Come to {d} Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three {e} years:

(d) He speaks this in contempt of those who resorted to those places, thinking that their great devotion and good intention was sufficient to have bound God to them.

(e) Read De 14:28.

Wesley's Notes

4:4 Come to Beth - el - A strong irony, giving them over as incorrigible. At Gilgal - Gilgal was a place where much idolatry was acted. Every morning - In the same irony God reproves their sins tho' they imitated the instituted worship at Jerusalem. Three years - God had Deut 14:28, commanded every third year that all the tithe of that year should be brought, and laid up in a publick store - house.

King James Translators' Notes

three...: Heb. three years of days

Scofield Reference Notes

[1] Beth-el

Cf. 1Ki 12:25-33. Any altar at Beth-el, after the establishment of Jehovah's worship at Jerusalem was of necessity divisive and schismatic. Dt 12:4-14. Cf. Jn 4:21-24 Mt 18:20 Heb 13:10-14.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. God gives them up to their self-willed idolatry, that they may see how unable their idols are to save them from their coming calamities. So Eze 20:39.

Beth-el-(Am 3:14).

Gilgal-(Ho 4:15; 9:15; 12:11).

sacrifices every morning-as commanded in the law (Nu 28:3, 4). They imitated the letter, while violating by calf-worship the spirit, of the Jerusalem temple-worship.

after three years-every third year; literally, "after three (years of) days" (that is, the fullest complement of days, or a year); "after three full years." Compare Le 25:20; Jud 17:10, and "the days" for the years, Joe 1:2. So a month of days is used for a full month, wanting no day to complete it (Ge 29:14, Margin; Nu 11:20, 21). The Israelites here also kept to the letter of the law in bringing in the tithes of their increase every third year (De 14:28; 26:12).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:1-5 What is got by extortion is commonly used to provide for the flesh, and to fulfil the lusts thereof. What is got by oppression cannot be enjoyed with satisfaction. How miserable are those whose confidence in unscriptural observances only prove that they believe a lie! Let us see to it that our faith, hope, and worship, are warranted by the Divine word.