Promiscuity, wine, and new wine take away understanding.
Parallel translations
- WEB Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding.
- KJV Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.
- NKJV “Harlotry, wine, and new wine enslave the heart.
- NASB ¶Infidelity, wine, and new wine take away the understanding.
- NLT to worship other gods. “Wine has robbed my people of their understanding.
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
Prostitution and drunkenness rob the people of understanding. Indulgence in sin clouds the mind and corrupts judgment.
Overview
Sexual immorality, often bound up with idolatrous worship, together with wine and strong drink, strips away the capacity for sound thinking. The verse diagnoses how sin enslaves not only the body but also the mind, dulling discernment. It warns that habitual indulgence leaves a person spiritually and morally senseless, unable to grasp the truth of God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Prov 20:1Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by them is not wise.
- Luke 21:34But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare.
- Isa 28:7These also stagger from wine and stumble from strong drink: Priests and prophets reel from strong drink and are befuddled by wine. They stumble because of strong drink, muddled in their visions and stumbling in their judgments.
- Prov 23:27–35For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an adulteress is a narrow well.
- Prov 6:32He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself.
- Eccl 7:7Surely extortion turns a wise man into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.
- Isa 5:12At their feasts are the lyre and harp, tambourines and flutes and wine. They disregard the actions of the LORD and fail to see the work of His hands.
- Hos 4:12My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God.
- Rom 13:11–14And do this, understanding the occasion. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 4:11 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.