What Does Hosea 1:4 Mean in the King James?
And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Jezreel means “God sows”: the name makes the blood charged to Jehu’s house feel like a planting whose harvest reaches the ruling power.
THE MEANING
Bloodshed remains charged to the power that wields it; its passage into a new generation does not erase the account. Jezreel means “God sows,” placing seed and harvest beside the announced reckoning: Jehu’s house bears the consequence, and Israel’s kingdom ceases.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a ruling house can erase the blood behind its power is undone: the blood is charged against the house itself, and the kingdom ends.
THE ROOT
יִזְרְעֶאל
Yizreʿel
GROWS FROM
זרע
To sow or scatter seed.
“Jezreel” in this verse is Yizreʿel. The name combines the sowing root with אֵל (ʾēl, God): “God sows.” Beside the blood charged to Jehu’s house, the name casts the ruling house’s deeds as a planting whose consequences return to it.
ALSO GROWS
zāraʿ: To sow or scatter seed.
זָרַע
The name Jezreel carries this action: God sows.
zeraʿ: Seed; by extension, offspring.
זֶרַע
The verse’s name holds the image of a seed whose effects appear in the house and kingdom.
וּפָקַדְתִּי
ūpāqadtî
GROWS FROM
פקד
To attend to, visit, muster, or count.
The verb rendered “avenge” carries the sense of a visitation or accounting. The blood is not forgotten; it is visited upon the ruling house.
ALSO GROWS
pāqad: To visit, attend to, muster, or count.
פָּקַד
The verse presents the reckoning as a visitation upon Jehu’s house.
peqūddāh: A visitation, charge, or oversight.
פְּקֻדָּה
This branch shows how the root can carry the idea of a matter being assigned for attention.
וְהִשְׁבַּתִּי
vehishbatî
GROWS FROM
שבת
To cease, stop, desist, or rest.
The phrase “cause to cease” comes from the root for stopping or ceasing. That root also forms שַׁבָּת (Shabbat, Sabbath or cessation); here the cessation falls on a kingdom itself.
ALSO GROWS
shāvat: To cease, stop, desist, or rest.
שָׁבַת
This is the root action behind the announced end of Israel’s kingdom.
Shabbat: The Sabbath; a set time of cessation or rest.
שַׁבָּת
The related word makes the root’s image of stopping visible in a familiar form.
THE PATTERN
Violence planted by a ruling power can return as judgment on that power.
Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.THE THREAD
And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.Here the sowing beneath the name Jezreel appears as an explicit action: “I will sow.” The same root holds both the reckoning of Hosea 1:4 and the planting of a people in the earth.
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