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Hosea 4:12
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My people consult their wooden idols,and their divining rods inform them.For a spirit of promiscuity leads them astray;they act promiscuouslyin disobedience to their God.
My people consult with their wooded idol, And answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, And they have been unfaithful to their God.
My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.
My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore.
My people consult their wooden idol, and their diviner's wand informs them; For a spirit of infidelity has led them astray, And they have been unfaithful, departing from their God.
"My people ask wooden idols for advice; they ask those sticks of wood to advise them! Like prostitutes, they have chased after other gods and have left their own God.
My people aske counsell at their stockes, and their staffe teacheth them: for the spirite of fornications hath caused them to erre, and they haue gone a whoring from vnder their God.
My people consult their wooden idol, and their diviner's wand informs them; For a spirit of harlotry has led them astray, And they have played the harlot, departing from their God.
My people ask their wooden idol, and their diviner's wand declares to them;For a spirit of harlotry has led them astray,And they have played the harlot, departing from their God.
My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God.
You expect wooden idols and other objects of wood to give you advice. Lusting for sex at pagan shrines has made you unfaithful to me, your God.
My people consult their piece of wood, their diviner's wand speaks to them; for the spirit of whoring makes them err, they go off whoring, deserting their God.
My people ask counsel of their stock, and their staff declareth unto them; for the spirit of whoredoms causeth [them] to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God:
My people are asking pieces of wood for advice. They think those sticks will answer them! They have chased after those false gods like prostitutes and have left their own God.
My people ask counsel of their own imagination, and their staff declares to them the directions; for the spirit of whoredom has caused them to go astray, so they have turned from their God.
They ask for revelations from a piece of wood! A stick tells them what they want to know! They have left me. Like a woman who becomes a prostitute, they have given themselves to other gods.
My people, consult their wooden idols, and their divining rod gives them oracles; because a spirit of whoredom led them astray, and they played the whore from under their God.
My people seek advice by their wooden idols , and their rod declares to them. For the spirit of harlotry has led them astray, and they fornicated from under their God.
My people ask counsel at their stock, and their staff declareth unto them; for the spirit of whoredom hath caused them to err, and they have played the harlot, departing from under their God.
My people get knowledge from their tree, and their rod gives them news; for a false spirit is the cause of their wandering, and they have been false to their God.
My people ask counsel at their stock, and their staff declareth unto them; for the spirit of harlotry hath caused them to err, and they have gone astray from under their God.
My people aske counsel at their stocks, and their staffe declareth vnto them: for the spirit of whordomes hath caused them to erre, and they haue gone a whoring from vnder their God.
My people aske counsell at their stockes, and their staffe teacheth them: for the spirite of fornication hath caused [them] to go astray, and they haue committed fornication against their God.
They asked counsel by means of signs, and they reported answer to them by their staves: they have gone astray in a spirit of whoredom, and gone grievously a-whoring from their God.
My people ask counsel at their stock, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredom hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.
My people consult with their wooded idol, And answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, And they have been unfaithful to their God.
My puple axide in his tre, and the staf therof telde to it; for the spirit of fornicacioun disseyuede hem, and thei diden fornicacioun fro her God.
My people ask counsel at their stock, and their staff declares to them; for the spirit of prostitution has caused them to err, and they have prostituted, [departing] from under their God.
My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth to them: for the spirit of lewdness hath caused [them] to err, and they have gone astray from under their God.
They consult their wooden idols, and their diviner's staff answers with an oracle. The wind of prostitution blows them astray; they commit spiritual adultery against their God.
My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, And their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, And they have played the harlot against their God.
They ask a piece of wood for advice! They think a stick can tell them the future! Longing after idols has made them foolish. They have played the prostitute, serving other gods and deserting their God.
They ask things of a wooden god and are answered by a stick of wood. A false spirit has led them the wrong way. They have not been faithful, and they have left their God.
My people consult a piece of wood, and their divining rod gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have played the whore, forsaking their God.
My people, of their Wood, do ask, - Let, their Staff, then tell them, - for, the spirit of unchastity, hath led them astray, and they have unchastely departed from under their God.
My people have consulted their stocks, and their staff hath declared unto them: for the spirit of fornication hath deceived them, and they have committed fornication against their God.
My people inquire of a thing of wood, and their staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of harlotry has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the harlot.
My people at its staff asketh and its rod declareth to it, For a spirit of whoredoms hath caused to err, And they go a-whoring from under their God.
My people axe councel at their stockes, their staffe must tell them. For an whorish mynde hath disceaued them, so yt they comitte fornicacion agaynst their God.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
ask: Jeremiah 2:27, Jeremiah 10:8, Ezekiel 21:21, Habakkuk 2:19
for: Hosea 5:4, Isaiah 44:18-20, Micah 2:11, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11
gone: Hosea 9:1, Leviticus 17:7, Leviticus 20:5, Numbers 15:39, Deuteronomy 31:16, 2 Chronicles 21:13, Psalms 73:27, Jeremiah 3:1-3, Ezekiel 16:1-63, Ezekiel 23:1-49
Reciprocal: Exodus 34:15 - whoring Leviticus 19:29 - to cause Leviticus 20:6 - go Judges 8:27 - a whoring Judges 18:5 - Ask counsel 1 Kings 11:8 - all his strange wives 2 Kings 16:15 - for me to inquire by Proverbs 6:32 - understanding Proverbs 31:4 - General Isaiah 28:7 - err in Isaiah 44:14 - heweth Isaiah 44:20 - a deceived Jeremiah 3:9 - committed Hosea 2:5 - their mother Hosea 4:6 - My people Hosea 4:11 - take Hosea 4:15 - play Hosea 7:4 - are all Hebrews 3:10 - err Hebrews 9:7 - errors 1 John 4:6 - and
Cross-References
And in the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground.
But Abel brought [an offering of] the [finest] firstborn of his flock and the fat portions. And the LORD had respect (regard) for Abel and for his offering;
"Behold, You have driven me out this day from the face of the land; and from Your face (presence) I will be hidden, and I will be a fugitive and an [aimless] vagabond on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."
Cain knew his wife [one of Adam's descendants] and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch; and Cain built a city and named it Enoch, after the name of his son.
Now to Enoch was born Irad, and Irad became the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael became the father of Methushael, and Methushael became the father of Lamech.
Lamech said to his wives, "Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; You wives of Lamech, Listen to what I say; For I have killed a man [merely] for wounding me, And a boy [only] for striking (bruising) me.
"If Cain is avenged sevenfold [as the LORD said he would be], Then Lamech [will be avenged] seventy-sevenfold."
'Your strength will be spent uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.
'As for those who are left of you, I will bring despair (lack of courage, weakness) into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a scattered leaf will put them to flight, and they will flee as if [running] from the sword, and will fall even when no one is chasing them.
Let his children wander and beg; Let them seek their food and be driven far from their ruined homes.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
My people ask counsel at their stocks,.... Or "at his wood" a, or stick; his wooden image, as the Targum; their wooden gods, their idols made of wood, mere stocks and blocks, without life or sense, and much less reason and understanding, and still less divinity. Reference is here had either to the matter of which an idol was made, being the trunk of a tree, or a block of wood; as the poet b introduces Priapus saying, "olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum": or to sticks of wood themselves, without being put into any form or shape; for so it is reported c, that the ancient idolaters used to receive for gods, with great veneration, trees or pieces of wood, having the bark taken off; particularly the Carians worshipped for Diana a piece of wood, not hewed, squared, or planed d: though the first seems rather to be the sense here; and either was extremely foolish. And yet such was the stupidity of this people, whom God had formerly chose for his people and had distinguished them by his favours from others, and they had professed themselves to be his people, and as yet were not utterly cast off, as to forsake him and his divine oracles, and all methods of knowing his will; as to ask counsel of such wooden deities in matters of moment and difficulty, what should be done by them, or concerning things to come.
And their staff declareth unto them; what methods are to be taken by them in the present case, or what shall come to pass, as they fancy; that is, either their idol, made of a staff or stick of wood, or a little image carried on a staff; such as probably were the teraphim they consulted, instead of the Urim and Thummim; and imagined they declared to them what they should do, or what would befall them. Kimchi's father interprets it of the false prophets on whom they depended, and whose declarations they received as oracles. Perhaps some respect is had to a sort of divination used among the Heathens by rods and staves, called "rhabdomancy", which the Jews had learnt of them; like that by arrows used by Nebuchadnezzar, Ezekiel 21:21. This was performed by setting up a stick or staff, and as that fell, so they judged and determined what was to be done. The manner, according to Theophylact on the place, was this,
"they set up two rods, and muttered some verses and enchantments; and then the rods falling through the influence of demons, they considered how they fell, whether forward or backward, to the right or the left; and so gave answers to the foolish people, using the fall of the rods for signs.''
The Jews take this to be forbid by that negative precept, Deuteronomy 18:10, "there shall not be found among you any that useth divination". So Jarchi and Baal Hatturim on that text explain a diviner by one that holds his staff; and the former adds and says, shall I go, or shall I not go? as it is said, "my people ask counsel at their stocks", c. the manner of which they thus describe e,
"when they are about to go on a journey, they inquire before they set out, i.e. whether it will be prosperous or not; and the diviner takes a branch of a tree, and takes off the bark on one side, and leaves it on the other, and then throws it out of his hand; if, when it falls, the bark is uppermost, he says, this is a man; then he casts it again, and if the white is uppermost, this is a woman; to a man, and after that a woman, this is a good sign, and he goes his journey, or does what be desires to do: but if the white appears first, and after that the bark, then he says, to a woman, and after that a man, and he forbears (that is, to go on his journey, or do what he desired): but if the bark is uppermost in both (throws), or the white uppermost in both, to a man after a man, and a woman after a woman, then his journey (as to the success of it) is between both; and so they say they do in the land of Slavonia.''
And from the Slavonians, Grotius says, the Germans took this way of divination, of which Tacitus f gives an account; and it seems by him that the Chaldeans also had it, from whom the Jews might have it. This way of divination by the staff is a little differently given in Hascuni: g the diviner measures his staff with his finger, or with his hand; one time he says, I will go; another time, I will not go; but if it happens, at the end of the staff, I will not go, he goes not.
For the spirit of whoredom hath caused them to err; a violent inclination and bias of mind to idolatry, which is spiritual adultery, and a strong affection for it, stirred up by an evil spirit, the devil; which so wrought upon them, and influenced them, as to cause them to wander from the true God, and his worship, as follows:
and they have gone a whoring from under their God; or
"erred from the worship of their God,''
as the Targum; from the true God, who stood in the relation of a husband to them; but, led by a spirit of error, they departed from him, and committed spiritual adultery, that is, idolatry; which is explained and enlarged upon in the next verse.
a בעצו "in ligno suo", V. L. Montanus, Calvin; "liguum suum", Pagninus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. b Horat. Sermon. l. 1. Satyr. 8. c Alexand. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 26. d Arnobius adv. Gentes, l. 6. p. 232. e Moses Kotsensis praecept. neg. 52. f De Moribus German. c. 10. g Apud Drusium in Deut. xviii. 10.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
My people ask counsel at - (literally, “on”) their stocks They ask habitually ; and that, in dependence “on their stocks.” The word “wood” is used of the idol made of it, to bring before them the senselessness of their doings, in that they asked counsel of the senseless wood. Thus Jeremiah reproaches them for “saying to a stock, my father” Jeremiah 2:27; and Habakkuk, “Woe unto him that saith to the wood, awake” Habakkuk 2:19.
And their staff declareth unto them - Many sorts of this superstition existed among the Arabs and Chaldees. They were different ways of drawing lots, without any dependence upon the true God to direct it. This was a part of their senselessness, of which the prophet had just said, that their sins took away their hearts. The tenderness of the word, “My people,” aggravates both the stupidity and the ingratitude of Israel. They whom the Living God owned as His own people, they who might have asked of Him, asked of a stock or a staff.
For the spirit of whoredoms - It has been thought of old, that the evil spirits assault mankind in a sort of order and method, different spirits bending all their energies to tempt him to different sins . And this has been founded on the words of Holy Scripture, “a lying spirit,” “an unclean spirit,” “a spirit of jealousy,” and our Lord said of the evil spirit whom the disciples could not cast out; “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting” Matthew 17:21. Hence, it has been thought that “some spirits take delight in uncleanness and defilement of sins; others urge on to blasphemies; others, to anger and fury; others take delight in gloom; others are soothed with vainglory and pride; and that each instills into man’s heart that vice in which he takes pleasure himself; yet that all do not urge their own perversenesses at once, but in turn, as opportunity of time or place, or man’s own susceptibility, invites them” . Or the word, “spirit of whoredoms,” may mean the vehemence with which people were whirled along by their evil passions, whether by their passionate love of idolatry, or by the fleshly sin which was so often bound up with their idolatry.
They have gone a whoring from under their God - The words “from under” continue the image of the adulteress wife, by which God had pictured the faithlessness of His people. The wife was spoken of as “under her husband Numbers 5:19, Numbers 5:29; Ezekiel 23:5, i. e., under his authority; she withdrew herself “from under” him, when she withdrew herself from his authority, and gave herself to another. So Israel, being wedded to God, estranged herself from Him, withdrew herself from His obedience, cast off all reverence to Him, and prostituted herself to her idols.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Hosea 4:12. At their stocks — They consult their wooden gods.
And their staff declareth — They use divination by rods; see the note on Ezekiel 21:21, where this sort of divination (rabdomancy) is explained.
