This Book - Hands to the Plow

WeeK seven
Hosea 4-8
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“But let no man bring a charge,
let no man accuse another,
for your people are like those
who bring charges against a priest.” Hosea 4:4 NIV
If we adopt the NIV’s rendering (which more closely reflects the MT (Hebrew) and LXX (Greek)),
the text is saying that the people of Israel are like people who would resist their own priests—
something that was expressly forbidden in Deuteronomy.
In all likelihood this accusation reflects a Deuteronomic concept in which the people were
warned to comply with the decisions of the priests and judges in all legal disputes (Deut.
17:8-13). Anyone who did not was put to death (v. 12). Hosea asserts that the people of
his day are like those who do not humbly accept the decisions of their spiritual leaders.
The people have a hard and rebellious spirit and are prone to protest their innocence. 3
Line 7 - No matter when or where they go, the children of Israel will stumble. They will stumble
because Yahweh will make them stumble. Even the prophets (the false prophets) will stumble along
with the Israelites. No one will be able to walk without tripping because Yahweh will not permit
it. Stumbling may seem, at first glance, to be a rather benign punishment. It’s not. This stumbling
results in the destruction of Israel—“I will destroy your mother”.
Line 8 - Yahweh’s people are destroyed (by Yahweh!) because of a “lack of knowledge”. They
don’t know, as we saw in line 2, Yahweh. This is not talking about knowledge of some principles
about him. It is talking about having a relationship with him and the knowledge and intimacy that
go along with such a relationship! The children of Israel do not Yahweh or his ways. They have
rejected him and his law. Therefore, he rejects Israel from being his “priest”. Israel was referred to
as a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6) early in its history. This is no longer true. Yahweh will not
relate to the children of Israel as his priests any longer. Instead, he promises to destroy them. 4
This line of poetry should be considered in tandem with 1 Peter 2:9. While this passage in Hosea
says that the Israelites were no longer Yahweh’s priests, Peter declares that Christians are “a royal
priesthood”. Thus, Jesus’ death and resurrection exalted God’s people to the place from which
Israel had been, because of their sin, removed.
Line 9 - The people of Israel have forgotten Yahweh’s laws. His laws, it should be noted,
correspond to the phrase “your children” in the second verset. Because the inhabitants of Israel
have forgotten Yahweh’s children (his laws), he will also forget their children.
Picture #2—Hosea 5:3-6
1. I know Ephraim,
and Israel is not hidden from me;
2. for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore;
Israel is defiled.
3. Their deeds do not permit them
to return to their God.
4. For the spirit of whoredom is within them,
and they know not the LORD.
5. The pride of Israel testifies to his face;
Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt;
Judah also shall stumble with them.
6. With their flocks and herds they shall go
to seek the LORD,
but they will not find him;
he has withdrawn from them. Hosea 5:3-6
3 Thomas Edward McComiskey, ed., The Minor Prophets: An Exegetical and Expository Commentary (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic,
1998), 60.
4 It should be noted that this verse is often used out of context. This verse isn’t a call for Christians to learn more about the Bible lest we
be destroyed by Satan. It is a declaration of the destruction Yahweh would bring upon Israel because they rejected him.