When the rulers of Israel finish their drinking, off they go to find some prostitutes. They love shame more than honor.
Parallel translations
- WEB Their drink has become sour. They play the prostitute continually. Her rulers dearly love their shameful way.
- KJV Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give ye.
- 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.
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 30:15–16“The leach has two daughters: ‘Give, give.’ “There are three things that are never satisfied; four that don’t say, ‘Enough:’
- Mic 3:11Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, “Isn’t Yahweh among us? No disaster will come on us.”
- Ps 47:9The princes of the peoples are gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God. He is greatly exalted!
- Exod 23:8“You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.
- Hos 4:10They will eat, and not have enough. They will play the prostitute, and will not increase; because they have abandoned giving to Yahweh.
- Hos 4:2There is cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break boundaries, and bloodshed causes bloodshed.
- Mic 7:3Their hands are on that which is evil to do it diligently. The ruler and judge ask for a bribe; and the powerful man dictates the evil desire of his soul. Thus they conspire together.
- Jer 2:21Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a pure and faithful seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?
- Amos 5:12For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins — you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn aside the needy in the courts.
- Deut 32:32–33For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poison grapes. Their clusters are bitter.
- 2 Kgs 17:7–17It was so because the children of Israel had sinned against Yahweh their God, who 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 12:3–4Here I am. Witness against me before Yahweh, and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Of whose hand have I taken a ransom to make me blind my eyes? I will restore it to you.”
- 1 Sam 8:3His sons didn’t walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.
- Deut 16:19You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous.
- Isa 1:21–22How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice; righteousness lodged in her, 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
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.