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Deuteronomy 32:32,33
For their vineis of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapesare grapes of gall, their clustersare bitter: …

Isaiah 1:21,22
How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers…

Jeremiah 2:21
Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?

sour.

Hosea 4:2,10
By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood…

2 Kings 17:7-17
Forso it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, …

her.

Exodus 23:8
And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.

Deuteronomy 16:19
Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.

1 Samuel 8:3
And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.

rulers.

Psalm 47:9
The princes of the people are gathered together,even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earthbelong unto God: he is greatly exalted.

they turn to prostitution
Prostitution here is both literal and metaphorical, representing Israel's unfaithfulness to God. In the ancient Near East, prostitution was often linked to pagan worship practices, including fertility rites. Israel's turning to prostitution symbolizes their idolatry and spiritual adultery, as they forsake their covenant with God for false gods (Jeremiah 3:6-9). This imagery is consistent throughout Hosea, where Israel is depicted as an unfaithful spouse (Hosea 1:2).

their rulers dearly love disgrace
The rulers' love for disgrace indicates a deep-seated corruption among Israel's leadership. Instead of guiding the people in righteousness, the leaders embrace shameful practices, leading the nation further into sin. This reflects the broader biblical principle that leadership is accountable to God and has a profound impact on the spiritual direction of a nation (Proverbs 29:12). The rulers' actions contrast with the ideal of godly leadership exemplified by figures like King David, who, despite his flaws, sought to honor God (1 Samuel 13:14). The love for disgrace also foreshadows the judgment that will come upon Israel due to their leaders' failure to uphold God's standards (Hosea 5:1).

- “When their liquor is gone” (Hosea 4:18) pictures the moment the bottles are empty and the revelry ends.

• The prophet exposes how temporary pleasures collapse: “In the end it bites like a snake” (Proverbs 23:32–33).

• As soon as the buzz fades, emptiness surfaces—much like the prodigal “when he had spent everything” (Luke 15:14).

• Scripture warns “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion” (Ephesians 5:18). God’s Word states the fact plainly: what feels liberating in the moment leaves the soul barren.

- With the cup drained, “they turn to prostitution” (Hosea 4:18). The language is literal and spiritual: Israel ran to bodily immorality at the pagan shrines, mirroring her heart-level unfaithfulness to the LORD.

• Earlier Hosea declared, “The land is committing blatant prostitution by departing from the LORD” (Hosea 1:2).

• Wooden idols and carved poles could not satisfy; they merely whispered lies (Hosea 4:12).

• God had already warned, “You must not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, or they will invite you to eat their sacrifices and you will take up their prostitution” (Exodus 34:15–16).

• James echoes the charge: “Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?” (James 4:4). Whenever the heart abandons God’s covenant love, it inevitably looks for substitutes that defile.

- “Their rulers dearly love disgrace” (Hosea 4:18). Leadership that should model holiness instead applauds corruption.

• “For those who guide this people mislead them, and those they guide are swallowed up” (Isaiah 9:16).

• Micah condemns officials who “judge for a bribe… yet they lean on the LORD and say, ‘Is not the LORD among us?’” (Micah 3:11).

• Jeremiah laments, “The prophets prophesy falsely… and My people love it so” (Jeremiah 5:31).

• When rulers crave shameful gain, the nation follows—proving the truth of Hosea’s earlier verdict: “Like people, like priest” (Hosea 4:9).

Hosea 4:18 captures Israel’s downward spiral in three swift strokes: temporary indulgence that ends in emptiness, a reflexive rush to deeper sin, and leaders who celebrate the very disgrace they should restrain. The verse warns that when any society trades sober devotion for fleeting pleasures, idolatrous cravings fill the vacuum and even its shepherds may learn to love the darkness. The only rescue is wholehearted return to the Lord, whose covenant love alone satisfies and restores.

(1) it denotes a charge of drunkenness preferred against Ephraim. To this vice the people of the northern kingdom, as is well known, were addicted: the wine, from oft-repeated potations, became sour in the stomach and produced loathsome eructations.

(2) Some, connecting closely the first and second clauses, and translating as in the margin, explain the meaning to be that "when their intoxication is gone they commit whoredom." But though drunkenness and debauchery frequently go together, it is rather during the former than afterwards that the latter is indulged in.

(3) The first clause had better be understood figuratively, and the latter either literally or figuratively, or both. Thus the sense is the degeneracy of principle among the people in general, or rather among the principal men of that day. By the finest wine becoming vapid, the prophet represents the leading men of the nation, on whom so much depended and from whom so much might be expected, as becoming unprincipled, and as being addicted to immorality or idolatry, or probably both (hazneh hiznu): "whoring they have committed whoredom." . . .

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