Hosea 4:14

14 "I will not punish your daughters when they become prostitutes. I will not judge your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. After all, the men themselves have sex with sinful women. They offer sacrifices where temple prostitutes earn their living. People who can't understand will be destroyed!

Hosea 4:14 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 4:14

I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredoms,
nor your spouses when they commit adultery
Either not punish them at all, so that they shall go on in sin, and to a greater degree, to the disgrace and reproach of their parents and husbands; or not as yet, or not so severely in them, because it was by their example they were led into it. Jarchi's note is very impertinent, that God threatens them with the disuse of the bitter waters of jealousy. The words are by some rendered interrogatively, "shall I not punish your daughters?" &c. F18; verily I will; and not them only, but their parents and husbands too, who deserve more severe corrections: for themselves are separated with whores, and sacrifice with harlots;
they separated themselves to Baalpeor, that shameful idol, ( Hosea 9:10 ) , the Priapus of the Gentiles, in whose idolatrous worship many obscene rites were used; these men separated themselves from their wives, as well as from God and his worship, and from the company and conversation of men, and in private committed uncleanness with the women that attended, and with the female priests that officiated at the worship of idols; those "sanctified" ones, as the word may be rendered; and after that ate of things offered to idols with them. So the Targum,

``they associated themselves with whores, and ate and drank with harlots.''
Some versions understand the latter of catamites, or sodomitical persons, and of the wickedness practised by them in such places. Therefore the people that doth not understand;
the law, as the Targum; what is to be done, and what to be avoided; the difference between the true and false religion; have no knowledge of divine and spiritual things, at least are very wavering and unsettled in their minds about religion, having thought little, and know less, of the matter: shall fall:
into idolatry and adultery, led by such examples. So the Septuagint version, "is implicated with a whore"; or "embraces a whore", as the Syriac and Arabic versions; see ( Proverbs 7:22 ) ( 22:14 ) or shall fall into calamities, ruin, and destruction; shall be dashed, as the Targum; so the Arabic interpreter of ( Mark 9:26 ) ( Luke 9:42 ) , uses the word: though Aben Ezra and Kimchi say, that in the Arabic language it signifies to be perplexed and disturbed, so as not to know what to do {s}. The first sense seems to be best, of being scandalized, offended, and stumbling and falling into sin; and which Abarbinel suggests, and it agrees with what follows concerning Judah.
FOOTNOTES:

F18 So Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt.
F19 Vid. R. Sol. Urbin, Ohel Moed, fol. 43. 2.

Hosea 4:14 In-Context

12 They ask a wooden statue of a god for advice. They expect to get answers from a stick of wood. They act like prostitutes. That leads them down the wrong path. I am their God. But they are not faithful to me.
13 They offer sacrifices on the mountaintops. They burn offerings on the hills. They worship under oak, poplar and terebinth trees. The trees provide plenty of shade. So your daughters become prostitutes. And your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
14 "I will not punish your daughters when they become prostitutes. I will not judge your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. After all, the men themselves have sex with sinful women. They offer sacrifices where temple prostitutes earn their living. People who can't understand will be destroyed!
15 "Israel, you are not faithful to me. But I do not want Judah to become guilty too. "My people, do not go to Gilgal to offer sacrifices. Do not go up to Bethel to worship other gods. Do not take an oath and say, 'You can be sure that the LORD is alive.'
16 The people of Israel are stubborn. They are as stubborn as a young cow. So how can I take care of them like lambs in a meadow?
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