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Hosea 9

KJV · Chapter 9/14

1Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.

2The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.

3They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.

4They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord.

5What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord?

6For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles.

7The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.

8The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.

9They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.

10I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baal–peor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.

11As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.

12Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!

13Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.

14Give them, O Lord: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

15All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.

16Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.

17My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

God announces that the joy of Israel's festivals will turn into mourning, for they will be exiled to Assyria and Egypt because of their deep spiritual corruption.

Explanation

This chapter contrasts the joy of the Canaanite agricultural celebrations, which Israel copied to 'thank' Baal for the harvest, with what actually awaits them: famine, exile, and the loss of their children. The reference to Gibeah recalls the brutal episode of Judges 19-21, showing that Israel's moral corruption went back a long way. The metaphor of Ephraim as 'grapes in the wilderness' and 'the firstripe in the fig tree' describes God's initial joy at finding the people, contrasted with the disappointment of watching them corrupt themselves at Baal-peor (Numbers 25). Today's lesson is that celebrating material blessings without gratitude to the true God is a subtle but real form of idolatry.

Fun facts

  • Baal-peor (v.10) was an episode in Numbers 25 in which the Israelites became involved with Moabite women and worshiped the local god, resulting in a plague that killed thousands — Hosea uses this event as a symbol of Israel's repeated unfaithfulness.
  • Memphis (v.6) was one of the leading cities of ancient Egypt, famous for its temples and necropolises; the prophecy that the Egyptians would 'gather' the bodies indicates that many Israelites would flee there in vain, seeking refuge.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Hosea 9:1Israel liked to celebrate the harvests the way the neighboring peoples did, in rituals mixed with worship of Baal; the prophet cuts that joy off at the root.
  2. Hosea 9:2The harvest of grain and grapes will not be enough to sustain them, and wine will run short — the end of the abundance they used to celebrate with idolatrous festivals.
  3. Hosea 9:3Returning "to Egypt" here is an image of regression, of going back to spiritual slavery; the actual place of exile would be Assyria, where the people would eat food considered unclean.
  4. Hosea 9:4In exile they will not be able to make proper offerings to the Lord; their very food will become like "the bread of mourners," unclean, with no access to true worship.
  5. Hosea 9:5God's rhetorical question: without a temple or their own land, how will this people celebrate the religious festivals they always kept?
  6. Hosea 9:6Describes the flight to Egypt and death in a foreign land, with the people's houses overtaken by weeds and thorns — total abandonment of the homeland.
  7. Hosea 9:7"The prophet is a fool" is what the people said about the true prophets to discredit them; the more serious the sin, the more the people reject whoever tries to warn them.
  8. Hosea 9:8Ephraim was meant to keep watch alongside God, but the false prophets became a hunter's traps, and there is hostility even inside the house of God.
  9. Hosea 9:9A comparison with the brutal episode at Gibeah (Judges 19–20), one of the darkest moments in Israel's history, to show just how deep the current corruption runs.
  10. Hosea 9:10"Baal-peor" recalls an ancient episode (Numbers 25), when Israel, still in the wilderness, got involved with a Canaanite cult right after leaving Egypt — showing that this temptation is very old.
  11. Hosea 9:11Ephraim's "glory" — its offspring, its fertility — will vanish quickly, like a bird flying away, even before the children are born.
  12. Hosea 9:12Even if they manage to raise their children to adulthood, God will take them away from among men; the worst punishment of all is when God withdraws.
  13. Hosea 9:13Ephraim, like the wealthy city of Tyre, is well planted in a prosperous place, but will end up handing its own children over to die in war.
  14. Hosea 9:14Hosea's shocking prayer: he asks God to give Ephraim miscarrying wombs and dry breasts — better to have no children than to raise them only to watch them die.
  15. Hosea 9:15Gilgal, a pilgrimage site mentioned earlier in the book, became a symbol of wickedness; that is why God decides to drive the people out of His own house.
  16. Hosea 9:16Ephraim is compared to a tree with a dried-up root, bearing no fruit — even if they still bear children, those children will not survive what is coming.
  17. Hosea 9:17The chapter's conclusion: rejection for disobedience, resulting in exile and a wandering life scattered among the nations.

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