God’s Word Translation
Hosea 4:17
17The people of Ephraim have chosen to worship idols. Leave them alone!
Hosea 4:17 in other versions
Context of Hosea 4:17
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. …’ 16“The people of Israel are as stubborn as a bull. How can the Lord feed them like lambs in an open pasture? The 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. 19The wind will carry them away in its wings, and their sacrifices will bring them shame.
Read all of Hosea 4Hosea 4:17 word by word
חֲב֧וּר עֲצַבִּ֛ים אֶפְרָ֖יִם הַֽנַּֽח־לֽוֹ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Hosea 4:17
- Hosea 11:2The more I called them, the farther they went away. They sacrificed to other gods—the Baals, and they burned incense to idols.
- Hosea 12:1The people of Ephraim try to catch the wind and try to chase the east wind all day. They are very violent and destructive. They make treaties with Assyria and take olive oil to Egypt.
- Hosea 13:2They keep on sinning more and more. They make idols from silver for themselves. These idols are skillfully made. All of them are the work of craftsmen. People say this about the Israelites: “They offer human sacrifices and kiss calf-shaped idols.”
- Hosea 4:4“No one should accuse other people or bring charges against them. My case is against you priests.
- Psalms 81:12So I let them go their own stubborn ways and follow their own advice.
- Matthew 15:14Leave them alone! They are blind leaders. When one blind person leads another, both will fall into the same pit.”
- Revelation 22:11Let those who don’t have God’s approval go without it, and let filthy people continue to be filthy. Let those who have God’s approval continue to have it, and let holy people continue to be holy.”
Commentaries on Hosea 4:17
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 17Ephraim - The ten tribes. Is joined to idols - Is become incorporated with false gods. Let him alone - They are irreclaimable, leave them to the consequences of their vicious conduct.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 17Ephraim is joined to idols - that is, banded, bound up with them, “associated,” as the word means, with them so as to cleave to them, willing neither to part with nor to be parted from, them. The idols are called by a name, denoting toils; with toil they were fashioned, and, when fashioned, they were a toil and grief. Let him alone - Literally, give him rest, i. e., from all further expostulations, which he will not hear. It is an abandonment of Israel…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. 1717. Ephraim--the ten tribes. Judah was at this time not so given to idolatry as afterwards. joined to--closely and voluntarily; identifying themselves with them as a whoremonger becomes one flesh with the harlot (Nu 25:3; 1Co 6:16, 17). idols--The Hebrew means also "sorrows," "pains," implying the pain which idolatry brings on its votaries. let him alone--Leave him to himself. Let him reap the fruits of his own perverse choice; his case is desperate; say…Read the comment
Topics related to Hosea 4:17
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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