Hosea 4:12

My people have inquired of their stave, and their staff has announced to them. For the spirit of fornication has deceived them, and they have been fornicating before their God.

Catholic Public Domain Version

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

11Fornication, and wine, and drunkenness, have taken away their heart.

13They have offered sacrifice on the tops of the mountains and burnt incense on the hills, under the oak, and the poplar, and the terebinth tree, because its shadow was good; therefore, your daughters will commit fornication and your spouses will be adulteresses.

Read all of Hosea 4

Cross References

Leviticus 17:7And they shall no longer immolate their victims to demons, with whom they have committed fornication. It shall be an everlasting ordinance for them and for their posterity.

Numbers 15:39so that, when they see these, they may remember all the commandments of the Lord, and they may not follow their own thoughts and eyes, fornicating in various ways,

Judges 18:5Then they begged him to consult the Lord, so that they might be able to know whether the journey they undertook would be prosperous, and whether the matter would have success.

2 Chronicles 21:13but instead you have advanced along the paths of the kings of Israel, and you have caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to fornicate, imitating the fornication of the house of Ahab, and moreover, you have killed your brothers, the house of your father, who are better than you:

Isaiah 44:18They have neither known nor understood. For their eyes are obscured, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart.

Jeremiah 2:27For they say to a piece of wood, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You have conceived me.’ They have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their affliction, they will say: ‘Rise up and deliver us.’

Matthew Henry on Hosea 4:7-12

Grounds of God's Controversy with Israel; The Sins of the Priests and People. ( b. c. 758.) 6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. 7 As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame. 8 They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity. 9 And there shall… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Hosea 4:12