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. 2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. 3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. 4 Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest. 5 Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother. 6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. (Hosea 4:1-6 KJV)
Thomas Haweis’ Commentary
Verses 1-5: Israel’s sins are the cause of all her miseries.
1. The prophet in God’s name summons the people to attend the charge he is about to lay against them. Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. Sin was the high offence, the cause of all their miseries and ours; and in God’s own people it is more exceeding sinful.
2. Their indictment charges them with many high crimes and misdemeanors, for one of a thousand of which they cannot answer him. There is no truth: hypocritical towards God, and faithless toward men, their professions were deceit, and their prophecies falsehood: nor mercy; for where honesty is banished, charity cannot subsist. They paid no regard to the distresses of the indigent; and, wrapped up in themselves, with unfeeling disregard beheld the miseries of others. Nor knowledge of God in the land: they desired not to know him, their hearts were averse from his teachings: and this willful ignorance was at once the cause and aggravation of their other sins. By swearing they increased their load of guilt, wantonly profane, and taking God’s name in vain: and lying; they added perjury to profaneness, and in their ordinary conversation copied closely after their father the devil, who was a liar from the beginning. And by a complication of all the most enormous crimes filled up the measure of their iniquities: by killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, with lawless violence, unrestrained by the laws of God or man, as a torrent, that sweeps away every mound and deluges the country. And blood toucheth blood, so vast is the effusion of it, occasioned by the frequency of murders; or the dreadful massacres of the successive kings, each grasping at the crown over the corpse of his predecessor, 2Ki 15:8-30.
3. An awful sentence is passed upon them; for such sins wherever they are found, are sure to meet a just recompense of reward. Therefore shall the land mourn, laid waste and desolate with famine and the sword; and every one that dwelleth therein, shall languish with the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven, pining for want, or consumed with war and pestilence; yea, the fishes of the sea shall be taken away, that no food may remain to satisfy their hunger. Note, God can quickly consume a sinful land: he hath only to withdraw his mercies, and we perish immediately.
4. Their case is desperate. Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: either these are the words of the incorrigible people, silencing their reprovers; or of God to the prophet, enjoining him and other good men to desist from their labours, and abandon them to ruin: for thy people are as they that strive with the priests; they are so impudent in sin, that they would fly in the face even of the priests of God who admonished them; or all were become so bad, that, if a priest dared reprove them, they retorted on him, Physician heal thyself. Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, the day of vengeance approaching; or today, immediately the wrath shall go forth; and the prophet also, the false prophets who deceived them with lying divinations, shall fall in the night of deep adversity, which approaches; and I will destroy thy mother, either Samaria the metropolis, or the nation in general; for both are doomed to utter ruin. Note, (1.) They who are deaf to rebuke are on the precipice of ruin. (2.) We are bound not to suffer sin upon our brethren, without friendly admonition; but when we perceive them exasperated, instead of humbled, silence becomes duty. (3.) When sinners strive with their faithful ministers, and refuse to hear, their blood is on their own heads. (4.) They who have contributed to seduce others shall meet the heaviest vengeance in the day of recompense.
Thomas Scott
Verse 6: The professed worshippers of Jehovah were perishing in the most entire ignorance of true religion; and this was in great measure the fault of the priests and teachers, who utterly neglected their duty, and indeed were incapable of performing it. The whole company of priests seem to be here addressed as one person: as he had despised and rejected knowledge, and willfully forgotten the word of God; therefore God would reject him, and take no care of his posterity.—We cannot suppose that this was exclusively addressed to the priests of the golden calves, and other priests in Israel whom God had never acknowledged; but it must, in part at least, be spoken of the family of Aaron, whom he had appointed to the priesthood, but would at length reject for their ignorance and wickedness. Some of these might reside in Israel, but most of them were in Judah, which must therefore be here included.