Hosea 5:4

4 "You can't return to me because you have done so many evil things. In your hearts you long to act like prostitutes. You do not recognize me as the Lord.

Hosea 5:4 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 5:4

They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God
Either their evil doings; they will not leave, as the Targum and Jarchi {g}; their evil ways and worship, their adultery and idolatry; which was necessary to repentance and true conversion to God, whom they yet professed to be their God, though they had so sadly departed from him: or their good works; they did not choose to do them, which were leading steps to repentance and conversion, or fruits and evidences of it: they had no mind to repent of their sins, and turn from them to the Lord; they had no thought, care, or concern, about these things, but obstinately persisted in their sins and in their impenitence: their wills were wretchedly depraved and corrupted; their hearts hard, perverse, and obstinate; they had no will to that which is good: for the spirit of whoredom [is] in the midst of them;
an unclean spirit, that prompts them to and pushes them on to commit corporeal and spiritual whoredom; the bias and inclination of their minds were this way which put them upon such evil practices; the spirit of error, which caused them to err, as the Targum and Kimchi; the lying spirit in the false prophets which encouraged them therein; and even himself, the spirit that works in the children of disobedience: and they have not known the Lord;
ignorance of God, his nature and perfections, his will, word, and worship, was the cause of their idolatry, and other sins; see ( Hosea 4:1 ) ; and this was wilful and affected ignorance; they knew not, nor would they understand: they rejected the knowledge of God, and the means of it; so the Targum,

``and they sought not instruction (or doctrine) from the Lord.''

FOOTNOTES:

F7 So R. Sol. Urbin. fol. 68. 2.

Hosea 5:4 In-Context

2 You refuse to obey me. You offer sacrifices to other gods. So I will punish all of you.
3 People of Ephraim, I know all about you. What you are doing is not hidden from me. Now you have joined yourselves to other gods. You have made yourselves 'unclean.'
4 "You can't return to me because you have done so many evil things. In your hearts you long to act like prostitutes. You do not recognize me as the Lord.
5 Israel, your pride witnesses that you are guilty. People of Ephraim, you trip and fall because you have sinned. Judah, you fall down along with them.
6 Israel, you will come to worship me. You will bring your animals to offer as sacrifices. But you will not find me. I have turned away from you.
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