Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Hosea 4:10 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 10. 10For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the LORD.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse describes eating without satisfaction and sexual pursuit without increase because heed to the LORD ceased.
Read It With
- Hosea 4:4-10
Read Hosea 4:10 with 4:4-10. This verse describes eating without satisfaction and sexual pursuit without increase because heed to the LORD ceased. The complete unit establishes this movement: Priests and people fall together because knowledge and instruction are rejected, office and children face judgment, increased status feeds increased sin, and appetite remains unsatisfied.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The charge now asks how custodians of instruction can materially profit from the wrong they should help address. Within that movement, this verse describes eating without satisfaction and sexual pursuit without increase because heed to the LORD ceased.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“eat, and not have enough”
In plain language: unsatisfied consumption as covenant consequence
describes eating without satisfaction and sexual pursuit without increase because heed to the LORD ceased. Appetite cannot create fullness when relational faithfulness has been abandoned.
Why it matters: The wording identifies this verse's distinct contribution to the complete unit.
How certain? strongWhat Remains True
Appetite cannot create fullness when relational faithfulness has been abandoned.
How It Can Shape Life
- Address compulsive institutional consumption at its covenant and relational roots without stigmatizing bodies.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Hosea 4:4-10 — Priests Who Reject Knowledge Feed on the People's WrongSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: Hosea 4:4-10, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Hosea
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew, morphology, syntax, names, wordplay, repetitions, and the base text for translation questions.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Hos.xml, 4:4-10
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Hosea with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level translation, textual, grammatical, historical, rhetorical, and uncertainty notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Hosea PDF, printed pp. 1678-1680, translation and notes on 4:4-10
Open source ↗