Your deeds won’t let you return to your God. You are a prostitute through and through, and you do not know the Lord.
Parallel translations
- WEB Their deeds won’t allow them to turn to their God; for the spirit of prostitution is within them, and they don’t know Yahweh.
- KJV They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD.
- BSB Their 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.
- NKJV “They do not direct their deeds Toward turning to their God, For the spirit of harlotry is in their midst, And they do not know the Lord.
- NASB Their deeds will not allow them To return to their God. For a spirit of infidelity is within them, And they do not know the Lord.
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
Their sinful deeds keep them from returning to God, for a spirit of unfaithfulness controls them and they do not know Him. Sin has become a self-perpetuating bondage.
Overview
Israel's habitual sin has so gripped them that repentance has become difficult; their deeds 'won't allow them to turn.' The 'spirit of prostitution' within them and their failure to 'know Yahweh' reveal a heart enslaved to idolatry. The verse shows how sin entangles and blinds, hardening people against return to God. It points to humanity's need for God's gracious initiative to free and renew the heart, a deliverance fulfilled in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Hos 4:12My 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.
- 1 Jn 2:3–4This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments.
- John 8:55You have not known him, but I know him. If I said, ‘I don’t know him,’ I would be like you, a liar. But I know him, and keep his word.
- John 16:3They will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.
- 2 Th 2:11–12Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie;
- Hos 4:1Hear Yahweh’s word, you children of Israel; for Yahweh has a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “Indeed there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.
- John 3:19–20This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.
- Jer 9:24But let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight,” says Yahweh.
- Jer 24:7I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Yahweh: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
- Jer 22:15–16“Shall you reign, because you strive to excel in cedar? Didn’t your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him.
- Hos 4:6My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to me. Because you have forgotten your God’s law, I will also forget your children.
- Jer 50:38A drought is on her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a land of engraved images, and they are mad over idols.
- 1 Sam 2:12Now the sons of Eli were wicked men. They didn’t know Yahweh.
- Ps 36:1–4For the Chief Musician. By David, the servant of Yahweh. An inner sanctuary is within my heart about the disobedience of the wicked: “There is no fear of God before his eyes.”
- Ps 78:8and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn’t make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
- Jer 9:6Your habitation is in the middle of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me,” says Yahweh.
- Ps 9:10Those who know your name will put their trust in you, for you, Yahweh, have not forsaken those who seek you.
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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 5:4 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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