Hosea 4:13

They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is pleasant. And so your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Hosea delivers this oracle to the northern kingdom of Israel during a period of systemic covenant betrayal. The prophet addresses the community directly, linking their unauthorized worship locations to the breakdown of family integrity.

The words — The Hebrew יְקַטֵּרוּ (yəqaṭṭērū) literally means "they make smoke," describing the ritual burning of offerings. תַּ֣חַת (taḥaṯ) translates as "under," specifying the physical placement of these altars beneath the shade of oak, poplar, and terebinth trees.

The thread — This practice of high-place worship under trees appears in Jeremiah 3:6, Isaiah 1:29, and Ezekiel 6:13, where elevated shrines and sacred groves consistently mark covenant violation. The prophetic texts treat these locations as sites of illicit syncretism rather than legitimate worship.

Why it lands — The passage directly states that illicit ritual locations produce familial sexual immorality, presenting a causal chain rather than a moral warning. It requires readers to acknowledge that unauthorized worship generates tangible social and relational collapse.

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 sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery.

Cross-references

Jeremiah 3:6 Now in the days of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree to prostitute herself there.
Isaiah 1:29 Surely you will be ashamed of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted; you will be embarrassed by the gardens that you have chosen.
Ezekiel 6:13 Then you will know that I am the LORD, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and leafy oak—the places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.
Amos 7:17 Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be divided by a measuring line, and you yourself will die on pagan soil. And Israel will surely go into exile, away from their homeland.’”
2 Samuel 12:10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’
Job 31:9 If my heart has been enticed by my neighbor’s wife, or I have lurked at his door,
Isaiah 57:5 who burn with lust among the oaks, under every luxuriant tree, who slaughter your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?
Isaiah 57:7 On a high and lofty hill you have made your bed, and there you went up to offer sacrifices.
Jeremiah 2:20 “For long ago you broke your yoke and tore off your chains, saying, ‘I will not serve!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down as a prostitute.
Jeremiah 3:13 Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the LORD your God. You have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every green tree and have not obeyed My voice,’” declares the LORD.