God’s Word Translation
Hosea 4:16
16“The people of Israel are as stubborn as a bull. How can the Lord feed them like lambs in an open pasture?
Hosea 4:16 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place.
- New International Version (NIV)The Israelites are stubborn, like a stubborn heifer. How then can the Lord pasture them like lambs in a meadow?
- English Standard Version (ESV)Like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; can the Lord now feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture?
- New King James Version (NKJV)“For Israel is stubborn Like a stubborn calf; Now the Lord will let them forage Like a lamb in open country.
Context of Hosea 4:16
14Yet, I will not punish your daughters when they become prostitutes or your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. The men go to prostitutes and offer sacrifices with temple prostitutes. These foolish people will be trampled. 15“Israel, you act like a prostitute. Don’t let Judah become guilty too. Don’t go to Gilgal. Don’t go to Beth Aven. Don’t take the oath, ‘As the Lord lives. …’ “The people of Israel are as stubborn as a bull. How can the Lord feed them like lambs in an open pasture? 17The people of Ephraim have chosen to worship idols. Leave them alone! 18When they’re done drinking their wine, they continue to have sex with the prostitutes. Their rulers dearly love to act shamefully.
Read all of Hosea 4Hosea 4:16 word by word
כִּ֚י כְּפָרָ֣ה סֹֽרֵרָ֔ה סָרַ֖ר יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל עַתָּה֙ יִרְעֵ֣ם יְהוָ֔ה כְּכֶ֖בֶשׂ בַּמֶּרְחָֽב׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Hosea 4:16
- Hosea 11:7My people are determined to turn away from me. Even if they call to the Most High, he will not pardon them.
- 1 Samuel 15:11“I regret that I made Saul king. He turned away from me and did not carry out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he prayed to the Lord all night.
- Jeremiah 3:6When Josiah was king, the Lord asked me, “Did you see what unfaithful Israel did? She went up every high mountain and under every large tree, and she acted like a prostitute there.
- Jeremiah 5:6That is why a lion from the forest will attack them. A wolf from the wilderness will destroy them. A leopard will lie in ambush outside their cities. All who leave the cities will be torn to pieces, because they rebel so often and they become more and more unfaithful.
- Jeremiah 7:24But they didn’t obey me or pay attention to me. They followed their own plans and their stubborn, evil ways. They went backward and not forward.
- Jeremiah 8:5The people of Jerusalem turned away from me without ever returning. They still cling to deceit. They refuse to return.
- Jeremiah 14:7Do something, Lord, for the sake of your name, even though our sins testify against us. We have been unfaithful and have sinned against you.
- Zechariah 7:11“But people refused to pay attention. They shrugged their shoulders at me and shut their ears so that they couldn’t hear.
- Leviticus 26:33I will scatter you among the nations. War will follow you. Your country will be in ruins. Your cities will be deserted.
- Isaiah 7:21On that day a person will keep alive a young cow and two sheep.
- Isaiah 22:18He will wrap you up tightly like a turban. He will throw you far away into another land. There you will die. There your splendid chariots will remain. There you will become a disgrace to your master’s household.
Commentaries on Hosea 4:16
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 16Israel slideth back - They are untractable, like an unbroken heifer or steer, that pulls back, rather than draw in the yoke. Will feed them as a lamb in a large place - A species of irony. Ye shall go to Assyria, and be scattered among the nations; ye may sport yourselves in the extensive empire, wither ye shall be carried captives.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 16For Israel slideth back, as a backsliding heifer - The calves which Israel worshiped were pictures of itself. They represented natural, untamed, strength, which, when put to service, started back and shrank from the yoke. “Untractable, petulant, unruly, wanton, it withdrew from the yoke, when it could; if it could not, it drew aside or backward, instead of forward.” So is it rare, exceeding rare, for man to walk straight on in God‘s ways; he jerks…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 12-19Verses 12-19 The people consulted images, and not the Divine word. This would lead to disorder and sin. Thus men prepare scourges for themselves, and vice is spread through a people. Let not Judah come near the idolatrous worship of Israel. For Israel was devoted to idols, and must now be let alone. When sinners cast off the easy yoke of Christ, they go on in sin till the Lord saith, Let them alone. Then they receive no more warnings, feel no more…Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1616. backsliding--Translate, "Israel is refractory, as a refractory heifer," namely, one that throws the yoke off her neck. Israel had represented God under the form of "calves" (1Ki 12:28); but it is she herself who is one. lamb in a large place--not in a good sense, as in Is 30:23. Here there is irony: lambs like a large pasture; but it is not so safe for them as a small one, duly fenced from wild beasts. God will "feed" them, but it shall be with the…Read the comment
Topics related to Hosea 4:16
In the dictionaries
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
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
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