I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.
Parallel translations
- WEB I 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.
- BSB I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go off with prostitutes and offer sacrifices with shrine prostitutes. So a people without understanding will come to ruin.
- NKJV “I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry, Nor your brides when they commit adultery; For the men themselves go apart with harlots, And offer sacrifices with a ritual harlot. Therefore people who do not understand will be trampled.
- NASB I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute, Or your brides when they commit adultery, Because the men themselves slip away with the prostitutes And offer sacrifices with temple prostitutes; So the people without understanding are ruined.
- NLT But why should I punish them for their prostitution and adultery? For your men are doing the same thing, sinning with whores and shrine prostitutes. O foolish people! You refuse to understand, so you will be destroyed.
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
God says He will not single out the women for punishment, since the men themselves consort with cult prostitutes; a people without understanding falls into ruin. Shared guilt brings shared destruction.
Overview
The men who frequented the shrine prostitutes were as guilty as the daughters and brides, so judgment falls on all. God's point is not to excuse the women but to expose the hypocrisy of men who led the way into idolatrous immorality. The closing line, 'the people without understanding will come to ruin,' restates the chapter's theme that a nation lacking the knowledge of God destroys itself.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- 1 Cor 6:16What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
- Hos 4:1Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
- Eph 4:18Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
- Prov 28:5Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the LORD understand all things.
- Isa 56:11Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.
- Hos 14:9Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.
- 2 Kgs 23:7And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.
- John 8:43Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
- Dan 12:10Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
- Hos 4:17Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.
- 1 Kgs 14:23–24For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.
- Rom 3:11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
- Isa 44:18–20They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.
- Heb 12:8But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
- 1 Kgs 15:12And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.
- Deut 23:17There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
- Isa 1:5Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
- Hos 4:5–6Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.
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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 4:14 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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