CHAPTER 4

(780 B.C.)

GODS INDICTMENT OF ISRAEL

¹Hear the Word of the LORD, you Children of Israel: for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. (All of this Chapter, except Verse 15, is addressed to the Ten Tribes; and yet Grace calls them My People [Vss. 6, 8]. The phrase, For the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, is a strong statement indeed! It refers to a judicial inquiry and cause.)

²By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood touches blood. (They break out, speaks of the terrible sins mentioned and presents the allusion of water overflowing its banks and spreading in all directions. It means to break through the wall.)

JUDGMENT ON ISRAEL

³Therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone who dwells therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yes, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. (Therefore shall the land mourn, is the result of the sins of Verse 2, for the evils detailed result from not knowing God. The phrases concerning the Beasts of the field, Fowls of heaven, and Fishes of the sea specify that all of Creation, animate and inanimate, suffer as a result of mans sin [Rom. 8:22].)

⁴Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for your people are as they who strive with the Priest. (This refers back to the true position of the High Priest in Israel, whose word was Law; consequently, there was no point in striving with him. Consequently, it is also useless concerning the coming Judgment.

Nor reprove another, refers to further admonishment as being hopeless!)

⁵Therefore shall you fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with you in the night, and I will destroy your mother. (The first part of this Verse has to do with both people and prophet, which actually refers to false prophets, and that all would fall alike, whether day or night. The destruction of the mother has to do with the entirety of the nation. As a nation, they would exist no more.)

⁶My People are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shall be no Priest to Me: seeing you have forgotten the Law of your God, I will also forget your children. (My People are destroyed for lack of knowledge, is the cause of all the problems in the church, and the world, for that matter! The knowledge spoken of is the Bible. This lack of knowledge was not ignorance, but rather a willful rejection of the Law of God. They didnt know, but it was because they didnt want to know!)

⁷As they were increased, so they sinned against Me: therefore will I change their glory into shame. (The increase speaks both numerically and economically. Therefore will I change their glory into shame, may also read: My glory have they changed into shame; that is, they substituted an idol for God.)

⁸They eat up the sin of My People, and they set their heart on their iniquity. (They eat up the sin of My People, actually meant that the Priests ate the Sin Offering instead of offering it as a Burnt Offering, as they were supposed to do.)

⁹And there shall be, like people, like Priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings. (Like people, like Priests, they were one in guilt and, therefore, justly one in punishment. The word reward is generally used in the positive sense, but here it is used in the negative!)

¹⁰For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the LORD. (They shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase, means that because of whoredom, i.e., idolatry, the Lord will stop the numerical increase of the nation. A large population was then desired, because it represented strength. It was because they have left off to take heed to the LORD.)

¹¹Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart. (Idol worship and its licentious rites destroy the understanding and make men insensible to their own good.)

ISRAELS IDOLATRY; JUDGMENT

¹²My People ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declares unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms has caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God. (The phrase, Their stocks, refers to wooden idols. Their staff refers to divination rods [Ezek. 21:21-22].)

¹³They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery.

¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people who do not understand shall fall. (The tops of mountains, of hills, and of houses were chosen for the worship of idols because they were nearer to the sun, moon, and stars. The wives and daughters were guilty of actual adultery, because their husbands and fathers had volunteered them to temple prostitution; consequently, the Lord, impatient with the recital of such shameful licentiousness and indignant at such presumptuous sinning, closes abruptly with the declaration of the ruin of all such offenders with the words, the people who do not understand shall fall.

In other words, anyone who would have no more spiritual sense than this, especially those who belong to God, can expect coming Judgment.)

WARNING TO JUDAH

¹⁵Though you, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not you unto Gilgal, neither go you up to Beth-aven, nor swear, The LORD lives. (Though you, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend, means that Israel had passed the point of no return. Judah is advised to not follow suit. Nor swear, The LORD lives, refers to idol worship which associated God with idols.)

¹⁶For Israel slides back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place. (This Verse could read, Israel is refractory as a refractory heifer, that is, one who throws the yoke off its neck. Now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place, means that He will scatter them in Exile throughout the whole world of that day. They will resemble a lamb taken into a wilderness and left to range the wild and live at large, but without provision and without protection. Consequently, untended by the shepherds watchful care, unguarded from ravening wolves or other beasts of prey, such a lamb is in a lost and perishing condition.)

¹⁷Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone. (Ephraim, being the dominant Tribe, gave its name, along with Israel, to the Northern Kingdom. Joined to idols, means that he is mated or united to his idols and will not get a divorce from them.

Let him alone, refers to the Lord ceasing any and all effort to salvage the situation; consequently, Jehovah says to the Prophet, cease to reprove, for it is of no use.)

¹⁸Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give you. (Committed whoredom continually, shows that idolatry was the cause of their Spiritual condition, which would result in their destruction. Her rulers with shame do love, Give you, pertains to the leaders of the nation, who were supposed to lead the People to Jehovah, but instead led them toward idol worship, encouraging them in this direction, with the words, Give you, i.e., Give you devotion to idols!)

¹⁹The wind has bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices. (The wind, i.e., the spirit of idolatry [Vs. 12], carries its devotees into bondage, and the result of their sacrifices is that they are put to shame. As a result, the wind will become a strong storm of Divine Wrath, which will seize on Ephraim, wrapping her up with its wings, and will carry her away.

While the time would come that she would be ashamed because of these heathen sacrifices, still, it would be too late, for the nation by then would have been completely destroyed.)