Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 4:2

By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.

2. By swearing ] Rather, (There is nothing but) swearing and lying, &c. The ‘swearing’ meant is of course false swearing (Hos 10:4).

break out ] Viz. into acts of violence; or, ‘break into (houses)’, as Job 24:16.

blood toucheth blood ] The Hebrew has ‘bloods’, i.e. bloodshed. The sense is, one deed of blood follows close upon another.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

By swearing, and lying … – Literally, swearing or cursing , and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery! The words in Hebrew are nouns of action. The Hebrew form is very vivid and solemn. It is far more forcible than if he had said, They swear, lie, kill, and steal. It expresses that these sins were continual, that nothing else (so to speak) was going on; that it was all one scene of such sins, one course of them, and of nothing besides; as we say more familiarly, It was all, swearing, lying, killing, stealing, committing adultery. It is as if the prophet, seeing with a sight above nature, a vision from God, saw, as in a picture, what was going on, all around, within and without, and summed up in this brief picture, all which he saw. This it was and nothing but this, which met his eyes, wherever he looked, whatever he heard, swearing, lying, killing, stealing, committing adultery. The prophet had before said, that the ten tribes were utterly lacking in all truth, all love, all knowledge of God. But where there are none of these, there, in all activity, will be the contrary vices. When the land or the soul is empty of the good, it will be full of the evil. They break out, i. e., burst through all bounds, set to restrain them, as a river bursts its banks and overspreads all things or sweeps all before it. And blood toucheth blood, literally, bloods touch bloods . The blood was poured so continuously and in such torrents, that it flowed on, until stream met stream and formed one wide inundation of blood.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 2. By swearing, and lying] Where there is no truth there will be lies and perjury; for false swearing is brought in to confirm lying statements. And when there is no mercy, killing, slaying, and murders, will be frequent. And where there is no knowledge of God, no conviction of his omnipresence and omniscience, private offenses, such as stealing, adulteries, c., will prevail. These, sooner or later, break out, become a flood, and carry all before them. Private stealing will assume the form of a public robbery, and adulteries become fashionable, especially among the higher orders and suits of crim. con. render them more public, scandalous, and corrupting. By the examination of witnesses, and reading of infamous letters in a court of justice, people are taught the wiles and stratagems to be used to accomplish these ends, and prevent detection; and also how to avoid those circumstances which have led to the detection of others. Every report of such matters is an experimental lecture on successful debauchery.

Blood toucheth blood.] Murders are not only frequent, but assassinations are mutual. Men go out to kill each other; as in our duels, the frenzy of cowards; and as there is no law regarded, and no justice in the land, the nearest akin slays the murderer. Even in our land, where duels are so frequent, if a man kill his antagonist, it is murder; and so generally brought in by an honest coroner and his jury. It is then brought into court; but who is hanged for it? The very murder is considered as an affair of honour, though it began in a dispute about a prostitute; and it is directed to be brought in manslaughter; and the murderer is slightly fined for having hurried his neighbour, perhaps once his friend, into the eternal world, with all his imperfections on his head! No wonder that a land mourns where these prevail; and that God should have a controversy with it. Such crimes as these are sufficient to bring God’s curse upon any land. And how does God show his displeasure? See the following verse.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

By swearing; either falsely or profanely, or cursing and wishing evil to one; instead of truth here is perjury; instead of compassion here is execration and evil-speaking.

Lying of all kinds; affirming of falsehoods, denying of truths, defrauding, lessening good, and representing it what it is not, greatening what is in others ill, and so flattering in some cases, and defaming in other cases, &c.

Killing: though God hath forbidden all kinds and degrees of murder, this people, through ignorance of God, do fill the land with murders, either open or secret; by cruelty withholding relief from some, by violence and falsehood cutting off others: the temper of this people was toward killing, their designs laid for it, &c.

Stealing; injuring one another, either by taking away what was anothers, or detaining what should have been his, or giving less to another than was his due: every one inclined to frauds, many addicted to secret thefts, and some openly practicing it.

Committing adultery; which was a sin grown high among them, a sin directly against the truth and mercy which should have been among them. Under this, all degrees of adultery, unchaste thoughts, words, and gestures are included.

They break out; as waters that swell above all banks, or as unruly beasts that break over all hedges, so you, O Israelites, have broken down the hedge of the law, which expressly forbids what you daily practise.

Blood toucheth blood; slaughters are multiplied: by blood the Scripture understandeth slaughter, Gen 4:10, &c.; Psa 58:10. Possibly the wrong done by the adulterer was (as Ammons) revenged with the slaughter of the adulterer; or possibly it may refer to murders committed in the very court of the temple; so the blood of the murdered touched the blood of sacrifices. It is too particular to refer it to the blood of Zechariah slain between the porch and the altar, and which (some say) ran down to the altar and touched the blood of the sacrifice. Or what if this should refer to what will be ere long, when Jeroboam is dead, when Zachariah is murdered by Shallum, 2Ki 15:10; Menahem slew Shallum, 2Ki 15:14, and ripped up women with child in Tiphsah, 2Ki 15:16; when Pekah slew Pekahiah, and Hoshea slew him? These kings being thus slain, no doubt much blood was spilt; all which happened in less than forty years; for from Zechariah to Pekahs usurpation are but fourteen years, from Pekahs entrance on the throne to Hosheas conspiracy are twenty years.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

2. they break outburstingthrough every restraint.

blood touchethbloodliterally, “bloods.” One act of bloodshedfollows another without any interval between (see 2Ki 15:8-16;2Ki 15:25; Mic 7:2).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

By swearing, and lying,…. Which some join together, and make but one sin of it, false swearing, so Jarchi and Kimchi; but that swearing itself signifies, as the Targum interprets it; for it not only takes in all cursing and imprecations, profane oaths, and taking the name of God in vain, and swearing by the creatures, but may chiefly design perjury; which, though one kind of “lying”, may be distinguished from it here; the latter intending “lying” in common, which the devil is the father of, mankind are incident unto, and which is abominable to God, whether in civil or in religious things: “and killing, and stealing and committing adultery”; murders, thefts, and adulteries, were very common with them; sins against the sixth, eighth, and seventh commandments:

they break out; through all the restraints of the laws of God and man, like an unruly horse that breaks his bridle and runs away; or like wild beasts, that break down the fences and enclosures about them, and break out, and get away; or like a torrent of water, that breaks down its dams and banks, and overflows the meadows and plains; such a flood and deluge of sin abounded in the nation. Some render it, “they thieve” o; or act the part of thieves and robbers: and the Targum,

“they beget sons of their neighbours’ wives;”

and so Abarbinel interprets it of breaking through the hedge of another man’s wife; but these sins are observed before:

and blood toucheth blood; which some understand of sins in general, so called, because filthy and abominable; and of the addition and multiplication of them, there being as it were heaps of them, or rather a chain of them linked together. So the Targum,

“and they add sins to sins.”

Others interpret it of impure mixtures, of incestuous lusts, or marriages contrary to the ties of blood, and laws of consanguinity,

Le 18:6, or rather it is to be understood of the great effusion of blood, and frequency of murders; so that there was scarce any interval between them, but a continued series of them. Some think respect is had to the frequent slaughter of their kings; Zachariah the son of Jeroboam was slain by Shallum, when he had reigned but six months; and Shallum was slain by Menahem when he had reigned but one month; and this Menahem was a murderer of many, smote many places, and ripped up the women with child; Pekahiah his son was killed by Pekah the son of Remaliah, and he again by Hoshea, 2Ki 15:8.

o “latrocinantur, [vel] latrones agunt”, Schmidt

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

“Swearing, and lying, and murdering, and stealing, and committing adultery; they break in, and blood reaches to blood.” The enumeration of the prevailing sins and crimes commences with infin. absoll., to set forth the acts referred to as such with the greater emphasis. ‘Alah , to swear, in combination with kichesh , signifies false swearing (= in Hos 10:4; compare the similar passage in Jer 7:9); but we must not on that account take kichesh as subordinate to ‘alah , or connect them together, so as to form one idea. Swearing refers to the breach of the second commandment, stealing to that of the eighth; and the infinitives which follow enumerate the sins against the fifth, the seventh, and the sixth commandments. With paratsu the address passes into the finite tense (Luther follows the lxx and Vulg., and connects it with what precedes; but this is a mistake). The perfects, paratsu and nagau , are not preterites, but express a completed act, reaching from the past into the present. Parats to tear, to break, signifies in this instance a violent breaking in upon others, for the purpose of robbery and murder, “ grassari as , i.e., as murderers and robbers” (Hitzig), whereby one bloody deed immediately followed another (Eze 18:10). Damm : blood shed with violence, a bloody deed, a capital crime.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

But after having said that they were full of perfidiousness and cruelty, he adds, By cursing, and lying, and killing, etc. , אלה, ale, means to swear: some explain it in this place as signifying to forswear; and others read the two together, אלה וכחש, ale ucachesh, to swear and lie, that is to deceive by swearing. But as אלה “alah” means often to curse, the Prophet here, I doubt not, condemns the practice of cursing, which was become frequent and common among the people.

But he enumerates particulars in order more effectually to check the fierceness of the people; for the wicked, we know, do not easily bend their neck: they first murmur, then they clamour against wholesome instruction, and at last they rage with open fury, and break out into violence, when they cannot otherwise stop the progress of sound doctrine. How ever this may be, we see that they are not easily led to own their sins. This is the reason why the Prophet shows here, by stating particulars, in how many ways they provoked God’s wrath: ‘Lo,’ he says ‘cursings, lyings, murder, thefts, adulteries, abound among you.’ And the Prophet seems here to allude to the precepts of the law; as though he said, “If any one compares your life with the law of God, he will find that you avowedly and designedly lead such a life, as proves that you fight against God, that you violate every part of his law.”

But it must be here observed, that he speaks not of such thieves or murderers as are led in our day to the gallows, or are otherwise punished. On the contrary, he calls them thieves and murderers and adulterers, who were in high esteem, and eminent in honor and wealth, and who, in short, were alone illustrious among the people of Israel: such did the Prophet brand with these disgraceful names, calling them murderers and thieves. So also does Isaiah speak of them, ‘Thy princes are robbers and companions of thieves,’ (Isa 1:23.) And we already reminded you, that the Prophet addresses not his discourses to few men, but to the whole people; for all, from the least to the greatest, had fallen away.

He afterwards says, They have broken out. The expression no doubt is to be taken metaphorically, as though he said, “There are now no bonds, no barriers.” For the people so raged against God, that no modesty, no shame on account of the law, no religion, no fear, prevailed among them, or checked their intractable spirit. Hence they broke out. By the word, breaking out, the Prophet sets forth the furious wantonness seen in the reprobate; when freed from the fear of God, they abandon themselves to what is sinful, without any moderation, without any restraint.

And to the same purpose he subjoins, Bloods are contiguous to bloods. By bloods he means all the worst crimes: and he says that bloods were close to bloods, because they joined crimes together, and as Isaiah says, that iniquity was as it were a train; so our Prophet says here, that such was the common liberty they took to sin, that wherever he turned his eyes, he could see no part free from wickedness. Then bloods are contiguous to bloods, that is, everywhere is seen the horrible spectacle of crimes. This is the meaning. It now follows —

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(2) Blood toucheth bloodi.e., murder is added to murder with ghastly prevalence. References to false swearing and lying are repeated in terrible terms by Amo. 2:6-8 and Mic. 7:2-8; and the form of the charge suggests the Decalogue and pre-existing legislation (Exo. 20:13-15).

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

‘There is nought but mouthing curses and breaking faith, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery.’

This lack of truth and compassion comes out plainly in their behaviour. They continually pronounce curses (’lh) on others, they break faith and deceive and bear false witness, they kill, they steal, and they commit adultery, thus breaching the manward side of the commandments in Exodus 20 (coveting was not a chargeable offence as not being provable).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

‘They break out, and blood collides with blood.’

Most heinously they are guilty of much bloodshed. ‘They break out’. That is they at times remove all restraint. We might say, ‘they break all bounds.’ The suggestion appears to be that every now and again groups of men are roused to violence by some slight, imagined or real, and engage in shedding the blood of their fellow-Israelites. Thus the whole land is constantly on the edge of violence. As we know they were turbulent times, with each king arising as a consequence of assassinating another (something always exacerbating dissension); with the threat of Assyria constantly on the horizon and every now and then appearing; with fierce disagreement between different political parties as to how to meet the problem posed; and with a Judah which was unwilling to enter into an alliance with them and Aram (Syria), and thus having to be put in its place. All this encouraged violence and thoughts of violence, and violence begets violence.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Hos 4:2. By swearing, &c. Swearing, and lying, and murther, and theft, and adultery break out, &c.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Hos 4:2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.

Ver. 2. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing ] Heb. to swear, and lie, and kill, and steal, and commit adultery. To do all this is held, licitum et solenne, lawful, or at least pardonable. It is grown to a common practice; and custom of sinning hath taken away sense of sin.

By swearing ] Heb. by cursing, or swearing with an execration and cursing, which was commonly added to an oath, to confirm it the more, Deu 29:12 ; Deu 29:21 Neh 10:29 . And, indeed, in every lawful oath God is called to witness, to bless us if we swear right, and to curse ns if otherwise. Such an oath is a special part of God’s worship, and is oft put for the whole, as here false and frivolous oaths are put for the violation of the whole first table, and set in opposition to the knowledge of God in the land; like as lying is opposed to truth, and killing, stealing, whoring, to mercy or kindness. Before, God had complained of their defects, or omissions; here, of their commissions and flagitious practices. Swearers (but especially false swearers) are traitors to the state, as appeareth here and Jer 23:10 ; they bring a curse, nay, a large roll of curses (ten yards long, and five yards broad, Zec 5:2 ), upon their hearts, and shall one day howl in hell. The same word that is here rendered swearing signifieth also to howl or lament, Joe 1:8 . Go to now, therefore, ye swearers, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you, Jas 5:1 ; Jas 5:12 . Weep here, where there be wiping handkerchiefs in the hand of Christ: better do so, than yell with devils who have borrowed your mouths, to utter horrid blasphemies. Swearing is “of the devil,” saith our Saviour, Mat 5:37 , and it brings men to the devil, saith St James, Jas 5:12 . They object that they swear nothing but the truth. But that is not always so. Swearing and lying are here set together, as seldom sundered. The marvel, if he that sweareth commonly do not forswear frequently; for he sweareth away all his faith and truth. But, say they swear truth, yet that excuseth not. Truth is but one circumstance of an oath, Jer 4:2 . Men, as they must swear in truth, so in righteousness (not rashly, furiously), and in judgment, not in jest. Swear not in jest, lest ye go to hell in earnest. It is the property and duty of a godly man to fear an oath, Ecc 9:2 , and not to forbear it only. As on the other side, no surer sign of a profane person than common and customary swearing. It were well if such were served as Louis IX of France served a citizen of Paris; he seared his lips for swearing with a hot iron. And when some said it was too cruel an act, I would to God, said he, that with searing my own lips with a hot iron I could banish out of the realm all abuse of oaths. Those that plead they have gotten a custom to swear, and therefore they must be borne with, shall have the like answer from God that the thief had from the judge. He desired the judge to spare him, for stealing had been his custom from his youth, and now he could not leave it. The judge replied, it was also his custom to give judgment against such malefactors; and therefore he must be condemned.

And lying ] Fitly linked with swearing. Some gravel or mud ever passeth away with much water; so do some lies with much swearing. How oft do men forget their oaths, and swear again that they have not sworn at all! Should men’s excrements come from them as oft, and they not feel it, they would be full sorry, and ashamed thereof. Now swearing and lying defile men much worse than any jakes can do, Mar 7:22 , and render them odious to God and good men. Lying is a blushful evil; therefore doth the liar deny his lie, as ashamed to be taken with it, and our ruffians revenge it with a stab. God ranks and reckons it with the most monstrous sins, and shuts it out of heaven, Rev 21:8 . Aristotle saith, It is in itself evil and wicked, contrary to the order of nature (which hath given words to express mens’ minds and meanings), destructive to human society. Pythagoras was wont to say, that in two things we become like unto God: 1. In telling truth; 2. In bestowing benefits. Now, Mentiri, is contra mentem ire; to lie is to go against reason, to lie is to utter a known untruth with an intention to deceive or hurt. The Cretans of old were infamous for this, Tit 1:12 , K , the friars of late. ‘Twas grown to a proverb among our forefathers, a friar, a liar; ‘tis now among us, every liar is, or would be, a thief. Hence, lying and stealing go coupled together here; but between them both stands killing, as ushered in by the former, and oft occasioned by the latter, Pro 1:19 .

And killing ] This follows fitly upon the former; for truth hath always a scratched face. The devil was first a liar, and then a murderer, Joh 8:44 . He cannot so well murder without slandering first. The credit of the Church must first be taken away, and then she is wounded, Son 5:6 . The people here in England once complained that Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, that noble patriot, was twice murdered: first by detraction, aud then by deadly practice. The French have a proverb: Those that have a mind to kill their neighbour’s dog make the world believe he was mad first. This is their proverb, and accordingly was their practice in the massacre of Paris. A little before which they gave out, that the Protestants met by night, to plot against the state, and to commit all manner of uncleanness among themselves. This is an old trick of the devil and his instruments, first to slander the Church, and to represent her to the world in the ugliest hue, and then to persecute her, like as of old they used to put the poor Christians in bears’ or lions’ skins, and then bait them with dogs. Paulus Fagius reports a story of an Egyptian, who said that the Christians were a colluvies of moist, filthy, lecherous people. And for their keeping of the Sabbath; he saith, they had a disease upon them, and were therefore fain to rest every seventh day. The Papists accused the Waldenses (those ancient Protestants) for Manichees; and that they affirmed there were two beginnings of things, God and the devil, &c.; and all because they constantly affirmed that the emperor had no dependence upon the pope. They gave them out also for Arians (and published their croisados against them as enemies to Christ), and all because they denied that a crust was transubstantiated into Christ. To make way for the ruin of England by the gunpowder plot, they broadcast it abroad that the people here looked as black as devils, were grown barbarous, and did eat young children. That we held opinion to worship no God, to serve the times, to prefer profit before right, to pretend the public cause to our private lusts, to cover hatred with flattery, to confirm tyranny by shedding innocent blood, to keep faith no longer than will serve our own turns, &c. (Eudaem. Johannes.) And if the plot had taken effect, they had fathered it upon the Puritans (having proclamations ready framed for the purpose), that under that name they might have sucked the blood and revelled in the ruins of all such here as had but the love or any show of sound religion. The word here used for killing signifies to kill with a murdering weapon, such as David felt in his bones, Psa 42:10 , such as Colignius and other the poor Protestants felt in the French massacre: where the queen of Navarre was poisoned, the most part of the peerless nobility in France murdered, together with their wives and children; and of the common people a hundred thousand in one year, in various parts of the realm. What should I speak of the innocent blood of Ireland, for which God hath already and yet still will make diligent inquisition. If the blood of Abel had so many tongues as drops, Gen 4:10 , what then of so many righteous Abels? “Surely I have seen yesterday” (saith God) “the blood of Naboth,” 2Ki 9:26 . Murder ever bleeds fresh in his eye: to him many years, yea, that eternity that is past, is but yesterday. Neither is he wanting to punish it even in this present world. He avengeth the innocent blood that Manasseh shed a long while after his death: he would not pardon it, no, though Manasseh repented of it, 2Ki 24:4 . The mountains of Gilboa were accursed, for the blood of Saul and Jonathan spilt upon them, 2Sa 1:21 ; and what a deal of do we find in the law made when a man was murdered! Deu 21:1-4 , the valley which the expiatory sacrifice was slain in that case was from thenceforth to be neither eared nor sown: in all to show what a precious esteem God hath of man’s life, and what controversy with a land for shedding of blood.

And stealing ] Those publici latrones especially, public thieves that sit in purple robes, and by wrong judgment oppress and rob the poor innocents, are here intended, as Calvin thinks; see Isa 23:17-18 ; Isa 33:1 . So are all others that either by force or fraud get into their hands their neighhours’ goods; whether, I say, it be by violence or cunning contrivance, the Lord is the avenger of all such, 1Th 4:6 . So that though haply they lie out of the walk of human justice, and come not under man’s cognizance, yet God will find them out, and send his flying roll of curses after them, Zec 5:2-3 : “he shall vomit up his sweet morsels” here, Job 20:15 , or else digest in hell what he hath devoured on earth; as his “belly hath prepared deceit,” Job 15:35 , so God will take it out of his guts again; either he shall make restitution of his ill-gotten goods, or for not doing it he shall one day cough in hell, as Father Latimer phraseth it (Serm. before King Edw. VI).

And committing adultery ] “This is also a heinous crime” (saith holy Job), “yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges,” Job 31:11 . Heathens have punished it very severely. Of one people we read that they used to put the adulterer’s or adulteress’s head into the paunch of a beast where the filth of it lay, and so stifled him. God punished those stinking Edomites with stinking brimstone for their loathsome brutishness; and adjudged adultery to death: because society and purity of posterity could not otherwise continue among men. We read not, in any general commandment of the law, that any should be burnt with fire, but the high priest’s daughter for adultery, Lev 21:9 ; yet it seems it was in use before the law, or else Judah was much to blame for sentencing his daughter-in-law Tamar to the fire, Gen 38:2-3 . Let us, beware of that sin, for which so peculiar a plague was appointed, and by very heathens executed see Jer 29:22-23 . If men be slack to take vengeance on such, yet God will hold on his controversy against them and avenge the quarrel of his covenant (for so wedlock is called, Pro 2:17 ), either by his own bare hand, or else by the hands of the adulterers themselves. See an instance of both these even in our times. In the year 1583, in London, two citizens committing adultery together on the Lord’s day were struck dead with fire from heaven in the very act of uncleanness: their bodies being left dead in the place, half burnt up, sending out a most loathsome savour, for a spectacle of God’s controversy against adultery and sabbath breaking. This judgment was so famous and remarkable that Laurentius Bayenlink, a foreign historian, hath thought good to register it to posterity (Opus Chronologiae Orbis Universi, Antwerp, 1611, p. 110). Mr Cleaver reports of one that he knew that had committed the act of uncleanness, and in the horror of conscience he hanged himself, but before, when he was about to kill himself, he wrote in a paper, and left it in a place, to this effect: Indeed, saith he, I acknowledge it to be utterly unlawful for a man to kill himself, but I am bound to act the magistrate’s part, because the punishment of this sin is death. This act of his was not to be justified, viz. to be his own executioner; but it shows what a controversy God hath with adulterers, and what a deep gash that sin makes in the conscience.

They break out ] Like wild horses over hedges, or proud waters over the banks. The Septuagint renders it , they are poured out. And St Jude hath a like expression, speaking of the libertines of his time, Hos 4:11 , they run greedily, Gr. : they were poured out, or poured away as water out of a vessel: they ran headlong, or gave themselves over to work all uncleanness with greediness, to satisfy their lusts, and to oppose with crest and breast whatsoever stands in their way; bearing down all before them. So Sodom and Gomorrah are (in Jdg 1:7 ) said by unbridled licentiousness to “give themselves over to fornication,” in scortationem effusae (Beza). And when Lot sought to advise them better, they set up the bristles at him, with

Base busy stranger, comest thou hither thus,

Controller-like, to prate and preach to us?

Thus these effractories (as the Psalmist somewhere calleth them), these breach makers, break Christ’s bands in sunder (as Samson did the seven green withes, Jdg 16:9 ), and cast away his cords from them, Psa 2:3 . These unruly Belialists get the bit between their teeth, like headstrong horses; and casting their rider, rise up against him. They, like men (or rather like wild beasts), “transgress the covenant,” Hos 5:7 , resolving to live as they list, to take their swing in sin: “for who” (say they) “is Lord over us?” Psa 12:4 . Tremellius reads that text, tanquam hominis, just as man, they transgress it as if it were the covenant of a man: they make no more of breaking the law than as if they had to do with dust and ashes like themselves, and not with the great God that can tame them with the turn of his hand, and with the blast of his mouth blow them into hell. Hath he not threatened to “walk contrary to those that walk contrary to him,” to be as cross as they for the hearts of them, and to bring upon them seven times more plagues than before, and seven times and seven to that, till he have got the better of them? for is it fit that he should cast down the bucklers first? I think not. He will be obeyed by these exorbitant, yokeless, lawless persons, either actively or passively. The law was added because of transgression: and is given, saith the apostle, 1Ti 1:9 , “not to the righteous,” for they are , a law to themselves (as the Thracians boasted), but to the lawless and disobedient, who count licentiousness the only liberty, and the service of God the greatest slavery; who think no venison sweet but that which is stolen, nor any mirth but that which a Solomon would say to, Thou mad fool, what doest thou? Ecc 2:2 . Lo, for such rebels and refractories, for such masterless monsters as send messages after the Lord Christ, saying, “We will not have this man to reign over us,” for these, I say, was the law made, to hamper them and shackle them, as fierce and furious creatures; to tame them and tear them with its four iron teeth, 1. Of irritation, Rom 7:7 Rom 7:2 . Of induration, Isa 6:10

3. Of obligation to condign punishment, Gen 4:4 Gen 4:4 . Of execration, or malediction, Deu 28:16-17 , &c. Let men take heed, therefore, how they break out against God: let them meddle with their matches, and not contend with him that is mightier than they: it is the wise man’s counsel, Ecc 6:10 .

And blood toucheth blood ] i.e. there is a continuation, and, as it were, a concatenation of murders, and other horrible villanies, as was at Jerusalem in the murder of Zacharias, the son of Barachias; the blood of the sacrificer was mingled with the blood of the sacrifice, and, as Luk 13:1 , the like occured. So at Athens, when Sulla took the town, there was , a merciless slaughter; the gutters running with blood. And so at Samaria (which the prophet may here probably intend), when there was such killing of kings (and they fall not alone); Hosea killed his predecessor Pekah, as he had done Pekahiah; Menahem killed Shallum, as Shallum had done Zacharias: so true is that of the poet (Juvenal),

“ Ad generum Cereris sine crude et sanguine pauci,

Descendunt Reges, et sicca morte tyranni. ”

What got most of the first Caesars by their adoption, or designation to the empire, Nisi ut citius interficerentur, but to be killed so much the sooner? All, or most of them, till Constantius, died unnatural deaths, as afterwards, Phocas the traitor killed the good Emperor Mauritius, stewing him in his own broth. Heraclius slew Phocas, putting him to a shameful and tormentful death. Conradinus, King of Germany and Duke of Sweden, was beheaded by Charles, King of Naples and Sicily; and the headsman presently beheaded by another, ne extaret qui iacraret tam generosum sanguinem a se effusum (saith mine author), that there might not be any left to boast that he had spilt so noble blood. Our Richard III, that bloody and deceitful man, is said to have used the instruments of his cruel plots (his cut-throats, I mean) as men do their candles; burn the first out to a suuff, and then, having lighted another, tread that underfoot. Fawkes (that fatal actor of the intended gunpowder tragedy) should have been thus rewarded by his brethren in evil had the plot taken effect. It is that famous and never-to-be-forgotten 5th of November, 1651, wherein I write these lines, and therefore, in way of thankfulness to our ever gracious deliverer, I here think good to set down the relation as Mr John Vicars (in his Quintessence of Cruelty, or Poem of the Popish Gunpowder Plot) hath declared it to the world, as he had it from Mr Clement Cotton, the composer of the English Concordance, who also received it from Mr Pickering, of Titsmarsh Grove, in Northamptonshire, and it is thus: This Mr Pickering, being in great esteem with King James, had a horse of special note, on which he used to hunt with the king: this horse was borrowed from him (a little before the blow was to be given) by his brother-in-law, Keyes (one of the conspirators), and conveyed to London, for a bloody purpose, which thus was plotted. Fawkes on the day of the fatal blow was appointed to retire himself to St George’s Fields, where this said horse was to attend him to make his escape as soon as the Parliament House was blown up. It was likewise contrived, that the said Mr Pickering (noted for a Puritan) should be that very morning murdered in his bed, and secretly conveyed away: as also that Fawkes himself should have been murdered in St George’s Fields, and there so mangled and cut in pieces that it might not be discovered who it was. Whereupon it was to be rumoured abroad that the Puritans had blown up the Parliament House: and the better to make the world believe so, there was Mr Pickering with his horse ready to make an escape, but that God stirred up some, who seeing the heinousness of the fact, and he ready to escape by flight, in detestation of so horrible a deed fell upon him, and killed him, and so had hacked him in pieces. And yet to make it to be more apparent to be so indeed, there was his horse found also, which was of special speed and swiftness, to carry him away: and upon this rumour, a massacre should have gone through the whole kingdom upon the Puritans. But when this plot, thus contrived, was confessed by some of the conspirators, and Fawkes in the Tower was made acquainted with it (who had been borne in hand to be bountifully rewarded for his service in the Catholic cause), when he saw how his ruin was contrived, he also thereupon confessed freely all that he knew touching that horrid and hideous conspiracy, which (before) all the torture of the rack could not force him to. The truth of all this is attested by Mr William Perkins, an eminent Christian and citizen of London, who had it from the mouth of Mr Clement Cotton: which I could not but here insert, as coming to my mind and pen, on the very day whereon (46 years since) it should have been acted, when myself was but four years of age, and it being the utmost that I can remember; but if ever I forget, let my right hand forget her cunning. Remember, O Lord, these children of Edom, &c., these Romish Edomites, Esauites, Jesuits, who said, “Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation, O daughter of Babylon,” &c., Psa 137:5 ; Psa 137:7-8 . The Rabbis call the Romists Edomites (they interpret the mount of Esau, Obad. Oba 1:21 , to be meant of Rome), and well they may, for their blood guiltiness, for which they are hated of God, Psa 5:6 . Who cannot but remember that their sins (as a cart rope) have reached up to heaven, Rev 18:5 , there having been a concatenation, or a continued series of them, as the Greek there imports, , and (as some here interpret) “blood touching blood,” according to Isa 1:15 , “Your hands are full of blood”; and Hos 4:4 , “The filth of the daughter of Zion, and the blood of Jerusalem.” This sense, the Chaldee paraphrase maketh. The Septuagint (with their , “mingle blood with blood”) seem to understand it of incestuous matches and mixtures forbidden, Lev 18:6 , and yet avowed by David George and his disciples, and practised in the court of Spain, by papal dispensation.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

By swearing, &c. These are the evils which flow from a want of the knowledge of God. Compare Hos 4:6; Hos 2:20. Rom 1:21. 1Jn 2:3, 1Jn 2:4; 1Jn 4:7, 1Jn 4:8.

blood toucheth blood: or, murder follows murder; “blood” being put by Figure of speech Synecdoche (of Species), App-6, for bloodshed.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

swearing: Isa 24:5, Isa 48:1, Isa 59:2-8, Isa 59:12-15, Jer 5:1, Jer 5:2, Jer 5:7-9, Jer 5:26, Jer 5:27, Jer 6:7, Jer 7:6-10, Jer 9:2-8, Jer 23:10-14, Eze 22:2-13, Eze 22:25-30, Mic 2:1-3, Mic 3:2, Mic 3:9, Mic 6:10, Mic 7:2, Zep 3:1, Zec 5:3, Zec 7:9

blood: Heb. bloods

toucheth: Hos 5:2, Hos 6:9, Lam 4:13, Mat 23:35, Act 7:52, 1Th 2:15, Rev 17:6

Reciprocal: Gen 6:11 – filled Gen 6:13 – filled Num 35:33 – it defileth Deu 28:30 – betroth Psa 50:19 – tongue Psa 51:14 – bloodguiltiness Psa 59:12 – cursing Pro 6:17 – lying Isa 3:13 – standeth up Isa 30:9 – lying Isa 59:3 – your hands Isa 59:8 – no Isa 59:15 – truth Jer 13:27 – thine adulteries Lam 4:14 – so that men could not touch Eze 7:23 – for Eze 11:6 – General Eze 21:24 – your transgressions Eze 22:9 – they commit Eze 23:37 – and blood Hos 4:18 – committed Hos 7:4 – are all Amo 2:6 – For three Mic 6:12 – the rich Nah 3:1 – full Zec 8:16 – Speak Eph 4:25 – putting Eph 4:28 – him that 1Ti 1:10 – perjured

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Hos 4:2. This verse is a literal description of the corrupt way of life into which the people of Israel had fallen in Hoseas day. Blood toucheth blood means one act of bloodshed would no sooner be committed than another would be done.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Hos 4:2. By swearing False swearing seems to be here chiefly intended, which is here, as it is also elsewhere, joined with lying and stealing; because, in the Jewish courts of justice, men that were suspected of theft were obliged to purge themselves by an oath; and they often ventured to forswear themselves, rather than discover the truth. The Hebrew word, , here used, is rendered by the LXX., that is, execration, imprecation, or cursing, as Bishop Horsley renders it. Profane swearing, however, or taking the name of God in vain, is doubtless included. The next word, , rendered lying, means falsehood in general: and especially, as some think, the denying of deposites which had been left in their hands, and which, when the owners came to claim them, they absolutely denied having received. And killing, committing murders, either privately or with open violence. They break out Hebrew, , they burst out, or overflow, a metaphor taken from rivers breaking their banks, and bearing down every obstacle by the impetuosity of their waters. The meaning is, There is an inundation of all manner of wickedness, and all law and equity is broken through and violated. And blood toucheth blood One murder follows upon another, and many are committed in all parts of the country, and as it were, in a constant series and succession. This was probably spoken with an especial reference to the murder of their kings by those who aspired to succeed them; as Zechariah by Shallum, Shallum by Menahem, Pekah by Pekahiah and Hoshea. In such civil broils a great many of their friends and dependants are commonly slain with the kings themselves.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

4:2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and {b} blood toucheth blood.

(b) In every place appears a liberality to most wicked vices, so that one follows right after another.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Instead of these virtues, He observed swearing (cursing others by misusing oaths and imprecations), deception, murder, stealing, adultery, violence, and continual bloodshed. An imprecation is a formal curse made in the name of some deity in which one person calls down calamity on another (cf. Job 31:29-30). These were things He had forbidden in His covenant. He identified violations of at least five of the Ten Commandments (Numbers 3, 9, 6, 8, , 7). Violent crimes were so common that they seemed to follow one another without interruption.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)