nd your spouses shall be
adulteresses.

4:14. I will not visit upon your daughters, when they shall commit
fornication, and upon your spouses when they shall commit adultery:
because themselves conversed with harlots, and offered sacrifice with
the effeminate, and the people that doth not understand shall be beaten.

4:15. If thou play the harlot, O Israel, at least let not Juda offend:
and go ye not into Galgal, and come not up into Bethaven, and do not
swear: The Lord liveth.

Galgal and Bethaven... Places where idols were worshipped. Bethel, which
signifies the house of God, is called by the prophet, Bethaven, that is,
the house of vanity, from Jeroboam's golden calf that was worshipped
there.

4:16. For Israel hath gone astray like a wanton heifer now will the Lord
feed them, as a lamb in a spacious place.

4:17. Ephraim is a partaker with idols, let him alone.

4:18. Their banquet is separated, they have gone astray by fornication:
they that should have protected them have loved to bring shame upon
them.

4:19. The wind hath bound them up in its wings, and they shall be
confounded because of their sacrifices.

Osee Chapter 5

God's threats against the priests, the people, and princes of Israel,
for their idolatry.

5:1. Hear ye this, O priests, and hearken, O ye house of Israel, and
give ear, O house of the king: for there is a judgment against you,
because you have been a snare to them whom you should have watched over
and a net spread upon Thabor.

O priests... What is said of priests in this prophecy is chiefly
understood of the priests of the kingdom of Israel; who were not true
priests of the race of Aaron; but served the calves at Bethel and Dan.

5:2. And you have turned aside victims into the depth and I am the
teacher of them all.

5:3. I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me for now Ephraim hath
committed fornication, Israel is defiled.

5:4. They will not set their thoughts to return to their God: for the
spirit of fornication is in the midst of them, and they have not known
the Lord.

5:5. And the pride of Israel shall answer in his face: and Israel, and
Ephraim shall fall in their iniquity, Juda also shall fall with them.

5:6. With their flocks and with their herds, they shall go to seek the
Lord, and shall not find him: he is withdrawn from them.

5:7. They have transgressed against the Lord: for they have begotten
children that are strangers: now shall a month devour the