8 The sin of My people they do eat, And unto their iniquity lift up their soul.
`The priest who is making atonement with it doth eat it, in the holy place it is eaten, in the court of the tent of meeting;
And the dogs `are' strong of desire, They have not known sufficiency, And they `are' shepherds! They have not known understanding, All of them to their own way they did turn, Each to his dishonest gain from his quarter:
`Every male among the priests doth eat it; in the holy place it is eaten -- it `is' most holy; as `is' a sin-offering, so `is' a guilt-offering; one law `is' for them; the priest who maketh atonement by it -- it is his.
Who `is' even among you, And he shutteth the two-leaved doors? Yea, ye do not kindle Mine altar for nought, I have no pleasure in you, said Jehovah of Hosts, And a present I do not accept of your hand.
whose mouth it behoveth to stop, who whole households do overturn, teaching what things it behoveth not, for filthy lucre's sake.
Why do ye kick at My sacrifice, and at Mine offering which I commanded `in' My habitation, and dost honour thy sons above Me, to make yourselves fat from the first part of every offering of Israel, of My people?
`Son of man, these men have caused their idols to go up on their heart, and the stumbling-block of their iniquity they have put over-against their faces; am I inquired of at all by them?
for every one of the house of Israel, and of the sojourners who doth sojourn in Israel, who is separated from after Me, and doth cause his idols to go up unto his heart, and the stumbling-block of his iniquity setteth over-against his face, and hath come in unto the prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I, Jehovah, have answered him for Myself;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Hosea 4
Commentary on Hosea 4 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 4
Prophets were sent to be reprovers, to tell people of their faults, and to warn them of the judgments of God, to which by sin they exposed themselves; so the prophet is employed in this and the following chapters. He is here, as counsel for the King of kings, opening an indictment against the people of Israel, and labouring to convince them of sin, and of their misery and danger because of sin, that he might prevail with them to repent and reform.
Hsa 4:1-5
Here is,
Hsa 4:6-11
God is here proceeding in his controversy both with the priests and with the people. The people were as those that strove with the priests (v. 4) when they had priests that did their duty; but the generality of them lived in the neglect of their duty, and here is a word for those priests, and for the people that love to have it so, Jer. 5:31. And it is observable here how the punishment answers to the sin, and how, for the justifying of his own proceedings, God sets the one over-against the other.
Hsa 4:12-19
In these verses we have, as before,