---
title: "Hosea 4 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/hosea/4/
description: "God's judgment against the sins of Israel: Juda is warned not to follow their… Hosea 4 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Hosea 4

Hosea 4 is chapter 4 of 14 in the Book of Hosea. Here are all 19 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> God's judgment against the sins of Israel: Juda is warned not to follow their example.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Hosea 4 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Listen to the word of the Lord, sons of Israel, for the Lord is judge of the inhabitants of the land. Yet there is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God, in the land.
2. Slander, and lying, and killing, and theft, and adultery have overflowed, and bloodshed has brought more bloodshed.
3. Because of this, the land will mourn, and all who dwell in it will languish, with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. And the fishes of the sea also will be gathered together.
4. So, truly, let each and every one not judge, and let no man be accused, for your people are just like those who speak against the priesthood.
5. And you will be ruined on this day, and now the prophet will be ruined with you. In the night, I have made your mother to be silent.
6. My people have become silent because they had no knowledge. Since you have rejected knowledge, I will drive you away; you do not perform the duties of the priesthood for me, and you have forgotten the law of your God, and so I will forget your sons.
7. According to the multitude of them, so have they sinned against me. I will change their glory into disgrace.
8. They will devour the sins of my people, and they will lift up their souls towards their iniquity.
9. And, just as it is with the people, so will it be with the priest; and I will visit their ways upon them, and I will repay them for their intentions.
10. And they will eat and not be satisfied. They have been committing fornication, and they did not cease. Since they have abandoned the Lord, they will not be safeguarded.
11. Fornication, and wine, and drunkenness, have taken away their heart.
12. My people have inquired of their stave, and their staff has announced to them. For the spirit of fornication has deceived them, and they have been fornicating before their God.
13. They have offered sacrifice on the tops of the mountains and burnt incense on the hills, under the oak, and the poplar, and the terebinth tree, because its shadow was good; therefore, your daughters will commit fornication and your spouses will be adulteresses.
14. I will not send afflictions on your daughters, when they will commit fornication, nor on your spouses, when they will commit adultery, because you yourselves have associated with harlots and have offered sacrifice with the effeminate, and because the people who do not understand will be defeated.
15. If you commit fornication, Israel, at least let Judah not commit offenses; and do not be willing to enter into Gilgal, nor to ascend to Bethaven, and neither should you swear, “As the Lord lives.”
16. For Israel has gone astray like a wanton heifer; so now the Lord will pasture them like a young lamb in a wide expanse.
17. Ephraim participates in idolatry, so send him away.
18. Their feasting has been set aside; they have committed fornication after fornication. They love to bring disgrace to their protectors.
19. The wind has fastened them to its wings, and they will be confounded because of their sacrifices.

## Hosea 4 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Audite verbum Domini, filii Israël, quia judicium Domino cum habitatoribus terræ: non est enim veritas, et non est misericordia, et non est scientia Dei in terra.
2. Maledictum, et mendacium, et homicidium, et furtum, et adulterium inundaverunt, et sanguis sanguinem tetigit.
3. Propter hoc lugebit terra, et infirmabitur omnis qui habitat in ea, in bestia agri, et in volucre cæli; sed et pisces maris congregabuntur.
4. Verumtamen unusquisque non judicet, et non arguatur vir: populus enim tuus sicut hi qui contradicunt sacerdoti.
5. Et corrues hodie, et corruet etiam propheta tecum. Nocte tacere feci matrem tuam.
6. Conticuit populus meus, eo quod non habuerit scientiam: quia tu scientiam repulisti, repellam te, ne sacerdotio fungaris mihi; et oblita es legis Dei tui, obliviscar filiorum tuorum et ego.
7. Secundum multitudinem eorum sic peccaverunt mihi: gloriam eorum in ignominiam commutabo.
8. Peccata populi mei comedent, et ad iniquitatem eorum sublevabunt animas eorum.
9. Et erit sicut populus, sic sacerdos; et visitabo super eum vias ejus, et cogitationes ejus reddam ei.
10. Et comedent, et non saturabuntur; fornicati sunt, et non cessaverunt: quoniam Dominum dereliquerunt in non custodiendo.
11. Fornicatio, et vinum, et ebrietas auferunt cor.
12. Populus meus in ligno suo interrogavit, et baculus ejus annuntiavit ei; spiritus enim fornicationum decepit eos, et fornicati sunt a Deo suo.
13. Super capita montium sacrificabant, et super colles ascendebant thymiama; subtus quercum, et populum, et terebinthum, quia bona erat umbra ejus; ideo fornicabuntur filiæ vestræ, et sponsæ vestræ adulteræ erunt.
14. Non visitabo super filias vestras cum fuerint fornicatæ, et super sponsas vestras cum adulteraverint, quoniam ipsi cum meretricibus conversabantur, et cum effeminatis sacrificabant; et populus non intelligens vapulabit.
15. Si fornicaris tu, Israël, non delinquat saltem Juda; et nolite ingredi in Galgala, et ne ascenderitis in Bethaven, neque juraveritis: Vivit Dominus!
16. Quoniam sicut vacca lasciviens declinavit Israël; nunc pascet eos Dominus, quasi agnum in latitudine.
17. Particeps idolorum Ephraim: dimitte eum.
18. Separatum est convivium eorum; fornicatione fornicati sunt: dilexerunt afferre ignominiam protectores ejus.
19. Ligavit eum spiritus in alis suis, et confundentur a sacrificiis suis.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- cf. CCC ¶ 2056: The Ten Commandments ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## The saints

- “Ignorance of the Scriptures is a great cliff and a deep abyss.” — St. John Chrysostom, Homily on Genesis, 2, c. 388 (On this theme: verse 6)

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 4: As if he would say: It is in vain to strive with them, or reprove them, they are so obstinate in evil.
- Verse 15: 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.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).