Hosea 4:7

As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame. AS THEY WERE INCREASED - in numbers, wealth, and power. Compare , "thy children," to which their "increase" in numbers refers. God had designed that the larger were their numbers, and the greater their wealth, the more should there be to praise Him, and the greater would be their means of glorifying Him; but the more children God gave Israel, the more rebels opposed Him; and the greater their wealth became, the more power had they to dishonour God. SO THEY SINNED AGAINST ME - (cf. , "According to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars;" and 13:6, "They were filled, and their heart, was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me"). The...

Here the Prophet amplifies the wickedness and impiety of the people, by adding this circumstance, that they the more perversely wantoned against God, the more bountiful he was to them, yea, when he poured upon them riches in full exuberance. Such a complaint we have before noticed: but the Prophets, we know, did not speak only once of the same thing; when they saw that they effected nothing, that the contempt of God still prevailed, they found it necessary to repeat often what they had previously said. Here then the Prophet accuses the Israelites of having shamefully abused the indulgence of God, of having allowed themselves greater liberty in sinning, when God so kindly and liberally dealt with them. Some confine this to the priests, and think the meaning to be, that they sinned more against God since he increased the Levitical tribe and added to their wealth: but the Prophet, I doubt n...

6-11 Both priests and people rejected knowledge; God will justly reject them. They forgot the law of God, neither desired nor endeavoured to retain it in mind, and to transmit the remembrance to their posterity; therefore God will justly forget them and their children. If we dishonour God with that which is our honour, it will, sooner or later, be turned into shame to us. Instead of warning the people against sin, from the consideration of the sacrifices, which showed what an offence sin was to God, since it needed an atonement, the priests encouraged the people to sin, since atonement might be made at so small an expense. It is very wicked to be pleased with the sins of others, because they may turn to our advantage. What is unlawfully gained, cannot be comfortably used. The people and the priests hardened one another in sin; therefore justly shall they share in the punishment. Sharers...

Verse Hosea 4:7. _WILL I CHANGE THEIR GLORY INTO SHAME._] As the idolaters at Dan and Bethel have changed my glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass, (Romans 1:23,) so will I change their _glory_ into _shame_ or ignominy. In the day of my wrath, their calf-gods shall not deliver them....

AS THEY WERE INCREASED, SO THEY SINNED AGAINST ME - The “increase” may be, either in actual number or in wealth, power or dignity. The text includes both. In both kinds of increase, the bad abuse God’s gifts against Himself, and take occasion of them to offend Him. The more they were increased in number, the more there were to sin, the more they were who sinned. God promised to make Abraham’s seed, “as the stars of heaven.” They were to shine in the world through the light of the law, and the glory which God gave them while obeying Him. “Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the Lord thy God hath made thee like the stars of heaven for multitude. Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep His charge, and His statutes, and his judgments and His commandments alway” Deuteronomy 10:22;...

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

AS THEY WERE INCREASED, SO THEY SINNED AGAINST ME,.... As the children of the priests increased and grew up, they sinned against the Lord, imitating their parents; they were as many sinners as they were persons, not one to be excepted: this expresses their universal depravity and corruption. Some understand it of their increase, as in number, so in riches, wealth, honour, dignity, and authority, and yet they sinned more and more; which shows their ingratitude. So the Targum, "as I have multiplied fruits unto them, c.'' THEREFORE WILL I CHANGE THEIR GLORY INTO SHAME, take away their priesthood from them, so that they shall be no more priests, and as if they never had been and reduce them to a state of poverty, meanness, and disgrace; and cause them to go into captivity with the meanest of the people; and be in no more honour, but subject to as much scorn and contempt as they....

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 ...

SINNED. Hebrew chata'. App-44. THEREFORE WILL. CHANGE THEIR GLORY INTO SHAME. The _Sopherim_ confess (App-33) that they altered thus the primitive Hebrew text: which read "My glory have they changed into shame": i. e. they altered the verb _hemiru_ (they have changed) to _'amir_ (I shall change); and, _kebodi_ (My glory) to _kebodam_ (their glory). This alteration was made from. mistaken reverence. It will be seen that the word "therefore" is not required....