HOSEA 4

Rebuking Destructive Behavior: Hosea 4:1-14

When you read the Prophets, if they seem to ramble and repeat themselves, you're not alone. Many scholars have commented on the difficulty of discerning the pattern behind the book of Hosea.

“It does not exhibit any overall design.”

"It shows little superficial evidence of careful composition or organization.”

“even the effort to establish broad lines of divisions evokes much debate.”

" deciding where one passage leaves off and another begins has been a major consideration for every commentator.”

I love a challenge so the figure below shows some of my analysis on how the book is put together. Take it or leave it. It does have a definite structure, and this fact is not just academic. There are important lessons to be learned from the way it is organized.

Figure 1

Three-Cycle Structure of Hosea

Cycle I: Hosea 1-2

A. Hosea and Gomer (Hosea 1)

B. God and His People: Condemnation (Hosea 2:1-13)

C. God and His People: Redemption (Hosea 2:14-23)

Cycle II: Hosea 3-11

A. Hosea and Gomer (Hosea 3)

B. God and His People: Condemnation (Hosea 4:1-10:12)

C. God and His People: Redemption (Hosea 10:13-11:12)

Cycle III: Hosea 12-14

A. Jacob (Hosea 12)

B. God and His People: Condemnation (Hosea 13)

C. God and His People: Redemption (Hosea 14)

Look at the repeated pattern: a specific example is given first: the marriage of Hosea and Gomer is sort of an acted-out parable for the people to see, and it starts the first two cycles. In these, harlotry is a metaphor for the people going after other gods. The third cycle starts by reaching back into history to point out the various faults of the patriarch Jacob as an example. In the second sections of each cycle (B), the people are condemned for their sins but God holds out the possibility of redemption in each concluding section, labeled C.

Unfortunately, today's passage falls in the large section of the book labeled IIB, which is one of the Condemnation sections. I'm afraid you will have to look elsewhere to get any redemption. It is interesting that for this large section, the word hesed acts as a set of bookends since it appears in the first and last verses. The King James Version translates this as “loving-kindness,” and it is usually applied to God himself. So God's love is prominent even in these rather negative passages.

Further subdivisions can be seen in Figure 2.

Figure 2

Cycle IIB              Opening              Opening          Closing Reference 

Section                 Addressee           Accusation              to Judah

1 (4:1-16)          Israel                   list of sins                 positive

            2 (4:17-7:1a)          Ephraim                 harlotry             positive

            3 (7:1b-8:14)         Ephraim         list of sins             negative

            4 (9:1-10:12)     Israel                           harlotry        negative

Hosea addresses either Israel (Northern Kingdom) or Ephraim (one of the larger tribes whose territory marks the Southern boundary of Israel).

Look further at the first three of these subdivisions since they are part of the background reading for this lesson.

Figure 3: The Structure of Cycle II, Section B1

a. Opening Call “O people of Israel” (4:1a)                                     Yahweh (twice)

b. A People With No Knowledge (4:1b-3)                                  Elohim

c. The Sins of the Priesthood (4:4-10)

(1a). punishment (4:4-5)

(b). “my people” misled (4:6a)

(a'). punishment (4:6b)

                                                                        ------------------------                         Yahweh and Elohim

                                                            (2a). punishment (4:7)

(b). “my people” misled (4:8-9)

(a'). punishment (4:10)

b'. A People With No Understanding (4:11-14)                          Elohim

a'. Concluding Warning “O Israel” (4:15-1                                     Yahweh (twice)

The opening “O people of Israel” is neatly balanced with the concluding summons “O Israel.”

Look at sections b and b': God starts out condemning the people for lack of knowledge and ends up accusing them of lack of understanding (or wisdom.) What is the distinction between the two? Can you have one without the other?

Enhancing the symmetry of this section is the careful placement of names for the God. “Elohim” occurs three times in the passage, once each in sections b, c, and b'. Similarly, “Yahweh” appears five times, twice each in the first and last sections and once at the end of the center section c.

Figure 4: Cycle II, Section B2 (Hosea 4:17-7:1a)

a. Evil Deeds (4:17-5:2)

b. Estrangement (5:3-7)

                                            c. Punishment (5:8-12)

                                            c'. Punishment (5:13-14)

b'. Estrangement (5:15-6:7)

a'. Evil Deeds (6:8-7:1a)

This section ends on a wistful note with God longing to restore his nation – exactly as the previous section ended (4:16b). God is always willing to give his people a second chance.

Figure 5: Cycle II, Section B3 (Hosea 7:1b-8:14)

a. Israel's Sins: Turning against God and to Other Nations (7:1b-16)

(1). sin (7:1-11)

(2). judgment (7:12-13)

(1'). sin (7:14-16)

a'. Israel's Sins: Turning to Other Gods and Rulers (8:1-14)

(1). sin (8:1-4)

(2). judgment (8:5-10)

(1'). sin (8:11-14)

What can we learn from these broad overviews of the book? In the first place, it is impossible to miss the close connection between sin and subsequent judgment by God; it is a simple cause-and-effect relationship.

In Figure 3, twice sin is bracketed by punishments whereas in Figure 5 punishment sections are twice bracketed by sin sections.

And in Figure 4 we see that there is an intermediate state: estrangement from God. A person who is estranged from God misses out on the blessings of fellowship with him and his people and is in danger of God's actual punishment.

We can also see that each of these three subsections in chapters 4-8 of the book deal with a different class of people under condemnation. Working backwards, in Figure 5 (chapters 7-8), the main audience for this denunciation is the political leadership of Israel who entered into unholy alliances with pagan nations rather than relying on God for their sole strength. The key words king and prince appear a total of ten times in this section.

Section B2 (Figure 4) is unusual in the book of Hosea because it includes the Southern Kingdom Judah in God's denunciation as well as Israel.

That brings us back to Chapter 4, our specific lesson for today. Here (Figure 3) the centerpiece of the structure concerns not the political leaders but the religious leaders of the nation.

Section c. can be subdivided into two halves. In each, the priests' effect on the people is bracketed by appropriate punishments. In Unit c(1), the judgment falls on both the previous generation (mothers--vs. 5b) and subsequent generation (children--vs. 6b). There is a similar symmetry to Unit c(2): it begins with the priests increasing (vs. 7a) and concludes with them not multiplying (vs. 10).

With all that prelude, we can now deal specifically with Hosea 4:1-14. You may have a little trouble following me since I will be reading from a fairly literal translation: the New Revised Standard Version. You will find that there is a great deal of variation from translation to translation since the Hebrew original is hard to understand in places and there are a lot of judgment calls to be made.

4:1 God brings a lawsuit against Israel. He acts like both prosecutor and judge. This reminds us of the Book of Job where God is the judge, Satan is the prosecuting attorney, and Job longs for a defense attorney (Christ) to help him.

Faithfulness (genuineness, integrity, reliability) and loyalty (loving-kindness) are key attributes of God. (Compare other translations) They are missing in his covenant people. “There is no conduct in accord with God's revealed will or consistent with his character.”

“No knowledge of God” sounds like an intellectual problem but we will see in the next verse that that isn't true. Here are helpful quotes from three commentators:

“Lack of knowledge of God leads to lack of acknowledgment of God (which is how NIV translates it)”

“Knowledge referred to is the correct apprehension of God and his will for the life of the people in the historical moment, specifically knowing and adhering to divine instruction.”

“To know God thus involves knowledge of His character and requirements, and obedience to these requirements.”

Nature abhors a vacuum so in the absence of real knowledge of God, all sorts of evil creeps in (like Christ's story of someone cleansed of a demon but without anything it in his life, many demons then come in.) One prominent American put it this way: “He who stands for nothing will fall for anything”: Alexander Hamilton.

Sins of omission are listed in this verse, followed by sins of commission in verse 2.

4:2 Half of the 10 commandments are specifically included here. Gordon Fee points out that although Hosea's message is not original, by choosing only half of the Ten Commandments, shortening them to one word each, and quoting them out of order, they have a certain freshness in the mind of the audience, who is more likely to think about what is being said than if the Ten Commandments were simply quoted. A good preacher does the same thing, presenting old truths in brand new ways.

“Lying” shows that the commandment to not bear false witness (legal setting) has broader implications.

Adultery elsewhere in Hosea is usually used as a metaphor, here it is literal.

“Break out” is a verb used for violent acts such as armed robbery. It may be a separate sin. If so, then there are ten sins are listed between verses 1-2.

“Bloods touch bloods” is the literal rendering of the last line.

4:3 Drought appears to be the specific reference here. All nature suffers for the sins and ignorance of the people. Creatures of air, land and sea are impacted. Can you think of any other times in the Bible when the sins of the people lead to an impact on creation? Parallel to Genesis 3 for curse on the land due to mankind's sin, Also in the time of Noah. During the plagues of Egypt the firstborn of all the animals were killed along with the humans. And in Romans 8, Paul talks about the very earth groaning for salvation.

Specific “ecological sins” can take many forms—wasting the valuable resources God has given us, polluting the land and sea, wiping out endangered species around the world. I think of people in the Far East who out of ignorance ingest powdered rhino horns because they think they will cure diseases or enhance their sexual prowess. The bottom line: sin cannot be compartmentalized. It has wide consequences for those around us and even the world in general.

4:4 Translators have trouble with this verse. NIV renders it in a totally different manner. The meaning is probably that no one but the prophet Hosea needs to accuse the priests of sin since he will do it in God's name. Who is to blame for lack of knowledge of God? It is the priests and false prophets. The chief priest may be in mind here or the priest of one of the central temples, or all the priesthood.

4:5-6 Here are three alternating accusations and judgments using a key word from the accusations each time: destroy, reject, forget (ignore). “Forget” in 6b means more than not being able to recall some fact; it means “to ignore its significance so that it no longer guides a person to the proper response.”

Mention of a mother being destroyed and children forgotten goes back to story of Hosea and his family in the previous chapter. Some commentators take “mother and children” as literal, citing the example of Amos (7:10-17) who cursed the priest Amaziah and his wife and children. But “mother” in this case may mean the tribe of Levi from which all the priests came, or the nation Israel. “Knowledge (2x in v. 6)” in Hebrew is “the knowledge” indicating that some specific knowledge is meant, i.e. knowledge of God.

Bring it down to today. How do spiritual leaders today keep the knowledge of God from those they should be leading? (selective quoting of scripture, denying portions of the Bible, substituting other scriptures or authoritative sources, poor exegesis, teaching that Bible study is only for the experts, etc.).

4:7 Paul may not have been quoting from Hosea in Romans 1:24-25, but he uses similar language.

“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator...” As the Bob Dylan song says, “You've gotta serve somebody.” It is always an exchange.

4:8 There is a pun here. The same word in Hebrew can be translated either sin or sin-offering. Literally, the more the people sinned, the more they needed to give animal sacrifices, which the priests got a portion of. The priests actually profit by keeping the people in bondage to sin. Some Christian leaders do the same thing today using either the carrot or the stick.

In the church I grew up in: preachers would constantly instill guilt feelings in the congregation if they didn't attend all services and give substantially to the church. When I was in graduate school I visited a church that was having a guest speaker: a pastor who had a radio program (The Word by Word) and ran a small Christian college. He browbeat a small congregation I visited and actually told them that he was more righteous than they were since he was in full-time ministry and they weren't. Guilt is out of fashion today so the carrot is usually used. There are TV preachers who are constantly asking for money to support their ministry and even hold out the promise of financial gain the more one gives.

The obvious question at this point is, shouldn't the people get off free because their problems are solely the fault of their religious leaders? Shouldn't we be able to blame or pastors if we don't know enough about God?

4:9 gives the answer NO. The people are just as guilty. And if they were guilty back then, we are twice as guilty today and have no excuse. We have access to the word directly. Also God's spirit dwells within us. Look at the Jeremiah 31:31-34 prophecy of the New Covenant: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me.”

4:10-11 Drunkenness and use of temple prostitutes characterized Baal worship.

4:12 The next sin condemned is divination, trying to determine one's future by the use of magical devices. I once had a Sunday school teacher who swore by astrology and thought she could continue to practice it and be a good Christian, too.

4:13 zeroes in on actual idol worship. As it has often been pointed out, the idols we have are not so easy to identify but they are idols nevertheless.

4:14 Two explanations have been given for lack of condemnation of the women: (1) The first phrase should add the word “only” to give intended meaning. (2) Others feel that the woman were not condemned because they were forced into ritual prostitution. However, there is no evidence for this sort of practice.

This is not announcement of a coming judgment but to explain an existing situation.

One sign of false religion in Hosea's time was ritual sex. Still happens today—There was a recent example nearby where I live in Texas of some college students who joined a cult that practiced deviant sex as part of their worship.

Application Question: What are some of the more common signs of “sick” religions and their effects on those who follow them? (How do you recognize them?)

All-inclusive (no discernment between truth and falsehood)

Exclusive (judgmental toward outsiders, sin of pride, control by leader, stifling)

Supplementing the Bible with extra sources of truth (ends up devaluing the Bible)

Weakening the authority of Bible (ends up questioning the whole thing)

Reliance on ritual (form is more important than substance)