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. THEY SACRIFICE UPON THE TOPS OF THE MOUNTAINS. High places were selected by idolaters on which to sacrifice, because of their greater nearness to the heavenly hosts which they worshipped (). UNDER ... ELMS - rather 'terebinths,' or turpentine trees (Maurer). BECAUSE THE SHADOW THEREOF IS GOOD - screening the lascivious worshippers from the heat of the sun. THEREFORE YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL COMMIT WHOREDOM, AND YOUR SPOUSES SHALL COMMIT ADULTERY - in the Therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adult...

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, y...

12-19 The people consulted images, and not the Divine word. This would lead to disorder and sin. Thus men prepare scourges for themselves, and vice is spread through a people. Let not Judah come near the idolatrous worship of Israel. For Israel was devoted to idols, and must now be let alone. When sinners cast off the easy yoke of Christ, they go on in sin till the Lord saith, Let them alone. Then they receive no more warnings, feel no more convictions: Satan takes full possession of them, and they ripen for destruction. It is a sad and sore judgment for any man to be let alone in sin. Those who are not disturbed in their sin, will be destroyed for their sin. May we be kept from this awful state; for the wrath of God, like a strong tempest, will soon hurry impenitent sinners into ruin....

Verse Hosea 4:13. _UNDER OAKS_] אלון _allon_, from אלל _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, Hosea 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....

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 mi...

EXPOSITION HOSEA 4:1 A new and distinct division of the book commences with this fourth chapter and continues till the close. What had previously been presented in figure and symbol is now plainly and literally stated. The children of Israel are summoned in the first verse of this chapter to hear the charge preferred against them and the sentence pronounced. Having convened, as it were, a public assembly and cited the persons concerned, the prophet proceeds to show cause why they are bound to give an attentive hearing. In God's controversy with the people of the land the prophet acts as his ambassador, accusing the people of great and grievous sins, and vindicating the justice of God's judgments in their punishment. The _ki_ with which the last clause of the verse commences may be either causal or recitative, and may thus specify either the ground or sub

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 Jeremiah 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 p

DANIEL; Book of, Introduction, (_ See Scofield) - (Daniel 1:1). _ DANIEL; authorship of Book, (_ See Scofield) - (Daniel 2:4). _ DANIEL; monarchs of his time, (_ See Scofield) - (Daniel 5:31). _ DANIEL; seventieth week of, (_ See Scofield) - (Daniel 9:24). _ DARIUS; identification of, (_ See Scofield) - (Daniel 5:31). _ DAVID; and Saul, ( See Scofield) - ...

II. THE MESSAGE OF EXPOSTULATION, JUDGMENT, AND MERCY CHAPTER 4 The Lord's Controversy with His People _ 1. The condition of the people (Hosea 4:1) _ 2. The loss of their priestly relation (Hosea 4:6) 3. Israel's idolatry (Hosea 4:12) Hosea 4:1. This chapter begins with a terse description of the condition of the professing people of God. First, we have the negative side--no truth, no mercy, no knowledge of God. And there was no truth, because they had rejected the Word of the Lord, hence the result no mercy and no knowledge of God. It is so still whenever and wherever the Word of God is set aside. Then follows the pos

THE UTTER CORRUPTION OF THE NATION TRACED TO IRRELIGION. (The text of Hosea 4:15 is hopelessly corrupt. Marti regards Hosea 4:3 as an insertion and Hosea 4:5_ a_ as foreign to their present context.) The complete lack of knowledge of God in the land (_cf. Hosea 4:6_, Hosea 5:4; Hosea 6:3) has, as its inevitable consequence, widespread moral corruption yet let none reprove, for the people is as the priestling and the prophet as the priest ...