Hosea 4:6

Afrikaans Bible

My volk gaan te gronde weens gebrek aan kennis; omdat jy die kennis verwerp het, sal Ek jou verwerp, sodat jy vir My die priesteramp nie sal bedien nie; omdat jy die wet van jou God vergeet het, sal Ek ook jou kinders vergeet.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

My people: Hosea 4:12, Isaiah 1:3, Isaiah 3:12, Isaiah 5:13, Jeremiah 4:22, Jeremiah 8:7

destroyed: Heb. cut off

for: Hosea 4:1, Hosea 6:6, 2 Chronicles 15:3, Job 36:12, Proverbs 19:2, Isaiah 27:11, Isaiah 45:20, Jeremiah 5:3, Jeremiah 5:4, Jeremiah 5:21, Matthew 15:14, 2 Corinthians 4:3-6

because: 1 Samuel 2:12, Proverbs 1:30-32, Isaiah 28:7, Isaiah 56:10-12, Jeremiah 2:8, Jeremiah 8:8, Jeremiah 8:9, Malachi 2:7, Malachi 2:8, Matthew 23:16-26

I will also reject: Zechariah 11:8, Zechariah 11:9, Zechariah 11:15-17, Malachi 2:1-3, Malachi 2:9, Matthew 21:41-45, Mark 12:8, Mark 12:9, Luke 20:16-18

seeing: Hosea 8:14, Hosea 13:6, 2 Kings 17:16-20, Psalms 119:61, Psalms 119:139, Isaiah 17:10, Matthew 15:3-6

I will also: Hosea 1:6, 1 Samuel 2:28-36, 1 Samuel 3:12-15

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 31:9 - the priests Deuteronomy 32:28 - General Deuteronomy 33:10 - They shall teach 1 Samuel 15:26 - for thou 2 Kings 16:11 - built an altar 1 Chronicles 28:9 - know thou Nehemiah 8:9 - the Levites Psalms 50:22 - forget Psalms 119:144 - understanding Psalms 119:176 - for I do Proverbs 3:1 - forget Proverbs 10:21 - fools Proverbs 29:18 - there Isaiah 29:12 - I am not Isaiah 43:27 - and thy Jeremiah 6:19 - nor to Jeremiah 8:12 - therefore Jeremiah 9:6 - refuse Jeremiah 23:39 - even I Jeremiah 44:12 - from the Ezekiel 44:12 - they ministered Ezekiel 44:23 - General Hosea 4:14 - therefore Hosea 5:1 - O priests Hosea 8:12 - but Zephaniah 3:4 - her priests Zechariah 7:3 - speak Malachi 1:6 - O priests Malachi 2:6 - law Matthew 15:6 - Thus Mark 11:33 - We Romans 1:28 - as they did Romans 3:11 - none that understandeth

Gill's Notes on the Bible

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,.... This is not to be understood of those who are the Lord's people by special grace; for they cannot he destroyed, at least with everlasting destruction; God's love to them, his choice of them, covenant with them, the redemption of them by Christ, and the grace of God in them, secure them from such destruction: nor can they perish through want of knowledge; for though they are by nature as ignorant as others, yet it is the determinate will of God to bring them to the knowledge of the truth, in order to salvation; and that same decree which fixes salvation as the end, secures the belief of the truth as the means; and the covenant of grace provides for their knowledge of spiritual things, as well as other spiritual blessings; in consequence of which their minds are enlightened by the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, and they have the knowledge of God and Christ given them, which is life eternal. But this is to he understood of the people of the ten tribes of Israel, who were nationally and nominally the people of God, were so by profession; they called themselves the people of God; and though they were idolaters, yet they professed to worship God in their idols; and as yet God's "loammi" had not taken place upon them; he still sent his prophets among them, to reprove and reform them, and they were not as yet finally rejected by him, and cast out of their land. These may be said to be "destroyed", because they were threatened with destruction, and it was near at hand, they were just upon the brink of it; and because of the certainty of it, and this "through the lack of knowledge": either in the people, who were ignorant of God, his mind, and will, and worship, and without fear and reverence of him, which was the cause of all the abominations they ran into, for which they were threatened with ruin; or in the priests, whose business it was to teach and instruct the people; but instead of teaching them true doctrine, and the true, manner of worship, taught them false doctrine, and led them into superstition and idolatry; and so they perished through the default of the priests in performing their office; which sense is confirmed by what follows:

because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shall be no priest to me; the priests that Jeroboam made were of the lowest of the people, ignorant and illiterate men, 1 Kings 12:31 and they chose to continue such; they rejected with contempt and abhorrence, as the word signifies, the knowledge of God, and of all divine things; of the law of God, concerning what was to be done, or not to be done, by the people; and of all statutes and ordinances relating to divine worship, and the performance of the priestly office: and though there might be some of Aaron's line that continued in the land of Israel, and in their office; yet these affected the same ignorance, and therefore the Lord threatens them with a rejection from the priesthood; or, however, that they should be no priests to him, or in his account, but should be had in the utmost abhorrence and contempt, The word here used has a letter in it more than usual s, which may signify the utter rejection of them, and the great contempt they were had in by the Lord; this was to take place, and did, at the captivity by Shalmaneser.

Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God: which he had given them, who was their God by profession; and which they had forgot as if they never had read or learnt it; and so as not to observe and keep it themselves, nor teach and instruct others in it:

I will also forget thy children; have no regard to them, take no notice and care of them, as if they were never known by him; meaning either the people in general, their disciples and spiritual children; or else their natural children, who should be cut off, and not succeed them in the priesthood. The words are very emphatic, "I will forget them, even I" t; which expresses the certainty of it more fully, as well as more clearly points at the justness of the retaliation.

s ואמאסאך; the last א is superfluous; the reason of the word being so written. Ben Melech confesses his ignorance of. t גם אני "etiam ego", Pagninus, Montanus, Zanchius, Cocceius, Rivet, Schmidt.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge - “My people are,” not, “is.” This accurately represents the Hebrew . The word “people” speaks of them as a whole; are, relates to the individuals of whom that whole is composed. Together, the words express the utter destruction of the whole, one and all. They are destroyed “for lack of knowledge,” literally, “of the knowledge,” i. e., the only knowledge, which in the creature is real knowledge, that knowledge, of the want of which he had before complained, the knowledge of the Creator. So Isaiah mourns in the same words , “therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge” Isaiah 6:13. They are destroyed for lack of it, for the true knowledge of God is the life of the soul, true life, eternal life, as our Saviour saith, “This is life eternal, that they should know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent.” The source of this lack of knowledge, so fatal to the people, was the willful rejection of that knowledge by the priest;

Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me - God marks the relation between the sin and the punishment, by retorting on them, as it were, their own acts; and that with great emphasis, “I will utterly reject thee . Those, thus addressed, must have been true priests, scattered up and down in Israel, who, in an irregular way, offered sacrifices for them, and connived at their sins. For God’s sentence on them is, “thou shalt be no priest to me.” But the priests whom Jeroboam consecrated out of other tribes than Levi, were priests not to God, but to the calves. Those then, originally true priests to God, had probably a precarious livelihood, when the true worship of God was deformed by the mixture of the calf-worship, and the people “halted between two opinions;” and so were tempted by poverty also, to withhold from the people unpalatable truth. They shared, then, in the rejection of God’s truth which they dissembled, and made themselves partakers in its suppression. And now, they “despised, were disgusted” with the knowledge of God, as all do in fact despise and dislike it, who prefer ought besides to it. So God repaid their contempt to them, and took away the office, which, by their sinful connivances, they had hoped to retain.

Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God - This seems to have been the sin of the people. For the same persons could not, at least in the same stage of sin, despise and forget. They who despise or “reject,” must have before their mind that which they “reject.” To reject is willful, conscious, deliberate sin, with a high hand; to “forget,” an act of negligence. The rejection of God’s law was the act of the understanding and will, forgetfulness of it comes from the neglect to look into it; and this, from the distaste of the natural mind for spiritual things, from being absorbed in things of this world, from inattention to the duties prescribed by it, or shrinking from seeing “that” condemned, which is agreeable to the flesh. The priests knew God’s law and “despised” it; the people “forgat” it. In an advanced stage of sin, however, man may come to forget what he once despised; and this is the condition of the hardened sinner.

I will also forget thy children - Literally, “I will forget thy children, I too.” God would mark the more, that His act followed on their’s; they, first; then, He saith, “I too.” He would requite them, and do what it belonged not to His Goodness to do first. Parents who are careless as to themselves, as to their own lives, even as to their own shame, still long that their children should not be as themselves. God tries to touch their hearts, where they are least steeled against Him. He says not, “I will forget thee,” but I will forget those nearest thy heart, “thy children.” God is said to forget, when He acts, as if His creatures were no longer in His mind, no more. the objects of His providence and love.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Hosea 4:6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge — They have not the knowledge of God, nor of sacred things, nor of their own interest, nor of the danger to which they are exposed. They walk on blindly, and perish.

Because thou hast rejected knowledge — So they might have become wise, had they not rejected the means of improvement.

Thou shalt be no priest to me — If this be the true reading, there must be reference to some particular priest, well known, to whom these words are personally addressed; unless by priest the whole priesthood is meant, and then it may apply to the priests of Jeroboam's calves.