Hosea 4:16

For Israel is uncontrolled, like a cow which may not be controlled; now will the Lord give them food like a lamb in a wide place.

Bible in Basic English

In The King James Version

For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place.

In Context

15Do not you, O Israel, come into error; do not you, O Judah, come to Gilgal, or go up to Beth-aven, or take an oath, By the living Lord.

17Ephraim is joined to false gods; let him be.

Read all of Hosea 4

Cross References

Leviticus 26:33And I will send you out in all directions among the nations, and my sword will be uncovered against you, and your land will be without any living thing, and your towns will be made waste.

Isaiah 5:17Then the lambs will get food as in their grass-lands, and the fat cattle will be feasting in the waste places.

Isaiah 22:18Twisting you round and round like a ball he will send you out into a wide country: there you will come to your end, and there will be the carriages of your pride, O shame of your lord's house!

Jeremiah 3:8And though she saw that, because Israel, turning away from me, had been untrue to me, I had put her away and given her a statement in writing ending the relation between us, still Judah, her false sister, had no fear, but went and did the same.

Jeremiah 5:6And so a lion from the woods will put them to death, a wolf of the waste land will make them waste, a leopard will keep watch on their towns, and everyone who goes out from them will be food for the beasts; because of the great number of their sins and the increase of their wrongdoing.

Jeremiah 8:5Why do these people of Jerusalem go back, for ever turning away? they will not give up their deceit, they will not come back.

Matthew Henry on Hosea 4:13-19

The Sins of the Priests and the People; Warning to Judah. ( b. c. 758.) 12 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. 13 They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery. 14 I will not punish… Read the whole commentary →

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