My 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.
Parallel translations
- WEB My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God.
- KJV My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.
- NKJV My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, And their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, And they have played the harlot against their God.
- NASB My people consult their wooden idol, and their diviner’s wand informs them; For a spirit of infidelity has led them astray, And they have been unfaithful, departing from their God.
- NLT They ask a piece of wood for advice! They think a stick can tell them the future! Longing after idols has made them foolish. They have played the prostitute, serving other gods and deserting their God.
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
The people consult wooden idols and are led astray by a 'spirit of prostitution.' Their idolatry is spiritual adultery against God.
Overview
Seeking guidance from lifeless wood exposes the folly of idolatry, in which people trust objects they themselves have made. The 'spirit of prostitution' describes an inner bent toward unfaithfulness that drives them from God. The marriage imagery of the earlier chapters resurfaces here, naming idolatry as betrayal of the covenant Lord. The verse calls God's people to see how foolish and faithless it is to seek life from anything other than Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Jer 2:27say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their backs to Me and not their faces, yet in the time of trouble they beg, ‘Rise up and save us!’
- Hos 5:4Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God, for a spirit of prostitution is within them, and they do not know the LORD.
- Hab 2:19Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ or to silent stone, ‘Arise!’ Can it give guidance? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all.”
- Num 15:39These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the commandments of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by following your own heart and your own eyes.
- Deut 31:16And the LORD said to Moses, “You will soon rest with your fathers, and these people will rise up and prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake Me and break the covenant I have made with them.
- Isa 44:18–20They do not comprehend or discern, for He has shut their eyes so they cannot see and closed their minds so they cannot understand.
- Ezek 23:1–49Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
- 2 Th 2:9–11The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder,
- Lev 20:5then I will set My face against that man and his family and cut off from among their people both him and all who follow him in prostituting themselves with Molech.
- Ezek 16:1–63Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
- 2 Chr 21:13but you have walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and have caused Judah and the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves, just as the house of Ahab prostituted itself. You have also killed your brothers, your father’s family, who were better than you.
- Ps 73:27Those far from You will surely perish; You destroy all who are unfaithful to You.
- Lev 17:7They must no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat demons to which they have prostituted themselves. This will be a permanent statute for them for the generations to come.’
- Jer 3:1–3“If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers—and you would return to Me?” declares the LORD.
- Jer 10:8But they are altogether senseless and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!
- Ezek 21:21For the king of Babylon stands at the fork in the road, at the junction of the two roads, to seek an omen: He shakes the arrows, he consults the idols, he examines the liver.
- Hos 9:1Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations, for you have played the harlot against your God; you have made love for hire on every threshing floor.
- Mic 2:11If a man of wind were to come and say falsely, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be just the preacher for this people!
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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 4:12 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
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