Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 4:12
My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused [them] to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.
12. My people ask counsel at their stocks ] Lit., ‘My people he asketh counsel at his wood.’ Jehovah alone can give oracular ‘counsel’; not the teraphim, nor yet the bull-images of Jehovah. The latter did, indeed, seem to the Israelites to bring Jehovah near to their consciousness, but it was not the true Jehovah, who could not be represented by images (Hos 8:6) and hated the rites of the Israelitish worship (Hos 9:15); Hosea therefore calls them ‘wood’; comp. Hab 2:19; Jer 2:27; Jer 10:8. There is a touch of melancholy in ‘my people’; comp. Isa 3:12.
their staff declareth unto them ] ‘Declareth’, with reference to secret things, as Isa 43:9; Isa 44:7. The ‘staff’ is probably the diviner’s wand; so in Eze 21:21 the king of Babylon combines consultation of the teraphim with divination by arrows, which is merely another form of rhabdomanteia (Sept. substitutes ‘wands’, , for ‘arrows’). Wands were one of the recognized instruments of soothsaying, in both East and West; see Pococke, Specimen Historiae Arabum, p. 327; Azraki, The Chronicles of the city of Mecca, Arabic and German by Wstenfeld, 1. 73; Herodotus iv. 67; Tacitus, Germ. 10. Pococke however thinks ‘staff’ is synonymous with ‘stocks’, and that a staff is meant which had an idol carved at the top.
the spirit of whoredoms ] i.e. an impulse prompting them to whoredom (in the literal sense, to avoid tautology); comp. ‘spirit of perverseness’ (Isa 19:14), ‘spirit of uncleanness’ (Zec 13:2), ‘spirit of jealousy’ (Num 5:14).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
My people ask counsel at – (literally, on) their stocks They ask habitually ; and that, in dependence on their stocks. The word wood is used of the idol made of it, to bring before them the senselessness of their doings, in that they asked counsel of the senseless wood. Thus Jeremiah reproaches them for saying to a stock, my father Jer 2:27; and Habakkuk, Woe unto him that saith to the wood, awake Hab 2:19.
And their staff declareth unto them – Many sorts of this superstition existed among the Arabs and Chaldees. They were different ways of drawing lots, without any dependence upon the true God to direct it. This was a part of their senselessness, of which the prophet had just said, that their sins took away their hearts. The tenderness of the word, My people, aggravates both the stupidity and the ingratitude of Israel. They whom the Living God owned as His own people, they who might have asked of Him, asked of a stock or a staff.
For the spirit of whoredoms – It has been thought of old, that the evil spirits assault mankind in a sort of order and method, different spirits bending all their energies to tempt him to different sins . And this has been founded on the words of Holy Scripture, a lying spirit, an unclean spirit, a spirit of jealousy, and our Lord said of the evil spirit whom the disciples could not cast out; This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting Mat 17:21. Hence, it has been thought that some spirits take delight in uncleanness and defilement of sins; others urge on to blasphemies; others, to anger and fury; others take delight in gloom; others are soothed with vainglory and pride; and that each instills into mans heart that vice in which he takes pleasure himself; yet that all do not urge their own perversenesses at once, but in turn, as opportunity of time or place, or mans own susceptibility, invites them . Or the word, spirit of whoredoms, may mean the vehemence with which people were whirled along by their evil passions, whether by their passionate love of idolatry, or by the fleshly sin which was so often bound up with their idolatry.
They have gone a whoring from under their God – The words from under continue the image of the adulteress wife, by which God had pictured the faithlessness of His people. The wife was spoken of as under her husband Num 5:19, Num 5:29; Eze 23:5, i. e., under his authority; she withdrew herself from under him, when she withdrew herself from his authority, and gave herself to another. So Israel, being wedded to God, estranged herself from Him, withdrew herself from His obedience, cast off all reverence to Him, and prostituted herself to her idols.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hos 4:12
Their staff declareth unto them.
Rhabdomania, or divining by the stick or staff
There was a kind of idolatry which the Jews had, a way to ask counsel by the staff, and with this the prophet here charges them. The Romans practised the same, calling it divination by rods, sticks, arrows, or staves. There were four ways in which they divined with these things. The first was to put arrows or staves into a closed case, having the names written on them of what they divined about; and then, drawing out one or two, they determined their business according to what they found written; thus their staff declared unto them either good or bad. A second was by casting up staves or arrows into the air, and according as they fell, on the right hand or on the left, before or behind, so they divined their good or ill luck, as they called it. A third way was this, they used to peel off the bark of some part of a stick, and then cast it up, and divined according to which part of the pith, either black or white, appeared first. A fourth was, as we find in the Roman antiquities, that their augurs or soothsayers used to sit upon the top of a tower or castle, in clear and fair weather, with a crooked staff in their hand, which the Latins call Lituus, and having quartered out the regions of heaven, so far as to answer their purpose, and offered sacrifices and prayers, they stretched it forth upon the head of the person or thing they would divine for, and so foreboded good or ill luck, according to what at that time they observed in the heavens, the birds flying, etc. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 12. At their stocks] They consult their wooden gods.
And their staff declareth] They use divination by rods; see the note on Eze 21:21, where this sort of divination (rabdomancy) is explained.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
My people; whom I chose, brought out of Egypt, and settled in this land, wire are not yet cast off, though they deserve it, who call themselves my people.
Ask counsel; inquire about future things, and what shall befall them. I threaten from heaven, they believe not me, but flatter themselves it will be better than my prophets say it will, and they inquire of their idolatrous priests concerning their fate.
At their stocks; wooden statues or idols with which their priests consult, and make them give answer suiting to the hope of these people.
Their staff declareth unto them: this was another kind of forbidden consulting with the devil; an art much in use in those times and places. You read of this Eze 21:2. These were parts of their sottish idolatry. So they thought, they believed what their false prophets reported from the staff or stock. Unparalleled folly! not to believe God speaking from heaven, but at the same time believe a stock or staff, that knows not in whose hand it is, or what use it is put to.
The spirit of whoredoms; a heart addicted to and insnared with whoredoms, spiritual and corporal.
Hath caused them to err; hath blinded, misled, and deceived them. So Isa 40:20; 44:14,18.
And they have gone a whoring from under their God; so they have left their God, refusing to be under his guidance, endeavouring to evade his corrections, and to fortify themselves, rebel-like, against his armies raised to chastise them, trusting herein to idols.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. Instances of theirunderstanding (“heart”) being “taken away.”
stockswooden idols(Jer 2:27; Hab 2:19).
staffalluding todivination by rods (see on Eze 21:21,22). The diviner, says ROSENMULLER,threw a rod from him, which was stripped of its bark on one side, noton the other: if the bare side turned uppermost, it was a good omen;if the side with the bark, it was a bad omen. The Arabs used tworods, the one marked God bids, the other, God forbids;whichever came out first, in drawing them out of a case, gave theomen for, or against, an undertaking.
declareththat is, isconsulted to inform them of future events.
spirit of whoredomsageneral disposition on the part of all towards idolatry(Ho 5:4).
errgo astray from thetrue God.
from under their GodTheyhave gone away from God under whom they were, as a wife isunder the dominion of her husband.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
My people ask counsel at their stocks,…. Or “at his wood” a, or stick; his wooden image, as the Targum; their wooden gods, their idols made of wood, mere stocks and blocks, without life or sense, and much less reason and understanding, and still less divinity. Reference is here had either to the matter of which an idol was made, being the trunk of a tree, or a block of wood; as the poet b introduces Priapus saying, “olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum”: or to sticks of wood themselves, without being put into any form or shape; for so it is reported c, that the ancient idolaters used to receive for gods, with great veneration, trees or pieces of wood, having the bark taken off; particularly the Carians worshipped for Diana a piece of wood, not hewed, squared, or planed d: though the first seems rather to be the sense here; and either was extremely foolish. And yet such was the stupidity of this people, whom God had formerly chose for his people and had distinguished them by his favours from others, and they had professed themselves to be his people, and as yet were not utterly cast off, as to forsake him and his divine oracles, and all methods of knowing his will; as to ask counsel of such wooden deities in matters of moment and difficulty, what should be done by them, or concerning things to come.
And their staff declareth unto them; what methods are to be taken by them in the present case, or what shall come to pass, as they fancy; that is, either their idol, made of a staff or stick of wood, or a little image carried on a staff; such as probably were the teraphim they consulted, instead of the Urim and Thummim; and imagined they declared to them what they should do, or what would befall them. Kimchi’s father interprets it of the false prophets on whom they depended, and whose declarations they received as oracles. Perhaps some respect is had to a sort of divination used among the Heathens by rods and staves, called “rhabdomancy”, which the Jews had learnt of them; like that by arrows used by Nebuchadnezzar, Eze 21:21. This was performed by setting up a stick or staff, and as that fell, so they judged and determined what was to be done. The manner, according to Theophylact on the place, was this,
“they set up two rods, and muttered some verses and enchantments; and then the rods falling through the influence of demons, they considered how they fell, whether forward or backward, to the right or the left; and so gave answers to the foolish people, using the fall of the rods for signs.”
The Jews take this to be forbid by that negative precept, De 18:10, “there shall not be found among you any that useth divination”. So Jarchi and Baal Hatturim on that text explain a diviner by one that holds his staff; and the former adds and says, shall I go, or shall I not go? as it is said, “my people ask counsel at their stocks”, c. the manner of which they thus describe e,
“when they are about to go on a journey, they inquire before they set out, i.e. whether it will be prosperous or not; and the diviner takes a branch of a tree, and takes off the bark on one side, and leaves it on the other, and then throws it out of his hand; if, when it falls, the bark is uppermost, he says, this is a man; then he casts it again, and if the white is uppermost, this is a woman; to a man, and after that a woman, this is a good sign, and he goes his journey, or does what be desires to do: but if the white appears first, and after that the bark, then he says, to a woman, and after that a man, and he forbears (that is, to go on his journey, or do what he desired): but if the bark is uppermost in both (throws), or the white uppermost in both, to a man after a man, and a woman after a woman, then his journey (as to the success of it) is between both; and so they say they do in the land of Slavonia.”
And from the Slavonians, Grotius says, the Germans took this way of divination, of which Tacitus f gives an account; and it seems by him that the Chaldeans also had it, from whom the Jews might have it. This way of divination by the staff is a little differently given in Hascuni: g the diviner measures his staff with his finger, or with his hand; one time he says, I will go; another time, I will not go; but if it happens, at the end of the staff, I will not go, he goes not.
For the spirit of whoredom hath caused them to err; a violent inclination and bias of mind to idolatry, which is spiritual adultery, and a strong affection for it, stirred up by an evil spirit, the devil; which so wrought upon them, and influenced them, as to cause them to wander from the true God, and his worship, as follows:
and they have gone a whoring from under their God; or
“erred from the worship of their God,”
as the Targum; from the true God, who stood in the relation of a husband to them; but, led by a spirit of error, they departed from him, and committed spiritual adultery, that is, idolatry; which is explained and enlarged upon in the next verse.
a “in ligno suo”, V. L. Montanus, Calvin; “liguum suum”, Pagninus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. b Horat. Sermon. l. 1. Satyr. 8. c Alexand. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 26. d Arnobius adv. Gentes, l. 6. p. 232. e Moses Kotsensis praecept. neg. 52. f De Moribus German. c. 10. g Apud Drusium in Deut. xviii. 10.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Sins of the Priests and the People; Warning to Judah. | B. C. 758. |
12 My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God. 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. 14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall. 15 Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Beth-aven, nor swear, The LORD liveth. 16 For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place. 17 Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone. 18 Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give ye. 19 The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.
In these verses we have, as before,
I. The sins charged upon the people of Israel, for which God had a controversy with them, and they are,
1. Spiritual whoredom, or idolatry. They have in them a spirit of whoredoms, a strong inclination to that sin; the bent and bias of their hearts are that way; it is their own iniquity; they are carried out towards it with an unaccountable violence, and this causes them to err. Note, The errors and mistakes of the judgment are commonly owing to the corrupt affections; men therefore have a good opinion of sin, because they have a disposition towards it. And having such erroneous notions of idols, and such passionate motions towards them, no marvel that with such a head and such a heart they have gone a whoring from under their God, v. 12. They ought to have been in subjection to him as their head and husband, to have been under his guidance and command, but they revolted from their allegiance, and put themselves under the guidance and protection of false gods. So (v. 15) Israel has played the harlot; their conduct in the worship of their idols was like that of a harlot, wanton and impudent. And (v. 16), Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer, as an untamed heifer (so some), or as a perverse or refractory one (so others), as a heifer that is turned loose runs madly about the pasture, or, if put under the yoke (which seems rather to be alluded to here), will draw back instead of going forward, will struggle to get her neck out of the yoke and her feet out of the furrow. Thus unruly, ungovernable, untractable, were the people of Israel. They had begun to draw in the yoke of God’s ordinances, but they drew back, as children of Belial, that will not endure the yoke; and when the prophets were sent with the goads of reproof, to put them forward, they kicked against the pricks, and ran backwards. The sum of all is (v. 17), Ephraim is joined to idols, is perfectly wedded to them; his affections are glued to them, and his heart is upon them. There are two instances given of their spiritual whoredom, in both which they gave that honour to their idols which is due to God only:– (1.) They consulted them as oracles, and used those arts of divination which they had learned from their idolatrous priests (v. 12): My people ask counsel at their stocks, their wooden gods; they apply to them for advice and direction in what they should do and for information concerning the event. They say to a stock, Thou art my father (Jer. ii. 27); and, if it were indeed a father, it were worthy of this honour; but it was a great affront to God, who was indeed their Father, and whose lively oracles they had among them, with which they had liberty to consult at any time, thus to ask counsel at their stocks. And they expect that their staff should declare to them what course they should take and what the event should be. It is probable that this refers to some wicked methods of divination used among the Gentiles, and which the Jews learned from them, by a piece of wood, or by a staff, like Nebuchadnezzar’s divining by his arrows, Ezek. xxi. 21. Note, Those who forsake the oracles of God, to take their measures from the world and the flesh, do in effect but consult with their stocks and their staves. (2.) They offered sacrifice to them as gods, whose favour they wanted and whose wrath they dreaded and deprecated (v. 13): They sacrifice to them, to atone and pacify them, and burn incense to them, to please and gratify them, and hope by both to recommend themselves to them. God had pitched upon the place where he would record his name; but they, having forsaken that, chose places for their irreligious rites which pleased their own fancies; they chose, [1.] High places, upon the tops of the mountains and upon the hills, foolishly imagining that the height of the ground gave them some advantage in their approaches towards heaven. [2.] Shady places, under oaks, and poplars, and elms, because the shadow thereof is pleasant to them, especially in those hot countries, and therefore they thought it was pleasing to their gods; or they fancied that a thick shade befriends contemplation, possesses the mind with something of awe, and therefore is proper for devotion.
2. Corporal whoredom is another crime here charged upon them: They have committed whoredom continually, v. 18. They drove a trade of uncleanness; it was not a single act now and then, but their constant practice, as it is of many that have eyes full of adultery and which cannot cease from that sin, 2 Pet. ii. 14. Now the abominable filthiness and lewdness that was found in Israel is here spoken of, (1.) As a concomitant of their idolatry; their false gods drew them to it; for the devil whom they worshipped, though a spirit, is an unclean spirit. Those that worshipped idols were separated with harlots, and they sacrificed with harlots; for because they liked not to retain God in their knowledge, but dishonoured him, therefore God gave them up to vile affections, by the indulging of which they dishonoured themselves,Rom 1:24; Rom 1:28. (2.) As a punishment of it. The men that worshipped idols were separated with harlots that attended the idolatrous rites, as in the worship of Baal-peor,Num 25:1; Num 25:2. To punish them for that God gave up their wives and daughters to the like vile affections: They committed whoredom and adultery (v. 13), which could not but be a great grief and reproach to their husbands and parents; for those that are not chaste themselves desire to have their wives and daughters so. But thus they might read their sin in their punishment, as David’s adultery was punished in the debauching of his concubines by his own son, 2 Sam. xii. 11. Note, When the same sin in others is made men’s grief and affliction which they have themselves been guilty of they must own that the Lord is righteous.
3. The perverting of justice, v. 18. Their rulers (be it spoken to their shame) do love, Give ye, that is, they love bribes, and have it continually in their mouths, Give, give. They are given to filthy lucre; every one that has any business with them must expect to be asked, What will you give? Though, as rulers, they are bound by office to do justice, yet none can have justice done them without a fee; and you may be sure that for a fee they will do injustice. Note, The love of money is the ruin of equity and the root of all iniquity. But of all men it is a shame for rulers (who should be men fearing God and hating covetousness) to love Give ye. Perhaps this is intended in that part of the charge here, Their drink is sour; it is dead; it is gone. Justice, duly administered, is refreshing, like drink to the thirsty, but when it is perverted, and rulers take rewards either to acquit the guilty or to condemn the innocent, the drink is sour; they turn judgment into wormwood, Amos v. 7. Or it may refer in general to the depraved morals of the whole nation; they had lost all their life and spirit, and were as offensive to God as dead and sour drink is to us. See Deu 31:32; Deu 31:33.
II. The tokens of God’s wrath against them for their sins. 1. Their wives and daughters should not be punished for the injury and disgrace they did to their families (v. 14): I will not punish your daughters; and, not being punished for their sin, they would go on in it. Note, The impunity of one sinner is sometimes made the punishment of another. Or, “I will not punish them as I will punish you; for you must own, as Judah did concerning his daughter-in-law, that they are more righteous than you,” Gen. xxxviii. 26. 2. They themselves should prosper for a while, but their prosperity should help to destroy them. It comes in as a token of God’s wrath (v. 16): The Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place; they shall have a fat pasture, and a large one, in which they shall be fed to the full, and fed of the best, but it shall be only to prepare them for the slaughter, as a lamb is that is so fed. If they wax fat and kick, they do but wax fat for the butcher. But others make them feed as a lamb on the common, a large place indeed, but where it has short grass and lies exposed. The Shepherd of Israel will turn them both out of his pastures and out of his protection. 3. No means should be used to bring them to repentance (v. 17): “Ephraim is joined to idols, is in love with them and addicted to them, and therefore let him alone, as v. 4, Let no man reprove him. Let him be given up to his own heart’s lusts, and walk in his own counsel; we would have healed him, and he would not be healed, therefore forsake him,” See what their end will be, Deut. xxxii. 20. Note, It is a sad and sore judgment for any man to be let alone in sin, for God to say concerning a sinner, “He is joined to his idols, the world and the flesh; he is incurably proud, covetous, or profane, an incurable drunkard or adulterer; let him alone; conscience, let him alone; minister, let him alone; providences, let him alone. Let nothing awaken him till the flames of hell do it.” The father corrects not the rebellious son any more when he determines to disinherit him. “Those that are not disturbed in their sin will be destroyed for their sin.” 4. They should be hurried away with a swift and shameful destruction (v. 19): The wind has bound her up in her wings, to carry her away into captivity, suddenly, violently, and irresistibly; he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, Ps. lviii. 9. And then they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices, ashamed of their sin in offering sacrifice to idols, ashamed of their folly in putting themselves to such an expense upon gods that have no power to help them, and thereby making that God their enemy who has almighty power to destroy them. Note, There are sacrifices that men will one day be ashamed of. Those that have sacrificed their time, strength, honour, and all their comforts, to the world and the flesh, will shortly be ashamed of it. Yea, and those that bring to God blind, and lame, and heartless sacrifices, will be ashamed of them too.
III. The warning given to Judah not to sin after the similitude of Israel’s transgression. It is said in the close of v. 14, Those that do not understand shall fall; those must needs fall that do not understand how to avoid, or get over, the stumbling-blocks they meet with (and therefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall), particularly the two tribes (v. 15): Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend. Though Israel be given to idolatry, yet let not Judah take the infection. Now, 1. This was a very needful caution. The men of Israel were brethren, and near neighbours, to the men of Judah; Israel was more numerous, and at this time in a prosperous condition, and therefore there was danger lest the men of Judah should learn their way and get a snare to their souls. Note, The nearer we are to the infection of sin the more need we have to stand upon our guard. 2. It was a very rational caution: “Let Israel play the harlot, yet let not Judah do so; for Judah has greater means of knowledge than Israel, has the temple and priesthood, and a king of the house of David; from Judah Shiloh is to come; and for Judah God has reserved great blessings in store; therefore let not Judah offend, for more is expected from them than from Israel, they will have more to answer for if they do offend, and from them God will take it more unkindly. If Israel play the harlot, let not Judah do so too, for then God will have no professing people in the world.” God bespeaks Judah here, as Christ does the twelve, when many turned their backs upon him, Will you also go away? John vi. 67. Note, Those that have hitherto kept their integrity should, for that reason, still hold it fast, even in times of general apostasy. Now, to preserve Judah from offending as Israel had done, two rules are here given:– (1.) That they might not be guilty of idolatry they must keep at a distance from the places of idolatry: Come not you unto Gilgal, where all their wickedness was (Hos 9:15; Hos 12:11); there they multiplied transgression (Amos iv. 4); and perhaps they contracted a veneration for that place because there it was said to Joshua, The place where thou standest is holy ground (Josh. v. 15); therefore they are forbidden to enter into Gilgal, Amos v. 5. And for the same reason they must not go up to Bethel, here called the house of vanity, for so Bethaven signifies, not the house of God, as Bethel signifies. Note, Those that would be kept from sin, and not fall into the devil’s hands, must studiously avoid the occasions of sin and not come upon the devil’s ground. (2.) That they might not be guilty of idolatry they must take heed of profaneness, and not swear, The Lord liveth. They are commanded to swear, The Lord liveth in truth and righteousness (Jer. iv. 2); and therefore that which is here forbidden is swearing so in untruth and unrighteousness, swearing rashly and lightly, or falsely and with deceit, or swearing by the Lord and the idol, Zeph. i. 5. Note, Those that would be steady in their adherence to God must possess themselves with an awe and reverence of God, and always speak of him with solemnity and seriousness; for those that can make a jest of the true God will make a god of any thing.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 12-19:
Israel’s Idolatry Enlarged
Verse 12 describes how Israel, the Northern Kingdom had, and were expanding, their idolatrous course by seeking council of wooden gods (stocks). They leaned on a staff of wooden gods, expanding their idolatrous worship, leaving the authority of worship of Jehovah. Their stocks were wooden idols, Jer 2:27; Hab 2:19. Their staff (wooden rods) they had leaned on, and consulted, as a form of divination, Eze 21:21-22. Thus they went further astray (erred) from the true God, Hos 5:4. Their going a “whoring from under their God”, is abhorrently compared with a woman who goes a whoring from under the dominion of and duties to her husband.
Verse 13 recounts the custom of worshipping wooden idols, built on high hills and mountains, thought to be nearer to God and the heavenly hosts they sought to worship, Deu 12:2. This they did under the shade of oaks, poplars, and elms, to screen their lascivious deeds from the sun, Isa 1:29; Isa 57:5; Isa 57:7; Eze 6:13; Eze 20:28. As a result of the obstinate lustful will of the parents, and their idolatrous deeds, their daughters and their spouses were to be delivered up to vile affections and deeds, as a punishment for their idolatry, bringing shame upon the whole family name, Amo 7:17; Rom 1:28.
Verse 14 asserts that God will not send the heaviest punishment upon the daughters of Israel and their spouses but upon the fathers and husbands, the elders of the people. Because their fathers had come to the idol altars to be with harlots, not their wives. The young are not to be so much blamed, when their fathers are much worse, as they engage in whoredom with the consecrated harlots available at the altars of Ashtaroth and Astarte, that were prevalent in Syria, Assyria, Phoenecia, Phrygia, and Babylon, Num 15:1-3; Deu 23:18; Isa 44:18; Isa 45:20.
Verses 15-19 constitute a warning to Judah, the southern kingdom, not to become partakers of Israel’s harlotry, guilt, and offense. Israel is warned not to make pilgrimages to places of idolatrous worship. For Judah had the legal priesthood, the temple rites, and had Jerusalem as her center. Gilgal, a former holy place in the days of Samuel, located between Jericho and the Jordan river, on the border of Samaria, had now become a place of wickedness and graven images from which Judah was to keep himself, Jos 5:4-7; Jos 5:10-15; 1Sa 10:8; 1Sa 15:21; Hos 9:15; Hos 12:11; Amo 5:5; Jdg 3:19. They were warned not to go up to Beth-aven “the house of idols” or of vanity, rather than to Bethel “the house of God.” To swear is forbidden, in conjunction with calf-worship or idolatry, because such is contemptible to God, Eze 20:39; Zep 1:5.
Verse 16 describes Israel’s continual backsliding or instability that is like a heifer that throws the yoke off her neck, Jer 7:24. She is untamed, undisciplined, disinclined to wear God’s yoke and do His service in truth, 1Ki 12:28. God will feed Israel like a lamb in a large fenced enclosure. He will feed them with the rod, while at the same time chastening them in their Assyrian exile, Mic 7:14; Jer 3:6; Jer 8:5; Zec 7:11.
Verse 17 asserts that Ephraim glued to his idols, as an whoremonger in idol worship, is to be left alone to his chosen destiny, here representing the ten northern tribes, Num 15:3; 1Co 6:16-17; let him reap the fruits of his own choice, Jer 7:16; Isa 48:20; 2Co 6:17; Mat 15:14.
Verse 18 describes their drink as “sour”, signifying the degeneracy of licentiousness, Isa 1:22. They were like drunks who vomit and smell sour from it, and when their drinking was over they committed whoredoms with Astarte, the idol, or in honor of her, a debauching form of worship, v. 13, 14. The rulers, shields and protectors of the state of Israel, sold justice for shame, winked at moral wickedness, for personal covetous gain, Pro 30:15; This was much as Esau who sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. There exists no internal remedy for corruption when rulers are bribed, Heb 12:16-17; Gen 25:33.
Verse 19 describes adulterous, idolatrous Israel as one suddenly surrounded, bound up and seized by a violent tempest and carried far away from their land for destruction and shame, Psa 18:19; Psa 104:3; Isa 57:13; Jer 4:11-12. They shall come to be ashamed of their idols, and disappointed in hope of help through their idols, as a fruit of their willful disregard for the very fundamental A.B.C.’s of their own religious laws, Exo 20:1-5.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
The Prophet calls here the Israelites the people of God, not to honor them, but rather to increase their sin; for the more heinous was the perfidy of the people, that having been chosen, they had afterwards forsaken their heavenly Father. Hence My people: there is here an implied comparison between all other nations and the seed of Abraham, whom God had adopted; “This is, forsooth! the people whom I designed to be sacred to myself, whom of all nations in the world I have taken to myself: they are my heritage. Now this people, who ought to be mine, consult their own wood, and their staff answers them!” We hence see that it was a grievous and severe reprobation when the Lord reminded them of the invaluable kindness with which he had favored the children of Abraham.
So at this day our guilt will be more grievous, if we continue not in the pure worship of God, since God has called us to himself and designed us to be his peculiar flock. The same thing that the Prophet brought against the Israelites may be also brought against the Papists; for as soon as infants are born among them, the Lord signs them with the sacred symbol of baptism; they are therefore in some sense ( aliqua ex parte ) the people of God. We see, at the same time, how gross and abominable are the superstitions which prevail among them: there are none more stupid than they are. Even the Turks and the Saracenes are wise when compared with them. How great, then, and how shameful is this baseness, that the Papists, who boast themselves to be the people of God, should go astray after their own mad follies!
But the Prophet says the Israelites “consulted” their own wood, or inquired of wood. He no doubt accuses them here of having transferred the glory of the only true God to their own idols, or fictitious gods. They consult, he says, their own wood, and the staff answers them. He seems, in the second clauses to allude to the blind: as when a blind man asks his staff, so he says the Israelites asked counsel of their wood and staff. Some think that superstitions then practiced are here pointed out. The augurs we know used a staff; and it is probable that diviners in the East employed also a staff, or some such thing, in performing their incantations. (16) Others explain these words allegorically, as though wood was false religion, and staff the ungodly prophets. But I am inclined to hold to simplicity. It then seems to me more probable, that the Israelites, as I have already stated, are here condemned for consulting wood or dead idols, instead of the only true God; and that it was the same thing as if a blind man was to ask counsel of his staff, though the staff be without any reason or sense. A staff is indeed useful, but for a different purpose. And thus the Prophet not only contemptuously, but also ironically, exposes to scorn the folly of those who consult their gods of wood and stone; for to do so will no more avail them than if one had a staff for his counselor.
He then subjoins, for the spirit of fornication has deceived them Here again the Prophet aggravates their guilt, inasmuch as no common blame was to be ascribed to the Israelites; for they were, he says, wholly given to fornication The spirit, then, of fornication deceived them: it was the same as if one inflamed with lust ran headlong into evil; as we see to be the case with brutal men when carried away by a blind and shameful passion; for then every distinction between right and wrong disappears from their eyes — no choice is made, no shame is felt. As then such heat of lust is wont sometimes to seize men, that they distinguish nothing, so the Prophet says with the view of shaming the people the more, that they were like those given to fornication, who no longer exercise any judgment, who are restrained by no shame. The spirit, then, of fornication has deceived them: but as this similitude often meets us, I shall not dwell upon it.
They have played the wanton, he says, that they may not obey the Lord. He does not say simply, ‘from their God,’ but ‘from under’ מתחת, metachet, They have then played the wanton, that they might no more obey God, or continue under his government. We may hence learn what is our spiritual chastity, even when God rules us by his word, when we go not here and there and rashly follow our own superstitions. When we abide then under the government of our God, and with fixed eyes look on him, then we chastely preserve our faithfulness to him. But when we follow idols, we then play the wanton and depart from God. Let us now proceed —
(16) This was probably similar to divination by arrows, mentioned in Eze 21:21. There is a practice of this kind still among the Arabs, as Adam Clarke mentions in his comment on this verse. They take three arrows without head, and write onone, Command me, Lord; on the other, Forbid me, Lord; and the third is left a blank. These are put in a bag, and one is drawn. If the first is drawn, they do what they intend; if the second, they abstain for a year; if the third, they draw again. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(12) Their stocks.Blocks of wood fashioned into idols (Heb., his wood, the collective singular being maintained).
Their staff.Cyril regarded this as referring to divinations by means of rods (), which were placed upright, and after the repetition of incantations, allowed to fall, the forecast of the future being interpreted from the manner in which they fell. But perhaps the staff may refer, like the stocks, to the idol itself. The Canaanite goddess Asherah was worshipped under this form.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12. Stocks Literally, wood, or tree. May refer (1), as in Hab 2:19; Jer 2:27; Jer 10:8, to idolatrous images; or (2) to images thought to represent Jehovah, such as the calves at Beth-el and Dan (Hos 8:4-5); or (3) to tree cult, which survived for some time in Israel (Hos 4:13; compare Isa 1:29-31) and which is not unknown to-day (S.I. Curtis, Primitive Semitic Religions To-day, pp. 90ff.); or (4) to rabdomancy (see next clause), practiced among the Semites, the Scythians, the Germans, and other ancient nations. (3) is the most probable.
Ask counsel Consult through the oracle the divine will concerning proposed undertakings. The oracle of Jehovah alone was legitimate and was frequently consulted (2Sa 2:1; Jdg 1:1); but the contemporaries of Hosea were using illegitimate means.
Their staff declareth unto them Upon staves they depend for divine direction. Marti sees here also a reference to tree cult; the staff he takes to mean a small sacred tree or the branch of a tree. Most commentators think that the prophet has in mind rabdomancy. Cyril of Alexandria calls this practice an invention of the Chaldeans; he describes the method of procedure as follows: Two staves were held upright, and while incantations were murmured over them they were allowed to fall; the oracle was determined from the direction in which the staves fell, whether forward or backward, to the right or to the left (Eze 21:21). These practices are inspired by the spirit of whoredoms The impulse to practice whoredom which had taken possession of the people (Zec 13:2). 12b reads literally, They have played the harlot from under their God; they played the harlot, and thus freed themselves from the control of Jehovah. The expression is not quite the same as that in Hos 1:2. In this verse also, as in 11, 13, 14, the expression might, perhaps, be understood in a literal sense, the immoralities and the spiritual apostasy were closely connected, but many commentators interpret Hos 4:12 as referring to spiritual whoredom.
Hos 4:13 describes in greater detail the religious corruption.
Tops of the mountains hills Natural or artificial elevations were favorite spots for the erection of altars and sanctuaries; hence the designation high place for the local sanctuaries (Amo 7:9; 1Sa 9:12, etc. See article “High Place” in Hastings’s Dictionary of the Bible).
Burn incense See on Hos 2:13. Oaks poplars elms [“terebinths”] Probably a survival of tree worship, though the next clause would seem to indicate that the places under these trees were selected on account of the shade (see on Hos 4:12 and reference there). The trees mentioned are the most stately in Palestine, and would therefore receive special attention. The oaks flourished especially east of the Jordan, where they are still found. Tristram describes one thirty-seven feet in circumference with foliage having a circumference of ninety-one yards. The terebinth is frequently mentioned as a sacred tree. It grows in Palestine to a height of fifteen to twenty feet. Now the tree is comparatively rare west of the Jordan; there are still fine specimens in the territory of Moab. The poplar, literally, white tree, is mentioned only twice in the Old Testament, here and in Gen 30:37. Some commentators identify it with the storax tree, chiefly because of the similarity between the Hebrew and the Arabic names. An objection to the view that this is the tree in the mind of Hosea is the fact that the storax is “nothing more than a very bushy shrub, rarely more than twelve feet in height, and neither from its size nor from its form would it be selected as a tree under the shadow of which sacrifices or incense might be offered.” More likely the prophet has in mind the white poplar, which Tristram says he saw in various parts of Galilee, of the Lebanon, and of Mount Hermon.
The shadow thereof is good The shade made these spots desirable; if the prophet thinks of tree cult, the thought may be implied that from these trees went out special virtue and power.
Therefore Because of the conditions described in 11-13a; it introduces the reference to punishment in 14; 13b is a subordinate clause; 13b and 14a might be translated, “Therefore, though your daughters play the harlot commit adultery, I will not punish your daughters.” This removes the difficulty felt by some commentators concerning the loose connection between 13a and 13b. The pronominal suffixes of the second person in 13b and 14a are peculiar, since the persons addressed there are in 14b referred to in the third person. Marti proposes to change all the suffixes into the third person. To do this, or to change the third into the second, would result in a smoother reading. Commit whoredom [“play the harlot”] The context makes it clear that the immoralities are those connected with the religious cult; they had crept from the Canaanitish religion into that of Israel. Originally there was probably behind the giving up of chastity in honor of the deity the desire to offer the most precious possession, but this motive was soon forgotten. In the worship of Jehovah these practices were out of place; and had the people known him they would have understood that they were an abomination to him.
Spouses R.V., “brides”; margin, “daughters-in-law”; designation of a young wife; here in general, wives.
‘My people ask counsel at their piece of wood (tree, timber), and their staff makes declaration to them, for the spirit of whoredom has caused them to err, and they have played the harlot, departing from under their God.’
The result of their behaviour is that they foolishly seek counsel from pieces of wood carved into idols, or alternatively from sacred trees (Hos 4:13), and look to their staffs to divine for them. This latter probably involved holding a rod vertically and spinning it, or holding two or more rods vertically, and then letting go of them, reading the future from the way in which they fell (called rhabdomancy). The idea is that they prefer this to hearing YHWH’s word through His prophets, while using it as a substitute for the Urim and Thummim in the Temple, which was the God-ordained mean of consultation. And they do this because the spirit of licentiousness within them has caused them to err, turning their minds to folly. The idea may well be that evil spirits have therefore taken possession of them (compare Deu 32:17; 1Ki 22:22), or it could merely be indicating the driving force of their sexual urges which can make men think foolishly and do foolish things. And the consequence is that they have committed spiritual adultery, and probably literal adultery with sacred prostitutes or willing drunken worshippers of the opposite sex, thereby departing from being under YHWH’s control through the covenant. They are flouting all YHWH’s requirements.
Hos 4:12. Ask counsel at their stocks Consult their wood; that is to say, the images of their idols, made of wood, consult, as oracles, to foretel what is to come to pass, or to advise what measures should be taken.
Hos 4:12 My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused [them] to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.
Ver. 12. My people ask counsel at their stocks ] That is, at their images, which are here called stocks in contempt, as Hezekiah called the brazen serpent (when it was idolized by the people) Nehushtan, or, a piece of brass; and as Julius Palmer, martyr, called the rood in Paul’s a jackanapes; and as the poet, in contempt of his own god Priapus, brings him in saying
“ Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum. ”
So the prophet cries shame upon the house of Israel for saying to a stock, Thou art my father, and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth, Jer 2:27 Isa 44:11 . But to such senseless practices men fall many times when they grow sensual; see 2Th 2:10 Rev 17:5 . Spiritual whoredom and bodily go usually together. Rivet tells us here of a nobleman that went out of the church from hearing mass into the very next house, where he kept a whore; and said to the bystanders, a lupanari ad missam unum tantum esse passum, that there is but one step from the mass to a whore house.
And their staff
For the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err
And they are gone a whoring from under their God a Divination by means of a rod or wand; spec. the art of discovering ores, springs of water, etc., in the earth by means of a divining rod. D.
ask counsel = inquire of (habitually). Compare Jer 2:27. Hab 2:19.
stocks = idols made of wood.
staff, &c. Referring to divination by rods.
spirit. Hebrew. ruach. App-9. Compare Hos 5:4. Isa 44:20.
gone a whoring: i. e. gone away into idolatry. Compare Eze 23:5.
from under = from under [the authority] of, &c, as Gomer had left Hosea. Compare Num 5:19, Num 5:29. Eze 23:5.
ask: Jer 2:27, Jer 10:8, Eze 21:21, Hab 2:19
for: Hos 5:4, Isa 44:18-20, Mic 2:11, 2Th 2:9-11
gone: Hos 9:1, Lev 17:7, Lev 20:5, Num 15:39, Deu 31:16, 2Ch 21:13, Psa 73:27, Jer 3:1-3, Eze 16:1-63, Eze 23:1-49
Reciprocal: Exo 34:15 – whoring Lev 19:29 – to cause Lev 20:6 – go Jdg 8:27 – a whoring Jdg 18:5 – Ask counsel 1Ki 11:8 – all his strange wives 2Ki 16:15 – for me to inquire by Pro 6:32 – understanding Pro 31:4 – General Isa 28:7 – err in Isa 44:14 – heweth Isa 44:20 – a deceived Jer 3:9 – committed Hos 2:5 – their mother Hos 4:6 – My people Hos 4:11 – take Hos 4:15 – play Hos 7:4 – are all Heb 3:10 – err Heb 9:7 – errors 1Jo 4:6 – and
Hos 4:12. Stocks and staff refers to (he wooden idols which they had made. They had become so confused by their debased manner of life that their judgment was deranged. This whoredom was both fleshly and spiritual, for when the people became merged with the heathen in their worship of idols, they also took up with the immoral practices that was a part of their religion.
Hos 4:12. My people ask counsel at their stocks Hebrew, , at their wood, that is, the images of their idols made of wood; these they consulted as oracles, that they might foretel to them what was to come, or give them advice, what measures to take. And their staff declares unto them They seek to know things by means of rods, by which they think they can divine. This refers to a kind of divination by rods or staves, which was anciently practised in the East, of which different accounts are given by ancient writers. Some say, the person consulting measured his staff by spans, or by the length of his finger, saying as he measured it, I will go, or I will not go; I will do such a thing, or I will not do it; and as the last span fell out so he determined. Others, however, as Cyril and Theophylact, give a different account of the matter, and say, it was performed by erecting two sticks, after which they muttered forth a certain charm, and then according as the sticks fell backward or forward, to the right or left, they gave advice in any affair. The same kind of divination seems to be intended with that used by the Chaldeans, concerning which see the note on Eze 21:21. For the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err For their fondness for idolatry hath caused them to fall into all these absurd errors, through the example of the idolatrous nations whom they loved to imitate. They have gone a whoring from their God They have left their God, the true God, and his laws, to follow the worship, customs, and rites of heathen idolaters.
4:12 My {n} people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the {o} spirit of whoredoms hath caused [them] to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.
(n) Thus he speaks by derision in calling them his people, who now because of their sins they were not his people: for they sought help from stocks or wooden images and sticks or idols.
(o) They are carried away with madness.
God’s people consulted wooden idols and sought revelations using a diviner’s rod. Their spirit of harlotry led them astray from the true God and His Word. They behaved like harlots departing from the authority of their true husband, Yahweh.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)