Hosea 4:12

12. Stocks Literally, wood, or tree. May refer (1), as in Habakkuk 2:19; Jeremiah 2:27; Jeremiah 10:8, to idolatrous images; or (2) to images thought to represent Jehovah, such as the calves at Beth-el and Dan (Hosea 8:4-5); or (3) to tree cult, which survived for some time in Israel (Hosea 4:13; compare Isaiah 1:29-31) and which is not unknown to-day (S.I. Curtis, Primitive Semitic Religions To-day, pp. 90ff.); or (4) to rabdomancy (see next clause), practiced among the Semites, the Scythians, the Germans, and other ancient nations. (3) is the most probable.

Ask counsel Consult through the oracle the divine will concerning proposed undertakings. The oracle of Jehovah alone was legitimate and was frequently consulted (2 Samuel 2:1; Judges 1:1); but the contemporaries of Hosea were using illegitimate means.

Their staff declareth unto them Upon staves they depend for divine direction. Marti sees here also a reference to tree cult; the staff he takes to mean a small sacred tree or the branch of a tree. Most commentators think that the prophet has in mind rabdomancy. Cyril of Alexandria calls this practice an invention of the Chaldeans; he describes the method of procedure as follows: Two staves were held upright, and while incantations were murmured over them they were allowed to fall; the oracle was determined from the direction in which the staves fell, whether forward or backward, to the right or to the left (Ezekiel 21:21). These practices are inspired by the spirit of whoredoms The impulse to practice whoredom which had taken possession of the people (Zechariah 13:2). 12b reads literally, They have played the harlot from under their God; they played the harlot, and thus freed themselves from the control of Jehovah. The expression is not quite the same as that in Hosea 1:2. In this verse also, as in 11, 13, 14, the expression might, perhaps, be understood in a literal sense, the immoralities and the spiritual apostasy were closely connected, but many commentators interpret Hosea 4:12 as referring to spiritual whoredom.

Hosea 4:13 describes in greater detail the religious corruption.

Tops of the mountains… hills Natural or artificial elevations were favorite spots for the erection of altars and sanctuaries; hence the designation high place for the local sanctuaries (Amos 7:9; 1 Samuel 9:12, etc. See article “High Place” in Hastings’s Dictionary of the Bible).

Burn incense See on Hosea 2:13. Oaks… poplars… elms [“terebinths”] Probably a survival of tree worship, though the next clause would seem to indicate that the places under these trees were selected on account of the shade (see on Hosea 4:12 and reference there). The trees mentioned are the most stately in Palestine, and would therefore receive special attention. The oaks flourished especially east of the Jordan, where they are still found. Tristram describes one thirty-seven feet in circumference with foliage having a circumference of ninety-one yards. The terebinth is frequently mentioned as a sacred tree. It grows in Palestine to a height of fifteen to twenty feet. Now the tree is comparatively rare west of the Jordan; there are still fine specimens in the territory of Moab. The poplar, literally, white tree, is mentioned only twice in the Old Testament, here and in Genesis 30:37. Some commentators identify it with the storax tree, chiefly because of the similarity between the Hebrew and the Arabic names. An objection to the view that this is the tree in the mind of Hosea is the fact that the storax is “nothing more than a very bushy shrub, rarely more than twelve feet in height, and neither from its size nor from its form would it be selected as a tree under the shadow of which sacrifices or incense might be offered.” More likely the prophet has in mind the white poplar, which Tristram says he saw in various parts of Galilee, of the Lebanon, and of Mount Hermon.

The shadow thereof is good The shade made these spots desirable; if the prophet thinks of tree cult, the thought may be implied that from these trees went out special virtue and power.

Therefore Because of the conditions described in 11-13a; it introduces the reference to punishment in 14; 13b is a subordinate clause; 13b and 14a might be translated, “Therefore, though your daughters play the harlot… commit adultery, I will not punish your daughters.…” This removes the difficulty felt by some commentators concerning the loose connection between 13a and 13b. The pronominal suffixes of the second person in 13b and 14a are peculiar, since the persons addressed there are in 14b referred to in the third person. Marti proposes to change all the suffixes into the third person. To do this, or to change the third into the second, would result in a smoother reading. Commit whoredom [“play the harlot”] The context makes it clear that the immoralities are those connected with the religious cult; they had crept from the Canaanitish religion into that of Israel. Originally there was probably behind the giving up of chastity in honor of the deity the desire to offer the most precious possession, but this motive was soon forgotten. In the worship of Jehovah these practices were out of place; and had the people known him they would have understood that they were an abomination to him.

Spouses R.V., “brides”; margin, “daughters-in-law”; designation of a young wife; here in general, wives.