Hosea 4:3 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Hosea 4:3
Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
mourn
תֶּאֱבַ֣לte.'e.Val
H56
to bewail · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
dwelleth
יוֹשֵׁ֣בyo.Shev
H3427
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
languish
וְאֻמְלַל֙ve.'um.Lal
H535
to droop · conjunction + verb, pual sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
beasts
בְּחַיַּ֥תbe.chai.Yat
H2416
alive · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
field
הַשָּׂדֶ֖הha.sa.Deh
H7704
a field (as flat) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
fowls
וּבְע֣וֹףu.ve.'of
H5775
a bird (as covered with feathers · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
heaven
הַשָּׁמָ֑יִםha.sha.Ma.yim
H8064
the sky (as aloft · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
fishes
דְּגֵ֥יde.Gei
H1709
a fish (often used collectively) · noun, common masculine plural construct
sea
הַיָּ֖םhai.Yam
H3220
a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
away
יֵאָסֵֽפוּye.'a.Se.fu
H622
to gather for any purpose · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
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
Zephaniah 1:3 I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; an…
Isaiah 24:4-12 The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
Nahum 1:4 He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.
Jeremiah 12:4 How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed,…
Ezekiel 38:20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth,…
Amos 5:16 Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! a…
Jeremiah 4:27-28 For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.
Isaiah 33:9 The earth mourneth and languisheth: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fru…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Hosea 4:1-5
Here is, I. The court set, and both attendance and attention demanded: "Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for to you is the word of this conviction sent, whether you will hear or whether you will forbear." Whom may God expect to give him a fair hearing, and take from him a fair warning, but the children of Israel, his own professing people? Yea, they will be ready enough to hear when God speaks comfortably to them; but are they willing to hear when he has a controversy with them? Yes, they must hear him when he pleads against them, when he has something to lay to their charge: The Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, of this land, of this holy land. Note,…
land . . . languish-- (Isa 19:8; Isa 24:4; Joe 1:10, Joe 1:12).
sea--including all bodies of water, as pools and even rivers (see on Isa 19:5). A general drought, the greatest calamity in the East, is threatened.
Adam Clarke on Hosea 4:3
Therefore shall the land mourn - Fruitful seasons shall be denied.
That dwelleth therein shall languish - Endemic and epidemic disorders shall prevail, and multitudes shall die; so that mourning shall be found in all quarters.
The beasts of the field, and with the fowls - There is a death of cattle and domestic animals, in consequence of the badness of the season.
The fishes of the sea also shall be taken away - Those immense shoals which at certain seasons frequent the coasts, which are caught in millions, and become a very useful home supply, and a branch of most profitable traffic, they shall be directed by the unseen influence of God to avoid our coasts, as has frequently been the case w…
Therefore shall the land mourn,.... Because of the calamities on it, the devastations made in it; nothing growing upon it, through a violent drought; or the grass and corn being trodden down, or eaten up, by a foreign army:
and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish; that is, every man, an inhabitant thereof, shall become weak, languish away, and die through wounds received by the enemy; or for want of food, or being infected with the wasting and destroying pestilence:
with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; the one shall die in the field for want of grass to eat, and the other shall drop to the earth through the infection of the air:
yea, the fishes of the sea…
The Church Fathers
Therefore the earth will mourn, and all who dwell in it will be weakened: in the beast of the field and in the bird of the sky, and even the fish of the sea will be gathered. " LXX: "Therefore the earth will mourn and be diminished with all who dwell in it, with the beasts of the field," "with the serpents of the earth, and with the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea will fail." For there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God on earth, but on the contrary, curse, lying, homicide, theft, and adultery have flooded in and blood has touched blood: therefore the earth will mourn with its inhabitants, and be weakened, so that it will not have beasts of the field, and birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea will fail. For when the captivity of the ten tribes shall have come, with the inhabitant being taken away, even the beasts of the earth and the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea shall fail; and even the mute elements shall feel the wrath of the Lord. Let whoever does not believe that this happened to the people of Israel look at Illyria, look at Thrace, at Macedonia and Pannonia, and the entire land that stretches from Propontis and the Bosphorus to the Julian Alps, and they will prove that all creatures, which were previously fed by the Creator for human use, will fail along with men. But if we wish, as some think, to interpret savage men as beasts, and birds of the air as those who are lifted up in pride, and all things human as those which are contemptible, and fishes of the sea as those which are irrational, and so brutes that they have absolutely no sense, and do not see free air and sky: this is not so much the wrath as the mercy of the Lord, that the evils which are among men may be taken away from the earth.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
B · Often cut off for the sins of men — Often cut off for the sins of men
Birds · Often suffered for man’s sin — Often suffered for man’s sin
Homicide · 24:22; — 24:22;
Mercy · Denunciations against those devoid of — Denunciations against those devoid of
Swearing, Profane · Nations visited for — Nations visited for
Theft · Brings a curse on those who commit it — Brings a curse on those who commit it
Truth · .Punished for want of — .Punished for want of
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Hosea 4:3
3. Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
3. Propterea Ingebit (vel, succidetur; ml enim utrunque significat) omnis habitans in ea, in bestia agri, in volucre coeli atque etaim piscibus maris collingentur omnes, vel, tollentur e medio.)
The Prophet now expresses more clearly the dispute which he mentions in the first verse; and it now evidently appears, that it was not a judgment expressed in words, for God had in vain tried to bring the people to the right way by threats and reproofs: he had contended enough with then; the…
These crimes bring the land to ruin. Hos 4:3. "Therefore the land mourns, and every dweller therein, of beasts of the field and birds of the heaven, wastes away; and even the fishes of the sea perish." These words affirm not only that the inanimate creation suffers in consequence of the sins and crimes of men, but that the moral depravity of men causes the physical destruction of all other creatures. As God has given to man the dominion over all beasts, and over all the earth, that he may use it for the glory of God; so does He punish the wickedness of men by pestilences, or by the devastation of the earth. The mourning of the earth and the wasting away of the animals are the natural result…
God’s judgment inevitably falls upon sinful people. Because of the Israelites’ sin, their land and all of nature would suffer.
Rashi on Hosea 4:3
shall...mourn the land shall be destroyed and the mourning therein shall grow.
shall be diminished Heb. יֵאָסְפוּ. Jonathan renders: diminished because of their sins. It is an expression of destruction, similar to, “I will utterly consume them (אָסֹף אֲסִיפֵם)” (Jeremiah 8:13).
