Read Hosea 4 at Bible Gateway.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge! Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shall not be priest to Me. Because you have forgotten the Law of your God, I also will forget your children. Hos 4:6
The knowledge God’s people lack is the knowledge of the Law of God. Knowing what the Law says is vital.
And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. Deu 6:6-7
Sowing God’s Word like seed in the heart passes the faith to the next generation.
So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Rom 10:17
But let’s not stop with just knowing about. In the Hebraic worldview, knowing about isn’t divorced from knowing intimately, knowing by experiencing. The Hebrew verb is Strong’s H3045 ידע yada, “to know.”
yud י = closed hand (work, throw, worship)
dalet ד = door (enter, move, hang)
ayin ע = eye (watch, know, shade)
The yud as the closed hand depicts action. The ayin can also have the meaning of knowing; even in English today we still say “I see!” when we understand something. The Hebrew Root Word parable, then, is that by doing (yud) we enter into (dalet) knowing or understanding (ayin).
Why This Matters: Knowledge that preserves us is both factual and relational; it’s head knowledge entwined with heart knowledge. We learn what the Law says (head) → we walk in what we have learned (heart) → we return to fresh reading in the Law so we do not forget (head). Daily nourishment in the “pure milk of the Word” fuels our growth as God’s children, and the cycle continually renews us.
This is the full knowledge we perish without. When the cycle is broken—when knowing about doesn’t have its counterpart in lived obedience; or when relational experience drifts unmoored from the anchor of the written Word, or when both are absent—we perish from its lack.
The Hosea 4:1-19 Chiastic Structure
The Hebrew paragraphs for this chapter:
4:1-19 {p} Charge against Israel: You have forsaken Law, and Me; therefore the fruit of your deeds will come upon you
If there are questions, this is a good resource:
Proverbs 4, The Knowledge, Understanding, Wisdom Cycle – Christine Miller
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