Hosea 4:12

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Summary

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.

Ask

For

Gone

General references

Proverbs 5:14

Proverbs 31:4

Bible References

Ask

say to a tree, “You are my father,”
and to a stone, “You gave birth to me.”
For they have turned their back to Me
and not their face,
yet in their time of disaster they beg,
“Rise up and save us!”

They are both stupid and foolish,
instructed by worthless idols
made of wood!

For the king of Babylon stands at the split in the road, at the fork of the two roads, to practice divination: he shakes the arrows, consults the idols, and observes the liver.

Woe to him who says to wood: Wake up!
or to mute stone: Come alive!
Can it teach?
Look! It may be plated with gold and silver,
yet there is no breath in it at all.

For

Their actions do not allow them
to return to their God,
for a spirit of promiscuity is among them,
and they do not know the Lord.

Such people do not comprehend
and cannot understand,
for He has shut their eyes so they cannot see,
and their minds so they cannot understand.

If a man of wind comes
and invents lies:
“I will preach to you about wine and beer,”
he would be just the preacher for this people!

The coming of the lawless one is based on Satan’s working, with all kinds of false miracles, signs, and wonders,

Gone

Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly as the nations do,
for you have acted promiscuously, leaving your God.
You have loved the wages of a prostitute
on every grain-threshing floor.

They must no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat-demons that they have prostituted themselves with. This will be a permanent statute for them throughout their generations.

then I will turn against that man and his family, and cut off from their people both him and all who follow him in prostituting themselves with Molech.

These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the Lord’s commands and obey them and not become unfaithful by following your own heart and your own eyes.

The Lord said to Moses, “You are about to rest with your fathers, and these people will soon commit adultery with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will abandon Me and break the covenant I have made with them.

but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, have caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves like the house of Ahab prostituted itself, and also have killed your brothers, your father’s family, who were better than you,

Those far from You will certainly perish;
You destroy all who are unfaithful to You.

If a man divorces his wife
and she leaves him to marry another,
can he ever return to her?
Wouldn’t such a land become totally defiled?
But you!
You have played the prostitute with many partners—
can you return to Me?
This is the Lord’s declaration.

General references

I am on the verge of complete ruin
before the entire community.”

It is not for kings, Lemuel,
it is not for kings to drink wine
or for rulers to desire beer.