Hosea 4:5

Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother. THEREFORE SHALT THOU FALL IN THE DAY - in broad daylight, a time when an attack would not be expected (notes, Jeremiah 6:4, "Prepare ye war ... let us go up at noon;" , "a spoiler at noonday"). AND THE PROPHET ALSO SHALL FALL WITH THEE IN THE NIGHT - no time, night or day, shall be free from the Slaughter of individuals of the people, as well as of the false prophets. AND I WILL DESTROY THY MOTHER - the Israelite state, of which the citizens are the children ()....

The copulative is to be taken here for an illative, _Fall, therefore, shalt thou_. Here God denounces vengeance on refractory men; as though he said, “As ye pay no regard to my authority, when by words I reprove you, I will not now deal with you in this way; but I will visit you for this contempt of my word.” And thus God is wont to do: he first tries men, or he makes the trial, whether they can be brought to repentance; he severely reproves them, and expostulates with them: but having tried all means by words, he then comes to the last remedy, by exercising his power; for, as it has been said, he deigns no longer to contend with men. Hence the Lord, when he saw that his Prophets were despised, and that their whole teaching was a matter of sport, determined, as it appears from this passage, that the people should shortly be destroyed. Some render היום, _eium_, to-day, and think that a sh...

1-5 Hosea reproves for immorality, as well as idolatry. There was no truth, mercy, or knowledge of God in the land: it was full of murders, 2 Kings 21:16. Therefore calamities were near, which would desolate the country. Our sins, as separate persons, as a family, as a neighbourhood, as a nation, cause the Lord to have a controversy with us; let us submit and humble ourselves before Him, that he may not go on to destroy....

Verse Hosea 4:5. _THEREFORE SHALT THOU FALL IN THE DAY_] In the most open and public manner, without _snare_ or _ambush_. _AND THE PROPHET ALSO SHALL FALL - IN THE NIGHT_] The false prophet, when employed in taking prognostications from stars, meteors, c. _AND I WILL DESTROY THY MOTHER._] The _metropolis_ or _mother city_. _Jerusalem_ or _Samaria_ is meant....

THEREFORE SHALT THOU FALL - The two parts of the verse fill up each other. “By day and by night shall they fall, people and prophets together.” Their calamities should come upon them successively, day and night. They should stumble by day, when there is least fear of stumbling John 11:9; and night should not by its darkness protect them. Evil should come “at noon-day” Jeremiah 15:8 upon them, seeing it, but unable to repel it; as Isaiah speaks of it as an aggravation of trouble, “thy land strangers devour it in thy presence” Isaiah 1:7; and the false prophets, who saw their visions in the night, should themselves be overwhelmed in the darkness, blinded by moral, perishing in actual, darkness....

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

THEREFORE SHALL THOU FALL IN THE DAY,.... Either, O ye people, everyone of you, being so refractory and incorrigible; or, O thou priest, being as bad as the people; for both, on account of their sins, should fall from their present prosperity and happiness into great evils and calamities; particularly into the hands of their enemies, and be carried captive into another land: and this should be "in the day", or "today" r; immediately, quickly, in a very short time; or in the daytime, openly, publicly, in the sight of all, of all the nations round about, who shall rejoice at it; or in the day of prosperity, while things go well, amidst great plenty of all good things, and when such a fall was least expected: AND THE PROPHET ALSO SHALL FALL WITH THEE IN THE NIGHT: or the false prophets that are with you, as the Targum, and so Jarchi; either with you, O people, that dwell with you, teach yo...

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 ...

FALL. stumble. IN THE DAY. Compare Jeremiah 6:4; Jeremiah 6:5 and Hos 15:8. DESTROY. lay prostrate. THY MOTHER: i. e. the whole nation is referred to, as is clear from verses: Hosea 4:4; Hosea 4:3, &o.; Hosea 2:3; Hosea 2:9; Hosea 2:12....