Hosea 4:4

4 ¹Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is ²my contention, O priest.^[a]

Hosea 4:4 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 4:4

Yet, let no man strive, nor reprove another
Or rather, "let no man strive, nor any man reprove us" ^F17; and are either the words of the people, forbidding the prophet, or any other man, to contend with them, or reprove them for their sins, though guilty of so many, and their land in so much danger on that account: so the Targum,

``but yet they say, let not the scribe teach, nor the prophet reprove:''

or else they are the words of God to the prophet, restraining him from striving with and reproving such a people, that were incorrigible, and despised all reproof; see ( Ezekiel 3:26 ) or of the prophet to other good men, to forbear anything of this kind, since it was all to no purpose; it was but casting pearls before swine; it was all labour lost, and in vain: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest;
they are so far from receiving correction and reproof kindly from any good men that they will rise up against, and strive with the priests, to whom not to hearken was a capital crime, ( Deuteronomy 17:12 ) . Abarbinel interprets it, and some in Abendana, like the company of Korah, that contended with Aaron; suggesting that this people were as impudent and wicked as they, and there was no dealing with them. So the Targum,

``but thy people contend with their teachers;''

and will submit to no correction, and therefore it is in vain to give it them. Though some think the sense is, that all sorts of men were so corrupt, that there were none fit to be reprovers; the people were like the priests, and the priests like the people, ( Hosea 4:9 ) , so that when the priests reproved them, they contended with them, and said, physician, heal thyself; take the beam out of your own eye; look to yourselves, and your own sins, and do not reprove us.

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FOOTNOTES:

F17 (vya hkwy law) "et ne reprehendito quisquam, [scil.] nos", Schmidt.

Hosea 4:4 In-Context

2 there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

3 Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away.

4 Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest.

5 You shall stumble by day; the prophet also shall stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your mother.

6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

Cross References

• 1. [ver. 17]
• 2. [Deuteronomy 17:12]

Footnotes

• [a]. Or for your people are like those who contend with the priest