Hosea 4:13
New International Version
They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar and terebinth, where the shade is pleasant. Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

New Living Translation
They offer sacrifices to idols on the mountaintops. They go up into the hills to burn incense in the pleasant shade of oaks, poplars, and terebinth trees. “That is why your daughters turn to prostitution, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

English Standard Version
They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the whore, and your brides commit adultery.

Berean Standard Bible
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.

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
They offer sacrifices on the mountaintops, And burn incense on the hills, Under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, Because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters commit harlotry, And your brides commit adultery.

New American Standard Bible
They offer sacrifices on the tops of the mountains And burn incense on the hills, Under oak, poplar, and terebinth, Because their shade is pleasant. Therefore your daughters play the prostitute, And your brides commit adultery.

NASB 1995
They offer sacrifices on the tops of the mountains And burn incense on the hills, Under oak, poplar and terebinth, Because their shade is pleasant. Therefore your daughters play the harlot And your brides commit adultery.

NASB 1977
They offer sacrifices on the tops of the mountains And burn incense on the hills, Under oak, poplar, and terebinth, Because their shade is pleasant. Therefore your daughters play the harlot, And your brides commit adultery.

Legacy Standard Bible
They offer sacrifices on the tops of the mountains And burn incense on the hills, Under oak, poplar, and terebinth Because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the harlot, And your brides commit adultery.

Amplified Bible
They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains And burn incense on the hills, Under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, Because the shade is pleasant there. Therefore your daughters play the prostitute And your brides commit adultery.

Christian Standard Bible
They sacrifice on the mountaintops, and they burn offerings on the hills, and under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, because their shade is pleasant. And so your daughters act promiscuously and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
They sacrifice on the mountaintops, and they burn offerings on the hills, and under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, because their shade is pleasant. And so your daughters act promiscuously and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

American Standard Version
They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and terebinths, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters play the harlot, and your brides commit adultery.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
On tops of the mountains they have done sacrifice and upon the hills they placed sweet spices, under oak or poplar or terebinth, because its shade is excellent, because of this your daughters will commit whoredom and your brides shall commit adultery

Brenton Septuagint Translation
They have sacrificed on the tops of the mountains, and on the hills they have sacrificed under the oak and poplar, and under the shady tree, because the shade was good: therefore your daughters shall go a-whoring, and your daughters-in-law shall commit adultery.

Contemporary English Version
You offer sacrifices on mountaintops and hills, under oak trees, and wherever good shade is found. Your own daughters and daughters-in-law sell themselves for sex.

Douay-Rheims Bible
They offered sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burnt incense upon the hills: under the oak, and the poplar, and the turpentine tree, because the shadow thereof was good: therefore shall your daughters commit fornication, and your spouses shall be adulteresses.

English Revised Version
They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and terebinths, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters commit whoredom, and your brides commit adultery.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
They offer sacrifices on mountaintops, and they burn incense on the hills under oaks, poplars, and other trees. They think that these trees provide good shade. "That is why your daughters become prostitutes, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

Good News Translation
At sacred places on the mountaintops they offer sacrifices, and on the hills they burn incense under tall, spreading trees, because the shade is so pleasant! "As a result, your daughters serve as prostitutes, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

International Standard Version
They offer sacrifices on the mountain tops, burning offerings on the hills, under oaks, poplars, and terebinth trees, since their shade is very good. Therefore your daughters are prostitutes and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

JPS Tanakh 1917
They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, And offer upon the hills, Under oaks and poplars and terebinths, Because the shadow thereof is good; Therefore your daughters commit harlotry, And your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

Literal Standard Version
On tops of the mountains they sacrifice, | And on the hills they make incense, | Under oak, and poplar, and terebinth, | For good [is] its shade.

Majority Standard Bible
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.

New American Bible
On the mountaintops they offer sacrifice and on the hills they burn incense, Beneath oak and poplar and terebinth, because of their pleasant shade. Therefore your daughters prostitute themselves, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

NET Bible
They sacrifice on the mountaintops, and burn offerings on the hills; they sacrifice under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is so pleasant. As a result, your daughters have become cult prostitutes, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery!

New Revised Standard Version
They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and make offerings upon the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the whore, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

New Heart English Bible
They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks and poplars and shady terebinths, because its shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the prostitute, and your brides commit adultery.

Webster's Bible Translation
They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shade of them is agreeable: therefore your daughters shall be guilty of lewdness, and your spouses shall commit adultery.

World English Bible
They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, because its shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the prostitute, and your brides commit adultery.

Young's Literal Translation
On tops of the mountains they do sacrifice, And on the hills they make perfume, Under oak, and poplar, and terebinth, For good is its shade.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
God's Charges Against Israel
12My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God. 13They 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. 14I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go off with prostitutes and offer sacrifices with shrine prostitutes. So a people without understanding will come to ruin.…

Cross References
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.

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 3:6
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.

Jeremiah 44:8
Why are you provoking Me to anger by the work of your hands by burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have gone to reside? As a result, you will be cut off and will become an object of cursing and reproach among all the nations of the earth.

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.

Hosea 2:13
I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she burned incense to them, when she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers. But Me she forgot," declares the LORD.

Hosea 10:8
The high places of Aven will be destroyed--it is the sin of Israel; thorns and thistles will overgrow their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, "Cover us!" and to the hills, "Fall on us!"


Treasury of Scripture

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

sacrifice.

Isaiah 1:29
For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.

Isaiah 57:5,7
Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks? …

Jeremiah 3:6,13
The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot…

therefore.

2 Samuel 12:10-12
Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife…

Job 31:9,10
If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door; …

Amos 7:17
Therefore thus saith the LORD; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.

Jump to Previous
Adultery Agreeable Brides Burn Commit Daughters Good Guilty Harlotry Hills Incense Lewdness Mountains Oaks Offer Play Poplars Prostitute Sacrifice Shade Shadow Spouses Terebinths Thereof Tops Whoredom
Jump to Next
Adultery Agreeable Brides Burn Commit Daughters Good Guilty Harlotry Hills Incense Lewdness Mountains Oaks Offer Play Poplars Prostitute Sacrifice Shade Shadow Spouses Terebinths Thereof Tops Whoredom
Hosea 4
1. God denounces judgments on Israel, for their aggravated impieties and iniquities.
12. He exposes the ignorance and wickedness of the priests,
13. and moral dissolution of the people,
14. he will leave their wives and daughters to commit lewdness, without present punishment.
15. He warns Judah, not to imitate Israel's crimes, which are still further reproved.














(13) The tops of the hills were continually chosen for idolatrous temples, i.e., "high places."

Poplar--i.e., the white poplar, not the storax of the LXX., which is a shrub only a few feet high.

Elms should be "terebinth tree" ('?lah).

Verse 13. - 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. The prophet here enlarges on the sin of idolatry mentioned in the preceding verse, and explains fully how it showed itself in the public life of the people. Two places are specified as scenes of idolatrous worship: one was the tops of mountains and hills; the other under every green tree, here specified as oaks, poplars, and terebinths, whether growing alone or in groves, in vale or upland. The hills and mountain-tops were selected on account of their elevation, as though the worshippers were thus brought nearer to the objects of their adoration; the green trees as affording shade from the scorching heat of an Eastern sun, secrecy for their licentious rites, and a sort of solemn awe associated with such shadow. In such scenes they not only slew victims, but burnt odors in honor of their idols. The resemblance to, if not imitation of, the rites of heathenism in all this is obvious. Among the Greeks the oak was sacred to Jupiter at Dodona, and among the old Britons the Druidical priests practiced their superstitions in the shadow of the yaks. The poplar again was sacred to Hercules, affording a most grateful shade; while in Ezekiel 6:13 we read that "under every thick terebinth" was one of the places where "they did offer sweet savor to their idols." The inveterate custom of these idolaters is implied in the Piel or iterative form of the verb; the singular of the nouns, under oak and poplar and terebinth, intimates that scene after scene of Israel's sin passes under the prophet's review, each exciting his deep indignation; the mention of the goodly shadow seems designed to heighten that feeling of just indignation, as though it came into competition or comparison with "the shadow of the Almighty," the abiding-place of him that "dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High." Therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses (properly, daughters-in-law) shall commit adultery. כַּלָּה primarily signifies "bride," but for the parents of the bridegroom, "daughter-in-law," its secondary sense. The bad example of the parents acts upon their children and reacts upon themselves; on their children in causing bad conduct, on themselves by way of chastisements. The parents had been guilty of spiritual whoredom by their idolatry; their daughters and daughters-in-law would commit whoredom in the literal and carnal sense. This would wound the parents' feelings to the quick and pain them in the tenderest part. Their personal honor would be compromised by such scandalous conduct on the part of their daughters; their family honor would be wounded and the fair fame of posterity tarnished by such gross misconduct on the part of the daughters-in-law. The following observations are made on the last member of this thirteenth verse by the Hebrew commentators: "Because the men of the house go out of the city to the high mountains and under every green tree there to serve idols, therefore their daughters and daughters-in-law have opportunity to commit whoredom and adultery" (Kimchi). To like purpose Aben Ezra writes: "The sense is - On the bare mountains and so on the hills they sacrifice; they say to the priests of Baal that they shall sacrifice; and therefore, because the men go out of the cities in order to burn incense, the daughters and daughters-in-law remain in the houses behind, therefore they commit whoredom." Somewhat different is the explanation of Rashi: "Because ye associate for idolatry after the manner of the heathen, and the heathen associate with you, and ye form affinities with them, your daughters also who are born to you by the daughters of the heathen conduct themselves after the manner of their mothers, and commit whoredom."

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
They sacrifice
יְזַבֵּ֗חוּ (yə·zab·bê·ḥū)
Verb - Piel - Imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 2076: To slaughter for sacrifice

on
עַל־ (‘al-)
Preposition
Strong's 5921: Above, over, upon, against

the mountaintops
רָאשֵׁ֨י (rā·šê)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 7218: The head

and burn offerings
יְקַטֵּ֔רוּ (yə·qaṭ·ṭê·rū)
Verb - Piel - Imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 6999: To smoke, turn into fragrance by fire

on
וְעַל־ (wə·‘al-)
Conjunctive waw | Preposition
Strong's 5921: Above, over, upon, against

the hills,
הַגְּבָעוֹת֙ (hag·gə·ḇā·‘ō·wṯ)
Article | Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 1389: A hillock

under
תַּ֣חַת (ta·ḥaṯ)
Preposition
Strong's 8478: The bottom, below, in lieu of

oak,
אַלּ֧וֹן (’al·lō·wn)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 437: An oak, other strong tree

poplar,
וְלִבְנֶ֛ה (wə·liḇ·neh)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3839: Some sort of whitish tree, the storax

and terebinth,
וְאֵלָ֖ה (wə·’ê·lāh)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 424: An oak, other strong tree

because
כִּ֣י (kî)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

their shade
צִלָּ֑הּ (ṣil·lāh)
Noun - masculine singular construct | third person feminine singular
Strong's 6738: A shadow

is pleasant.
ט֣וֹב (ṭō·wḇ)
Adjective - masculine singular
Strong's 2896: Pleasant, agreeable, good

And so
עַל־ (‘al-)
Preposition
Strong's 5921: Above, over, upon, against

your daughters
בְּנ֣וֹתֵיכֶ֔ם (bə·nō·w·ṯê·ḵem)
Noun - feminine plural construct | second person masculine plural
Strong's 1323: A daughter

turn to prostitution
תִּזְנֶ֙ינָה֙ (tiz·ne·nāh)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person feminine plural
Strong's 2181: To commit adultery, to commit idolatry

and your daughters-in-law
וְכַלּוֹתֵיכֶ֖ם (wə·ḵal·lō·w·ṯê·ḵem)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine plural construct | second person masculine plural
Strong's 3618: Daughter-in-law, bride

to adultery.
תְּנָאַֽפְנָה׃ (tə·nā·’ap̄·nāh)
Verb - Piel - Imperfect - third person feminine plural
Strong's 5003: To commit adultery, to apostatize


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OT Prophets: Hosea 4:13 They sacrifice on the tops (Ho Hs Hos.)
Hosea 4:12
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