TRV
Translation
King James Version
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.
Complete Jewish Bible
They will eat but not have enough and consort with whores but have no children, because they stopped listening to ADONAI.
Berean Standard Bible
They will eat but not be satisfied; they will be promiscuous but not multiply. For they have stopped obeying the LORD.
American Standard Version
And they shall eat, and not have enough; they shall play the harlot, and shall not increase; because they have left off taking heed to Jehovah.
World English Bible Messianic
They will eat, and not have enough. They will play the prostitute, and will not increase; because they have abandoned giving to the LORD.
Geneva Bible (1599)
For they shall eate, and not haue ynough: they shall commit adulterie, and shall not increase, because they haue left off to take heede to ye Lord.
Young's Literal Translation
And they have eaten, and are not satisfied, They have gone a-whoring, and increase not, For they have left off taking heed to Jehovah.
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In the KJVVerse 22,144 of 31,102
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Commentary on Hosea 4 verses 6–11
6 ¶ My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
7 As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.
8 They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.
9 And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.
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.
11 Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.
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 light can expect no other than to perish in the dark. Or it is a charge upon the priests, who should have been still teaching the people knowledge (Ecc 12:9), but they did not, or did it in such a manner that it was as if they had not done it at all, so there was no knowledge of God in the land; and because there was no vision, or none to any purpose, the people perished, Pro 29:18. Note, Ignorance is so far from being the mother of devotion that it is the mother of destruction; lack of knowledge is ruining to any person or people. They are my people that are thus destroyed; their relation to God as his people aggravates both their sin in not taking pains to get the knowledge of that God whose command they were under and with whom they were taken into covenant, and likewise the sin of those who should have taught them; God set his children to school to them, and they never minded them nor took any pains with them.
II. Both priests and people rejected knowledge; and justly therefore will God reject them. The reason why the people did not learn, and the priests did not teach, was not because they had not the light, but because they hated it - not because they had not ways of coming to the knowledge of God and of communicating it, but because they had no heart to it; they rejected it. They desired not the knowledge of God's ways, but put it from them, and shut their eyes against the light; and therefore "I will also reject thee; I will refuse to take cognizance of thee and to own thee; you will not know me, but bid me depart; I will therefore say, Depart from me, I know you not. Thou shalt be no priest to me." 1. The priests shall be no longer admitted to the privileges, or employed in the services, of the priesthood, nor shall they ever be received again, as we find, Eze 44:13. Note, Ministers that reject knowledge, that are grossly ignorant and scandalous, ought not to be owned as ministers; but that which they seem to have should be taken away, Luk 8:18. 2. The people shall be no longer as they have been, a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood, Exo 19:6. God's people, by rejecting knowledge, forfeit their honour and profane their own crown.
III. They forgot the law of God, neither desired nor endeavoured to retain it in mind, nor to transmit the remembrance of it to their posterity, and therefore justly will God forget them and their children, the people's children; they did not educate them, as they ought to have done, in the knowledge of God and their duty to him, and therefore God will disown them, as not in covenant with him. Note, If parents do not teach their children, when they are young, to remember their Creator, they cannot expect that their Creator should remember them. Or it may be meant of the priests' children; they shall not succeed them in the priests' office, but shall be reduced to poverty, as is threatened against Eli's house, Sa1 2:20.
IV. They dishonoured God with that which was their honour, and justly therefore will God strip them of it, Hos 4:7. It was their honour that they were increased in number, wealth, power, and dignity. The beginning of their nation was small, but in process of time it greatly increased, and grew very considerable; the family of the priests increased wonderfully. But, as they were increased, so they sinned against God. The more populous the nation grew, the more sin was committed and the more profane they were; their wealth, honour, and power, did but make them the more daring in sin. Therefore, says God, will I change their glory into shame. Are their numbers their glory? God will diminish them and make them few. Is their wealth their glory? God will impoverish them and bring them low; so that they shall themselves be ashamed of that which they gloried in. Their priests shall be made contemptible and base, Mal 2:9. Note, That which is our honour, if we dishonour God with it, will sooner or later be turned into shame to us: for those that despise God shall be lightly esteemed, Sa1 2:30.
V. The priests ate up the sin of God's people, and therefore they shall eat and not have enough. 1. They abused the maintenance that was allowed to the priests, to the priests of the house of Aaron, by the law of God, and to the mock-priests of the calves by their constitution (Hos 4:8): They eat up the sin of my people, that is, their sin-offerings. If it be meant of the priests of the calves, it intimates their seizing that which they had no right to; they usurped the revenues of the priests, though they were no priests. If it be meant of those who were legal priests, it intimates their greediness of the profits and perquisites of their office, when they took no care at all to do the duty of it. They feasted upon their part of the offerings of the Lord, but forgot the work for which they were so well paid. They set their heart upon the people's iniquities; they lifted up their soul to them, that is, they were glad then people did commit iniquity, that they might be obliged to bring an offering to make atonement for it, which they should have their share of; the more sins the more sacrifices, and therefore they cared not how much sin people were guilty of. Instead of warning the people against sin, from the consideration of the sacrifices, which showed them what an offence sin was to God, since it needed such an expiation, they emboldened and encouraged the people to sin, since an atonement might be made at so small an expense. Thus they glutted themselves upon the sins of the people, and helped to keep up that which they should have beaten down. Note, It is a very wicked thing to be well pleased with the sins of others because, in some way or other, they may turn to our advantage. 2. God will therefore deny them his blessing upon their maintenance (Hos 4:10): They shall eat and not have enough. Though they have great plenty by the abundance of offerings that are brought in, yet they shall have no satisfaction in it. Either their food shall yield no good nourishment or their greedy appetites shall not be satisfied with it. Note, What is unlawfully gained cannot be comfortably used; no, nor that which is inordinately coveted; it is just that the desires which are insatiable should always be unsatisfied, and that those should never have enough who never know when they have enough. See Mic 6:14; Hag 1:6.
VI. The more they increased the more they sinned (Hos 4:7), and therefore though they commit whoredom, though they take the most wicked methods to multiply their people, yet they shall not increase. Though they have many wives and concubines, as Solomon had, yet they shall not have their families built up thereby in a numerous progeny, any more than he had. Note, Those that hope any way to increase by unlawful means will be disappointed. And therefore God will thus blast all their projects because they have left off to take heed to the Lord; time was when they had some regard to God, and to his authority over them and interest in them, but they have left it off; they take no heed to his word nor to his providences; they do not eye him in either. They forsake him, so as not to take heed to him; they have apostatized to such a degree that they have no manner of regard to God, but are perfectly without God in the world. Note, Those that leave off to take heed to the Lord leave off all good, and can expect no other than that all good should leave them.
VII. The people and the priests did harden one another in sin; and therefore justly shall they be sharers in the punishment (Hos 4:9): There shall be, like people, like priest. So they were in character; people and priest were both alike ignorant and profane, regardless of God and their duty, and addicted to idolatry: and so they shall be in condition; God will bring judgments upon them, that shall be the destruction both of priest and people; the famine that deprives the people of their meat shall deprive the priests of their meat-offerings, Joe 1:9. It is part of the description of a universal desolation that it shall be as with the people, so with the priest, Isa 24:2. God's judgments, when they come with commission, will make no difference. Note, Sharers in sin must expect to be sharers in ruin. Thus God will punish them both for their ways, and reward them for their doings. God will cause their doings to return upon them (so the word is); when a sin is committed the sinner thinks it is gone and he shall hear no more of it, but he shall find it called over again, and made to return, either to his humiliation or to his condemnation.
VIII. They indulged themselves in the delights of sense, to hold up their hearts; but they shall find that they take away their hearts (Hos 4:11): Whoredom, and wine, and new wine take away the heart. Some join this with the foregoing words. They have forsaken the Lord, to take heed to whoredom, and wine, and new wine. Or, Because these have taken away their heart. Their sensual pleasures have taken them off from their devotions and drowned all that is good in them. Or we may take it as a distinct sentence, containing a great truth which we see confirmed by every day's experience, that drunkenness and uncleanness are sins which besot and infatuate men, weaken and enfeeble them. They take away both the understanding and the courage.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 6–11. Public domain.
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JeromeAD 420
COMMENTARY ON HOSEA 1:4
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.
JeromeAD 420
Commentary on Hosea 4:10-12
"And they shall eat, and not be satisfied: and they have committed fornication, and have not ceased: because they have forsaken the Lord in not keeping him: fornication, and wine, and drunkenness take away the heart. My people hath consulted their stocks, and their staff hath declared unto them: for the spirit of fornication hath deceived them, and they have committed fornication against their God." "And they shall eat, and not be filled:" "they have committed fornication, and shall not be directed: because they have forsaken the Lord, to keep not his law: fornication, and wine, and drunkenness take away the heart of my people. They consulted their wood, and their staff answered them: for the spirit of fornication hath deceived them" "and they have committed fornication against their God." Insatiable pleasure is created, and the more one is captured by it, the more hunger it creates. On the contrary, blessed are the hungry and thirsty for justice, for they will be satisfied. As justice satisfies, so too does iniquity, having no substance, delude those who consume it deceitfully and leave the stomachs of the devourers empty. They have committed fornication and have not ceased. Their strength fails in fornication, and the desire to fornicate does not rest. They committed fornication with the idols of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and left their Lord God, not keeping what he had commanded, saying: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve" (Deuteronomy 6:13), but it should be read emphatically: Fornication and wine and drunkenness take away the heart. For just as wine and drunkenness make him who drinks thereof incapable of his own mind, so does fornication and pleasure pervert the senses and weaken the spirit; and it turns a rational man into a brute animal, so that he pursues brothels, dens of vice, and places of debauchery. And when his heart is stirred out of its place, he holds wood and stones as gods, and worships the works of his own hands. Hence the prophet, as if amazed and bewildered, speaks: “My people who were once called by my name have asked counsel of a wooden idol, and have sought intuition from rods, which the Greeks call divination by rods." Therefore in Ezekiel we read that Nebuchadnezzar mixed his rods against Ammon and Jerusalem, and a rod went forth against Jerusalem (Ezek. 25): and the cause of this madness of fornication is the spirit that deceived them, so that they might fornicate against their God. But he calls fornication idolatry, according to what we read in Jeremiah: "And they committed adultery with wood and stone, and I said, After they have committed adultery with all these things, return to me, but she did not return with all her heart, but with lies." And again: "You have left me and said, I will go on every high hill, and under every green tree I will spread myself in my fornication" (Jer. 3:5, 6). And in the Psalm it is said: 'You have destroyed all who commit fornication away from you' (Ps. 72:27). For the beginning of fornication is the invention of idols. Heretics are never satisfied with their own error, and do not cease from the disgracefulness of fornication. They do not keep the holy Law and Scriptures, abandon the Lord, become insane and inebriated, and, with the judgment of their mind destroyed, worship idols which they themselves have fashioned from their hearts and are possessed by the spirit of fornication.
Cyril of AlexandriaAD 444
COMMENTARY ON HOSEA 3:42
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.
Cyril of AlexandriaAD 444
COMMENTARY ON HOSEA 3:43
“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?
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Hosea 4:10 powerfully articulates the dire consequences of Israel's spiritual unfaithfulness, revealing that their pursuit of physical gratification and idolatrous practices will lead to perpetual dissatisfaction and barrenness. This futility is a direct and inevitable result of their deliberate abandonment of the Lord and their refusal to heed His divine instruction, underscoring the deep spiritual decay that permeated the nation.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Hosea 4:10 employs several potent literary devices to convey its message. The most prominent is Parallelism, specifically Antithetical Parallelism, where the first two clauses present a cause-and-effect relationship in parallel structure: "eat, and not have enough" followed by "commit whoredom, and shall not increase." Each phrase describes a pursuit and its opposite, negative outcome, emphasizing the futility. Metaphor is central to the verse, particularly the use of "whoredom" to represent Israel's idolatry and spiritual infidelity to Yahweh. This powerful imagery conveys the depth of their betrayal, likening it to marital unfaithfulness. The verse also functions as a clear statement of Cause and Effect, explicitly linking Israel's spiritual neglect ("because they have left off to take heed to the LORD") to the negative consequences of dissatisfaction and barrenness. Finally, there is an element of Irony in the verse: the very acts (eating for satisfaction, whoredom for increase) that Israel pursues to find fulfillment or prosperity are precisely what lead to their opposite outcomes – insatiable hunger and barrenness.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Hosea 4:10 serves as a profound theological statement on the nature of true satisfaction and the devastating consequences of covenant unfaithfulness. It underscores the biblical truth that genuine fulfillment and lasting blessing are found exclusively in a devoted relationship with the one true God, Yahweh. When humanity, like ancient Israel, turns away from the Lord to pursue self-gratification, idolatry, or worldly desires, these pursuits become a source of perpetual emptiness rather than the promised satisfaction. This verse highlights God's unwavering commitment to His covenant, even as He pronounces judgment for its violation, revealing His justice intertwined with His desire for His people's return. It is a timeless warning against spiritual apathy and the deceptive allure of anything that replaces God as the ultimate source of life and joy.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Hosea 4:10 resonates deeply with contemporary life, offering a timeless warning against misplaced priorities and the pursuit of false satisfactions. In a world saturated with consumerism and the constant pursuit of more—more possessions, more experiences, more validation—this verse reminds us that true "enoughness" is not found in accumulation or indulgence, but in spiritual contentment derived from a relationship with God. Similarly, the "whoredom" of our age might manifest not just in sexual immorality, but in any devotion or pursuit that displaces God from the center of our lives—be it career, reputation, entertainment, or even ministry itself when it becomes an idol. When we "leave off to take heed to the LORD," we inevitably find ourselves in a cycle of dissatisfaction, always consuming but never truly full, always striving but never truly increasing in what truly matters. This verse calls us to a radical re-evaluation of our desires and allegiances, urging us to re-center our lives on God as the sole source of lasting joy, purpose, and true abundance.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Does "whoredom" in Hosea 4:10 refer only to literal sexual immorality?
Answer: While "whoredom" (Hebrew, zânâh) certainly includes literal sexual immorality and cultic prostitution, in the prophetic context of Hosea, its primary and more profound meaning is spiritual adultery. Israel, as the covenant bride of Yahweh, had turned away from exclusive devotion to Him and engaged in idolatry, worshipping foreign gods like Baal. This betrayal of their covenant relationship is consistently depicted as spiritual prostitution throughout the book of Hosea. Thus, the verse refers to both the physical acts of immorality prevalent in their society and, more significantly, the nation's profound unfaithfulness to God through idolatry and reliance on foreign alliances, which were also considered acts of spiritual "whoredom" against the Lord (Hosea 1:2).
How does "not have enough" relate to "not increase" in this verse?
Answer: These two phrases describe different facets of the same divine judgment and futility. "Not have enough" (Hebrew, sâbaʻ) speaks to a perpetual state of dissatisfaction despite consumption or indulgence. It highlights the inherent emptiness of seeking fulfillment outside of God; no matter how much they "eat," they remain spiritually hungry. "Not increase" (Hebrew, pârats) refers to a lack of true growth, blessing, or fruitfulness, particularly in the context of their "whoredom." In ancient Israel, fertility and multiplication were seen as blessings from God. Their idolatrous practices, often tied to fertility cults, were meant to bring increase, but instead, they resulted in barrenness. Together, the phrases illustrate a comprehensive judgment: their pursuits yield neither personal satisfaction nor communal prosperity, a direct consequence of their spiritual abandonment of the LORD.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Hosea 4:10, with its stark portrayal of Israel's spiritual barrenness and perpetual dissatisfaction due to their abandonment of the LORD, finds its ultimate resolution and fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Israel's "whoredom" was their turning away from the true God to false idols, seeking life and satisfaction where it could not be found. Jesus, as the true and faithful Bridegroom, comes to reclaim His unfaithful people, offering the true "increase" and "enoughness" that the old covenant system, broken by human sin, could not provide. He is the "bread of life" who declares, "whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst" (John 6:35), directly addressing the "eat, and not have enough" curse. Furthermore, Jesus embodies the perfect "taking heed to the LORD," living a life of absolute obedience and devotion to the Father, thus reversing Israel's failure to "take heed." Through His atoning sacrifice, He cleanses us from our spiritual "whoredom" (idolatry and sin) and imputes His righteousness, enabling us to bear true spiritual fruit (increase) through the Holy Spirit (John 15:5). In Christ, the insatiable hunger of the human heart is finally satisfied, and true, eternal fruitfulness is made possible, not through human effort or false gods, but through union with Him, the one who perfectly fulfilled the Law and restored our relationship with the Father.