Hosea9
World English Bible · Public Domain
1Don’t rejoice, Israel, to jubilation like the nations; for you were unfaithful to your God. You love the wages of a prostitute at every grain threshing floor.
2The threshing floor and the wine press won’t feed them, and the new wine will fail her.
3They won’t dwell in Yahweh’s land; but Ephraim will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.
4They won’t pour out wine offerings to Yahweh, neither will they be pleasing to him. Their sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat of it will be polluted; for their bread will be for their appetite. It will not come into Yahweh’s house.
5What will you do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of Yahweh?
6For, behold, when they flee destruction, Egypt will gather them up. Memphis will bury them. Nettles will possess their pleasant things of silver. Thorns will be in their tents.
7The days of visitation have come. The days of reckoning have come. Israel will consider the prophet to be a fool, and the man who is inspired to be insane, because of the abundance of your sins, and because your hostility is great.
8A prophet watches over Ephraim with my God. A fowler’s snare is on all of his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.
9They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity. He will punish them for their sins.
10I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at its first season; but they came to Baal Peor, and consecrated themselves to the shameful thing, and became abominable like that which they loved.
11As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird. There will be no birth, no one with child, and no conception.
12Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them, so that not a man shall be left. Indeed, woe also to them when I depart from them!
13I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place; but Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.
14Give them—Yahweh what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
15“All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds, I will drive them out of my house! I will love them no more. All their princes are rebels.
16Ephraim is struck. Their root has dried up. They will bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, yet I will kill the beloved ones of their womb.”
17My God will cast them away, because they didn’t listen to him; and they will be wanderers among the nations.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Hosea 9.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The distress to come upon Israel. (1-6). The approach of the day of trouble. (7-10). Judgments on Israel. (11-17).
vv1-6
Israel gave rewards to their idols, in the offerings presented to them. It is common for those who are niggardly in religion, to be prodigal upon their lusts. Those are reckoned as idolaters, who love a reward in the corn-floor better than a reward in the favour of God and in eternal life. They are full of the joy of harvest, and have no disposition to mourn for sin. When we make the world, and the things of it, our idol and our portion, it is just with God to show us our folly, and correct us. None may expect to dwell in the Lord's land, who will not be subject to the Lord's laws, or be influenced by his love. When we enjoy the means of grace, we ought to consider what we shall do, if they should be taken from us. While the pleasures of communion with God are out of the reach of change, the pleasant places purchased with silver, or in which men deposit silver, are liable to be laid in ruins. No famine is so dreadful as that of the soul.
vv7-10
Time had been when the spiritual watchmen of Israel were with the Lord, but now they were like the snare of a fowler to entangle persons to their ruin. The people were become as corrupt as those of Gibeah, Judg. 19; and their crimes should be visited in like manner. At first God had found Israel pleasing to Him, as grapes to the traveller in the wilderness. He saw them with pleasure as the first ripe figs. This shows the delight God took in them; yet they followed after idolatry.
vv11-17
God departs from a people, or from a person, when he withdraws his goodness and mercy from them; and when the Lord is departed, what can the creature do? Even though, for the present, good things seem to remain, yet the blessing is gone if God is gone. Even the children should perish with the parents. The Divine wrath dries up the root, and withers the fruit of all comforts; and the scattered Jews daily warn us to beware, lest we neglect or abuse the gospel. Yet every smiting is not a drying up of the root. It may be that God intends only to smite so that the sap may be turned to the root, that there may be more of root graces, more humility, patience, faith, and self-denial. It is very just that God should bring judgments on those who slight his offered mercy.
Key Words
שָׂמַח: probably to brighten up, i.e. (figuratively) be (causatively, make) blithe or gleesome
יִשְׂרָאֵל: Jisrael, a symbolical name of Jacob; also (typically) of his posterity
גִּיל: a revolution (of time, i.e. an age); also joy
עַם: a people (as a congregated unit); specifically, a tribe (as those of Israel); hence (collectively) troops or attendants; figuratively, a flock
זָנָה: to commit adultery (usually of the female, and less often of simple fornication, rarely of involuntary ravishment); figuratively, to commit idolatry (the Jewish people being regarded as the spouse of Jehovah)
עַל: above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applications
אֱלֹהִים: gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative
אָהַב: to have affection for (sexually or otherwise)
אֶתְנַן: a gift (as the price of harlotry or idolatry)
כֹּל: properly, the whole; hence, all, any or every (in the singular only, but often in a plural sense)
Cross References
Hosea 9Direct historical allusion to the infamous crime and corruption in the days of Gibeah.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, JFB
Direct historical allusion to Israel's apostasy at Baal-peor, which Hosea specifically names.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin, JFB
Prophetic parallel of eating defiled, unclean bread among the Gentiles in captivity.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
The Mosaic covenant curse threatening a return to Egypt as the ultimate symbol of bondage.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Law defining the 'bread of mourners' as unclean, making participants polluted as Hosea declares.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Parallel imagery of Israel viewing agricultural bounty as a meretricious reward from her idols.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Hosea's later recurrence to the sin of Gibeah as a defining mark of Israel's corruption.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Jeremiah's similar vision of good and bad figs, representing Israel's early favor and subsequent decay.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Jeremiah associates idolatrous altars with 'that shameful thing,' matching Hosea's 'separated themselves unto that shame.'
Supported by JFB
Mentions the 'cup of consolation' and mourning bread, illustrating unclean pagan funeral customs.
Supported by JFB
Parallel challenge regarding what the wicked will do in the day of visitation.
Supported by JFB
Lamentations describes false prophets who saw foolish things, echoing Hosea's 'the prophet is a fool.'
Supported by JFB
Pentateuchal imagery of God finding and caring for Israel in a waste howling wilderness.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The name Ephraim means 'fruitful,' contrasting ironically with the judgment of barrenness and depopulation.
Supported by JFB