Hosea 4:1-5
by
Rev. Mark Perkins, Pastor
Denver Bible Church
326 E. Colorado Ave.
Denver, Colorado 80210
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HOSEA CHAPTER 4
Introduction.
A. This chapter now turns from the personal life of Hosea and
family experience power prophecy to applied prophecy against
the Northern kingdom.
B. The bulk of the rest of the book is forthtelling - the interpretation
of historical trends and current events against the canon of
Scripture.
C. Therefore, many of the social ills of the nation will come
to the fore; and their current spiritual lives will be measured.
Hosea 4:1
"Hear the Word of Yahweh, sons of Israel, for Yahweh
has a dispute with the inhabitants of the earth: there is no
faithfulness and there is no virtue love; and there is no knowledge
of God in the earth."
1. The noun RIBH describes a clamorous dispute. Domestic disputes are always the worst. Police officers fear the call for help in a domestic dispute. This is the kind of dispute that Yahweh has with Israel - it is family, and it is serious. Now, understand that God does not get ecstatically angry as what happens in many domestic disputes; RIBH is used to note the serious nature of God's bone of contention with the Northern Kingdom. It is not just a passing inconsequential thing. It is not a spat.
2. This dispute has a direction of sorts. It is 'LE', 'to Yahweh', and `IM, 'with the inhabitants of the earth'. This means that the inhabitants of the earth have offended Yahweh, and therefore the dispute. This idiom makes it clear that the dispute is the fault of the earthlings.
3. Hosea describes the foundation of God's dispute in three parallel statements.a. First is 'EN 'EMETH. 'EN is the particle of negation. It can be translated 'nothing', but when it is in the construct state, it is translated, 'there is no'. This comes as a stronger negation than 'LO'. It shows a pretty absolute state of nothingness.
b. The object of the negation is 'emeth, which should be translated 'faithfulness'. This is often used to describe the Divine Temperament, but here it applies to Israel. Since it is completely negated, God says that he contends with Israel because they lack faithfulness. Remember, faithfulness is the extension of willpower over time. God is saying that Israel does not have faithfulness - they lack concentration and willpower, especially directed toward God. Faithfulness only functions when sustained by personal love for an object. This faithfulness is contrasted by idolatry and adultery.
c. Second is 'EN H.ESEDH. Again there is a strong negation of a Divine character attribute. This time H.ESEDH describes the motivation of the sons of Israel. They lack pure motivation, which is virtue love; personal love for God. Personal love only functions when sustained by impersonal love and knowledge. Impersonal love for God is not a requirement. Impersonal love only applies to imperfect objects. Knowledge always applies.
d. Third is 'EN DA`ATH. This comes from the Hebrew verb YADHA, which means intimate personal knowledge - application or even relationship knowledge. This is also negated by 'EN, so it shows that no one even knows God, much less loves Him or is faithful to Him. It all begins with faith perception - the desire to know God better.
e. Knowledge must precede love; there is no love for God without knowledge of Him. Love precedes obedience; there is no obedience that pleases God unless that obedience comes from love. This is often taught incorrectly in reverse order: that obedience should come first. There is no power for obedience apart from knowledge and love.
Hosea 4:2
"Cursing and deceiving and murdering and stealing and
committing adultery give birth to violence upon violence."
1. This verse communicates one principle: Crime begets violent crime. In other words, criminals most often degenerate, and crime creates more crime. Revenge is a strong motive in crime, and when the state does not punish, more crime will surely follow.
2. No less than five infinitive absolutes follow one after the other. The Hebrew infinitve absolute expresses strong emphasis when it precedes the main finite verb of the sentence. Here all five infinitive absolutes are equally emphasized as being the source of what is to follow. They are emphasized as being strong in character, and clearly the source of violence.
a. The first is 'ALOH, cursing. This is not just swearing an oath, but an ecstatic bursting forth of verbal anger. It can be a curse against anything, but ultimately it is a curse against God. This is not necessarily a crime, but it leads to it.
b. Second is KAH.ESH, deceiving. This verb originally meant to cringe, disappoint, or even grow lean. In contrast to verbal lying, it is deception by non-verbal means... it is deception by body language or facial expression, or even tone of voice. It is deception by activity. This is not necessarily a crime, but it leads to it.
c. Third is RATSAH, murdering. This is in contrast to the QATAL in the Hebrew, which means to kill for legitimate reasons. RATSAH of course is a crime.
d. Fourth is GANOBH, which is stealing. Any kind of pilfering, burglary, extortion, blackmail, larceny, or embezzlement comes in this category of steal. It is a broad generalization. These are all definitely crimes.
e. Fifth is NA'OPH, committing adultery. This is one of two things: sexual relations with someone other than your spouse when you are married, or sexual relations with someone else's spouse. This was and is still a crime according to God's law.
3. All of the above give birth to further bloodshed. The verb is PARATSU, which is a graphic, gory description of birth. This does not bring the picture to mother holding the child in the hospital room, clean and anesthetized after the event. This verb describes the tearing of flesh as the head comes forth, and all the bleeding and pain that occur with birth. It shows that the list of five things all give birth to violence in the goriest way.
4. The Hebrew word for violence is simply the plural of blood, which is DAM. The idiom in this verse is literally, bloodshed touches bloodshed. It reveals a perpetuation of violent bloodshed from one sin to the next.
5. The basic message of this verse is that crime was running rampant in Israel at the time. This was a part of the five cycles of discipline for the nation.
Topic: THE FIVE CYCLES
OF DISCIPLINE
Hosea 4:3
"Therefore the earth will mourn and all of the inhabitants
will languish in it; they will be destroyed with the animals
of the field and with the fowl of the heavens and also the fishes
of the sea."
1. This is of course the fifth cycle of discipline. It is important to note that God reminds those in the third cycle that the fifth cycle is just around the corner. Each of the cycles of discipline look forward to the fifth and final cycle.
2. The qal imperfect of TE'EBHAL records a forthtelling: she will mourn. The subject of this verb is the earth, HA'ARETS. This concentrates on the physical landscape of Israel. Its mourning is a forthtelling of famine and the destruction of all that the land produces.
3. The next verb is the pulal perfect of the verb 'AMAL. 'AMAL means to languish, or grow weak; the process of atrophication is the perfect illustration of this. It means weakness brought about by inactivity. Even the verb stem denotes a state of permanence and inactivity. This is not a foretelling, since this stem can only occur in the perfect. The subject of this verb is the inhabitants of the earth. This includes only man. What a great picture of the cosmic mire! Hopelessness and the welfare state. This is a passive verb, so no free will is expressed. It just happens.
4. The final verb has one subject: the inhabitants of the earth. The animals, birds, and fishes are also included in the final forthtelling of the verse. The passive tense of this verb again indicates the helplessness of the subjects. This time they are destroyed. The verb actually means to gather together, and it probably displays the gathering of animal souls to God. It is important to notice that animals suffers when man suffers. There are consequences.
5. Conclusion. This verse is the beginning of a several verse discourse on the final destruction of the Northern Kingdom. There is mourning, and weakening by inactivity, and destruction.
Hosea 4:4
"Surely let no one contend, and let none judge; for your
people are as those who contend with the priest."
1. This verse turns back to look at the blame factor; essentially God tells Israel through Hosea that they have no one to blame but themselves.
2. The first two verbs, 'contend' and 'judge', are both cohortative imperfects. The force of meaning is, 'do not even try to judge'.
3. There is a great tendency of the oppressed to blame others, anyone but self. The downtrodden and unfortunate will commonly blame others before they blame themselves. They are very slow to take responsibility for their own problems because of their own arrogance.
4. It is only by taking the first step of humility that anyone can take charge of their lives, and pull out of the cesspool of the cosmic system. You must stop blaming others for your problems.
5. Contending with the priest was something that was parallel to blaming others for your problems. The priest was simply an illustrator of the plan of God; but not often an expert on the interpretation of what he did in the ritual. Priests simply obeyed the ritual proscription without asking why. Interpretation was the job of the prophet. Therefore contending with a priest was a completely useless endeavor.
Hosea 4:5
"So you stumble today, and a prophet also will stumble
with you at night; and I will destroy your mother."
1. The first two verbs in this verse are in the perfect tense. They foretell an event that is set into the Divine Decree. This is a prophecy about the future of Israel.
2. The first part is really about the ghost of Israel present. They will stumble. The picture is of a blind man stumbling along the street, unable to find his way, or a drunk shambling and stumbling down the alley, with no idea of what he is doing or where he is going. This illustrates the spiritual degeneracy of Israel. They are spiritually blind, and literally drunk. The verb itself is KASHAL, and it is in its dictionary form here, the qal perfect.a. This is the present time for Israel in the middle of the eighth century, B.C.
b. Spiritual and physical degeneracy are the norm for the citizens of this nation.
c. The definite article HA plus the noun YOM communicates that the timing is in the presence.3. The second part is a clever construction: it jumps forward to the future of Israel.
a. 'at night' is a metaphor of the dark future of Israel, of its history after its destruction by the Assyrians.
1. This destruction began in 733 B.C. with the occupation of the Northern territories of the nation.
2. The destruction was complete with the defeat of the capital of Samaria in 722 B.C.b. The nation will continue to struggle and stumble like a bunch of blind drunks during this time of exile.
c. With the people of the Northern kingdom will be a prophet, stumbling right along with them. This may be a false prophet, unless there is some clear evidence of one of Israel's other prophets fits this description.
d. The identity of this prophet is not revealed, but my guess is that it is Nahum was the only true prophet of the Northern Kingdom after the fall. He was from Galilee, and his ministry was directed toward the destruction of Assyria, which finally occurred in 612 B.C.1. There were prophets who were sent to give the gospel to Assyria, like Jonah.
2. There were prophets sent to tell Israel that unrepentant Assyria would be their destructor, like Hosea.
3. And then there was Nahum, who was sent to foretell the destruction of the destructor.
4. In this symmetrical square dance of prophecy, God was perfectly just to all of the involved nations.
5. Nahum prophesied from the ruins of his home town, which was in Galilee, the town which later gained the name Kapernaum, town of Nahum.
6. Really, Nahum was a prophet of the Southern Kingdom, but from the North. He was more likely an exiled Northerner whose family hailed from the destroyed town of Elkosh.
7. The prophet Nahum uses the verb KASHAL twice in his ministry.a. In Nahum 2:5 he uses it to ridicule the once-great military of Assyria. They stumble in their march. "The rainbow battalion" is what the U.S. Army calls its new trainees before they acquire their uniforms. Their civilian clothes look like a rainbow on parade, and they march without any skill or rhythm in their step. They stumble along just like this motley group of Assyrian soldiers.
b. In Nahum 3:3 he uses it to predict the military defeat of Assyria's bumbling army. "They stumble over the dead bodies."4. The last part of the verse predicts the ultimate destruction of the Northern Kingdom.
a. The qal perfect of DAMAH indicates a cessation of national function.
b. DAMAH is not a word that depicts violence. It is a word that describes the calm after the cessation of function.
c. It still allows for violence, but it concentrates on the deathly calm after the fact.
d. Mother is a reference to country. "The motherland".
End of Lesson 13
Grace Notes
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