They will eat, and not have enough. They will play the prostitute, and will not increase; because they have abandoned giving to Yahweh.
Parallel translations
- KJV 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.
- BSB They will eat but not be satisfied; they will be promiscuous but not multiply. For they have stopped obeying the LORD.
- NKJV For they shall eat, but not have enough; They shall commit harlotry, but not increase; Because they have ceased obeying the Lord.
- NASB They will eat, but not have enough; They will play the prostitute, but not increase, Because they gave up devoting themselves to the Lord.
- NLT They will eat and still be hungry. They will play the prostitute and gain nothing from it, for they have deserted the Lord
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Their indulgence in food and immorality will fail to satisfy or multiply them, because they abandoned the Lord. Sin yields emptiness, not fulfillment.
Overview
Eating without being filled and pursuing immorality without increase picture the futility that follows forsaking God. The blessings of nourishment and offspring are withheld because the people have 'abandoned giving to Yahweh,' turning from true worship. The verse teaches that sin promises satisfaction but delivers frustration, for fullness of life is found only in faithful devotion to God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Mic 6:14You shall eat, but not be satisfied. Your humiliation will be within you. You will store up, but not save; and that which you save I will give up to the sword.
- Hag 1:6You have sown much, and bring in little. You eat, but you don’t have enough. You drink, but you aren’t filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm, and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes in it.”
- Lev 26:26When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight. You shall eat, and not be satisfied.
- Prov 13:25The righteous one eats to the satisfying of his soul, but the belly of the wicked goes hungry.
- Ps 125:5But as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways, Yahweh will lead them away with the workers of iniquity. Peace be on Israel.
- Ps 36:3The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He has ceased to be wise and to do good.
- Zeph 1:6those who have turned back from following Yahweh, and those who haven’t sought Yahweh nor inquired after him.
- 2 Pet 2:20–22For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
- Mal 2:1–3“Now, you priests, this commandment is for you.
- Hos 4:14I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute, nor your brides when they commit adultery; because the men consort with prostitutes, and they sacrifice with the shrine prostitutes; so the people without understanding will come to ruin.
- Ezek 18:24“But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? None of his righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered. In his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them he shall die.
- Hos 9:11–17As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird. There will be no birth, no one with child, and no conception.
- 2 Chr 24:17Now after the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came, and bowed down to the king. Then the king listened to them.
- Isa 65:13–16Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold, my servants will eat, but you will be hungry; behold, my servants will drink, but you will be thirsty. Behold, my servants will rejoice, but you will be disappointed;
- Jer 34:15You had now turned, and had done that which is right in my eyes, in every man proclaiming liberty to his neighbor; and you had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name;
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Christ at the center
God's relentless love for an unfaithful bride dramatizes the gospel: 'Out of Egypt I called my son' is fulfilled in Jesus, who redeems an adulterous people at his own cost.
How Hosea 4:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.