to eat (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural
enough
יִשְׂבָּ֔עוּyis.Ba.'u
H7646
to sate · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
whoredom
הִזְנ֖וּhiz.Nu
H2181
to commit adultery (usually of the female · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person common plural
increase
יִפְרֹ֑צוּyif.Ro.tzu
H6555
to break out (in many applications · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
off
עָזְב֖וּ'a.ze.Vu
H5800
to loosen · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
heed
לִשְׁמֹֽרlish.Mor
H8104
properly · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
LORD
יְהוָ֥הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Micah 6:14 Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee; and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver; a…
Leviticus 26:26 And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by…
Haggai 1:6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there…
Psalms 36:3 The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good.
Psalms 125:5 As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Isra…
Proverbs 13:25 The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul: but the belly of the wicked shall want.
Zephaniah 1:6 And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.
2 Chronicles 24:17 Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Hosea 4:6-11
God is here proceeding in his controversy both with the priests and with the people. The people were as those that strove with the priests (Hos 4:4) when they had priests that did their duty; but the generality of them lived in the neglect of their duty, and here is a word for those priests, and for the people that love to have it so, Jer 5:31. And it is observable here how the punishment answers to the sin, and how, for the justifying of his own proceedings, God sets the one over-against the other.
I. The people strove with the priests that should have taught them the knowledge of God; justly therefore were they destroyed for lack of knowledge, Hos 4:6. Note, Those that rebel against the li…
eat, and not have enough--just retribution on those who "eat up (greedily) the sin of My people" (Hos 4:8; Mic 6:14; Hag 1:6).
whoredom, and . . . not increase--literally "break forth"; used of giving birth to children (Gen 28:14, Margin; compare Gen 38:29). Not only their wives, but their concubines, shall be barren. To be childless was considered a great calamity among the Jews.
Adam Clarke on Hosea 4:10
They shall eat, and not have enough - Whatever means they may use to satisfy or gratify themselves shall be ineffectual.
John Gill on Hosea 4:10
For they shall eat, and not have enough,.... Namely, the priests; for of them the words are continued, who ate of the sacrifices of the people, and of feasts made in honour of idols; and yet, either what they ate did not satisfy or nourish them, or else their appetites were still greedy after more of the same kind: or this may respect a famine, either at the siege of Samaria, or in their captivity; when they who had lived so voluptuously should have so little to eat, that it should not satisfy them: or though, as others, they eat to the honour of their idols, expecting to be blessed with plenty by them, they shall not have it:
they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase; that is, the…
The Church Fathers
A remnant from Israel has been preserved. Since the judgment does not go entirely to the priest, he adds, "They eat, but they are not satisfied." This means either emigration and captivity for those leaders of Israel or, because of Christ, desolation of Judea by the hands of Romans.… For among those Israelites brought then by Shalmaneser and Tiglath-pileser III to Assyria and Media, very few could offer to the priests the things prescribed by the law.
Desire is insatiable, and the more it is felt, the more it creates in those who enjoy it a greater hunger. On the contrary: "Blessed are the ones who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied." For righteousness satisfies, while wickedness—because it has no substance—deceives by fraud those who feed on vain things and leaves empty the stomachs of those who hunger. "They played the whore continually." In fornication they run out of strength, yet the ardent desire of the fornication does not make a pause. The ten tribes played the whore with the idols of Jeroboam son of Naboth.
"They kept the whoredom" means that they [Israel's leaders] got ready to preserve the error for those who were under their authority. Yet they should rather have removed and thrown it from their midst. For it is the vigilance of the teachers which should eagerly remove what hurts the people and turn down without delay what is hateful to God. By refusing to do this, they allow the works of error to stay somehow and to keep. Yet they confirm rather the contrary, when the minds of those who teach receive nothing but wine and drunkenness. For how will the disciples keep vigil, and how will they be able to point the eye of the understanding to God in nature and in truth, if the instructors and the teachers of useful things will still encourage them to err?
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Hosea 4:9-10
9. And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.
9. Et erit, sicut populus sic erit sacerdos: et visitabo super eum vias ejus et opera ejus rependam ci.
10. For 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.
10. Comedent enim et non saturabuntur, scortabuntur et non augescent (vel, crescent, id est,
The Prophet here again denounces on both a common punishment, as neither was free from guilt. As the people, he says, so shall be the priest; that is "I will spare neither the one nor the other; for the priest has abu…
"They will eat, and not be satisfied; they commit whoredom, and do not increase: for they have left off taking heed to Jehovah." The first clause, which still refers to the priests on account of the evident retrospect in ואכלוּ to יאכלוּ in Hos 4:8, is taken from the threat in Lev 26:16. The following word hiznū, to practise whoredom (with the meaning of the kal intensified as in Lev 26:18, not to seduce to whoredom), refers to the whole nation, and is to be taken in its literal sense, as the antithesis לא יפרצוּ requires. Pârats, to spread out, to increase in number, as in Exo 1:12 and Gen 28:14. In the last clause Lשׁמר belongs to Jehovah: they have given up keeping Jehovah, i.e., giving…
God’s judgment matches the punishment to the crime. The Israelites worshiped Canaanite fertility deities with the expectation of bountiful crops and herds, but God’s judgment was that they would still be hungry and their religious prostitution would gain them nothing.
