Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Hosea · About this commentary
Ephraim Is Joined to Idols
Hosea 4:15-19
15 “Though you, Israel, play the prostitute, yet don’t let Judah offend; and don’t come to Gilgal, neither go up to Beth Aven, nor swear, ‘As Yahweh lives.’ · WEB
A shrine's name is turned into an insult, and the chapter ends with the bleakest three words God says in the book.
Verse 15 separates the audiences: though you, Israel, play the prostitute, yet don't let Judah offend. The northern kingdom is addressed and the south is warned off — a distinction the book keeps making Hosea 1:7.
The two shrines named are Gilgal and Beth Aven, and the second is a deliberate corruption. The place was Bethel, house of God; the book calls it house of iniquity, and uses the nickname again twice Hosea 5:8 Hosea 10:5. A prophet renames a sanctuary by changing one word.
The last prohibition in the verse is the most uncomfortable: nor swear, As Yahweh lives. Using the covenant name in an oath, at those shrines, is forbidden — not because the name is wrong but because the setting makes the oath a lie.
Verse 16 gives the animal image: Israel like a stubborn heifer, and then a question with no answer supplied — how will Yahweh feed them like a lamb in a meadow?
And verse 17 is the chapter's coldest sentence. Ephraim is joined to idols. Leave him alone!
Three words of abandonment, and they are the more terrible for what surrounds them. This is the book whose God asks how can I give you up, Ephraim? seven chapters later Hosea 11:8, and whose first chapters describe him hedging a road with thorns to stop a runaway. Here he says leave him. The book records both and reconciles neither, and the reader is meant to feel the distance between them.
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