Chapter 5
Continues God's grievances against Israel.
vs 4 is scary:
4 Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the LORD. [Hos 5:4 ESV]
There is a line that can be crossed, then never uncrossed:
Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the Lord. [Hos 5:4 ESV]
Here is that spirit again. And the first phrase says they missed their last chance, and the door is now closed for them.
2024 - Here is the verse in KJV....a bit different:
4 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. [Hos 5:4 KJV].
This gives a significantly different meaning than ESV - at least at first blush. ESV seems to say that the ability to return to God has been removed. KJV seems to say they won't do what is necessary to return to God, not that they cannot. In the KJV, the fault is squarely on the people, but in ESV the implication is that God is acting to prevent their return. Here is what Barnes says about it:
"They will not frame their doings ... - They were possessed by an evil spirit, impelling and driving them to sin; "the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them," i. e., in their very inward self, their center, so to speak; in their souls, where reside the will, the reason, the judgment; and so long as they did not, by the strength of God, dislodge him, they would and could not frame their acts, so as to repent and turn to God. For a mightier impulse mastered them and drove them into sin, as the evil spirit drove the swine into the deep.
...
For the spirit which possessed them hindered them from thought, from memory, from conception of spiritual things. They did not turn to God,
(1) because the evil spirit held them, and so long as they allowed his hold, they were filled with carnal thoughts which kept them back from God.
(2) they did not know God; so that, not knowing how good and how great a good He is in Himself, and how good to us, they had not even the desire to turn to Him, for love of Himself, yea even for love of themselves. They saw not, that they lost a loving God. "
Through God, they could have overcome the spirit that possessed and hindered them, but they had to want to do so. The spirit inside them prevented them in very great measure from remembering the blessings of God, such that it just never occurred to them to change. This is a demonic thing. I see no reason to believe such a spirit is not active in the world today. Think of those videos whee someone pro-abortion zealot is just spitting and hissing mad that anyone would try and take away their "right" to kill children. How do they get that way? Perhaps they are possessed by a spirit such as Hosea here describes...even in the modern world.
2026 - Interesting that as this little book starts Hosea is commanded to take a whore as his wife. We are not talking skank here, we are talking about a working woman who makes a living on her back with all that goes with that.
And the theme shows up over and over in the book.
2023 - Look at this strange verse: 7 They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD; for they have borne alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields. [Hos 5:7 ESV]. Is this about intermarriage with other nations? Is it about leaving their boys uncircumcised? The new moon devours? What in the world does that mean? MSB no help at all.
2024 - But Barnes is!
"For they have begotten strange children - God had made it a ground of the future blessing of Abraham, "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment" Genesis 18:19. But these, contrariwise, themselves being idolaters and estranged from God, had children, who fell away like themselves, strangers to God, and looked upon as strangers by Him. The children too of the forbidden marriages with the pagan were, by their birth, strange or foreign children, even before they became so in act; and they became so the more in act, because they were so by birth. The next generation then growing up more estranged from God than themselves, what hope of amendment was there?
Now shall a month devour - The word now denotes the nearness and suddenness of God's judgments; the term "month," their rapidity. A "month" is not only a brief time, but is almost visibly passing away; the moon, which measures it, is never at one stay, waxing until it is full, then waning until it disappears. Night by night bears witness to the month's decay. The iniquity was full; the harvest was ripe; "now," suddenly, rapidly, completely, the end should come."
((These references are from https://biblehub.com/commentaries/hosea/5-7.htm which is an excellent online resource for some of these passages that seem very difficult.))
2026 - Here is how the NASB95 translates vs 7:
7 They have dealt treacherously against the LORD, For they have borne illegitimate children. Now the new moon will devour them with their land. [Hos 5:7 NASB95].
This is also pushing toward the explanation that Barnes gives us. Strange because they were not being taught at all about the God of their fathers.
Strange because they were born to at least one parent who worshiped idols.
Strange because in some cases they were a second or third generation separated from the teaching of God. This is what happened to Israel in Egypt and that last generation just had to be discarded and God started over.
Explain the new moon? New moon is darkness. The darkest night of the month. Devoured when you can't even see what's out there.
Is this what leads to being so far out that you cannot frame a return? A second post...or is this one first?