Hosea 4:1
Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
Study Note
Study Note
'Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land' — the covenant-lawsuit (rib) opening of Hosea 4 identifies three foundational relational deficits — emet (faithfulness), hesed (covenant loyalty), and da'at Elohim (knowledge of God) — as the root of Israel's social and moral collapse. The following catalog of consequences (murder, stealing, adultery, bloodshed — verse 2) presents social breakdown as symptomatic of theological failure rather than autonomous moral decline. The pattern — loss of divine knowledge producing social disintegration — is echoed in Romans 1:28's 'reprobate mind' passage and has shaped Christian social theology's insistence on the connection between theological and ethical formation.
Other Translations
Hear the word of Jehovah, ye children of Israel; for Jehovah hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.
`Hear a word of Jehovah, sons of Israel, For a strife <FI>is<Fi> to Jehovah with inhabitants of the land, For there is no truth, nor kindness, Nor knowledge of God, in the land,
Give ear to the word of the Lord, O children of Israel; for the Lord has a cause against the people of this land, because there is no good faith in it, and no mercy and no knowledge of God in the land.
Cross References
And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and …
Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people …
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as …
The Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people.
The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten …
And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the …
For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.
In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering …