Hosea 10:4

4 They make many false promises and agreements which they don't keep. So people sue each other in court; they are like poisonous weeds growing in a plowed field.

Hosea 10:4 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 10:4

They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant,
&c.] Those are other crimes they were guilty of, for which the wrath of God could not be awarded from them by a king, if they had one, or by any other. They had used vain and idle words in their common talk and conversation; and lying and deceitful ones to one another in trade and commerce, in contracts and promises; and so had deceived and overreached one another: they had belched out many "oaths of vanity" {u}: or vain oaths and curses; their mouths had been full of cursing and bitterness; and they made covenants with God, and their king, and with other kings and princes, and with one another, and had not kept them; and now for these things God had a controversy with them: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field;
either the judgment of God, his wrath and vengeance for the above sins, rose up and spread itself in all their cities, towns, and villages; or rather the judgment and justice they pretended to execute, instead of being what it should have been, useful and beneficial to the people, like a wholesome herb, sprung up like hemlock, bitter and poisonous, and spread itself in all parts of the kingdom. Injustice is meant; see ( Amos 6:12 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F21 (awv twla) "execrationes vanitatis", Schmidt.

Hosea 10:4 In-Context

2 Their heart was false, and now they must pay for their guilt. The Lord will break down their altars; he will destroy their holy stone pillars.

3 Then they will say, "We have no king, because we didn't honor the Lord. As for the king, he couldn't do anything for us."

4 They make many false promises and agreements which they don't keep. So people sue each other in court; they are like poisonous weeds growing in a plowed field.

5 The people from Israel are worried about the calf-shaped idol at Beth Aven. The people will cry about it, and the priests will cry about it. They used to shout for joy about its glory,

6 but it will be carried off to Assyria as a gift to the great king. Israel will be disgraced, and the people will be ashamed for not obeying.