Hosea 4:18

Easy-to-Read Version

Ephraim has joined their drunkenness. Let them continue to be prostitutes. Let them be with their lovers.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
When their drinking is over,they turn to promiscuity.Israel’s leaders fervently love disgrace.

Hebrew Names Version
Their drink has become sour. They play the prostitute continually. Her rulers dearly love their shameful way.

King James Version
Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give ye.

English Standard Version
When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring; their rulers dearly love shame.

New American Standard Bible
Their liquor is gone, They prostitute themselves continually; Their rulers dearly love shame.

New Century Version
When they finish their drinking, they completely give themselves to being prostitutes; they love these disgraceful ways.

Amplified Bible
When their liquor is gone [and their drinking parties are over], They habitually go to play the prostitute; Ephraim's rulers continue to dearly love shame [more than her glory which is the LORD, Israel's God].

Geneva Bible (1587)
Their drunkennes stinketh: they haue committed whoredome: their rulers loue to say with shame, Bring ye.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Their liquor gone, They play the harlot continually; Their rulers dearly love shame.

Legacy Standard Bible
Their drink gone;They play the harlot continually;Their rulers dearly love disgrace.

Berean Standard Bible
When their liquor is gone, they turn to prostitution; their rulers dearly love disgrace.

Contemporary English Version
You get drunk, then sleep with prostitutes; you would rather be vulgar than lead a decent life.

Complete Jewish Bible
When they finish carousing, they start their whoring; their rulers deeply love dishonor.

Darby Translation
Their drink is sour; they give themselves up to whoredom; her great men passionately love [their] shame.

George Lamsa Translation
They all commit whoredom, and they love shame and idolatry.

Good News Translation
After drinking much wine, they delight in their prostitution, preferring disgrace to honor.

Lexham English Bible
When their drinking has ended, they surely indulge in sexual orgies. They love lewdness more than their glory.

Literal Translation
Their drink is sour. They are continually fornicating. Her shields dearly love shame.

American Standard Version
Their drink is become sour; they play the harlot continually; her rulers dearly love shame.

Bible in Basic English
Their drink has become bitter; they are completely false; her rulers take pleasure in shame.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
When their carouse is over, they take to harlotry; her rulers deeply love dishonour.

King James Version (1611)
Their drinke is sowre: they haue committed whordome continually: her rulers with shame doe loue, Giue ye.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Their drunkennesse stinketh, they haue committed whordome: their rulers loue [to say] with shame, Bryng ye.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
He has chosen the Chananites: they have grievously gone a-whoring: they have loved dishonour through her insolence.

English Revised Version
Their drink is become sour: they commit whoredom continually; her rulers dearly love shame.

World English Bible
Their drink has become sour. They play the prostitute continually. Her rulers dearly love their shameful way.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
the feeste of hem is departid. Bi fornicacioun thei diden fornicacioun, the defenders therof louyden to brynge schenschipe.

Update Bible Version
Their drink has become sour; they prostitute continually; her rulers dearly love shame.

Webster's Bible Translation
Their drink is sour: they have been guilty of lewd deeds continually: her rulers [with] shame do love, Give ye.

New English Translation
They consume their alcohol, then engage in cult prostitution; they dearly love their shameful behavior.

New King James Version
Their drink is rebellion,They commit harlotry continually.Her rulers dearly love dishonor. [fn]

New Living Translation
When the rulers of Israel finish their drinking, off they go to find some prostitutes. They love shame more than honor.

New Life Bible
Their strong drink is gone. They are like women who sell the use of their bodies all the time. Their rulers love shame.

New Revised Standard
When their drinking is ended, they indulge in sexual orgies; they love lewdness more than their glory.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Their drinking-bout, having passed, - they became, unchaste, they loved wildly, a contempt, became her great men.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Their banquet is separated, they have gone astray by fornication: they that should have protected them have loved to bring shame upon them.

Revised Standard Version
A band of drunkards, they give themselves to harlotry; they love shame more than their glory.

Young's Literal Translation
Sour [is] their drink, They have gone diligently a-whoring, Her protectors have loved shame thoroughly.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Their dronckenesse hath put the backe, & brought them to whordome. Their rulers loue rewardes, brynge (saye they,) to their owne shame.

Contextual Overview

¹² 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. ¹³ They make sacrifices on the tops of the mountains and burn incense on the hills under oak trees, poplar trees, and elm trees. The shade under those trees looks nice. So your daughters lie under those trees like prostitutes, and your daughters-in-law commit sexual sins. ¹⁴ "I cannot blame your daughters or your daughters-in-law for doing this, because your men go and have sex with the temple prostitutes and offer sacrifices with them. This is how foolish people destroy themselves. ¹⁵ "Israel, just because you act like a prostitute doesn't mean that Judah should feel guilty too. People, don't go to Gilgal or Beth Aven. Don't use the Lord's name to make promises. Don't say, ‘As the Lord lives …!' ¹⁶ The Lord has given many things to Israel. He is like a shepherd who takes his sheep to a large field with plenty of grass. But Israel is stubborn like a young cow that runs away again and again. ¹⁷ "Ephraim has joined his idols, so leave him alone. ¹⁸ Ephraim has joined their drunkenness. Let them continue to be prostitutes. Let them be with their lovers. ¹⁹ They went to those gods for safety, and they have lost their ability to think. Their altars will bring them shame.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

drink: Deuteronomy 32:32, Deuteronomy 32:33, Isaiah 1:21, Isaiah 1:22, Jeremiah 2:21

sour: Heb. gone

committed: Hosea 4:2, Hosea 4:10, 2 Kings 17:7-17

her: Exodus 23:8, Deuteronomy 16:19, 1 Samuel 8:3, 1 Samuel 12:3, 1 Samuel 12:4, Proverbs 30:15, Proverbs 30:16, Amos 5:12, Micah 3:11, Micah 7:3

rulers: Heb. shields, Psalms 47:9

Reciprocal: Proverbs 28:21 - for Isaiah 1:23 - every Hosea 5:3 - thou Acts 24:26 - hoped Romans 1:24 - God

Cross-References

Genesis 5:21
After Enoch was 65 years old, he had a son named Methuselah.

Genesis 36:2
Esau married women from the land of Canaan. His wives were Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the son of Zibeon the Hivite, and

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Their drink is sour,.... In their stomachs, having drank so much that they cannot digest it; hence nauseous eructations, with a filthy stench, are belched out; so it is a charge of drunkenness which Ephraim or the ten tribes were addicted to, and are accused of,

Isaiah 28:1 or "their drink is gone" y; it has lost its colour, brightness, smell, and flavour; it is turned to vinegar; expressive of the general corruption and depravity of manners and religion among them; see Isaiah 1:22 or "their drink departeth", or "causeth to depart"; or "is refractory" z; that is, it made them refractory, like a refractory belief, as before; caused them to depart from God and his worship, and led them into all sin and irreligion, particularly what follows:

they have committed whoredom continually; corporeal whoredom, which drunkenness leads to; and spiritual whoredom or idolatry, which they had committed, and continued in, ever since the days of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and increased therein:

her rulers with shame do love, give ye; or "her shields" a; those that should have been the protectors of Israel, compared before to a heifer; and preserved them not only from their external enemies, but from all innovations in religion; and which we rightly enough render "rulers", civil and ecclesiastic, kings, princes, and priests; see

Psalms 47:9, these "loved, give ye", which was a "shame" to them: the sense is, either they loved gifts and bribes, and were continually saying, "give, give", when causes were to be tried, and so perverted justice and judgment, which was very shameful; or they loved wine and strong drink, and therefore required it to be continually given them, which was very scandalous in rulers more especially, Proverbs 30:4; or they loved whoredom, both in a corporeal and spiritual sense, and desired more harlots and more idols, and added to their old ones, which was very abominable and ignominious. So the Targum,

"they turned themselves after fornication they loved, which brought shame unto them;''

and these may be considered as so many reasons why Judah should have nothing to do with Israel.

y סר סבאם "recessit potus eorum", Montanus, Drusius; "recessit vinum eorum", Schmidt. z "Recedere fecit inerum eorum", Tarnovius; "refractarium est merum eorum", Junius Tremellius, Piscator. a מגניה "clypei ejus", Montanus, Vatablus "scuta ejus", Drusius, Tarnovius; "cujus clypei", Cocceius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Their drink is sour - Literally, “turned,” as we say of milk. So Isaiah says, “Thy silver is become dross; thy wine is mingled,” i. e., adulterated, “with water” Isaiah 1:22; and our lord speaks of “salt which had lost its savor.” The wine or the salt, when once turned or become insipid, is spoiled, irrecoverably, as we speak of “dead wine.” They had lost all their life, and taste of goodness.

Her rulers with shame do love, give ye - Avarice and luxury are continually banded together according to the saying, “covetous of another’s, prodigal of his own.” Yet it were perhaps more correct to render, “her rulers do love, do love, shame.” They love that which brings shame, which is bound up with shame, and ends in it; and so the prophet says that they “love the shame” itself. They act, as if they were in love with the shame, which, all their lives long, they are unceasingly and, as it were, by system, drawing upon themselves. They chase diligently after all the occasions of sins and sinful pleasures which end in shame; they omit nothing which brings it, do nothing which can avoid it. What else or what more could they do, if they “loved the shame” for its own sake?

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Hosea 4:18. Their drink is sour — Or rather, he is gone after their wine. The enticements of idolatry have carried them away.

Her rulers with shame do love — Rather, have loved shame; they glory in their abominations.

Give ye. — Perhaps it would be better to read, Her rulers have committed, &c. They have loved gifts. What a shame! These were their rulers, literally, their shields. Justice and judgment were perverted.