Hosea 4:14

14 I shall not visit on your daughters, when they do fornication, and on your wives, when they do adultery; for they lived with whores, and made sacrifice with men turned into women's conditions. And the people that understandeth not, shall be beaten. (Yet I shall not punish your daughters, when they do adultery, or idolatry, and your wives, when they also do adultery, or idolatry; for ye yourselves have sought out whores, and made sacrifice to idols. And so the people who understandeth not, shall bring ruin upon themselves.)

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 My people asked in his tree, and the staff thereof told to it; for the spirit of fornication deceived them, and they did fornication, (going away) from their God. (My people asked for counsel, or advice, from their piece of wood, and a staff, or a stick, told them what to do; and so the spirit of adultery, or of idolatry, deceived them, and they did adultery, or idolatry, and went away from their God.)
13 On the heads, either tops, of mountains they made sacrifice, and on the little hills they burnt incense under an oak, and a poplar, and a terebinth, for the shadow thereof was good. Therefore your daughters shall do fornication, and your wives shall be adulteresses. (On the tops of the mountains they made sacrifice, and on the little hills they burned incense under an oak, and a poplar, and a terebinth, for its shadow was good. And so your daughters do adultery, or idolatry, and your wives be adulteresses.)
14 I shall not visit on your daughters, when they do fornication, and on your wives, when they do adultery; for they lived with whores, and made sacrifice with men turned into women's conditions. And the people that understandeth not, shall be beaten. (Yet I shall not punish your daughters, when they do adultery, or idolatry, and your wives, when they also do adultery, or idolatry; for ye yourselves have sought out whores, and made sacrifice to idols. And so the people who understandeth not, shall bring ruin upon themselves.)
15 If thou, Israel, doest fornication, namely (thou) Judah, trespass not; and do not ye enter into Gilgal, and go ye not into Bethaven, neither swear ye, The Lord liveth. (Even if thou, Israel, doest adultery, or idolatry, do not thou, Judah, trespass; and do not ye go to Gilgal, and go ye not to Bethaven, nor swear ye, As the Lord liveth.)
16 For as a wild cow Israel bowed away; now the Lord shall feed them as a lamb in broadness. (For Israel hath run away like a wild cow; but now the Lord shall feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.