Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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.
13. upon the tops of the mountains ] ‘Every high hill and every green tree’ are repeatedly mentioned together as the scenes of the popular nature-worship (e.g. 1Ki 14:23; 2Ki 17:10; Jer 2:20; Jer 3:6); and, to avoid misunderstanding, it would have been better to supply an ‘and’ before ‘under oaks’, &c. The sacred hill-tops were specially selected for being treeless ‘bare places’ they are called in Jer 3:2. ‘Elms’ should rather be terebinths (Tristram, Natural Hist. of Bible, p. 350).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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 Ashrah and Ashtreth (the goddesses were distinct); see next verse. Ashrah or ‘the propitious’ was at first probably a title of the feminine variety of the Assyrian deity Ishtar. See Introduction.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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. To worship the Unseen God upon them, was then the suggestion of natural feeling and of simple devotion. God Himself directed the typical sacrifice of Isaac to take place on a mountain; on that same mountain He commanded that the temple should be built; on a mountain, God gave the law; on a mountain was our Saviour transfigured; on a mountain was He crucified; from a mountain He ascended into heaven. Mountains and hills have accordingly often been chosen for Christian churches and monasteries. But the same natural feeling, misdirected, made them the places of pagan idolatry and pagan sins. The Pagan probably also chose for their star and planet-worship, mountains or large plains, as being the places from where the heavenly bodies might be seen most widely.
Being thus connected with idolatry and sin, God strictly forbade the worship on the high places, and (as is the case with so many of Gods commandments) man practiced it as diligently as if He had commanded it. God had said, Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations, which ye shall possess, served their gods upon the high mountains, and upon the hills and under every green tree Deu 12:2. But they set them up images and groves (rather images of Ashtaroth) in every high hill and under every green tree, and there they burnt incense in all the high place, as did the pagan whom the Lord carried away before them 2Ki 17:10-11. The words express, that this which God forbade they did diligently; they sacrificed much and diligently; they burned incense much and diligently ; and that, not here and there, but generally, on the tops of the mountains, and, as it were, in the open face of heaven. So also Ezekiel complains, They saw every high hill and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering; there also they made their sweet savor, and poured out there their drink-offerings Eze 20:28.
Under oaks – (white) poplars and elms (probably the terebinth or turpentine tree) because the shadow thereof is good The darkness of the shadow suited alike the cruel and the profligate deeds which were done in honor of their false gods. In the open face of day, and in secret they carried on their sin.
Therefore their daughters shall commit whoredoms, and their spouses – (or more probably, daughters-in-law) shall commit adultery Or (in the present) commit adultery. The fathers and husbands gave themselves to the abominable rites of Baal-peor and Ashtaroth, and so the daughters and daughters-in-law followed their example. This was by the permission of God, who, since they glorified not God as they ought, gave them up, abandoned them, to vile affections. So, through their own disgrace and bitter griefs, in the persons of those whose honor they most cherished, they should learn how ill they themselves had done, in departing from Him who is the Father and Husband of every soul. The sins of the fathers descend very often to the children, both in the way of nature, that the children inherit strong temptations to their parents sin, and by way of example, that they greedily imitate, often exaggerate, them. Wouldest thou not have children, which thou wouldest wish unborn, reform thyself. The saying may include too sufferings at the hands of the enemy. What thou dost willingly, that shall your daughters and your daughters-in-law suffer against thine and their will.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hos 4:13
They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills.
Blustering sinners
That is the bold aspect, that is the public phase; instead of doing all these things, as Ezekiel would say, in a chamber of imagery far down, at which you get through a hole in the wall, they go up to high places, and invite the sun to look upon them; they kiss the calf in public. Some credit should be due to audacity, but there is another sin which cannot be done on the tops of the mountains, so the charge continues,–under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good. Here is the secret aspect of rebellion. Do not believe that the blusterer lives only in public as fool and criminal; do not say, There is a fine frankness about this man anyhow; when he sins, he sins in high places; he goes upon the mountains, and stamps his foot upon the high hills, and the great hill throbs and vibrates under his sturdy step. That is not the whole man; he will seek the oak, the poplar, and the elm, because the shadow thereof is good. It is a broad shadow; it makes night in daytime; it casts such a shadow upon the earth which it covers that it amounts to practical darkness. So the blustering sinner is upon the mountain, trying to perpetrate some trick that shall deserve the commendation of being frank, and when he has achieved that commendation he will seek the shadow that is good, the shadow at daytime, the darkness underneath the noontide sun. How the Lord searches us, and tries our life, and puts His fingers through and through us, that nothing may be hidden from Him! He touches us at every point, and looks through us, and understands us altogether. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. Under oaks] allon, from 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, Ho 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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, Isa 57:7.
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, Eze 20:28.
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 Gods 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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. upon . . . mountainsHighplaces were selected by idolaters on which to sacrifice, because oftheir greater nearness to the heavenly hosts which they worshipped(De 12:2).
elmsrather,”terebinths” [MAURER].
shadow . . . goodscreeningthe lascivious worshippers from the heat of the sun.
daughters . . . commitwhoredom . . . spouses . . . adulteryin the polluted worshipof Astarte, the Phoelignician goddess of love.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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 Scripture they did:
and burn incense upon the hills; to their idols, which was one kind of sacrifice put for all others:
under oaks, and poplars, and elms; and indeed under every green tree that grew upon them, where there were groves of them raised up for this purpose; see Jer 2:20:
because the shadow, thereof is good; the shadow of these trees, of each of them, was large, and preserved them from the sultry heat of the sun, as well as hid them from the sight of men; they could perform their idolatrous rites, as well as gratify their impure lusts, with more privacy and secrecy; and perhaps they thought the gods delighted in such shady places, and that these were frequented by spirits, and the departed souls of men; in such places the Heathens, whom the Jews imitated, built their temples, and offered their sacrifices g. The “oak” is a very spreading tree; its branches are large, and its shadow very great: hence the religious Heathens in ancient times used to live under them, and worship them as gods, and dedicate temples to them, because they furnished them with acorns for food, and a shelter from the rain, and other inclemencies of the heavens h; particularly the oak was consecrated to Jupiter, as appears from what Virgil says i. The oak at Dodona is famous for its antiquity, where were a fountain and groves, and a temple dedicated to the same Heathen deity; and from whence oracles were given forth k. The Druids here in Britain chose to have their groves of oaks; nor did they perform any of their sacred rites without the leaves of them: hence Pliny l says they had their name. The “poplar” mentioned is the white poplar, as the word used signifies, and which affords a very hospitable shadow, as the poet m calls it; and this was a tree also with the Heathens sacred to their gods, particularly to Hercules n; because it is said he brought it first into Greece from the river Acheron, where it grew; and the wood of no other tree would the Eleans use, in preparing the sacrifices for Jupiter Olympius o. The “elm” is also a very shady tree; hence Virgil p calls it “ulmus opaca, ingens”: and under this tree sacrifices used to be offered to idols, as is evident from Eze 6:13, where the same word is used as here, though it is there rendered an “oak”; but that it is different from the oak appears from these two words being read together, so that they cannot be names of one and the same tree, Isa 6:13, where it is rendered the “teil tree”, as distinct from the oak. Now these trees being very shady ones, and under which the Gentiles used to perform their religious rites, the Jews imitated them therein, which is here complained of.
Therefore your daughters shall commit whoredoms, and your spouses shall commit adultery; or their “sons’ wives” q; either spiritually, that is, commit idolatry by the example of their parents and husbands; or corporeally, being left at home while their parents and husbands were worshipping their idols upon the mountains, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi: and so this is to be considered as a punishment of the idolatry of their parents and husbands; that as they commit spiritual adultery against God, or idolatry, their daughters and wives shall be given up to such vile affections, or by force shall be made to commit corporeal adultery against them; or rather the sense is, led by the example of their parents and husbands, whom they see not only sacrifice to idols in the above places, but commit uncleanness with harlots there, they will throw off all shame, and commit whoredom with men: for so the words may be rendered, “hence your daughters”, c. so Abarbinel.
g “Lucus in urbe fuit media, laetissimus umbra: Hic templum Junoni ingens Sidonia Dido Condebat.” Virgil. Aeneid. l. 1. h Vid. Chartarii Imagines Deorum, p. 5. i “Sicubi magna Jovis antiquo robore quercus, Ingenteis tendat ramos——“, Georgic. l. 3. “Altissima quercus erat Jovis signum”, Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 4. c. 12. k Vid. Pausan. Attica, sive l. 1. p. 30. Achaica, sive l. 7. p. 438. Arcadica, sive l. 8. p. 490. & Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 2. l Nat. Hist. l. 16. c. 44. m “Qua pinus ingens albaque populus, Umbram hospitalem consociare amant Ramis——” Horat. n “Populus Alcidae gratissima”, Virgil. Bucolic. Eclog. 7. Vid. Aeneid. l. 1. “Herculi populus”, Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 12. c. 1. o Pausan. Eliac. 1. sive l. 5. p. 313. p Aeneid. l. 6. q “nurus vestrae”, Montanus, Vatablus, Piscator, Liveleus, Cocceius, Schmidt, Gussetius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This whoredom is still further explained in the next verse. Hos 4:13. “They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and upon the hills they burn incense, under oak and poplar and terebinth, for their shadow is good; therefore your daughters commit whoredom, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.” Mountain-tops and hills were favourite places for idolatrous worship; because men thought, that there they were nearer to heaven and to the deity (see at Deu 12:2). From a comparison of these and other passages, e.g., Jer 2:20 and Jer 3:6, it is evident that the following words, “under oak,” etc., are not to be understood as signifying that trees standing by themselves upon mountains and hills were selected as places for idolatrous worship; but that, in addition to mountains and hills, green shady trees in the plains and valleys were also chosen for this purpose. By the enumeration of the oak, the poplar ( lbhneh , the white poplar according to the Sept. in loc. and the Vulg. at Gen 37:30, or the storax-tree, as the lxx render it at Gen 37:30), and the terebinth, the frequent expression “under every green tree” (Deu 12:2; 1Ki 14:23; Jer 2:20; Jer 3:6) is individualized. Such trees were selected because they gave a good shade, and in the burning lands of the East a shady place fills the mind with sacred awe. , therefore, on that account, i.e., not because the shadow of the trees invites to it, but because the places for idolatrous worship erected on every hand presented an opportunity for it; therefore the daughters and daughters-in-law carried on prostitution there. The worship of the Canaanitish and Babylonian goddess of nature was associated with prostitution, and with the giving up of young girls and women (compare Movers, Phnizier, i. pp. 583, 595ff.).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
The Prophet shows here more clearly what was the fornication for which he had before condemned the people, — that they worshipped God under trees and on high places. This then is explanatory, for the Prophet defines what he before understood by the word, fornication; and this explanation was especially useful, nay, necessary. For men, we know, will not easily give way, particularly when they can adduce some color for their sins, as is the case with the superstitious: when the Lord condemns their perverted and vicious modes of worship, they instantly cry out, and boldly contend and say, “What! is this to be counted fornication, when we worship God?” For whatever they do from inconsiderate zeal is, they think, free from every blame. So the Papists of this day fix it as a matter beyond dispute that all their modes of worship are approved by God: for though nothing is grounded on his word, yet good intention (as they say) is to them more than a sufficient excuse. Hence they dare proudly to clamour against God, whenever he condemns their corruptions and abuses. Such presumption has doubtless prevailed from the beginning.
The Prophet, therefore, deemed it needful openly and distinctly to show to the Israelites, that though they thought themselves to be worshipping God with pious zeal and good intention, they were yet committing fornication. “It is fornication,” he says, “when ye sacrifice under trees.” “What! has it not ever been a commendable service to offer sacrifices and to burn incense to God?” Such being the design of the Israelites, what was the reason that God was so angry with them? We may suppose them to have fallen into a mistake; yet why did not God bear with this foolish intention, when it was covered, as it has been stated, with honest and specious zeal? But God here sharply reproves the Israelites, however much they pretended a great zeal, and however much they covered their superstitions with the false title of God’s worship: “It is nothing else,” he says, “but fornication.”
On tops of mountains, he says, they sacrifice, and on hills they burn incense, under the oak and the poplar and the teil-tree, etc. It seemed apparently a laudable thing in the Israelites to build altars in many places; for frequent attendance at the temples might have stirred them up the more in God’s worship. Such is the plea of the Papists for filling their temples with pictures; they say, “We are everywhere reminded of God wherever we turn our eyes; and this is very profitable.” So also it might have seemed to the Israelites a pious work, to set up God’s worship on hills and on tops of mountains and under every tall tree. But God repudiated the whole; he would not be in this manner worshipped: nay, we see that he was grievously displeased. He says, that the faith pledged to him was thus violated; he says, that the people basely committed fornication. Though the Prophet’s doctrine is at this day by no means plausible in the world, so that hardly one in ten embraces it; we shall yet contend in vain with the Spirit of God: nothing then is better than to hear our judge; and he pronounces all fictitious modes of worship, however much adorned by a specious guise, to be adulteries and whoredoms.
And we hence learn that good intention, with which the Papists so much please themselves, is the mother of all wantonness and of all filthiness. How so? Because it is a high offense against heaven to depart from the word of the Lord: for God had commanded sacrifices and incense to be nowhere offered to him but at Jerusalem. The Israelites transgressed this command. But obedience to God, as it is said in 1Sa 15:0, (17) is of more value with him than all sacrifices.
The Prophet also distinctly excludes a device in which the ungodly and hypocrites take great delight: good, he says, was its shade; that is, they pleased themselves with such devices. So Paul says that there is a show of wisdom in the inventions and ordinances of men, (Col 2:23.) Hence, when men undertake voluntary acts of worship, — which the Greeks call εθελοθρησκείας superstitions, being nothing else than will-worship, — when men undertake this or that to do honor to God, there appears to them a show of wisdom, but before God it is abomination only. At this practice the Prophet evidently glances, when he says that the shade of the poplar, or of the oak, or of teil-tree, was good; for the ungodly and the hypocrites imagined their worship to be approved of God, and that they surpassed the Jews, who worshipped God only in one place: “Our land is full of altars, and memorials of God present themselves everywhere.” But when they thought that they had gained the highest glory by their many altars, the Prophet says, that the shade indeed was good, but that it only pleased wantons, who would not acknowledge their baseness.
He afterwards adds, Therefore your daughters shall play the wanton, and your daughters-in-law shall become adulteresses: I will not visit your daughters and daughters-in-law Some explain this passage as though the Prophet said, “While the parents were absent, their daughters and daughters-in-law played the wanton.” The case is the same at this day; for there is no greater liberty in licentiousness than what prevails during vowed pilgrimages: for when any one wishes to indulge freely in wantonness, she makes a vow to undertake a pilgrimage: an adulterer is ready at hand who offers himself a companion. And again, when the husband is so foolish as to run here and there, he at the same time gives to his wife the opportunity of being licentious. And we know further, that when many women meet at unusual hours in churches, and have their private masses, there are there hidden corners, where they perpetrate all kinds of licentiousness. We know, indeed, that this is very common. But the Prophet’s meaning is another: for God here denounces the punishment of which Paul speaks in the Romans (18) when he says, ‘As men have transferred the glory of God to dead things, so God also gave them up to a reprobate mind,’ that they might discern nothing, and abandon themselves to every thing shameful, and even prostitute their own bodies.
Let us then know, that when just and due honor is not rendered to God, this vengeance deservedly follows, that men become covered with infamy. Why so? Because nothing is more equitable than that God should vindicate his own glory, when men corrupt and adulterate it: for why should then any honor remain to them? And why, on the contrary, should not God sink them at once in some extreme baseness? Let us then know, that this is a just punishment, when adulteries prevail, and when vagrant lusts promiscuously follow.
(17) 1Sa 15:22. — fj.
(18) Rom 1:28. — fj.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(13) The tops of the hills were continually chosen for idolatrous temples, i.e., high places.
Poplari.e., the white poplar, not the storax of the LXX., which is a shrub only a few feet high.
Elms should be terebinth tree (lah).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks and poplars and terebinths, because its shadow is good. Therefore your daughters play the harlot, and your brides commit adultery.’
High places, (raised sites, especially in the hills), were ever a feature of Canaanite religion and Baal worship, and Israel had been under instructions to destroy them (Num 33:52). Furthermore Israel had been warned against such high places lest they come under God’s anger (Lev 26:30). The tops of mountains were seen by idolaters as being nearest to the gods, which made them a favourite place for erecting high places. There they sacrificed and burned incense to their gods. Another favourite site for such high places was under green trees whose branches offered shade from the burning heat, those being selected which had widespread branches and thick foliage, of which examples are here given. They provided the ‘feel-good factor’, and were also seen as containing ‘life’ as demonstrated by their greenness. The specific identity of the trees is not certain.
The consequence of this worship was that the young Israelite women were introduced to illicit sex as a part of the religious ritual, with their young unmarried women acting like prostitutes, and their newly wed brides committing adultery. As a result the purity of the young women of Israel had become a thing of the past.
‘Because its shadow is good,’ possibly a satirical indication that that is all the good that they can expect from it. It would not be what was in the mind of the worshippers. They probably thought in terms of its protectiveness (compare Psa 91:1).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Hos 4:13. Oaks That is to say, the evergreen oak, or ilex. And elms] The acorn-tree, or the common oak.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Hos 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,” Gen 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 Isa 57:7 Eze 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, Isa 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
Therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom
“ Roma quod inverso delectaretur amore,
Nomen ab inverso nomine fecit Amor. ”
Thus God punished the idolatrous Ethnics, by delivering them up to passions of dishonour, or vile affections; to Sodomitical practices, which did abase them below those fourfooted beasts which they adored, Rom 1:23-24 They sacrifice, &c. Compare Isa 1:29, and Isa 57:5, Isa 57:7. Eze 6:13, and Eze 20:28. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 12:2).
sacrifice: Isa 1:29, Isa 57:5, Isa 57:7, Jer 3:6, Jer 3:13, Eze 6:13, Eze 16:16, Eze 16:25, Eze 20:28, Eze 20:29
therefore: 2Sa 12:10-12, Job 31:9, Job 31:10, Amo 7:17, Rom 1:23-28
Reciprocal: Deu 12:2 – possess 2Sa 12:11 – I will take Pro 5:9 – General Jer 5:7 – they then Jer 17:2 – their children
Hos 4:13. Fleshly and spiritual adultery seem to have been closely associated in Biblical times. The forepart of this verse describes the latter form of the abomination, for the hills were used as desirable spots for idolatrous practices, and trees of all kinds were brought into it because the idolaters like the attractiveness of the large plants for such performances. The last part of the verse refers to fleshly adultery, and it is a prediction with a suggestion of threat. Since fleshly unfaithfulness is no worse than spiritual (if as bad), and Lhese leading men of the nation were guilty of the latter, it will serve them justly If their own wives prove unfaithful to them by committing the former.
Hos 4:13. They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains The sacrificing upon the mountains and in shady groves was an ancient piece of idolatry, often mentioned and reproved by the prophets. They seem to have made choice of the tops of hills and mountains for their sacrifices and religious rites, as places nearer heaven; but what could be more absurd than to think that God, who is omnipresent, was nearer to them on the hills or mountains than in the valleys? Israel, says St. Jerome, loves high places, for they have forsaken the high God, and having left the substance are attached to the shadow. And burn incense under oaks, poplars, and elms Under high and spreading trees. Because the shadow thereof is good Extremely grateful in those hot countries. Hence the Israelites were inclined to worship there. Therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom Therefore your punishment shall be agreeable to your sin. As ye have committed spiritual whoredom, and have gone after idols, and have not regarded the commands of God; so your daughters shall go after their lusts, and commit whoredom, without any heed to your commands and exhortations. Great depravity and corruption of manners are generally the consequence of a disregard of God and religion.
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 {p} commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery.
(p) Because they take away God’s honour, and give it to idols: therefore he will give them up to their lusts, so that they will dishonour their own bodies; Rom 1:28 .
They worshipped their idols on the tops of hills and under trees because they enjoyed worshipping at their convenience (cf. 2Ki 17:10-11). This was as bad as the daughters of the Israelites practicing harlotry and adultery with male cult prostitutes (cf. Deu 23:17-18; 1Ki 14:24).
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)