אלון allon, from אלל alal, he was strong. Hence, the oak, in Latin, is called robur; which word means also, strength, the oak being the strongest of all the trees of the forest. The shadow thereof is good] Their "daughters committed whoredom, and their spouses committed adultery." 1. Their deities were worshipped by prostitution. 2. They drank much in their idol worship, Hosea 4:11, and thus their passions became inflamed. 3. The thick groves were favourable to the whoredoms and adulteries mentioned here. In imitation of these, some nations have their public gardens.

13. therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom] (Rather, do commit.) Harlotry and idolatry being so inextricably connected, it was only natural that the women should be given up to licentiousness; the more religious they were, the stronger would the evil habit be. For ‘spouses’, read daughters-in-law. The allusion is to the lascivious worship of Ashérah and Ashtóreth (the goddesses were distinct); see next verse. Ashérah or ‘the propitious’ was at first probably a title of the feminine variety of the Assyrian deity Ishtar. See Introduction.

They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains - The tops of hills or mountains seemed nearer heaven, the air was purer, the place more removed from the world.