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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Hosea 4:3 - 4:3
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These crimes bring the land to ruin. Hos 4:3. “Therefore the land mourns, and every dweller therein, of beasts of the field and birds of the heaven, wastes away; and even the fishes of the sea perish.” These words affirm not only that the inanimate creation suffers in consequence of the sins and crimes of men, but that the moral depravity of men causes the physical destruction of all other creatures. As God has given to man the dominion over all beasts, and over all the earth, that he may use it for the glory of God; so does He punish the wickedness of men by pestilences, or by the devastation of the earth. The mourning of the earth and the wasting away of the animals are the natural result of the want of rain and the great drought that ensues, such as was the case in the time of Ahab throughout the kingdom of the ten tribes (1Ki 17:18), and judging from Amo 1:2; Amo 8:8, may have occurred repeatedly with the continued idolatry of the people. The verbs are not futures, in which case the punishment would be only threatened, but aorists, expressing what has already happened, and will continue still. כָּל־יוֹשֵׁב בָּהּ (every dweller therein): these are not the men, but the animals, as the further definition בְּחַיַּה וגו shows. בְ is used in the enumeration of the individuals, as in Gen 7:21; Gen 9:10. The fishes are mentioned last, and introduced with the emphasizing וְגַם, to show that the drought would prevail to such an extent, that even lakes and other waters would be dried up. הֵאָסֵף, to be collected, to be taken away, to disappear or perish, as in Isa 16:10; Isa 60:20; Jer 48:33.