Hosea 4:3

“Therefore shall the land mourn, etc.] Because of the calamities on it, the devastations made in it; nothing growing upon it, through a violent drought; or the grass and corn being trodden down, or eaten up, by a foreign army: and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish; that is, every man, an inhabitant thereof, shall become weak, languish away, and die through wounds received by the enemy; or for want of food, or being infected with the wasting and destroying pestilence: with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; the one shall die in the field for want of grass to eat, and the other shall drop to the earth through the infection of the air: yea, the fishes of the sea…”

“land . . . languish-- (Isa 19:8; Isa 24:4; Joe 1:10, Joe 1:12). sea--including all bodies of water, as pools and even rivers (see on Isa 19:5). A general drought, the greatest calamity in the East, is threatened.”

“Therefore shall the land mourn - Dumb inanimate nature seems to rejoice and to be in unison with our sense of joy, when bedewed and fresh through rain and radiant with light; and, again, to mourn, when smitten with drought or blight or disease, or devoured by the creatures which God employs to lay it waste for man’s sins. Dumb nature is, as it were, in sympathy with man, cursed in Adam, smitten amid man’s offences, its outward show responding to man’s inward heart, wasted, parched, desolate, when man himself was marred and wasted by his sins. With the beasts of the field - Literally, “in the beasts,” etc. God included “the fowl and the cattle and every beast of the field” in His covenant…”

“Shall languish - Shall pine away. With the beasts of the field - God punishes man in cutting off what was made for man's benefit; and 'tis probable the tamer cattle were starved for want of grass or fodder, all being consumed by the wasting armies. The tamer either were killed by enemies, or offended with stench, forsook the country, or were devoured by birds of prey. Taken away - Whether by drying up the waters, or by corrupting them with blood and carcasses. Hosea 4:4”

“4:3 God’s judgment inevitably falls upon sinful people. Because of the Israelites’ sin, their land and all of nature would suffer.”

“the land: Isa 24:4-12; Jer 4:27; Joe 1:10-13; Amo 1:2, Amo 5:16, Amo 8:8; Nah 1:4 with the beasts: Jer 4:25, Jer 12:4; Eze 38:20; Zep 1:3 Hosea 4:4”

“These crimes bring the land to ruin. Hos 4:3. "Therefore the land mourns, and every dweller therein, of beasts of the field and birds of the heaven, wastes away; and even the fishes of the sea perish." These words affirm not only that the inanimate creation suffers in consequence of the sins and crimes of men, but that the moral depravity of men causes the physical destruction of all other creatures. As God has given to man the dominion over all beasts, and over all the earth, that he may use it for the glory of God; so does He punish the wickedness of men by pestilences, or by the devastation of the earth. The mourning of the earth and the wasting away of the animals are the natural result…”