Bible Strands
Hosea 10:4
They speak mere words; with false oaths they make covenants. So judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Hosea addresses the northern kingdom of Israel during a period of political fragmentation and idolatry, immediately after the people declared they no longer needed a king because they refused to revere the LORD.
The words — שָׁ֖וְא (shav') = falsehood and כָּ/רֹאשׁ֙ (ka./roSh) = poisonous plant.
The thread — Hosea 4:2 catalogues cursing, lying, murder, and adultery as markers of national decay. Amos 5:7 and 6:12 similarly record the distortion of justice and righteousness, though neither passage references false oaths or covenant-making.
Why it lands — The text states that human agreements built on empty speech and deceit inevitably produce destructive consequences, demanding that readers recognize the tangible ruin that follows when truth is abandoned.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.
Cross-references
- Hosea 4:2 Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.
- Amos 5:7 There are those who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness to the ground.
- Amos 6:12 “Do horses gallop on the cliffs? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—
- Deuteronomy 29:18 Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that bears such poisonous and bitter fruit,
- 2 Kings 17:3 Shalmaneser king of Assyria attacked him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute.
- Ezekiel 17:13 He took a member of the royal family and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath. Then he carried away the leading men of the land,
- Isaiah 5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.
- Isaiah 59:13 rebelling and denying the LORD, turning away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lies from the heart.
- Hosea 6:7 But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant; there they were unfaithful to Me.
- Acts 8:23 For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and captive to iniquity.”