Albert Barnes Commentary Hosea 4:13

"They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and terebinths, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters play the harlot, and your brides commit adultery." — Hosea 4:13 (ASV)

They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains - The tops of hills or mountains seemed nearer heaven, the air was purer, the place more removed from the world. To worship the Unseen God on them was then the suggestion of natural feeling and of simple devotion. God Himself directed the typical sacrifice of Isaac to take place on a mountain; on that same mountain He commanded that the temple should be built; on a mountain, God gave the law; on a mountain was our Saviour transfigured; on a mountain was He crucified; from a mountain He ascended into heaven. Mountains and hills have accordingly often been chosen for Christian churches and monasteries. But the same natural feeling, misdirected, made them the places of pagan idolatry and pagan sins.

The Pagan probably also chose for their star and planet-worship, mountains or large plains, as being the places from where the heavenly bodies might be seen most widely.

Being thus connected with idolatry and sin, God strictly forbade the worship on the high places, and (as is the case with so many of God’s commandments) people practiced it as diligently as if He had commanded it. God had said, Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations, which ye shall possess, served their gods upon the high mountains, and upon the hills and under every green tree (Deuteronomy 12:2). But they set them up images and groves (rather images of Ashtaroth) in every high hill and under every green tree, and there they burnt incense in all the high place, as did the pagan whom the Lord carried away before them (2 Kings 17:10–11). The words express that what God forbade they did diligently: “they sacrificed much and diligently; they burned incense much and diligently”; and that, not here and there, but generally, “on the tops of the mountains,” and, as it were, in the open face of heaven.

So also Ezekiel complains, They saw every high hill and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering; there also they made their sweet savor, and poured out there their drink-offerings (Ezekiel 20:28).

Under oaks - (white) poplars and elms (probably the terebinth or turpentine tree) because its shadow is good. The darkness of the shadow equally suited the cruel and the profligate deeds that were done in honor of their false gods. In the open face of day, and in secret, they carried on their sin.

Therefore their daughters shall commit whoredoms, and their spouses - (or more probably, daughters-in-law) shall commit adultery. Or, in the present tense, they commit adultery. The fathers and husbands gave themselves to the abominable rites of Baal-peor and Ashtaroth, and so the daughters and daughters-in-law followed their example.

This was by the permission of God, who, since they glorified not God as they ought, gave them up, abandoned them, to vile affections. So, through their own disgrace and bitter griefs, in the persons of those whose honor they most cherished, they should learn how badly they themselves had done in departing from Him who is the Father and Husband of every soul.

The sins of the fathers very often descend to the children, both in the way of nature, so that the children inherit strong temptations to their parents’ sin, and by way of example, so that they greedily imitate, and often exaggerate, them. If you would not have children whom you would wish were unborn, reform yourself.

The saying may also include sufferings at the hands of the enemy. “What you do willingly, that your daughters and your daughters-in-law will suffer against your and their will.”