Hosea 4:13

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. 1 Kings 14:23; 2 Kings 17:10; Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 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 Jeremiah 3:2. -Elms" should rather be terebinths (Tristram, Natural Hist. of Bible, p. 350).

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 Ashérah and Ashtóreth (the goddesses were distinct); see next verse. Ashérah or -the propitious" was at first probably a title of the feminine variety of the Assyrian deity Ishtar. See Introduction.