Hosea 4:17

Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone. EPHRAIM - the ten tribes. Judah was at this time not so given to idolatry as afterward. IS JOINED TO IDOLS - closely and voluntarily; identifying themselves with them as a whoremonger becomes one flesh with the harlot (Numbers 25:3, "Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor;" 1 Corinthians 6:16, "What know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith He, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit"). IDOLS - the Hebrew [ `ªtsabiym (H6091)] means also sorrows, pains, implying the pain which idolatry brings on its votaries: with pai...

As if wearied, God here bids his Prophet to rest; as though he said, “Since I prevail nothing with this people, they must be given up; cease from thy work.” God had set Hosea over the Israelites for this end, to lead them to repentance, if they could by any means be reformed: the duty of the Prophet, enjoined by God, was, to bring back miserable and straying men from their error, and to restore them again to the obedience of pure faith. He now saw that the Prophet’s labour was in vain, without any success. Hence he was, as I have said, wearied, and bids the Prophet to desist: _Leave them, _he says; that is, “There is no use for thee to weary thyself any more; I dismiss thee from thy labour, and will not have thee to take any more trouble; for they are wholly incurable.” For by saying that they had joined themselves to idols, he means, that they could not be drawn from that perverseness i...

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 4:17. _EPHRAIM_] The ten tribes. IS _JOINED TO IDOLS_] Is become incorporated with false gods. _LET HIM ALONE._] They are irreclaimable, leave them to the consequences of their vicious conduct....

EPHRAIM IS JOINED TO IDOLS - that is, banded, bound up with them, “associated,” as the word means, with them so as to cleave to them, willing neither to part with nor to be parted from, them. The idols are called by a name, denoting toils; with toil they were fashioned, and, when fashioned, they were a toil and grief. LET HIM ALONE - Literally, give him rest, i. e., from all further expostulations, which he will not hear. It is an abandonment of Israel for the time, as in the prophet Ezekiel, “As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, go ye, serve ye every one his idols” Ezekiel 20:39. Sinners often long not to be tormented by conscience or by God’s warnings. To be left so, is to be abandoned by God, as one whose case is desperate. God will not, while there is hope, leave a man to sleep in sin; for so t

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

EPHRAIM IS JOINED TO IDOLS,.... That is, the ten tribes of Israel, frequently so called after their separation from the rest, because that Jeroboam, by whom the revolt was made, was of that tribe; and because that tribe was the principal of them, and Samaria, the metropolis of their kingdom, was in it: and so the Targum here renders it, "the house of Israel are joined to idols;'' to the calves at Dan and Bethel; to Baal, and other idols, they worshipped: the phrase expresses their strong affection for them, their constant worship of them, and their obstinate persisting therein, and the difficulty there was of bringing them off of it; they cleaved to their idols, were glued, and as it were wedded unto them, and there was no separating of them; as men are, who are addicted to the lusts of the flesh, to the mammon of unrighteousness, or to their own self-righteousness, or to any idol they...

HABAKKUK; Book of, Introduction, (_ See Scofield) - (Habakkuk 1:1). _ HABAKKUK; quoted by Paul, (_ See Scofield) - (Habakkuk 1:5). _ HABAKKUK; vision of, explained, (_ See Scofield) - (Habakkuk 2:3). _ HADES; see Hell HAGAR; her history, (_ See Scofield) - (Genesis 16:3). _ HAGGAI; Book of, Introduction, (_ See Scofield) - (Haggai 1:1). _ HAM; declarati

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 ...