Hosea 4:2

Bible in Basic English (1941)

There is cursing and broken faith, violent death and attacks on property, men are untrue in married life, houses are broken into, and there is blood touching blood.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

אָלֹ֣ה וְכַחֵ֔שׁ וְרָצֹ֥חַ וְגָנֹ֖ב וְנָאֹ֑ף פָּרָ֕צוּ וְדָמִ֥ים בְּדָמִ֖ים נָגָֽעוּ׃

Transliteration

ʾālōh wə-kaḥēš wə-rāṣōaḥ wə-gānōb wə-nāʾōf pārāṣû wə-dāmîm bə-dāmîm nāgāʿû

Grammar Details

• *ʾālōh*: infinitive absolute - swearing/cursing
• *wə-kaḥēš*: conjunction + infinitive absolute - and lying/deceiving
• *wə-rāṣōaḥ*: conjunction + infinitive absolute - and murdering
• *wə-gānōb*: conjunction + infinitive absolute - and stealing
• *wə-nāʾōf*: conjunction + infinitive absolute - and committing adultery
• *pārāṣû*: perfect, 3rd person common plural - they break out/burst forth
• *wə-dāmîm*: conjunction + noun, masculine plural - and bloodshed/blood
• *bə-dāmîm*: preposition + noun, masculine plural - with/against bloodshed/blood
• *nāgāʿû*: perfect, 3rd person common plural - they touched/reached

Word Meanings

• *ʾālōh*: swearing falsely/cursing
• *kaḥēš*: lying/deceiving/denying
• *pārāṣû*: break out/burst through/increase/spread abroad
• *dāmîm*: bloodshed/blood guilt/bloodiness
• *nāgāʿû*: touched/reached/struck/approached

Referenced Verses

• Hos 6:9 : 9 And like a band of thieves waiting for a man, so are the priests watching secretly the way of those going quickly to Shechem, for they are working with an evil design.
• Hos 7:1 : 1 When my desire was for the fate of my people to be changed and to make Israel well, then the sin of Ephraim was made clear, and the evil-doing of Samaria; for their ways are false, and the thief comes into the house, while the band of outlaws takes property by force in the streets.
• Jer 5:26-27 : 26 For there are sinners among my people: they keep watch, like men watching for birds; they put a net and take men in it. 27 As the fowl-house is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: for this reason they have become great and have got wealth.
• Jer 6:7 : 7 As the spring keeps its waters cold, so she keeps her evil in her: the sound of cruel and violent behaviour is in her; before me at all times are disease and wounds.
• Jer 7:6-9 : 6 If you are not cruel to the man from a strange country, and to the child without a father, and to the widow, and do not put the upright to death in this place, or go after other gods, causing damage to yourselves: 7 Then I will let you go on living in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers in the past and for ever. 8 See, you put your faith in false words which are of no profit. 9 Will you take the goods of others, put men to death, and be untrue to your wives, and take false oaths, and have perfumes burned to the Baal, and go after other gods which are strange to you; 10 And come and take your place before me in this house, which is named by my name, and say, We have been made safe; so that you may do all these disgusting things?
• Mic 7:2 : 2 The good man is gone from the earth, there is no one upright among men: they are all waiting secretly for blood, every man is going after his brother with a net.
• Zeph 3:1 : 1 Sorrow to her who is uncontrolled and unclean, the cruel town!
• Zech 5:3 : 3 Then he said to me, This is the curse which goes out over the face of all the land: for long enough has every thief gone without punishment, and long enough has every taker of false oaths gone without punishment.
• Zech 7:9 : 9 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Let your judging be upright and done in good faith, let every man have mercy and pity for his brother:
• Matt 23:35 : 35 So that on you may come all the blood of the upright on the earth, from the blood of upright Abel to the blood of Zachariah, son of Barachiah, whom you put to death between the Temple and the altar.
• Acts 7:52 : 52 Which of the prophets was not cruelly attacked by your fathers? and they put to death those who gave them the news of the coming of the Upright One; whom you have now given up and put to death;
• 1 Thess 2:15 : 15 Who put to death the Lord Jesus and the prophets, violently driving us out; who are unpleasing to God and against all men;
• Rev 17:6 : 6 And I saw the woman overcome as with the wine of the blood of the saints, and the blood of those put to death because of Jesus. And when I saw her, I was overcome with a great wonder.
• Isa 24:5 : 5 The earth has been made unclean by those living in it; because the laws have not been kept by them, the orders have been changed, and the eternal agreement has been broken.
• Isa 48:1 : 1 Give ear to this, O family of Jacob, you who are named by the name of Israel, and have come out of the body of Judah; who take oaths by the name of the Lord, and make use of the name of the God of Israel, but not truly and not in good faith.
• Isa 59:2-8 : 2 But your sins have come between you and your God, and by your evil doings his face has been veiled from you, so that he will give you no answer. 3 For your hands are unclean with blood, and your fingers with sin; your lips have said false things, and your tongue gives out deceit. 4 No one puts forward an upright cause, or gives a true decision: their hope is in deceit, and their words are false; they are with child with sin, and give birth to evil. 5 They give birth to snake's eggs, and make spider's threads: whoever takes their eggs for food comes to his death, and the egg which is crushed becomes a poison-snake. 6 Their twisted threads will not make clothing, and their works will give them nothing for covering themselves: their works are works of sin, and violent acts are in their hands. 7 Their feet go quickly to evil, and they take delight in the death of the upright; their thoughts are thoughts of sin; wasting and destruction are in their ways. 8 They have no knowledge of the way of peace, and there is no sense of what is right in their behaviour: they have made for themselves ways which are not straight; whoever goes in them has no knowledge of peace.
• Isa 59:12-15 : 12 For our evil doings are increased before you, and our sins give witness against us: for our evil doings are with us, and we have knowledge of our sins: 13 We have gone against the Lord, and been false to him, turning away from our God, our words have been uncontrolled, and in our hearts are thoughts of deceit. 14 And the right is turned back, and righteousness is far away: for good faith is not to be seen in the public places, and upright behaviour may not come into the town. 15 Yes, faith is gone; and he whose heart is turned from evil comes into the power of the cruel: and the Lord saw it, and he was angry that there was no one to take up their cause.
• Jer 5:1-2 : 1 Go quickly through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and get knowledge, and make a search in her wide places if there is a man, if there is one in her who is upright, who keeps faith; and she will have my forgiveness. 2 And though they say, By the living Lord; truly their oaths are false.
• Jer 5:7-9 : 7 How is it possible for you to have my forgiveness for this? your children have given me up, taking their oaths by those who are no gods: when I had given them food in full measure, they were false to their wives, taking their pleasure in the houses of loose women. 8 They were full of desire, like horses after a meal of grain: everyone went after his neighbour's wife. 9 Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this?
• Jer 9:2-8 : 2 If only I had in the waste land a night's resting-place for travellers, so that I might go away, far from my people! for they are all untrue, a band of false men. 3 Their tongues are bent like a bow to send out false words: they have become strong in the land, but not for good faith: they go on from evil to evil, and they have no knowledge of me, says the Lord. 4 Let everyone keep watch on his neighbour, and put no faith in any brother: for every brother will certainly be tricking his brother, and every neighbour will go about saying evil. 5 Everyone will make sport of his neighbour with deceit, not saying what is true: their tongues have been trained to say false words; they are twisted, hating to come back. 6 There is wrong on wrong, deceit on deceit; they have given up the knowledge of me, says the Lord. 7 So the Lord of armies has said, See, I will make them soft in the fire and put them to the test; this I will do because of their evil-doing. 8 His tongue is an arrow causing death; the words of his mouth are deceit: he says words of peace to his neighbour, but in his heart he is waiting secretly for him.
• Jer 23:10-14 : 10 For the land is full of men who are untrue to their wives; because of the curse the land is full of grief; the green fields of the waste land have become dry; and they are quick to do evil, their strength is for what is not right. 11 For the prophet as well as the priest is unclean; even in my house I have seen their evil-doing, says the Lord. 12 For this cause their steps will be slipping on their way: they will be forced on into the dark and have a fall there: for I will send evil on them in the year of their punishment, says the Lord. 13 And I have seen ways without sense in the prophets of Samaria; they became prophets of the Baal, causing my people Israel to go wrong. 14 And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a shocking thing; they are untrue to their wives, walking in deceit, and they make strong the hands of evil-doers, so that a man may not be turned back from his evil-doing: they have all become like Sodom to me, and its people like Gomorrah.
• Lam 4:13 : 13 It is because of the sins of her prophets and the evil-doing of her priests, by whom the blood of the upright has been drained out in her.
• Ezek 22:2-9 : 2 And you, son of man, will you be a judge, will you be a judge of the town of blood? then make clear to her all her disgusting ways. 3 And you are to say, This is what the Lord has said: A town causing blood to be drained out in her streets so that her time may come, and making images in her to make her unclean! 4 You are responsible for the blood drained out by you, and you are unclean through the images which you have made; and you have made your day come near, and the time of your judging has come; for this cause I have made you a name of shame to the nations and a cause of laughing to all countries. 5 Those who are near and those who are far from you will make sport of you; your name is unclean, you are full of sounds of fear. 6 See, the rulers of Israel, every one in his family, have been causing death in you. 7 In you they have had no respect for father and mother; in you they have been cruel to the man from a strange land; in you they have done wrong to the child without a father and to the widow. 8 You have made little of my holy things, and have made my Sabbaths unclean. 9 In you there are men who say evil of others, causing death; in you they have taken the flesh with the blood for food; in your streets they have put evil designs into effect. 10 In you they have let the shame of their fathers be seen; in you they have done wrong to a woman at the time when she was unclean. 11 And in you one man has done what was disgusting with his neighbour's wife; and another has made his daughter-in-law unclean; and another has done wrong to his sister, his father's daughter. 12 In you they have taken rewards as the price of blood; you have taken interest and great profits, and you have taken away your neighbours' goods by force, and have not kept me in mind, says the Lord. 13 See, then, I have made my hands come together in wrath against your taking of goods by force and against the blood which has been flowing in you.
• Ezek 22:25-30 : 25 Her rulers in her are like a loud-voiced lion violently taking his food; they have made a meal of souls; they have taken wealth and valued property; they have made great the number of widows in her. 26 Her priests have been acting violently against my law; they have made my holy things unclean: they have made no division between what is holy and what is common, and they have not made it clear that the unclean is different from the clean, and their eyes have been shut to my Sabbaths, and I am not honoured among them. 27 Her rulers in her are like wolves violently taking their food; putting men to death and causing the destruction of souls, so that they may get their profit. 28 And her prophets have been using whitewash, seeing foolish visions and making false use of secret arts, saying, This is what the Lord has said, when the Lord has said nothing. 29 The people of the land have been acting cruelly, taking men's goods by force; they have been hard on the poor and those in need, and have done wrong to the man from a strange land. 30 And I was looking for a man among them who would make up the wall and take his station in the broken place before me for the land, so that I might not send destruction on it: but there was no one.
• Hos 5:2 : 2 They have gone deep in the evil ways of Shittim, but I am the judge of all.
• Hos 7:3 : 3 In their sin they make a king for themselves, and rulers in their deceit.
• Hos 10:4 : 4 Their words are foolish; they make agreements with false oaths, so punishment will come up like a poison-plant in a ploughed field.
• Hos 12:14 : 14 And by a prophet the Lord made Israel come up out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was kept safe.
• Mic 2:1-3 : 1 A curse on the designers of evil, working on their beds! in the morning light they do it, because it is in their power. 2 They have a desire for fields and take them by force; and for houses and take them away: they are cruel to a man and his family, even to a man and his heritage. 3 For this cause the Lord has said, See, against this family I am purposing an evil from which you will not be able to take your necks away, and you will be weighted down by it; for it is an evil time.
• Mic 3:2 : 2 You who are haters of good and lovers of evil, pulling off their skin from them and their flesh from their bones;
• Mic 3:9 : 9 Then give ear to this, you heads of the children of Jacob, you rulers of the children of Israel, hating what is right, twisting what is straight.
• Mic 6:10 : 10 Am I to let the stores of the evil-doer go out of my memory, and the short measure, which is cursed?