The Lord's case against Israel .sx Hosea 4.1-9.9 .sx The opening of the case .sx 4.1-3 The rest of the book of Hosea is made up of a collection of prophetic sayings and we hear no more about his life or activities .sx It begins with what looks like a 'motto' oracle introducing the theme of the whole collection ( cf .sx Amos 1.2 and Isa .sx ) .sx It takes the form of a legal disputation and consists of a call to hear in v. 1 , the charge in the second half of v. 1 and v. 2 , and the judicial sentence in v. 3 .sx Some think this 'form' was borrowed from a special legal ceremony connected with the Feast of Tabernacles , when annually or every seven years the law was read and the people judged against it ( Deut .sx ) .sx On the basis of an acknowledgment that they had broken it and that it was now binding upon them for the future , the covenant was renewed .sx The apparent references to the Decalogue in v. 2 may support this view .sx It is equally possible , however , that the procedure was well known both in the main centres where legal cases were judged and in the less formal gathering of the elders of a town or city to maintain justice there ( cf .sx Amos ) .sx The charge against Israel is spelled out in two ways , first in general and then in more specific terms .sx Good faith and loyalty are those very qualities which YHWH had promised to show to his people through Moses ( Ex .sx 34.6 ) and which were therefore required from his people both to him and to one another .sx Psalm 12 similarly complains that these qualities are not to be found in Israel .sx Next comes acknowledgement of God .sx REB has translated the same word in v. 6 as knowledge and it would probably have been better to have done so here .sx The word is especially important for Hosea .sx It means more than intellectual awareness and probably more than acknowledgement as we normally use that word .sx It often carries with it an idea of intimacy and close relationship ( cf .sx Amos ) .sx If there was no " knowledge of God " in Israel it means that by failure to show good faith and loyalty they had spurned their proper relationship with God .sx KNOWLEDGE OF GOD .sx Since the idea of 'knowing' is so common in Hosea it may be helpful at this point to examine it more closely .sx The verb 'to know' in Hebrew has a wide range of meanings .sx It was thoroughly investigated by the late Professor D. Winton Thomas in a number of articles and studies .sx The variation of meaning is so wide that it may be there are two identical Hebrew roots with different meanings , one meaning 'to know' and the other meaning 'to humble' or 'to humiliate' .sx There are places like Gen .sx 4.1 , where the meaning clearly is 'to have intercourse with' ( REB " lay with " ) , in which it is hard to decide which of the two roots is being used , always supposing there are two .sx To begin with , 'knowledge' can and often does refer to the acquisition of information and the cerebral processes involved in that .sx An illustration of the verb's use in this simple sense may be found in II Sam .sx 11.20 ( " You must have known .sx .. " ) .sx In the book of Proverbs the noun 'knowledge' is used fairly frequently as a parallel to 'understanding' or even 'wisdom' ( cf .sx Prov .sx 14.6 ) , where it refers not only to the information acquired but also to the process of the ability to acquire it .sx Then too , as in English , the verb may be used with a person as its object .sx Sometimes it merely means 'to be acquainted with' someone ; sometimes it denotes a deeper relationship , 'to be familiar' .sx Unless it is derived from the second root meaning 'to humiliate' , the sexual usage mentioned above is a vivid use of the word in this sense of being familiar .sx All this means that the exact connotation of the words , both verb and noun , has to be decided in the light of the context in which it is used .sx In v. 6 of this chapter , where the context is the teaching of the priests , it most probably means knowledge of the law , i.e. intellectual , mental awareness of its demands .sx Similarly in 9.7 and 11.3 it refers to knowledge of certain facts .sx But in v. 2 of the present chapter , where God is the object , it possibly means more than awareness or recognition of God and is used of the relationship with him which ought to exist if only people showed good faith and loyalty .sx The familiar relationship which ought to be the mark of the chosen people no longer exists .sx In 5.4 it is this same relationship which is broken or prevented by their sin .sx The same meaning is found in 6.3,6 ; 8.2 ; 13.4. 4.2 sets out some specific ways in which the lack of good faith , loyalty and knowledge of God is manifested .sx Kill , rob and commit adultery are all deeds forbidden in the Decalogue in Ex .sx 20.13-15. To swear oaths and break them or to swear them with no intention of keeping them is close to " taking the Lord's name in vain " .sx These particular wrongs are probably examples of a complete breakdown in social order in which acts of violence resulting in the frequent shedding of blood were commonly experienced .sx These sins were punishable not just because they were breaches of the law .sx The law was a guide to living in good faith and loyalty , and failure in respect of the law was simply a sign of a more fundamental malaise , namely the lack of all those qualities which held YHWH's people together .sx The judicial sentence in v. 3 is introduced by the usual Therefore and is directed against the land and therefore against all who live in it .sx It will affect also the wildlife , for all living things depend on the fertility of the land , which the Israelites thought was provided by Baal ( 2.5 ) and which YHWH , the true giver , would withdraw ( ) .sx As remarked on 2.18 , there is a bond between humanity and nature .sx The fortunes of the two are inseparable ( cf .sx Gen .sx 3 ; Isa .sx 11 ; Rom , ) .sx The case against a priest .sx 4.4-6 If vv .sx 1-3 are a 'motto' oracle they lead naturally into this next passage which is highly critical of the priests whose duty it was to teach the law to the people .sx Part at least of the reason for the people's disobedience was the failure of the priests to fulfil this responsibility .sx The Hebrew of v. 4 is difficult to understand but REB has probably caught the right meaning , though it involves some slight change in the text of the third line .sx The court case with which the collection has opened is not one brought by a human being , not even by Hosea himself ; it is brought by YHWH who addresses his people through his prophet and his quarrel is largely with the priest .sx The priest is addressed in the singular .sx Whether it refers to the priest in charge at Bethel ( cf .sx Amos 7.10-16 ) or some other one in , say , Samaria we cannot say .sx It could just possibly be used in a collective sense .sx In the second line of v. 5 Hosea mentioned the prophet alongside the priest .sx Since he criticized prophets nowhere else , some commentators have been inclined to omit this line as a later comment recalling , for instance , the confrontation between Jeremiah and Hananiah ( Jer .sx ) .sx But there had been and probably still were false prophets in Israel ( I Kings 22) .sx Moreover the actual word order of the Hebrew suggests that lines one and two are parallel and , further , the prophet , like the priest , was responsible for making known the mind and purpose of God .sx Literally , the last line of v. 5 should be translated 'and I will destroy your mother' .sx This is extremely unlikely to be what Hosea meant .sx There is a rare word very similar to the word for 'mother' which means 'people' or nation , and REB is doubtless correct to follow this meaning , especially as the last line of v. 5 is then parallel with the first line of v. 6 , leaving two more parallel lines in v. 6 .sx As was stated above , knowledge in v. 6 seems closer to mental grasp than to relationship with God .sx The people have lacked adequate knowledge of God's will and have come to ruin , but it is fundamentally the fault of the priest who had rejected knowledge and forsaken the teaching ( Hebrew t o-circ r a h sometimes means 'law') .sx Therefore YHWH will reject him and forsake his children .sx Thus there is a serious warning here for all those in positions of leadership whose responsibility it is to pass on to their people the message of God concerning the way they live their lives .sx Ezekiel makes a similar point when he describes the prophet as a watchman ( Ezek .sx 3.16-21 ; cf .sx Hosea ) .sx Priests and people devoid of understanding .sx 4.7-14 This section again begins with an attack on the priests , moves on to include both people and priest ( v. 9 ) and then seems to be critical of the whole people .sx It is clear from v. 7 that Hosea is not critical of the priesthood as an institution .sx It is an office which carries with it dignity , a word sometimes translated 'honour' or 'glory' .sx It is the sin of the priest which causes him to turn their dignity into dishonour .sx Here , however , the sin is not limited to one priest but to the priesthood of Hosea's day as a whole .sx In v. 8 the verb batten is used in the sense of 'grow fat on' .sx RSV's " greedy for " is perhaps closer to the Hebrew .sx The verb means that the priests welcome it when the people sin and are anxious for it to happen more often because it means more sacrifice and , since they share the offered meat , more food for them .sx Verse 9 seems to extend the punishment to both people and priest , yet the word eat in v. 10 looks as though it is picking up the feed of v. 8 ( it is the same word in the Hebrew ) and that may suggest that v. 10 refers only to the priests .sx REB seems to understand this with its resort to prostitutes .sx The word is usually translated 'play the harlot' and naturally the subject is usually feminine .sx The only place where a man is the subject of the verb is in Num .sx 25.1 , and this is during an incident to which Hosea refers again later ( ) .sx There it refers to participation in the Canaanite sexual orgies , and so it is quite likely that here it refers to the priests sharing in the Canaanite fertility rites ; but their union with cultic prostitutes will produce no offspring .sx This accords well with the fact that they have abandoned the LORD ( vv .sx 10 c-11 a) .sx The rest of the passage ( vv .sx 11 b-14 ) certainly seems to refer to the whole people and not just to the priests .sx The wine which steals my people's wits may be either wine drunk at parties or wine used to excess in Canaanite religious rites as is suggested by vv .sx 12 and 13 .sx The mockery of seeking advice from a piece of wood reminds us of the prophet of the exile who also makes fun of idolatry ( Isa , 40.18ff. ; ) .sx To be fair , those who worshipped idols did not usually believe that a piece of wood was a god , but rather that the spirit or god lived in the wood .sx Still , the mockery is effective .sx Canaanite shrines were often situated on mountain tops and terebinths were sacred trees .sx In Hosea it is never easy to be sure whether promiscuity ( v.12 ) refers to activities within the cult or to activities in life generally or , metaphorically , to Israel's attitude to YHWH .sx Similarly although v. 14 c and d refer to cultic prostitution , vv .sx 13 e and f , 14 a and b may refer to sexual irregularities outside worship , encouraged by what went on inside .sx