Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give ye.
Parallel translations
- WEB Their drink has become sour. They play the prostitute continually. Her rulers dearly love their shameful way.
- BSB When their liquor is gone, they turn to prostitution; their rulers dearly love disgrace.
- NKJV Their drink is rebellion, They commit harlotry continually. Her rulers dearly love dishonor.
- NASB Their liquor is gone, They prostitute themselves continually; Their rulers dearly love shame.
- NLT When the rulers of Israel finish their drinking, off they go to find some prostitutes. They love shame more than honor.
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
Even when their drink is gone, the people persist in immorality, and their rulers love their shameful ways. Corruption reaches from the people to the leaders.
Overview
Israel's addiction to immorality continues unabated, and its leaders, who should restrain evil, instead cherish disgraceful conduct. The verse shows how deeply sin has saturated every level of society, with the rulers loving what they ought to loathe. Such love of shame reveals a conscience so corrupted that evil has become desirable, the very condition that invites God's judgment.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Prov 30:15–16The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:
- Mic 3:11The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
- Ps 47:9The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted.
- Exod 23:8And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.
- Hos 4:10For 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.
- Hos 4:2By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
- Mic 7:3That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.
- Jer 2:21Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?
- Amos 5:12For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
- Deut 32:32–33For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:
- 2 Kgs 17:7–17For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,
- 1 Sam 12:3–4Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you.
- 1 Sam 8:3And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.
- Deut 16:19Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.
- Isa 1:21–22How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
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 4:18 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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