Hosea 4:12

"Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding."

Key Reflection

In Hosea 4:12, prostitution, wine, and new wine symbolize behaviors that cloud judgment and lead to moral corruption. These substances and practices not only dull rational thought but also represent broader spiritual decadence, blurring the line between right and wrong in the lives of God's people.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

My people ask counsel at -(literally, “on”) their stocks They ask habitually ; and that, in dependence “on their stocks.” The word “wood” is used of the idol made of it, to bring before them the senselessness of their doings, in that they asked counsel of the senseless wood. Thus Jeremiah reproaches them for “saying to a stock, my father”Jeremiah 2:27; and Habakkuk, “Woe unto him that saith to the wood, awake”Habakkuk 2:19. And their staff declareth unto them -Many sorts of this superstition existed among the Arabs and Chaldees. They were different ways of drawing lots, without any dependence upon the true God to direct it.

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