Hosea 7:14

14 They do not cry out to me from their hearts but wail on their beds. They slash themselves,^[a] appealing to their gods for grain and new wine, but they turn away from me.

Hosea 7:14 in Other Translations

14 And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me.

14 They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves; they rebel against me.

14 They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts. Instead, they sit on their couches and wail. They cut themselves, begging foreign gods for grain and new wine, and they turn away from me.

14 Instead of crying out to me in heartfelt prayer, they whoop it up in bed with their whores, Gash themselves bloody in their sex-and-religion orgies, but turn their backs on me.

14 They do not cry to Me from their hearts; rather, they wail on their beds. They slash themselves for grain and wine; they turn away from Me.

Hosea 7:14 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 7:14

And they have not cried unto me with their heart
In their distress, indeed, they cried unto the Lord, and said they repented of their sins, and promised reformation, and made a show of worshipping God; as invocation is sometimes put for the whole worship of God; but then this was not heartily, but hypocritically; their hearts and their mouths did not go together, and therefore was not reckoned prayer; nothing but howling, as follows: when they howled upon their beds;
lying sick or wounded there; or, as some, in their idol temples, those beds of adultery, where they pretended to worship God by them, and to pray to him through them; but such idolatrous prayers were no better than the howlings of clogs to him; even though they expressed outwardly their cries with great vehemency, as the word used denotes, having one letter more in it than common: they assemble themselves for corn and wine:
either at their banquets, to feast upon them, as Aben Ezra; or to the markets, to buy them, as Kimchi suggests; or rather to their idol temples, to deprecate a famine, and to pray for rain and fruitful seasons; or if they gather together to pray to the Lord, it is only for carnal and worldly things; they only seek themselves, and their own interest, and not the glory of God, and ask for these things, to consume them on their lust. The Septuagint version is, "for corn and wine they were cut", or cut themselves, as Baal's priests did, when they cried to him, ( 1 Kings 18:28 ) ; and Theodoret here observes, that they performed the Heathen rites, and in idol temples made incisions on their bodies: [and] they rebel against me:
not only flee from him transgress his laws but cast off all allegiance to him and take up arms, and commit hostilities against him. The Targum joins this with the preceding clause,

``because of the multitude of corn and wine which they have gathered they have rebelled against my word;''

and to the same sense Jarchi; thus, Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked.

Hosea 7:14 In-Context

12 When they go, I will throw my net over them; I will pull them down like the birds in the sky. When I hear them flocking together, I will catch them.

13 Woe to them, because they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled against me! I long to redeem them but they speak about me falsely.

14 They do not cry out to me from their hearts but wail on their beds. They slash themselves, appealing to their gods for grain and new wine, but they turn away from me.

15 I trained them and strengthened their arms, but they plot evil against me.

16 They do not turn to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because of their insolent words. For this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.

Cross References

• 1. Jeremiah 3:10
• 2. Amos 2:8
• 3. S ver 10; S Hosea 4:10; Hosea 9:1; Hosea 13:16

Footnotes

• [a]. Some Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint; most Hebrew manuscripts "They gather together"