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Monday, July 7th, 2025
the Week of Proper 9 / Ordinary 14
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Read the Bible

The NET Bible®

Hosea 4:17

Ephraim has attached himself to idols; Do not go near him!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Alliances;   Company;   Ephraim;   Holy Spirit;   Idolatry;   Impenitence;   Self-Delusion;   Wicked (People);   Thompson Chain Reference - Reprobates;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Idolatry;   Judgments;   Self-Delusion;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Poetry of the Hebrews;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Ephraim;   Hosea;   Jeroboam;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Providence of God;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Dan (1);   Israel;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Hosea;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Hosea ;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Hoshea;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Monotheism;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Ephraim is attached to idols;leave him alone!
Hebrew Names Version
Efrayim is joined to idols. Leave him alone!
King James Version
Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.
English Standard Version
Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone.
New American Standard Bible
Ephraim is allied with idols; Leave him alone.
New Century Version
The Israelites have chosen to worship idols, so leave them alone.
Amplified Bible
Ephraim is joined to idols, So let him alone [to suffer the consequences].
Geneva Bible (1587)
Ephraim is ioyned to idoles: let him alone.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Ephraim is joined to idols; Let him alone.
Legacy Standard Bible
Ephraim is joined to idols;Let him alone.
Berean Standard Bible
Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone!
Contemporary English Version
You people of Israel are charmed by idols. Leave them alone!
Complete Jewish Bible
Efrayim is joined to idols; let him alone!
Darby Translation
—Ephraim is joined to idols: leave him alone.
Easy-to-Read Version
"Ephraim has joined his idols, so leave him alone.
George Lamsa Translation
Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.
Good News Translation
The people of Israel are under the spell of idols. Let them go their own way.
Lexham English Bible
Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.
Literal Translation
Ephraim is joined to idols. Let him alone.
American Standard Version
Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.
Bible in Basic English
Ephraim is joined to false gods; let him be.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.
King James Version (1611)
Ephraim is ioyned to idoles: let him alone.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Ephraim [is become] partaker of idols, let hym alone.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Ephraim, joined with idols, has laid stumbling-blocks in his own way.
English Revised Version
Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.
World English Bible
Ephraim is joined to idols. Leave him alone!
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Effraym is the partener of idols, leeue thou him;
Update Bible Version
Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.
Webster's Bible Translation
Ephraim [is] joined to idols: let him alone.
New King James Version
"Ephraim is joined to idols, Let him alone.
New Living Translation
Leave Israel alone, because she is married to idolatry.
New Life Bible
Ephraim is joined to false gods. Let him alone.
New Revised Standard
Ephraim is joined to idols— let him alone.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Mated with idols, is Ephraim, let him alone.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Ephraim is a partaker with idols, let him alone.
Revised Standard Version
E'phraim is joined to idols, let him alone.
Young's Literal Translation
Joined to idols [is] Ephraim, let him alone.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And where as Ephraim is become partaker of Idols, wel, let him go.

Contextual Overview

12 They consult their wooden idols, and their diviner's staff answers with an oracle. The wind of prostitution blows them astray; they commit spiritual adultery against their God. 13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops, and burn offerings on the hills; they sacrifice under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is so pleasant. As a result, your daughters have become cult prostitutes, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery! 14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men consort with harlots, they sacrifice with temple prostitutes. It is true: "A people that lacks understanding will come to ruin!" 15 Although you, O Israel, commit adultery, do not let Judah become guilty! Do not journey to Gilgal! Do not go up to Beth Aven! Do not swear, "As surely as the Lord lives!" 16 Israel has rebelled like a stubborn heifer! Soon the Lord will put them out to pasture like a lamb in a broad field! 17 Ephraim has attached himself to idols; Do not go near him! 18 They consume their alcohol, then engage in cult prostitution; they dearly love their shameful behavior. 19 A whirlwind has wrapped them in its wings; they will be brought to shame because of their idolatrous worship.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Ephraim: Hosea 11:2, Hosea 12:1, Hosea 13:2

let: Hosea 4:4, Psalms 81:12, Matthew 15:14, Revelation 22:11

Reciprocal: Exodus 14:12 - Let us alone 1 Kings 11:33 - they have forsaken Ezekiel 3:26 - and shalt Ezekiel 20:39 - Go ye Hosea 4:14 - punish Hosea 5:3 - thou Hosea 6:10 - there Hosea 7:1 - the iniquity Matthew 16:4 - And he Mark 8:13 - General Acts 7:42 - and gave Acts 14:16 - suffered Romans 1:24 - God 1 Corinthians 14:38 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 4:4
But Abel brought some of the firstborn of his flock—even the fattest of them. And the Lord was pleased with Abel and his offering,
Genesis 4:11
So now, you are banished from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
Genesis 5:18
When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch.
Genesis 5:22
After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God for 300 years, and he had other sons and daughters.
Genesis 11:4
Then they said, "Come, let's build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise we will be scattered across the face of the entire earth."
2 Samuel 18:18
Prior to this Absalom had set up a monument and dedicated it to himself in the King's Valley, reasoning "I have no son who will carry on my name." He named the monument after himself, and to this day it is known as Absalom's Memorial.
Psalms 49:11
Their grave becomes their permanent residence, their eternal dwelling place. They name their lands after themselves,
Daniel 4:30
The king uttered these words: "Is this not the great Babylon that I have built for a royal residence by my own mighty strength and for my majestic honor?"

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Ephraim is joined to idols,.... That is, the ten tribes of Israel, frequently so called after their separation from the rest, because that Jeroboam, by whom the revolt was made, was of that tribe; and because that tribe was the principal of them, and Samaria, the metropolis of their kingdom, was in it: and so the Targum here renders it,

"the house of Israel are joined to idols;''

to the calves at Dan and Bethel; to Baal, and other idols, they worshipped: the phrase expresses their strong affection for them, their constant worship of them, and their obstinate persisting therein, and the difficulty there was of bringing them off of it; they cleaved to their idols, were glued, and as it were wedded unto them, and there was no separating of them; as men are, who are addicted to the lusts of the flesh, to the mammon of unrighteousness, or to their own self-righteousness, or to any idol they set up in their hearts as such: hence it follows,

let them alone: which are either the words of the Lord to the prophet, enjoining him to prophesy no more to them; to reprove them no more for their sins, since it was all to no purpose, there was no reclaiming them, so Jarchi and Kimchi; and therefore let them alone, let them go on in their sins, and in their errors, and in their superstition and idolatry; see Ezekiel 3:26. God was determined to let them alone himself, and therefore bids his prophet to do so likewise: and sad is the case with men when he lets them alone, and will not disturb their consciences any more by jogs and convictions, but gives them up to a seared conscience, to hardness of heart, and to their own lusts; when he will not hedge up their way with thorns, or distress them with afflictive providences, and hinder them from going on in a course of sin and wickedness; nor give them restraining grace, but suffer them to go on in the broad road, till they drop into hell; and says of them,

let him that is filthy be filthy still, Revelation 22:11 or else they are the words of the prophet to the men of Judah, to have nothing to do with Israel, since they were such backsliders and idolaters; to have no communion and conversation with them, but let them be alone, and worship alone for them; since what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness, light with darkness, Christ with Belial, a believer with an infidel, or the temple of the living God with idols and idolaters? 2 Corinthians 6:14, some take them to be the words of the prophet to God concerning Israel, approving of his righteous judgments, in threatening to feed them as a lamb in a large place; dismiss him thither, suffer and leave him to feed there. The Targum interprets it of their sin, and not their punishment,

"they have left their worship;''

the service of God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ephraim 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 for the time, as in the prophet Ezekiel, “As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, go ye, serve ye every one his idols” Ezekiel 20:39. Sinners often long not to be tormented by conscience or by God’s warnings. To be left so, is to be abandoned by God, as one whose case is desperate. God will not, while there is hope, leave a man to sleep in sin; for so the numbness of the soul increases, until, like those who fall asleep amid extreme cold of the body, it never awakes.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Hosea 4:17. Ephraim — 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.


 
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