12 My [a]people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff teacheth them: for the [b]spirit of fornications 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 the oaks, and the poplar tree, and the elm, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall be [c]harlots, and your spouses shall be whores.

14 I will not [d]visit your daughters when they are harlots: nor your spouses, when they are whores: for they themselves are separated with harlots, and sacrifice with whores: therefore the people that doth not understand, shall fall.

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Footnotes

  1. Hosea 4:12 Thus he speaketh by derision in calling them his people, which now for their sins they were not: for they sought help of stocks and sticks.
  2. Hosea 4:12 They are carried away with a rage.
  3. Hosea 4:13 Because they take away God’s honor, and give it to idols: therefore he will give them up to their lusts, that they shall dishonor their own bodies, Rom. 1:28.
  4. Hosea 4:14 I will not correct your shame to bring you to amendment, but let you run headlong to your own damnation.

12 My people consult a wooden idol,(A)
    and a diviner’s rod speaks to them.(B)
A spirit of prostitution(C) leads them astray;(D)
    they are unfaithful(E) to their God.
13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops
    and burn offerings on the hills,
under oak,(F) poplar and terebinth,
    where the shade is pleasant.(G)
Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution(H)
    and your daughters-in-law to adultery.(I)

14 “I will not punish your daughters
    when they turn to prostitution,
nor your daughters-in-law
    when they commit adultery,
because the men themselves consort with harlots(J)
    and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes(K)
    a people without understanding(L) will come to ruin!(M)

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