Ezechielis 4:15

Nova Vulgata

Si fornicaris tu, Israel, non delinquat saltem Iuda; et nolite ingredi in Galgala et ne ascenderitis in Bethaven neque iuraveritis: "Vivit Dominus".

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
Verumtamen germen radicum ejus in terra sinite, et alligetur vinculo ferreo et �reo in herbis qu� foris sunt, et rore c�li tingatur, et cum feris pars ejus in herba terr�.

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
Si fornicaris tu, Isra�l,
non delinquat saltem Juda;
et nolite ingredi in Galgala,
et ne ascenderitis in Bethaven,
neque juraveritis: Vivit Dominus!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

play: Hosea 4:12, Jeremiah 3:6-10, Ezekiel 23:4-8

yet: Hosea 11:12, 2 Kings 17:18, 2 Kings 17:19, Jeremiah 3:10, Jeremiah 3:11, Luke 12:47, Luke 12:48, Ephesians 5:11

Gilgal: Hosea 9:15, Hosea 12:11, Amos 4:4, Amos 5:5

Bethaven: Hosea 5:8, Hosea 10:5, Hosea 10:8, 1 Kings 12:28, 1 Kings 12:29

nor: Isaiah 48:1, Jeremiah 5:2, Ezekiel 20:39, Amos 6:10, Amos 8:14, Zephaniah 1:5, Zephaniah 1:6

Reciprocal: Genesis 28:19 - the name Genesis 38:24 - played the harlot Joshua 7:2 - Bethaven Joshua 18:12 - the wilderness 1 Samuel 13:5 - Bethaven 2 Samuel 19:20 - Joseph 2 Kings 2:23 - Bethel 2 Kings 17:13 - and against 2 Kings 23:4 - Bethel 2 Chronicles 17:4 - not after Jeremiah 3:8 - when for Jeremiah 5:7 - sworn by Micah 1:1 - concerning

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend,.... That is, though the Israelites, the people of the ten tribes, committed adultery, both corporeal and spiritual, in their idolatrous worship, as before observed, to which they had been used ever since the times of Jeroboam the first, and were hardened therein, and from which there were little hopes of reforming them; yet let not the men of Judah be guilty of the same crimes, who have as yet retained the pure worship of God among them; where the house of God is, and the priests of the Lord officiate, and sacrifices are offered up to him according to his will, and all other parts of religious service are performed: or the whole seems to be directed to Israel, as an exhortation to them, that though they had given into such abominations, yet should be careful not to offend Judah, or cause them to stumble and fall, and become guilty of the same sins, and so be exposed to the same punishment; and which would be an aggravation of Israel's sin, to draw others into it with them:

and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Bethaven; to worship idols in those places; otherwise it might be lawful to go to them on any civil accounts: Gilgal was upon the borders of the ten tribes, between them and Judah, where Joshua circumcised the Israelites; kept the first passover in the land; and where the ark and tabernacle were for a time; and perhaps for these reasons was chosen for a place of idolatrous worship: Bethaven is the same with Bethel, the name Jacob gave it, signifying the house of God; but when Jeroboam set up one of his calves here, the prophets, by way of contempt, called it Bethaven, the house of iniquity, or the house of an idol; though there was a place called Bethaven near Bethel, and Ai, as Kimchi observes, and as appears from Joshua 7:2, yet Bethel was sometimes so called, as it seems to be here, because of the idolatry in it; and so the Talmudists u say, the place called Bethel is now called Bethaven. Now the question is, whether Judah or Israel are here addressed; many interpreters carry it in the former sense, as if the men of Judah were dissuaded from going to these places for worship, when the temple, the proper place of worship, was in their own tribe; but the speech seems rather to be directed to the Israelites, to stop going to these places for worship; for being so near to Judah, they might be the means of ensnaring and drawing them into the same idolatrous practices:

nor swear, the Lord liveth; or swear by the living God, so long as they worshipped idols; for it was not well pleasing to God to have his name used by idolaters, or joined with their idols: especially as they meant their idol when they swore by the Lord.

u T. Hieros Avoda Zara, fol. 43. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let not Judah offend - The sentence of Israel had been pronounced; she had been declared incorrigible. The prophet turns from her now to Judah. Israel had abandoned God’s worship, rejected or corrupted His priests, given herself to the worship of the calves; no marvel what further excess of riot she run into! But Judah, who had the law and the temple and the service of God, let not her, (he would say,) involve herself in Israel’s sin. If Israel, in willful blindness, had plunged herself in ruin, let not Judah involve herself in her sin and her ruin. He turns (as elsewhere) incidentally to Judah.

Come ye not unto Gilgal - Gilgal lay between Jericho and the Jordan. There, ten furlongs from the Jordan, first in all the promised land, the people encamped; there Joshua placed the monument of the miraculous passage of the Jordan; there he renewed the circumcision of the people which had been intermitted in the wilderness, and the feast of the passover; there the people returned, after all the victories by which God gave them possession of the land of promise Joshua 4:19-20; Joshua 5:9-10; Joshua 9:6; Joshua 10:6-9, Joshua 10:43; Joshua 14:6. There Samuel habitually sacrificed, and there, “before the Lord,” i. e., in His special covenanted presence, he publicly made Saul king 1 Samuel 10:8; 1 Samuel 11:14-15; 1Sa 13:4-9; 1 Samuel 15:21, 1 Samuel 15:33. It was part of the policy of Jeroboam to take hold of all these associations, as a sort of set-off against Jerusalem and the temple, from which he had separated his people. In opposition to this idolatry, Elisha for a time, established there one of the schools of the prophets 2 Kings 4:38.

Neither go ye up to Bethaven - “Bethaven,” literally, “house of vanity,” was a city East of “Bethel” Joshua 7:2, “the house of God.” But since Jeroboam had set up the worship of the calves at Bethel, Bethel had ceased to be “the house of God,” and had become “a house or temple of vanity;” and so the prophet gave it no more its own name which was associated with the history of the faith of the patriarchs, but called it what it had become. In Bethel God had twice appeared to Jacob, when he left the land of promise Genesis 28:10, Genesis 28:19 a to go to Laban, and when he returned Genesis 35:1, Genesis 35:9. There also the ark of God was for a time in the days of the judges removed from Shiloh Judges 20:26-27, near to which on the south Judges 21:19 Bethel lay. It too Jeroboam profaned by setting up the calf there. To these places then, as being now places of the idolatry of Israel, Judah is forbidden to go, and then to “swear, the Lord liveth.” For to swear by the Lord in a place of idolatry would be to associate the living God with idols Zephaniah 1:5, which God expressly forbade.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Hosea 4:15. Let not Judah offend — Israel was totally dissolute; Judah was not so. Here she is exhorted to maintain her integrity. If the former will go to what was once Beth-el, the house of God, now Beth-aven, the house of iniquity, because Jeroboam has set up his calves there, let not Judah imitate them. Gilgal was the place where the covenant of circumcision was renewed when the people passed over Jordan; but was rendered infamous by the worship of idols, after Jeroboam had set up his idolatry.