Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
I will not punish your daughters - God threatens, as the severest woe, that He will not punish their sins with the correction of a Father in this present life, but will leave the sinners, unheeded, to follow all iniquity. It is the last punishment of persevering stoners, that God leaves them to prosper in their sins and in those things which help them to sin. Hence, we are taught to pray, "O Lord, correct me, but in judgment, not in Thine anger" Jeremiah 10:24. For since God chastiseth those whom He loveth, it follows, "if we be without chasetisement, whereof all are partakers, then are we bastards, and not sons" Hebrews 12:8. To be chastened severely for lesser sins, is a token of great love of God toward us; to sin on without punishment is a token of God' s extremest displeasure, and a sign of reprobation. : "Great is the offence, if, when thou hast sinned, thou art undeserving of the wrath of God."
For themselves are separated with whores - God turns from them as unworthy to be spoken to anymore, and speaks of them, They "separate themselves," from whom? and with whom? They separate themselves "from" God, and with the degraded ones and "with" devils. Yet so do all those who choose willful sin.
And they sacrifice - (continually, as before) with (the) harlots The unhappy women here spoken of were such as were "consecrated" (as their name imports) to their vile gods and goddesses, and to prostitution. This dreadful consecration, yea desecration, whereby they were taught to seek honor in their disgrace, was spread in different forms over Phoenicia, Syria, Phrygia, Assyria, Babylonia. Ashtaroth, (the Greek Astarte) was its chief object. This horrible worship prevailed in Midian, when Israel was entering the promised land, and it suggested the devilish device of Balaam Num. 25; Numbers 31:8, Numbers 31:16 to entangle Israel in sin whereby they might forfeit the favor of God. The like is said to subsist to this day in pagan India. The sin was both the cause and effect of the superstition. Man' s corrupt heart gave rise to the worship: and the worship in turn fostered the corruption. He first sanctioned the sin by aid of a degrading worship of nature, and then committed it under plea of that worship. He made his sin a law to him. Women, who never relapsed into the sin, sinned in obedience to the dreadful law . Blinded as they were, individual pagan had the excuse of their hereditary blindness; the Jews had imperfect grace. The sins of Christians are self sought, against light and grace.
Therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall - The word comprises both, "that doth not understand," and, "that will not understand." They might have understood, if they would. God had revealed Himself to them, and had given to them His law, and was still sending to them His prophets, so that they could not have known and understood God' s will, had they willed. Ignorance, which we might avoid or cure, if we would, is itself a sin. It cannot excuse sin. They shall, he says, fall, "or be cast headlong." Those who blind their eyes, so as not to see or understand God' s will, bring themselves to sudden ruin, which hide from themselves, until they fall headlong in it.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Hosea 4:14:
Numbers 25:3
Hosea 1:2
Amos 2:7
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