Hosea 4:9

9 So here is what I will do. I will punish people and priests alike. I will judge them because of their sinful lives. I will pay them back for the evil things they have done.

Hosea 4:9 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 4:9

And there shall be, like people, like priest
No difference between them in their festivals, the one being as greedy of committing intemperance and uncleanness as the other, and in their common conversation of life; though the priests ought both to have given good instructions, and to have set good examples; but instead of that were equally guilty as the people, and so would be alike in their punishment, as it follows: and I will punish them for their ways;
their evil ways, as the Targum; their wicked manner of life and conversation, both of the people and the priests; especially the latter are meant: or, "I will visit upon him his ways" F23; upon everyone of the priests, as well as the people; which visit must be understood in a way of wrath and vengeance: and reward them their doings;
reward them according to their doings, as their sins deserve, and as it is explained in the next verse: or, "I will return their doings to them" F24; bring them back again, when they seemed to be past and gone, and set them before them, and charge them with them, and punish for them.


FOOTNOTES:

F23 (wykrd wyle ytdqpw) "et visitabo super eum vias ejus", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Schmidt.
F24 (wl byva wyllemw) "et opera ejus redire faciam", Zanchius.

Hosea 4:9 In-Context

7 The more priests there are, the more they sin against me. They have traded their glorious God for that shameful god Baal.
8 They live off the sins of my people. And they want them to keep on sinning.
9 So here is what I will do. I will punish people and priests alike. I will judge them because of their sinful lives. I will pay them back for the evil things they have done.
10 "My people will eat. But they will not have enough. They will have sex with prostitutes. But they will not have any children. That is because they have deserted me.
11 They have sex with prostitutes. They drink old wine and fresh wine. When they do those things, it destroys their ability to understand.
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