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10 They will eat but not be satisfied;
    they will have sex like prostitutes,
        but they will not have children,
    because they have rejected the Lord
        to devote themselves to 11 false religious practices.

Description of Israel’s idolatry

    Wine and new wine
        destroy understanding.
12 My people take advice from a piece of wood,
    and their divining rod gives them predictions.
        A spirit of prostitution has led them astray;
        they have left God to follow other gods.
13 They offer sacrifices on mountaintops,
        and make entirely burned offerings on hills;
    they offer sacrifices under various green trees,
        because their shade is pleasant.
    Therefore, your daughters act like prostitutes,
        and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
14 I will not punish your daughters because they act like prostitutes,
        nor your daughters-in-law because they commit adultery;
    for the men themselves visit prostitutes,
        and offer sacrifices with consecrated workers at temples;
    so now the people without sense must come to ruin.

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10 They will eat and not be satisfied;
    they will play the whore and not multiply,
because they have forsaken Yahweh to devote themselves to
11     whoredom.[a]
Wine and new wine take away the understanding.[b]
12     My people,
consult their wooden idols,[c]
    and their divining rod gives them oracles;
because a spirit of whoredom led them astray,
    and they played the whore from under their God.[d]
13 On the tops of the mountains they sacrifice,
    and on the hills they make offerings,
under oak, poplar, and terebinth,
    because their[e] shade is good.
Therefore your daughters play the whore,
    and all your daughters-in-law[f] commit adultery.
14 I will not punish your daughters[g] when they play the whore,
    or your daughters-in-law[h] when they commit adultery;
because they go aside with whores,
    and they sacrifice with temple prostitutes,
        a people that does not understand comes to ruin.

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Footnotes

  1. Hosea 4:11 Literally “to watch over whoredom”
  2. Hosea 4:11 Literally “take away heart”
  3. Hosea 4:12 Literally “their wood”
  4. Hosea 4:12 That is, “they played the whore forsaking their God”; See Ezek 23:5
  5. Hosea 4:13 Hebrew “its”
  6. Hosea 4:13 Or “brides”
  7. Hosea 4:14 Literally “I will not visit sins upon your daughters”
  8. Hosea 4:14 Or “brides”