Bible Strands
Hosea 4:7
The more they multiplied, the more they sinned against Me; they exchanged their Glory for a thing of disgrace.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks through the prophet Hosea to a covenant people who have rejected His law and forgotten His knowledge. This declaration marks a judicial reversal where their demographic expansion directly fuels their rebellion.
The words — The Hebrew כְּרֻבָּם (kerubbam, "as they increased") and כְּבוֹדָם (kevodam, "their glory") frame a direct exchange where numerical growth intensifies sin and divine honor is traded for disgrace.
The thread — This pattern of prosperity breeding pride and shame appears in Hosea 13:6, where satisfaction leads to a proud heart, and parallels Philippians 3:19, which describes those whose end is destruction as having their glory in their shame.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that spiritual decline often accelerates alongside material or demographic growth, requiring readers to examine whether their own increase produces obedience or idolatry.
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
As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.
Cross-references
- Hosea 13:6 When they had pasture, they became satisfied; when they were satisfied, their hearts became proud, and as a result they forgot Me.
- Philippians 3:19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.
- 1 Samuel 2:30 Therefore, the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now the LORD declares: Far be it from Me! For I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disdained.
- Hosea 4:10 They will eat but not be satisfied; they will be promiscuous but not multiply. For they have abandoned the LORD to give themselves
- Hosea 10:1 Israel was a luxuriant vine, yielding fruit for himself. The more his fruit increased, the more he increased the altars. The better his land produced, the better he made the sacred pillars.
- Malachi 2:9 “So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not kept My ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”
- Ezra 9:7 From the days of our fathers to this day, our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities, we and our kings and priests have been delivered into the hands of the kings of the earth and subjected to the sword and to captivity, to pillage and humiliation, as we are this day.
- Jeremiah 2:26 As the thief is ashamed when he is caught, so the house of Israel is disgraced. They, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets
- Hosea 5:1 “Hear this, O priests! Take heed, O house of Israel! Give ear, O royal house! For this judgment is against you because you have been a snare at Mizpah, a net spread out on Tabor.
- Hosea 6:9 Like raiders who lie in ambush, so does a band of priests; they murder on the way to Shechem; surely they have committed atrocities.