Hosea 4:2

Hosea 4:2 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
• New International Version (NIV)There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
• English Standard Version (ESV)there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
• New King James Version (NKJV)By swearing and lying, Killing and stealing and committing adultery, They break all restraint, With bloodshed upon bloodshed.

Context of Hosea 4:2

1Israelites, listen to the Lord's message! The Lord accuses the people who live in Israel of these bad things: ‘Nobody in the land of Israel is faithful. They have no true love. They do not want to know God. They curse people, they tell lies, they murder people, they rob people. They are guilty of adultery. They continue to kill more and more people. 3Because of this, the land will become like a desert. Everyone who lives there will become weak. Everything will die: the wild animals, the birds, and even the fish in the sea. 4Do not argue among yourselves or accuse one another. It is you priests who are guilty.

Hosea 4:2 word by word

אָלֹ֣ה וְכַחֵ֔שׁ וְרָצֹ֥חַ וְגָנֹ֖ב וְנָאֹ֑ף פָּרָ֕צוּ וְדָמִ֥ים בְּדָמִ֖ים נָגָֽעוּ׃Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• By swearingאָלָה'âlâh · to swearH422
• and lyingכָּחַשׁkâchash · to deceiveH3584
• and killingרָצַחrâtsach · to murderH7523
• and stealingגָּנַבgânab · to stealH1589
• and committing adulteryנָאַףnâ'aph · to commit adulteryH5003
• they break outפָּרַץpârats · to break throughH6555
• and bloodדָּםdâm · bloodH1818
• touchethנָגַעnâga‛ · to touchH5060

Cross-references for Hosea 4:2

• Isaiah 24:5The people who live on the earth have caused it to become unclean. They have not obeyed God's laws. They have turned against his teaching. They have not obeyed the covenant that God made with them for ever.
• Isaiah 48:1Listen to this, family of Jacob. You are called ‘Israel’, and you are Judah's descendants. You use the name of the Lord when you make promises. You pray to Israel's God. But you do not do those things honestly and fairly.
• Isaiah 59:2But the wrong things that you have done have made you separate from your God. Your sins have caused him to turn away from you, so that he does not listen to your prayers.
• Jeremiah 5:1The Lord said, ‘Run along all the streets of Jerusalem. Look carefully all around you. Look in all the public places of the city. Try to find one person who is honest. Try to find one person who wants to know the truth. If you find one person like that, I will forgive all the people in the city.
• Jeremiah 6:7They never stop doing wicked things, like water that pours out from a spring. It is full of the noise of violence and fights. Everywhere I see people who have disease and wounds.
• Jeremiah 7:6Do not be cruel to foreigners who are living among you. Do not be cruel to widows, or to children who have no family. You must stop murdering people. You must stop worshipping other gods. If you live like that, it will destroy you.
• Jeremiah 9:2I would like to live in a hut in the desert. Then I could leave my people. I could forget about them. They have all turned away from God. They have not been faithful to him. They are a crowd of people that nobody can trust.’
• Jeremiah 23:10The land is full of people who are not faithful to God. The prophets live wicked lives. They use their power in a bad way. Because of that, God has cursed the land. The land is as dry as a desert, and the fields have no grass.
• Ezekiel 22:2‘Son of man, you must warn the people in this city about their punishment. The people are murderers. They have done many disgusting things. Are you ready to tell them that?
• Micah 2:1Micah continues: People who prepare to do bad things should be afraid. God will do bad things to them! While they lie in bed, they think about bad things to do. Then, when the morning comes, they do those bad things. They have the authority to do whatever they want to do.
• Micah 3:2But you hate what is good. And you love what is bad. You would like to tear the skin off my people, and pull the meat from their bones.
• Micah 6:10‘You bad people still hide valuable things that you have taken from other people. I will not forget this. You bad people use false weights to measure the food that you sell. I hate that.
• Micah 7:2There are no longer any people here who obey God. There are no good, honest people. Everyone is waiting to kill someone else. They are all like hunters, who try to catch each other.
• Zephaniah 3:1It will be very bad for the city! It is like something that is dirty. Its people will not obey me. They like to fight weak people. They also like to do bad things.
• Zechariah 5:3Then the angel said to me, ‘The words on the paper tell about bad events for the whole earth. This will be in future years. On one side of the paper, it says that a man must not rob anyone. If he does, people will send him away from his own country. On the other side of the paper, it says that a man must not speak false words. If he does, people will send him away from his own country.
• Zechariah 7:9‘The Lord Almighty has said, “Be sure that you are fair to all people. Be kind to each other.

Commentaries on Hosea 4:2

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 2By swearing, and lying - Where there is no truth there will be lies and perjury; for false swearing is brought in to confirm lying statements. And when there is no mercy, killing, slaying, and murders, will be frequent. And where there is no knowledge of God, no conviction of his omnipresence and omniscience, private offenses, such as stealing, adulteries, etc., will prevail. These, sooner or later, break out, become a flood, and carry all before them…Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 2By swearing, and lying … - Literally, “swearing or cursing”, “and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery!” The words in Hebrew are nouns of action. The Hebrew form is very vivid and solemn. It is far more forcible than if he had said, “They swear, lie, kill, and steal.” It expresses that these sins were continual, that nothing else (so to speak) was going on; that it was all one scene of such sins, one course of them, and of nothing…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 2The prophet also accused the Israelites of committing sins. These crimes are all forbidden in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:3–17; Deuteronomy 5:7–21), which are the basic covenant responsibilities. Since the Israelites did not know the Lord, they failed to follow even the simplest covenant standards.Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 22. they break out--bursting through every restraint. blood toucheth blood--literally, "bloods." One act of bloodshed follows another without any interval between (see 2Ki 15:8-16, 25; Mi 7:2).Read the comment

Topics related to Hosea 4:2

• Adultery
• Crime
• Dishonesty
• Falsehood
• Homicide
• Sin
• Theft and Thieves

In the dictionaries

• Languish
• Reject
• Robbery
• Blood
• Break
• Calf, Golden
• Hosea
• Lie; Lying
• Priests and Levites
• Zechariah, Book of

Commentaries on Hosea 4

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Rashi on Tanakh
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings