◄ Hosea 4:1 ►
Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a case against the people of the land: "There is no truth, no loving devotion, and no knowledge of God in the land!
Study Bible
Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel
This phrase is a call to attention, emphasizing the importance of the message that follows. The "children of Israel" refers to the descendants of Jacob, also known as Israel, and represents the northern kingdom during the divided monarchy. This call to hear is reminiscent of the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4, which begins with "Hear, O Israel," underscoring the importance of listening to God's commands. The prophetic tradition often begins with such a call, indicating the divine authority behind the message.

for the LORD has a case against the people of the land
The imagery of a legal case suggests a covenant lawsuit, where God, as the suzerain, brings charges against His vassal, Israel, for breach of covenant. This reflects the covenantal relationship established at Sinai, where Israel agreed to follow God's laws. The "people of the land" indicates the inhabitants of the northern kingdom, who are being held accountable for their actions. This legal language is common in prophetic literature, as seen in Isaiah 1:18 and Micah 6:1-2, where God calls His people to account.

There is no truth, no loving devotion, and no knowledge of God in the land!
The absence of "truth" (emet) suggests a lack of faithfulness and reliability, both in interpersonal relationships and in the people's relationship with God. "Loving devotion" (hesed) refers to covenant loyalty and kindness, a key aspect of the relationship between God and His people, as seen in Micah 6:8. The "knowledge of God" implies an intimate, experiential understanding of God's character and will, not merely intellectual assent. This lack of knowledge is a recurring theme in Hosea, as seen in Hosea 4:6, where God laments that His people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. The absence of these qualities indicates a society that has turned away from its covenant obligations, leading to moral and spiritual decay.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Hosea
A prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Hosea's ministry was marked by his call to speak against the spiritual adultery of Israel.

2. Children of Israel
The descendants of Jacob, representing the Northern Kingdom, who were in a covenant relationship with God but had turned away from Him.

3. The LORD (Yahweh)
The covenant God of Israel, who is bringing a legal case against His people for their unfaithfulness.

4. Inhabitants of the Land
The people living in Israel who are being accused of lacking truth, loving devotion, and knowledge of God.

5. The Land
Refers to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, which was experiencing moral and spiritual decay.
Teaching Points
The Importance of Truth
Truth is foundational to a relationship with God. Without truth, society crumbles, and spiritual decay sets in.

Loving Devotion (Hesed)
The Hebrew word "hesed" implies steadfast love and mercy. Our relationship with God should be marked by faithful love and commitment.

Knowledge of God
Knowing God goes beyond intellectual understanding; it involves a deep, personal relationship and obedience to His will.

God's Legal Case
God holds His people accountable. We must examine our lives to ensure we are living in accordance with His standards.

Call to Repentance
Recognizing our shortcomings should lead us to repentance and a renewed commitment to God.
Bible Study Questions
1. What does the absence of truth, loving devotion, and knowledge of God look like in today's society, and how can we address it?

2. How does the concept of "hesed" challenge our understanding of love and commitment in our relationship with God and others?

3. In what ways can we cultivate a deeper knowledge of God in our daily lives?

4. How does understanding God's legal case against Israel help us comprehend His expectations for His people today?

5. Reflect on a time when you experienced a lack of truth or knowledge of God in your life. How did you overcome it, and what scriptures helped guide you?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Exodus 20:3-17
The Ten Commandments highlight the covenantal expectations of truth, love, and knowledge of God, which Israel failed to uphold.

Isaiah 1:2-4
Similar to Hosea, Isaiah speaks of God's case against His people for their rebellion and lack of understanding.

Jeremiah 4:22
Jeremiah echoes the theme of Israel's lack of knowledge of God, emphasizing their foolishness and lack of understanding.

Amos 8:11-12
Amos prophesies a famine of hearing the words of the LORD, which connects to the absence of knowledge of God in Hosea.

Romans 1:18-32
Paul describes the consequences of rejecting the truth and knowledge of God, paralleling the spiritual state of Israel in Hosea.
Sermons
A ControversyJ.R. Thomson Hosea 4:1
A Corrupt People and an Expostulating GodHomilistHosea 4:1
A National DutyJ. Garbett.Hosea 4:1
Hear the Word of the Lord!J.R. Thomson Hosea 4:1
Jehovah's Controversy with IsraelGeorge Hutcheson.Hosea 4:1
The Divine Suit with IsraelJeremiah Burroughs.Hosea 4:1
The Lord's ControversyHosea 4:1
Things that Go with the Knowledge of GodE. B. Pusey, D. D.Hosea 4:1
A Corrupt People and an Expostulating GodD. Thomas Hosea 4:1, 2
The Lord's ControversyJ. Orr Hosea 4:1-5
The Lord's LawsuitC. Jerdan Hosea 4:1-5
People
Hosea
Places
Beth-aven, Gilgal, Jezreel
Topics
Acknowledgment, Bring, Case, Cause, Charge, Controversy, Ear, Faith, Faithfulness, Goodness, Indeed, Inhabitants, Kindness, Listen, Love, Mercy, O, Sons, Strife, Truth
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Hosea 4:1

     1431   prophecy, OT methods
     1690   word of God
     6183   ignorance, of God
     8251   faithfulness, to God

Hosea 4:1-2

     6242   adultery
     7233   Israel, northern kingdom
     8715   dishonesty, and God

Hosea 4:1-3

     5201   accusation
     5926   rebuke
     7259   promised land, later history
     8764   forgetting God

Library
'Let Him Alone'
'Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.'--HOSEA iv. 17. The tribe of Ephraim was the most important member of the kingdom of Israel; consequently its name was not unnaturally sometimes used in a wider application for the whole of the kingdom, of which it was the principal part. Being the 'predominant partner,' its name was used alone for that of the whole firm, just as in our own empire, we often say 'England,' meaning thereby the three kingdoms: England, Scotland, and Ireland. So 'Ephraim' here …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Life, as Amplified by Mediaeval Biographers.
1. His Early Years.--Ephraim, according to this biography, was a Syrian of Mesopotamia, by birth, and by parentage on both sides. His mother was of Amid (now Diarbekr) a central city of that region; his father belonged to the older and more famous City of Nisibis, not far from Amid but near the Persian frontier, where he was priest of an idol named Abnil (or Abizal) in the days of Constantine the Great (306-337). This idol was afterwards destroyed by Jovian (who became Emperor in 363 after the …
Ephraim the Syrian—Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian

Instruction for the Ignorant:
BEING A SALVE TO CURE THAT GREAT WANT OF KNOWLEDGE, WHICH SO MUCH REIGNS BOTH IN YOUNG AND OLD. PREPARED AND PRESENTED TO THEM IN A PLAIN AND EASY DIALOGUE, FITTED TO THE CAPACITY OF THE WEAKEST. 'My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.'--Hosea 4:6 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. This little catechism is upon a plan perfectly new and unique. It was first published as a pocket volume in 1675, and has been republished in every collection of the author's works; and recently in a separate tract. …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Beth-El. Beth-Aven.
Josephus thus describes the land of Benjamin; "The Benjamites' portion of land was from the river Jordan to the sea, in length: in breadth, it was bounded by Jerusalem and Beth-el." Let these last words be marked, "The breadth of the land of Benjamin was bounded by Jerusalem and Beth-el." May we not justly conclude, from these words, that Jerusalem and Beth-el were opposite, as it were, in a right line? But if you look upon the maps, there are some that separate these by a very large tract of land, …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Of Orders.
Of this sacrament the Church of Christ knows nothing; it was invented by the church of the Pope. It not only has no promise of grace, anywhere declared, but not a word is said about it in the whole of the New Testament. Now it is ridiculous to set up as a sacrament of God that which can nowhere be proved to have been instituted by God. Not that I consider that a rite practised for so many ages is to be condemned; but I would not have human inventions established in sacred things, nor should it be …
Martin Luther—First Principles of the Reformation

"For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus Hath Made Me Free from the Law of Sin and Death. "
Rom. viii. 2.--"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." You know there are two principal things in the preceding verse,--the privilege of a Christian, and the property or character of a Christian. He is one that never enters into condemnation; He that believeth shall not perish, John iii. 15. And then he is one that walks not after the flesh, though he be in the flesh, but in a more elevate way above men, after the guiding and leading …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Epistle cxxi. To Leander, Bishop of Hispalis (Seville).
To Leander, Bishop of Hispalis (Seville). Gregory to Leander, Bishop of Spain. I have the epistle of thy Holiness, written with the pen of charity alone. For what the tongue transferred to the paper had got its tincture from the heart. Good and wise men were present when it was read, and at once their bowels were stirred with emotion. Everyone began to seize thee in his heart with the hand of love, for that in that epistle the sweetness of thy disposition was not to be heard, but seen. All severally …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

That the Ruler Relax not his Care for the Things that are Within in his Occupation among the Things that are Without, nor Neglect to Provide
The ruler should not relax his care for the things that are within in his occupation among the things that are without, nor neglect to provide for the things that are without in his solicitude for the things that are within; lest either, given up to the things that are without, he fall away from his inmost concerns, or, occupied only with the things that are within bestow not on his neighbours outside himself what he owes them. For it is often the case that some, as if forgetting that they have …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

The Prophet Amos.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS. It will not be necessary to extend our preliminary remarks on the prophet Amos, since on the main point--viz., the circumstances under which he appeared as a prophet--the introduction to the prophecies of Hosea may be regarded as having been written for those of Amos also. For, according to the inscription, they belong to the same period at which Hosea's prophetic ministry began, viz., the latter part of the reign of Jeroboam II., and after Uzziah had ascended the …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Seasonable Counsel: Or, Advice to Sufferers.
BY JOHN BUNYAN. London: Printed for Benjamin Alsop, at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry, 1684. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. THIS valuable treatise was first published in a pocket volume in 1684, and has only been reprinted in Whitfield's edition of Bunyan's works, 2 vols. folio, 1767. No man could have been better qualified to give advice to sufferers for righteousness' sake, than John Bunyan: and this work is exclusively devoted to that object. Shut up in a noisome jail, under the iron hand of …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Joy
'The fruit of the Spirit is joy.' Gal 5:52. The third fruit of justification, adoption, and sanctification, is joy in the Holy Ghost. Joy is setting the soul upon the top of a pinnacle - it is the cream of the sincere milk of the word. Spiritual joy is a sweet and delightful passion, arising from the apprehension and feeling of some good, whereby the soul is supported under present troubles, and fenced against future fear. I. It is a delightful passion. It is contrary to sorrow, which is a perturbation …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The Third Commandment
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.' Exod 20: 7. This commandment has two parts: 1. A negative expressed, that we must not take God's name in vain; that is, cast any reflections and dishonour on his name. 2. An affirmative implied. That we should take care to reverence and honour his name. Of this latter I shall speak more fully, under the first petition in the Lord's Prayer, Hallowed be thy name.' I shall …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

The Doctrine
OF THE LAW AND GRACE UNFOLDED; OR, A DISCOURSE TOUCHING THE LAW AND GRACE; THE NATURE OF THE ONE, AND THE NATURE OF THE OTHER; SHOWING WHAT THEY ARE, AS THEY ARE THE TWO COVENANTS; AND LIKEWISE, WHO THEY BE, AND WHAT THEIR CONDITIONS ARE, THAT BE UNDER EITHER OF THESE TWO COVENANTS: Wherein, for the better understanding of the reader, there are several questions answered touching the law and grace, very easy to be read, and as easy to be understood, by those that are the sons of wisdom, the children …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

The Prophet Hosea.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS. That the kingdom of Israel was the object of the prophet's ministry is so evident, that upon this point all are, and cannot but be, agreed. But there is a difference of opinion as to whether the prophet was a fellow-countryman of those to whom he preached, or was called by God out of the kingdom of Judah. The latter has been asserted with great confidence by Maurer, among others, in his Observ. in Hos., in the Commentat. Theol. ii. i. p. 293. But the arguments …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Hosea
The book of Hosea divides naturally into two parts: i.-iii. and iv.-xiv., the former relatively clear and connected, the latter unusually disjointed and obscure. The difference is so unmistakable that i.-iii. have usually been assigned to the period before the death of Jeroboam II, and iv.-xiv. to the anarchic period which succeeded. Certainly Hosea's prophetic career began before the end of Jeroboam's reign, as he predicts the fall of the reigning dynasty, i. 4, which practically ended with Jeroboam's …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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