Rejoice not, Israel, exultingly, as the peoples; for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved harlot's hire upon every corn-floor.
Hosea speaks at a time of national plenty, and his first word is a ban: the harvest songs must stop. The reason is not that joy is wrong. Israel has treated God's harvest as a payment earned from someone else.
The warning lands while the barns are full and the mood is confident.
Under the reign of Jeroboam II Israel enjoyed great prosperity. It seems they had a bountiful harvest; grain and wine were in abundance. They gave themselves over to feasting and rejoicing. It was at such a time that the Lord sent this warning against their own sense of security. He announces their captivity. There they would eat unclean things, and feast days would no longer be possible.
The threshing floor is where farmers gathered the grain. Israel had come to see that grain as a fee earned from her idols. The same charge appears earlier in the book, where God names what He gave and what they did with it.
"For she did not know that I gave her grain, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they made into images of gold." So they turned everything to the service of idols, and credited it to the favour of false gods. "Therefore," He says, "I will take my grain in its time, and my new wine in its season; and I will recover my wool and my flax, meant to cover her nakedness."
The words for unfaithfulness in this book are not exaggeration. They follow from a real bond God had formed with this nation.
The sad truth is that Israel was married to Jehovah, as the prophets remind the people (Isaiah 54; Jeremiah 3). So they brand Israel's unfaithfulness, not as prostitution like the Babylon of the New Testament, but as adultery (so in Hosea 3 and elsewhere). Yet His grace may later deal with Israel, not as a guilty widow, but as a woman forsaken and a wife of her youth.
The ban on rejoicing is not about mood. It opens a judgment that runs through the whole chapter.
Hosea 9 sets out the joyless doom of Israel for their shameless departure from their God. They had taken their grain as a prostitute's payment from their false gods. All such outward mercies would fail, and they would not live in the land of Jehovah… They would not pour out wine to Jehovah, and they would not be pleasing to Him. Their sacrifices would be to them like the bread of mourners. Everyone who ate of it would be unclean. Their bread would be for themselves. None would come into the house of Jehovah (verses 1-4).
The chapter is not all threat. The land is still God's, and the people in it are still the people He chose.
In Hosea 9 we have that touching mixture of affection and judgment which we find again and again in this prophet. Ephraim would not remain in the land which was Jehovah's. God would not give up His rights, whatever the sin of the people might be… God had chosen Israel from among the nations to be His delight. Even so, they had gone after Baal-peor before they ever came into the land. God is patient, but He still takes notice of everything.
Israel's rejoicing is forbidden here, but joy itself is not. Where a person looks for joy decides whether it lasts.
Our poor hearts long for joy, and are always tempted to seek it from human sources. But that joy proves both unsatisfying and short-lived. So the apostle writes, "do not get drunk with wine" (a picture of the joys of earth) … "but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs."
Prosperity carries its own danger:
Israel is warned of the dangers hidden in prosperity. Then would come the temptation to rest in the luxury, forget God's goodness to them, and be drawn away to seek after false gods. That is what happened in their history, as we know. We as Christians have to remind ourselves that days of outward prosperity are times of spiritual danger and defeat for us too.
- Gift. The grain, wine, oil, silver and gold were God's, given by Him — Israel "did not know that I gave her grain."
- Renamed. Israel credited the gift to false gods, and so took the harvest as a prostitute's payment, not as God's provision.
- Silenced. Because Israel renamed the gift, God forbids the harvest song. The rest of the chapter spells out the judgment.
- Removed. God takes back what was misused — the land, the feast days, the wine poured out to Him, and the house of the Lord.
- Restored. Affection still runs under the judgment. God keeps His rights over the land and notices everything. Real joy is still on offer — from Him, not from human sources.
The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail her.
Hosea speaks to a nation in a season of rich harvest and loud feasting. Into that celebration comes a warning that empties both floor and vat — why would God drain the very supplies He had given?
The warning lands at the height of national success, not in a famine. One writer sets the scene under Israel's king Jeroboam II:
Under the reign of Jeroboam II Israel enjoyed great prosperity. It seems they had a rich harvest; grain and wine were plentiful. They gave themselves over to feasting and celebrating. It was at such a time that the Lord sent this warning against their sense of security.
One writer explains the Hebrew word behind "wine vat":
It may be worth noticing that yekev, translated "wine" in Deuteronomy 16:13, means "wine-press" — strictly, the wine vat. … The vat stands for the wine it produced, just as the floor stands for the grain.
So floor and vat stand for what they produce. The food fails at its source.
Why take the harvest away? One writer traces it to the way Israel had taken the harvest in the first place:
Hosea 9 sets out the joyless doom of Israel for their shameless departure from their God. They had taken their grain as a prostitute's wages from their false gods. All such outward mercies would fail, and they would not live in the land of Jehovah. Ephraim would go back to Egypt, and in Assyria they would eat unclean food — some fleeing to Egypt by choice, most carried captive to Assyria. They would not pour out wine to Jehovah, and they would not please Him.
The judgment matches the sin. What they credited to idols is what they lose — and the land and its worship go too.
Earlier in the book God names the real giver of those crops:
"And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold" — which they used for Baal. … "Therefore," He says, "I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season." … Even her natural blessings had to be cut off. Her unbelief had made them an excuse for the idols she set up.
(Older translations read "corn" and "new wine" — the two words in our verse.) Notice the word my. The failing harvest is not bad luck. It is an owner taking back His own.
The chapter is not cold. One writer notes the feeling running under the judgment:
In Hosea 9 we find that touching mixture of affection and judgment which runs through this prophet. Ephraim would not stay in the land, for the land was Jehovah's. God would not give up His rights, however great the people's sin.
The same failure can happen today. One writer connects the missing comfort with idolatry:
This is why, when we turn to God and want to comfort ourselves in Him, we do not find the comfort. Our portion yields us nothing for our cup. Suppose an Israelite came back from worshipping Baal, and Jehovah's altar refused him. Would we be surprised? "Covetousness is idolatry," says the apostle.
- Gift — God gave the grain, the wine and the oil. He still calls them "my grain" and "my wine."
- Misplaced credit — Israel took the harvest as a prostitute's wages from false gods, and gave Baal the credit.
- Withdrawal — The gift became an excuse for idols, so the Giver takes it back. Floor and vat stop feeding them.
- Timing — The warning comes in the middle of plenty. It targets people who feel safe.
- Tone — Judgment comes mixed with affection. God will not give up His rights over His land.
They shall not dwell in Jehovah's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and in Assyria shall they eat that which is unclean.
Hosea speaks to Ephraim — Israel's ten northern tribes — as God announces that they will lose the land He gave them. Exile sends them back to Egypt, the country God rescued them from, and on to Assyria, where even their food will be unclean.
The verse calls it the land of the LORD. One writer begins there:
Ephraim should not remain in the land, for the land was the LORD's. God would not give up His rights, whatever the sin of the people might be. They should go into captivity, and come no more into the house of the LORD.
The judgment answers a specific sin, and it reached the people in two ways:
Hosea 9 sets out the joyless doom of Israel for their shameful departure from their God. They had taken their grain as a prostitute's payment from their false gods, and all such outward mercies should fail... Some fled to Egypt of their own choice, while most were carried captive into Assyria.
Commentators differ on what the return to Egypt means. Another writer sets this verse beside Hosea's other mentions of Egypt:
"Return into the land of Egypt" does not necessarily mean to flee there. It can mean to seek help there. Isaiah 31:1 says the same: "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help."
Assyria is not a random choice of prison. Israel had already looked to Assyria for safety. The punishment fits the sin:
The ten tribes are before the prophet, and he tells of their coming captivity... Israel relied on Assyria instead of the LORD, so the LORD allowed him to be a captive to the nation on which he had relied.
This is not about a poor diet. One commentator links this verse to Daniel, a young captive in Babylon who refused the king's table:
We believe Daniel did not refuse the king's food and wine because there was anything wrong or dangerous in them in themselves. He refused because pagan kings usually offered them to their idols. For this or similar reasons, he would not share in the provision assigned to him from the king's table.
The loss reaches past the menu. One writer traces Hosea's words here back to the commandments given through Moses:
Hosea, in Hosea 9:3 and following, refers to many of the commandments given through Moses. "They shall eat unclean food in Assyria. They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD, and they shall not please Him... What will you do on the day of the appointed festival, and on the day of the feast of the LORD?"
One writer carries this warning past Israel and into the present:
Leaning on Egypt was especially offensive to God. He had rescued them from that very people by His judgments at the start of their national history. It offends God just as much when a Christian goes back to the world-system. God has delivered the believer from that system and from the judgment coming on it. To go back is to rely on its power or its wisdom, instead of finding his resource in God when emergencies arise.
- The land — the ground they lived on was "the land of the LORD." God would not give up His rights over it, whatever the people's sin.
- The choice — they credited their harvest to false gods, then looked to Egypt for help and Assyria for safety.
- The sentence — they lose the land two ways. Some go to Egypt by choice; most are carried captive into Assyria.
- The irony — God let them become captives of the very nation they had leaned on.
- The table — exile means unclean food and no drink offerings, so the feasts of the LORD stop. The same pull toward the world still costs believers their resource in God.
They shall pour out no [offerings of] wine to Jehovah, neither shall their sacrifices be pleasing unto him they shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be defiled for their bread shall be for themselves; it shall not come into the house of Jehovah.
Hosea speaks to the ten tribes of Israel on the edge of exile. This verse names the cost: no wine poured out to God, no sacrifice He accepts, no place in His house, and bread fit only for mourners.
The chapter opens on a people still enjoying the harvest. Hosea tells them they will lose it all. One writer sums up these opening verses and the two directions the exiles would scatter:
Hosea 9 sets out the joyless doom of Israel for their shameless desertion of their God. They had taken their grain as a prostitute's pay from their false gods. All such outward mercies would fail, and they would no longer live in the land of Jehovah. Ephraim will return to Egypt, and in Assyria they will eat unclean food. Some will flee to Egypt by choice; most will go to Assyria as captives.
The land was not their own property. It belonged to God, and He would not let their sin settle there:
Ephraim would not remain in the land, for the land was Jehovah's. God would not give up His rights, whatever the sin of the people might be. They should go into captivity, and come no more into the house of Jehovah. The prophet and the spiritual man should no longer be a link between them and Jehovah.
The drink offering was wine poured out beside a sacrifice. It never stood on its own, and it meant joy — joy shared between God and the worshipper:
A whole Christ, as it were, must be before the worshipper before a drink offering would be in place. When that was before the eye and the heart, no one was to hold back the drink offering. The wine that cheers God and man could then be poured out. It was a token that in the Lord Jesus Christ, who lived and died, there was something that gave joy to God — and those who offered it could share that joy.
So when God says they will pour out no wine to Him, they are not losing a mere ceremony. They are losing a joy they once shared with Him.
The law already barred a person in mourning from eating holy things. The worshipper bringing his offering had to say so out loud:
"I have not eaten of it in my mourning, nor have I taken any of it away for any unclean use, nor given any of it for the dead." To eat in his mourning was profaning himself.
Calling their sacrifices mourners' bread is therefore a verdict, not a description of their mood. Whatever they brought would be defiling rather than accepted.
The reason mourners' bread was barred goes deeper than ritual. One writer draws out why grief in the sanctuary was treated the same way as an unclean heart:
No one was to eat the bread of mourners in the sanctuary. It would have defiled the presence of God, just as an offering from an unclean heart would have defiled it. For if holiness suits God's house, so do liberty and joy.
Their bread now feeds them and nothing more. None of it reaches God's house. That is the state of a people living where there is no altar:
Israel raised no altar in Egypt. They had to go into the wilderness before they could offer a sacrifice or keep a feast to the Lord. Egypt was the place of the flesh, and of judgment. God could not rightly receive worship from them until He had delivered them out of it. And so in Babylon: Israel raised no altar there. One might open his window and pray towards Jerusalem. Three or four might pray together for mercy and wisdom. In a day of confusion they might all hang their harps on the willows, refusing to sing the songs of Zion there. But they raised no altar in that land of the uncircumcised.
The end of the offerings is not God's last word to Israel. He promises to give back what He cut off:
For a time all the offerings the law required have stopped. They will begin again when God takes up Israel once more as His people on earth. Then sacrifices will go up on the altar afresh, and wine will again be poured out to the Lord (Ezekiel 45:17). And Israel will understand what they mean. They will share with understanding in God's joy in Christ, a joy drawn from His life and from His death.
- Cause. Israel treated God's harvest as pay from false gods. So God took back those mercies and the land itself — some went to Egypt, most to Assyria as captives.
- Claim. The land belonged to Jehovah, and He would not give up His rights. Leaving Him meant leaving the land and His house.
- Wine. Poured-out wine expressed joy shared between God and the worshipper in the sacrifice. Its silence means that joy has stopped.
- Mourners' bread. The law barred a mourner from eating holy things. Grief there defiled the sanctuary like an unclean heart, because holiness and joy both suit God's house.
- Restoration. Israel raised no altar in Egypt or Babylon. Yet the offerings will return, and then Israel will understand what they meant.
What will ye do in the day of assembly, and in the day of the feast of Jehovah?
Israel was rich, and the feast days were crowded. Hosea interrupts the celebration with a question: what will you do when the feast can no longer be kept?
The warning came at the least likely moment. One writer sets the scene under Jeroboam II, king of the northern tribes:
Under the reign of Jeroboam II Israel enjoyed great prosperity. It seems they had a rich harvest, with grain and wine in abundance. They gave themselves over to feasting and rejoicing. It was at such a time that the Lord sent this warning against their false sense of security. He announces their captivity: there they would eat unclean things, and feast days would no longer be possible.
The verses before this one strip away everything a feast needs: the land, clean food, and the house of the Lord. Then comes the question. One writer draws out a double failure for Ephraim, the northern kingdom — they could not keep the feast, and could not even see why:
Hosea 9 sets out the joyless doom of Israel for their shameless unfaithfulness to their God. They had taken their grain as a prostitute's pay from their false gods... They would not live in the land of Jehovah. Ephraim would go back to Egypt, and in Assyria they would eat unclean food — some fleeing to Egypt by choice, most carried captive to Assyria... Their bread would be for themselves, and none of it would come into the house of Jehovah (verses 1-4). "What will you do on the day of the appointed festival, and on the day of the feast of the LORD?" They would not only be unable to keep the feast in the way the law prescribed. Sadly, their heart and conscience would not be stirred either. They would see man's power, not their own sin or God's judgment.
The verse names two occasions, and both go back to set feasts in the law of Moses. Another prophet uses the same word when he warns that feasts will turn to mourning:
In the same way Amos says (Amos 8:10), "I will turn your feasts into mourning." The Hebrew word behind "feasts" is used especially of the Passover, Exodus 34:25, and of the feast of Tabernacles, Leviticus 23:34. He uses the same word again in Amos 5:1, together with that distinctive word for the "day of the solemn assembly."
So the question is not vague. It asks what becomes of Passover and Tabernacles once exile carries the people away from God's house.
The next verse answers the question with a burial instead of a feast. They fled south to escape the invader, and one writer traces where that flight ended:
"For behold, they are going away from destruction; but Egypt shall gather them; Memphis shall bury them" (Hosea 9:6). We know from Jeremiah 43 - 44:1 that the fugitives of Judah fled from the king of Babylon. They found refuge in Egypt, at Noph (Memphis) among other places. They forced the prophet to go with them, and there he prophesied against them while they thought they were safe from their oppressor.
The question is a warning, but not a cold one. One writer hears two notes at once in this chapter:
In Hosea 9 we have that touching mixture of affection and judgment which we find again and again in this prophet. Ephraim would not stay in the land which was Jehovah's, for God would not give up His rights, whatever the sin of the people. They would go into captivity, and come no more into the house of Jehovah.
The appointed feast is not cancelled for good. The same book comes back to it later as a promise, and as one feast rather than many:
And again, Hosea 12:9: "I will again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast" — not "feasts" as in some English Bibles.
- Feast in hand. The warning came while grain and wine were plentiful and the nation was rejoicing. Plenty, not want, was the setting.
- Feast in question. Exile would leave them unable to keep the appointed day. Worse, they would not feel why. They would see only human power, not their own sin.
- Feast defined. The two terms point to set feasts in the law: Passover and Tabernacles. Another prophet uses the same word when feasts turn into mourning.
- Feast replaced by a grave. Those who fled south from the invader never reached home. Egypt gathered them and Memphis buried them.
- Feast restored. God speaks this judgment with affection. Later the same book promises tents again "as in the days of the appointed feast" — one feast, given back.
For behold, they are gone away because of destruction Egypt shall gather them up, Moph shall bury them their pleasant things of silver, nettles shall possess them; thorns shall be in their tents.
Ephraim will not stay in the LORD's land, so Hosea watches them run south, away from the Assyrian and toward Egypt. What happens when people flee the judgment God sends instead of turning back to Him?
These people are already on the move. No one is marching them off as captives. They are running, and the road they choose decides who buries them.
"For look, they are gone because of destruction." To avoid the Assyrian they escaped to the south. But "Egypt shall gather them, Memphis shall bury them [not the land of their fathers]; as for their desired silver, nettles shall inherit it — thorns in their tents." Impatience had long dulled their minds. They would wake to suffering, if not to repentance.
The sting is in the bracket. They will have a grave, but not in the land of their fathers. Older translations read "gone away because of destruction," which is how Kelly takes it: the ruin at home is what drives them south.
Where did they run to? Not to some border village.
The Hebrew of this is Moph, Hosea 9:6, and is judged to be the capital of lower or northern Egypt. It is called NOPH in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. It was denounced in the prophets and given over to destruction.
They chose the best address in Egypt. It was already on the same list as the danger they fled.
The second half of the verse leaves the refugees and looks at the homes they left behind.
Nettles are mentioned in scripture as a sign that a place was deserted and given up to desolation. In Job the poor outcasts take shelter under them. Job 30:7; Proverbs 24:31; Isaiah 34:13; Zephaniah 2:9.
What they treasured most is the first thing they lose.
Commentators differ on the exact group in view. Kelly reads it of Israel, escaping south to avoid the Assyrian. Another writer traces the same flight in a later record.
The prophet constantly ties Judah's sin to Ephraim's. That helps us understand that "They shall return to Egypt" applies to Judah, morally tied to Israel. What proves it even more is this: "For behold
after, they are gone away because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Moph (Noph, that is Memphis) shall bury them." Now we know from Jeremiah 43 – 44:1 that the fugitives of Judah fled before the king of Babylon and found refuge in Egypt, at Noph among other places. They forced the prophet to go with them, and there he prophesied against them when they thought they were safe from their oppressor.
A whole company sheltered at Memphis, sure they had outrun the sword. A prophet stood among them, telling them they had not.
The land had an owner, and it was not Israel. (These writers use Jehovah for the name the ESV prints as "the LORD.")
Ephraim was not to remain in the land, for the land was Jehovah's, and God would not give up His rights, whatever the sin of the people. They were to go into captivity, and come no more into the house of Jehovah… God is patient, but He still takes note of everything. Ephraim would now be a wanderer among the nations.
Why Egypt, of all places? The same choice returns in a later crisis, and ends the same way.
In rebellion against God, some would have liked Egypt as a refuge from the Assyrian. In the time of Jeremiah, Egypt served the same purpose: a way to avoid submitting to Babylon. God commanded the king and the people to submit, but they would not. They kept close to Egypt, which was near enough for escape. It was useless. They perished, and God humbled Egypt under His hand… It was not that Israel had reason to love the iron furnace they had come out of. Egypt was their house of slavery until God delivered them by Moses. But man is always perverse. Even Egypt, which displeases God and which He will judge after Israel, looks to their blind unbelief like a good shield from the sword of the Assyrian when it comes — and come it will. What we run from in opposition to God's will becomes our severest scourge.
- Flight. They run from the destruction God sent instead of turning back to Him. They run the wrong way.
- Refuge. Egypt "gathers" them. But the prophets had already denounced Memphis and marked it for ruin, so the shelter stood under the same sentence.
- Grave. Egypt takes them in, and Memphis buries them — far from the land of their fathers. That is the sting.
- Loss. Nettles and thorns inherit the silver they prized — scripture's sign of a place deserted and left to ruin.
- Lesson. What we run from against God's will becomes our worst punishment. Only unbelief mistakes the old house of slavery for a shield.
The days of visitation are come; the days of recompence are come Israel shall know [it] the prophet is a fool, the inspired man is mad, because of the greatness of thine iniquity, and the great enmity.
Hosea speaks to a nation still enjoying full barns, and tells them the account has come due. It also carries an insult: the prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is mad — but whose voice is that, and who does it really fit?
The warning did not land on a people in distress.
Under the reign of Jeroboam II Israel enjoyed great prosperity. It seems they had a rich harvest, with grain and wine in plenty. They gave themselves over to feasting and celebrating. It was at such a moment that the Lord sent this warning against their sense of security. He announces their captivity, in a land where they would eat unclean food and where feast days would no longer be possible.
Israel had drifted along unmoved for years. The blow would finally wake them. But waking up to pain is not the same as turning back to God.
Impatience had long dulled them. They would wake to suffering, if not to repentance. "The days of punishment have come; the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it" — but they would not yet know themselves, nor the LORD.
The word for what God repays here turns up again in the New Testament.
Luke 21:22 — "Vengeance." The Greek word (ekdikesis) is the same as the one in Hosea 9:7.
God did not invent the words "The prophet is a fool." They were the people's sneer at the man who told them the truth. Now the same words fall back on the men who told them lies.
This had been Israel's taunt against the true prophet, and now it fell back on the false prophets. Of these deceivers it was true.
The phrase is not a compliment for a godly Israelite. One writer calls the older rendering "spiritual man" a mistranslation. The state the New Testament calls spiritual did not exist yet.
So to be spiritual in the true sense means to be marked by the Holy Spirit of God, whom our ascended Head and Lord has given us. That is why we do not find this state in the Old Testament; Hosea 9:7 is translated wrongly. We read of men who did mighty acts by the power of the Spirit, such as Samson, but no one could call their own state spiritual.
Prophecy was Israel's connection to God. Cut that link, and the very thing meant to guide them leaves them confused.
The prophet and the spiritual man would no longer be a link between the people and the LORD. God would confuse them by the very thing that should have enlightened and guided them. The prophet would even become a trap for their soul, though he had once been a watchman from God. Ephraim's corruption ran as deep as in the days of Gibeah, whose story is told at the end of the book of Judges; and God would visit them in judgment.
One writer applies the verse to any easy-going religious age, where people treat earnestness as an embarrassment.
Sadly, it is a day of lukewarmness. Many are at ease among God's people. The prophet is a fool; the spiritual man is mad. "Don't be too righteous" is the general cry. But Christ in you is the hope of glory. In the glory true values will be declared. The crowning day is coming. Christ will be vindicated; so will His own.
- Plenty. The warning came in a time of plenty and celebration under Jeroboam II. Full barns prove nothing.
- Mockery. Calling the prophet a fool and the man of the spirit mad was Israel's own taunt against God's true messenger. The words fall back on the deceivers, where they fit.
- Silence. Prophecy had been the link between the people and God. Cut it, and the thing that should have enlightened them confuses them instead. The old watchman becomes a trap.
- Reckoning. The days of punishment wake a dulled people to suffering, though not to repentance. The same word for what God repays turns up again in the New Testament.
- Warning. Wherever people write off earnestness as madness and "don't be too righteous" is the mood, this verse is alive again. The crowning day will declare the true values.
Is Ephraim a watchman with my God? [nay] the prophet is a fowler's snare on all his ways, enmity in the house of his God.
A watchman's job was to spot danger early and shout the alarm, and that was the prophet's place with God for Ephraim. This verse turns the picture inside out: the same man becomes a trap, and God's house fills with hatred.
The prophet stood between the people and the Lord. That link is what God now removes, and the removal is itself part of the judgment.
The prophet and the spiritual man should no longer be a link between them and Jehovah. God would confound them by means of that which should have enlightened and guided them. The prophet should even be a snare to their soul, although formerly a watchman from God.
A fowler is a bird-catcher. In Scripture the snare usually belongs to Satan, and God is the one who breaks it.
Used as a symbol for Satan, from whose snares God delivers His saints. Psalm 91:3; Psalm 124:7; Proverbs 6:5. In the punishment of Israel their prophets became like the snare of the fowler. Hosea 9:8.
A snare only works because the bird never sees it. That danger did not stop with Israel.
Does a snare not represent evil hidden under a fair exterior? The apostle Paul warns us not to be deceived by "plausible arguments" (Colossians 2:4). He also tells us that in the professing Christian circle some will be caught "in the snare of the devil" (2 Timothy 2:26)... We may think we can escape snares and be kept from heresies by our own intelligence and knowledge of the truth. But whatever our knowledge and gifts, unless we are in secret communion — abiding in Christ — there is no snare into which we cannot fall.
The verse puts the hatred in the one place it should never appear — God's own house. Faithful men have met it again and again.
Many of God's prophets have sealed their ministry with their lives. Men hated, slandered, and persecuted them for fearlessly exposing evil, and for the godly lives that backed the warning up. Think of John the Baptist, the Elijah of the New Testament! And our Lord Jesus Himself could say in prophetic language, "More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause" (Psalm 69:4).
This chapter pleads with Ephraim. But the evil it names is old, and the writers trace it back to Gibeah.
Yet in Hosea 9 what tender pleading over Ephraim, about to become a wanderer, in which the prophet was a snare! It was no new evil, but had been so since Gibeah.
One writer measures how deep that old rot ran, and traces the drift back further still — to Baal-peor, an idol Israel followed before they ever reached the land.
The corruption of Ephraim was as deep as in the days of Gibeah, the story of which is told at the end of the book of Judges; and God would call them to account. God had chosen Israel from among the nations to be His delight, and they had gone after Baal-peor, even before they came into the land. If God is patient, He still takes notice of everything.
The God who judges is not cold about it. That shapes how we warn people today.
He who wept over Jerusalem is the same Person who spoke in Hosea's day: "How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? ... My heart recoils within me." If judgment must come, it still grieved the heart of God to carry it out... As faithful witnesses for God, it is our duty to warn an evil world of the judgment appointed. Woe to us if we neglect to sound the warning! But how do we do it? Is it in the stern spirit of denunciation, or is it with trembling lips and compassionate hearts?
- Watchman. The prophet's place was to stand with God and warn Ephraim — a living link between the people and the Lord.
- Snare. When God judges that link, the gift reverses. What should have enlightened and guided now confuses and traps the soul.
- Hidden. A snare works by looking harmless. Evil wears a fair exterior, and knowledge alone will not keep you out of it — only abiding in Christ will.
- Hatred. The hatred sits in God's own house. John the Baptist met it, and so did Christ, hated without cause.
- Warning. God's judgment is real, yet it grieves His heart. So sound the alarm with trembling lips and a compassionate heart, not stern denunciation.
They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.
Hosea does not compare his own generation with the nations around it. He measures it against the darkest night in Israel's own past, and then says God will remember and act.
"Gibeah" was shorthand for one recorded event in Israel's history.
The story of lust and bloodshed in the last three chapters of Judges (19 — 21) shows how common moral corruption and violence had become among the children of Israel. A Levite and his concubine from Bethlehem were on their way to the house of Jehovah. On the way he became caught up in the shameful immorality of the men of Gibeah, in the tribe of Benjamin. The men of Gibeah practised the foul habits of the men of Sodom. A bloody tribal war followed. The children of Benjamin, that fierce, wolf-like tribe (Gen. 49:27), defended the "vile lusts" of the men of Gibeah. Tens of thousands died in battle, and the tribe of "little Benjamin" was almost wiped out. Scripture treats this shocking event as a starting point of national wickedness in Israel. Later, in the days of the kings, the prophet Hosea reminded the nation, "From the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel" (Hosea 10:9).
Hosea is not accusing Ephraim, the northern kingdom, of that particular crime. He is saying its state has sunk just as low. God's patience is not the same as forgetting.
The corruption of Ephraim was as deep as in the days of Gibeah, the story told at the end of the book of Judges; and God would punish them... Though God is patient, He still takes account of everything. Ephraim would now be a wanderer among the nations.
The story in Judges is not only about the men of the town. When the crime came to light, the whole nation reacted — and one writer points out what was absent from their outrage.
A horrible sin had taken place at Gibeah. It was not a hidden failure, as Achan's had been, but a sin committed openly before God and man. God uses the sin of Gibeah, as He did the sin of Achan, to expose their moral condition, to humble them, and to awaken in them a sense of what is due to God... They are angry at the wrong done to themselves, and they completely overlook the wrong done to God. They speak of the folly Gibeah committed in Israel, and of the wickedness done among the tribe of Benjamin, but they say not a word about the dishonour brought on the Lord's name.
After Gibeah the ark — the chest that marked God's presence among Israel — vanishes from the record until Samuel's day.
It was a time the nation never forgot — a "black-letter day," remembered for its lesson about how deeply corrupt man can be. Six hundred years later the prophet Hosea recalled it: "They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah" (Hosea 9:9; 10:9). From that dark day of lust, terrible vengeance and slaughter, right down to the time of Samuel, the "ark of God's testimony" is never mentioned. It is as if God hid Himself after that deed of darkness, done by the people who bore His name, until they would return to Him.
The chapter around this verse spells out what remembering and punishing would mean in practice.
God announces their captivity. There they would eat unclean food, and feast days would no longer be possible... The day of reckoning was at hand. God remembers their iniquities, and He will punish their sins.
The prophets repeat this charge again and again. One writer shows what it cost Israel, and what believers receive instead.
Peter was writing to people once connected with a nation of whom the prophets say over and over, "They have corrupted themselves." "They have deeply corrupted themselves" (Hosea 9:9). As a result scattering and breakdown marked them, and they could not enjoy their earthly inheritance... With what joy these believers would welcome the good news that assured them of an inheritance in a resurrection realm marked by "life and incorruptibility."
- Benchmark. Gibeah is the measuring stick — one night of lust in Judges, and a war that almost destroyed a tribe. Scripture treats it as where national wickedness began.
- Depth. Hosea does not say Israel repeated the crime. He says its corruption had sunk just as low, so the same punishment would follow.
- Blind spot. At Gibeah Israel was loud about the wrong done to itself and silent about the dishonour done to God. God used the crime to expose what they really were.
- Silence. After that day the ark disappears from the record until Samuel, as if God withdrew from a people who bore His name.
- Cost. Deep corruption brought scattering and breakdown, and Israel could not enjoy the inheritance God had given it. The good news holds out an inheritance corruption cannot touch.
I found Israel as grapes in the wilderness; as first-ripe fruit on the fig-tree, I saw your fathers at the beginning they went to Baal-Peor, and separated themselves unto that shame, and became abominations like their lover.
Hosea 9:10 turns from judgment to memory. God recalls the delight Israel once gave Him, then names the place where they turned away.
The first picture is of an unexpected find in a barren place. One writer sets the scene in ordinary human terms:
A traveller who finds grapes and figs in the desert delights in them. In the same way the Lord found Israel in the desert. They were His pleasure when He led them out of Egypt.
The second picture is "the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season." Israel is that fig tree:
No wonder that the fig tree is often used in the Bible as a picture of the nation of Israel. Hosea says that God saw their fathers "like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season." But Israel failed to bring fruit to God. The fig tree in the land of Israel bears fruit three times each year, and people say the early ripe spring figs are the greatest delicacy. Perhaps that is what our Lord was looking for near Jerusalem, when He found that the tree bore nothing but leaves. He cursed it, and it quickly withered. This was, no doubt, a warning to the nation that had been so highly favoured and yet was about to crucify the very Son of God… It is easy for us to go along with Christian people, use the right language, sing the hymns and quote texts, and yet not be sincere. We are told to beware of hypocrisy.
Baal-peor was not a vague failure. It was one place and one event:
Peor is where Balaam was called to curse Israel. It is also where the people were trapped into sacrificing to the gods of Moab, eating things sacrificed to their idols, and committing sexual sin. So Israel joined himself to Baal-peor. He shared fully in its demon worship and in the uncleanness that went with it.
The verse says Israel consecrated itself to the thing of shame. One writer names what that meant:
But they repaid His love by going after Baal-peor, one of the filthiest gods of the nations. To this they consecrated themselves and practised their vile abominations.
Hosea will not name the idol. He calls it "shame." Israel did the same in its own records, even in people's names:
Ishbosheth means "man of shame"… We know from Chronicles that his original name was Esh-baal. We see a similar change with Jonathan's son Meribbaal, changed to Mephibosheth, and with Jerubbaal, changed to Jerubbesheth. In Hosea 9:10 Baal himself is called "that shame." No one can reasonably question that the sense of the shameful character of idolatry led to these changes.
Love and judgment run side by side in this chapter. The timing of the sin is part of the charge:
In Hosea 9 we have that touching mixture of affection and judgment which we find again and again in this prophet… God had chosen Israel from among the nations to be His delight. Yet they had gone after Baal-peor, even before they came into the land. If God is longsuffering, He yet takes knowledge of everything. Ephraim should now be a wanderer among the nations.
Judgment is not the last word here. The prophet also points ahead:
Jehovah "drew them with cords of a man" and "with bands of love" into a land flowing with milk and honey. But they turned from the Lord and went after strange gods. Yet in the days to come God will again bring Israel into the wilderness, will there "speak to her heart," and from there open to her "a door of hope."
- Found. God speaks of Israel as a traveller speaks of grapes found in a desert. They were His pleasure when He brought them out of Egypt.
- First. The other picture is the first ripe fig, the choicest fruit of the year. God looked for that fruit in Israel and found none.
- Forsaken. At Baal-peor Israel shared in the sacrifices, the idols and the immorality of Moab. They gave themselves to it before ever setting foot in the land.
- Shame. Hosea will not name the idol. He calls it "that shame" — the same instinct that turned Esh-baal into Ishbosheth and Jerubbaal into Jerubbesheth.
- Fruitless. Leaves without figs is the warning for us: right words, right company, no reality. We are told to beware of hypocrisy.
As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away as a bird, -- no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
Hosea speaks here to Israel, the kingdom of the ten tribes, which he calls Ephraim. His sentence strikes the one thing that made the nation feel safe: its children. The picture is a bird in flight — glory that does not fade, but lifts off and is gone.
The chapter does not read like a cold verdict. One writer describes the double note running through it, and ties it to the loss of the land itself.
In Hosea 9 we have that touching mixture of affection and judgment which we meet again and again in this prophet. Ephraim would not stay in the land, for the land was the Lord's. God would not give up His rights, whatever the sin of the people might be.
The glory that flies away was never Ephraim's own. God gave it. The way He takes it back answers the way they abused it.
They repaid His love by going after Baal-peor, one of the filthiest gods of the nations. They gave themselves to it and practised its vile abominations. So the glory He had given to His people will fly away like a bird. Their filthy worship of unnatural vices would take its own revenge, so that there would be no pregnancy and no birth. The promised increase would stop.
Another writer names the principle behind that fall.
Idolatry, the degradation of God, results (as it always does) in the degradation of man.
To feel the weight of the threat, you have to see what children meant in Israel. They were counted as a gift, not an accident — and the nation's future rested on them.
It is He, the Lord, who "gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children" (Ps. 113:9). This will be shown in Israel in the coming day of her promised increase. "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward" (Ps. 127:3).
The blow falls on more than the birth rate. Another writer counts everything Ephraim loses.
So a blight would fall on their national prosperity, and their glory in their children would perish. And more than that — woe to them, forsaken by the Lord!
There is bitter irony in the name Hosea uses. One writer points out what "Ephraim" means.
His name means "double fruitfulness."
The tribe had already shown once that a name is not the same as a reality. One writer compares its numbers at two head counts.
Ephraim's name means "fruitfulness." Yet this tribe stands in sad contrast to Manasseh, for its numbers fell from 40,500 to 32,500. This may teach us a lesson. If we depend on our reputation for bearing fruit, the fruit itself drains away. That is because self has become our object rather than Christ. Self-complacency is one of the most damaging attitudes we can adopt.
The sentence did not stay on the page. One writer points to where Israel can be seen now.
How exactly it all came true, to the letter! And it strikes you all the more, because they do not form a separate community. They mix with the Gentiles inside and outside Christendom.
Hosea's severity is real, but it is not the end of his message. Read as a whole, the book moves through the collapse to something beyond it.
Hosea prophesied with the breaking up of the kingdom of the ten tribes in view... He is full of the thought of the ruin that was at hand; but he looks beyond it to scenes of restoration and glory. As I might put it, the death and resurrection of Israel is what he has in view.
- Given — the glory that flies away was God's gift to His people, not Ephraim's own product; that is why He can take it back.
- Traded — they gave that gift away at Baal-peor, and degrading God always ends in the degrading of man.
- Emptied — children are a heritage from the Lord. So a closed womb strikes the nation's glory and its future in one blow.
- Named — "Ephraim" means fruitfulness. Lean on that reputation for fruit, and the fruit itself drains away.
- Restored — Hosea sees the ruin, but looks past it: restoration and glory, a resurrection for Israel, a coming day of promised increase.
For even should they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, [that] not a man [remain] for woe also to them when I shall have departed from them!
Hosea speaks here to the northern kingdom of Israel, also called Ephraim. Their last comfort was a growing family line. God takes that comfort away twice over. He will not leave them their children — and worse, He will not stay with them Himself.
This threat follows a memory. God recalls how He first found this nation. He also recalls what they did with His love at Baal-peor, where Israel worshipped a foreign god before they ever reached the land.
Like a traveller who finds grapes and figs in the desert and delights in them, so the Lord found Israel in the desert, and they were His pleasure when He led them out of Egypt. But they repaid His love by going after Baal-peor, one of the filthiest gods of the nations. To this they consecrated themselves and practised their vile abominations. So the glory which He had given to His people will fly away like a bird. Their shameless worship, with its unnatural vices, would punish itself. There would be no pregnancy and no birth. The promised increase would stop.
Israel's children were their pride and their future. But the verse does not stop at the loss of children. It moves from what they lose to Whom they lose.
So not only should a blight fall on their national prosperity, and their glory in their children perish, but woe to themselves, abandoned by Jehovah! Murder and barrenness should come on Ephraim, who dared to make Gilgal itself the dumping ground of their wickedness. For their wicked, brazen doings Jehovah would drive them out of His house and love them no more. And they should not merely wander — they should be wanderers among the nations. This came true to the letter! It is all the more striking because they do not live as a separate community, but mix with the nations inside and outside Christendom.
God's departure is a rule, not a one-off threat. Look at Samson, the strong man in the book of Judges whose power was never his own. Look at Israel, beaten in battle by the Philistines.
No power but God's can stand before them [the Philistines]. He is not with Israel here, so they suffer defeat. Like Samson, they are powerless in fighting them... they relied completely on human strength, which always fails God's people. "Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me… for they have rebelled against Me." "Woe to them when I depart from them" (Hosea 7:13; 9:12). This is always true. It was true of Samson: "the LORD had left him," and his strength was gone.
One writer looks further ahead. He is commenting on the day Israel lost the ark, when a dying mother named her son Ichabod — "no glory."
All dooms foreshadow the final doom, and so it is here. The "outer darkness" will be when those who have said to God, "Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways," have their terrible prayer granted. And who can imagine what this means? But "there," we are told, "there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
The tone of the chapter is not cold. And God's patience is not blindness.
In Hosea 9 we have that touching mixture of affection and judgment which we find again and again in this prophet... The corruption of Ephraim was as deep as in the days of Gibeah. The end of the book of Judges tells that story. And God would punish them for it... If God is patient, He still takes notice of everything.
The departure is real. But the book of Hosea does not end here.
However great the sin of Israel, the heart of their God cannot forsake His people. He will not destroy them; He is God, and not man; and finally He will place the people, now trembling and submissive, once more in their homes.
- Found. God found Israel like fruit in a desert and delighted in them. Every word of judgment here measures them against that first love.
- Forsook. They repaid it at Baal-peor, and the glory He had given them flies away like a bird — even the promised increase stops.
- Forfeited. Two things go. First their glory in their children. Then Ephraim himself — driven out of God's house and scattered among the nations.
- Forewarned. God leaving is the real ruin. Samson lost his strength the moment the LORD left him. And those who tell God to depart get their answer in the end.
- Found again. The heart of their God cannot forsake His people; He is God, and not man, and will set them in their homes once more.
Ephraim, as I saw [him], was a Tyre planted in a beautiful place; but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the slayer.
Hosea speaks to Ephraim, a people God had planted in His own land, now on the edge of captivity. The verse sets two pictures side by side: a settled, favoured home, and children led out to be killed.
The chapter is not cold sentencing. One writer catches its tone, what God notices, and where Ephraim ends up:
In Hosea 9 we have that touching mixture of affection and judgment which we find again and again in this prophet. Ephraim should not remain in the land which was the Lord's. God would not give up His rights, whatever the sin of the people might be. They should go into captivity, and come no more into the house of the Lord... If God is patient, He still takes notice of everything. Ephraim should now be a wanderer among the nations.
The land was God's, not Ephraim's. He could take back a pleasant planting at any time. And His patience never meant He had stopped watching: "as I have seen" is His own account of what Ephraim became.
Older translations read "a Tyre planted in a beautiful place" where the ESV reads "a young palm planted in a meadow." Tyre was a trading city, and Scripture elsewhere draws its character like this:
Tyre is essentially the merchantman; his professed aim is even to serve. No doubt his aim is first of all to serve himself. He does not have the true spirit of service for God. Instead he finds in the needs of others the opportunity for his own gain. This is what we find as the cause of his judgment here.
Ephraim now looked like that city: well placed, well supplied, and living for gain.
Judgment reaches three things: their wealth, their children, and their place with God.
So not only should a blight fall on their national prosperity, and their glory in their children perish, but woe to themselves, forsaken of the Lord! Murder and barrenness should fall on Ephraim... For their bold, wicked doings the Lord would drive them out of His house, and love them no more. They should not merely wander, but be wanderers among the nations. How truly it was fulfilled to the letter! It is the more striking because they do not form a separate community. They mix with the Gentiles inside and outside the Christian world, mostly given over to the lust of gain.
Kelly sees that last trait outliving the captivity, in the later history of the scattered people.
The threat is not isolated in Hosea. One writer lines up the prophet's sentences in a row:
The land was to mourn, the people were to waste away... They should be swallowed up. Memphis was to bury them. Their children should be brought forth to the murderer. They should use the words kept for the day of utter cutting off: "mountains cover us, hills fall on us."
Ephraim is not robbed of the children. He brings them out himself.
Verse 10 recalled Baal-peor. One writer draws a line from that worship to the childlessness threatened here:
Like a traveller who finds grapes and figs in the desert and delights in them, so the Lord found Israel in the desert. They were His pleasure when He led them out of Egypt. But they repaid His love by going after Baal-peor, one of the filthiest gods of the nations... So the glory which He had given to His people will fly away like a bird. Their unclean worship would take its own revenge, so that there would be no pregnancy and no birth. The promised increase would stop.
The chapter ends in scattering. Read alongside Hosea 14, the dried root has a future:
The once dried root of Ephraim shall send out shoots of freshness and strength (Hosea 9:16; 14:5). The God who has cast him away to be a wanderer among the nations shall gather him again. The land of Joseph shall be blessed.
- Planted. The pleasant place was God's land, held on His terms — and He saw what Ephraim did with it.
- Like Tyre. They turned favoured ground into a trading floor, so God likens His people to the merchant city.
- Blighted. Judgment strikes their wealth, then the children who were Ephraim's glory, then leaves them forsaken of God.
- The murderer. They chose Baal-peor, and childlessness and slaughter are that choice coming back on them — with Ephraim leading his own children out.
- Gathered. The wandering is real and long, but God promises the dried root fresh shoots and a homecoming.
Give them, Jehovah -- what wilt thou give? -- give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
Hosea has been announcing Ephraim's ruin. Here he breaks off into prayer, and the prayer stalls halfway: what he asks for is not rescue but barrenness. Why would a prophet who loves his people ask God to close the womb?
The chapter does not read as cold sentencing. The words come from someone who is under orders to say them:
This shows a touching mixture: the prophet's affection for the people, and the judgements he is forced to speak against them. He uses many illustrations to drive his words home.
The same passage that measures their sin also recalls God's love for this people:
The Spirit compares their whole state to that dreadful time when one tribe was nearly wiped out for stubbornly holding on to an evil that Israel found most offensive. Now He dwells on Jehovah's love for the people, and on the sad return they made for it.
The prayer makes sense only against the scale of the corruption. This was not a recent slip. Their sin is measured against one of the darkest episodes in Israel's early history, and its roots went back further still:
Ephraim's corruption was as deep as in the days of Gibeah. That story is told at the end of the book of Judges. God would punish them. He had chosen Israel out of the nations to be His delight, and they had gone after Baal-peor, even before they came into the land. God is patient, but He still takes notice of everything. Ephraim should now be a wanderer among the nations.
Gibeah, in the closing chapters of Judges, was the crime that nearly wiped out a whole tribe. Baal-peor was the idol Israel gave itself to on the way into the land.
The prayer is not random cruelty. Israel's own worship was sexual, and the judgment lands where the sin lived:
They repaid His love by going after Baal-peor, one of the filthiest gods of the nations. To this they consecrated themselves and practised their vile abominations. So the glory He had given His people will fly away like a bird. Their impure worship, with its unnatural vices, would take its own revenge: there would be no pregnancy and no birth. The promised increase would stop. It seems verses 14-17 are an outburst of the prophet. How literally the sentence has been fulfilled. "They will be wanderers."
Note the reading offered here: verses 14 to 17 are the prophet's own outburst, not a calm announcement.
Ephraim loses far more than children:
So a blight would fall on their national prosperity, and their glory in their children would perish. Worse still, woe to them, left by Jehovah! Murder and barrenness would come on Ephraim, who dared to make Gilgal itself the drain for all their wickedness. Because of their wicked, brazen deeds Jehovah would drive them out of His house and love them no more. They would not just wander; they would be wanderers among the nations. How exactly this came true! It is all the more striking because they do not form a separate community. They mix with the Gentiles inside and outside Christendom.
- Chosen. God picked Israel out of the nations as His delight. The prayer for an empty womb is spoken against the memory of that love.
- Corrupted. They went after Baal-peor before they even entered the land. Their corruption ran as deep as in the days of Gibeah. God's patience never meant He stopped noticing.
- Closed. Their religion was sexual, so their sin took its revenge in kind: no pregnancy, no birth, no promised increase.
- Cast out. Barrenness was only part of it. Their glory in their children perished, and God drove them out of His house.
- Wanderers. Every word came true. They did not just wander; they became wanderers, mixed among the nations instead of settled as a people.
All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them because of the wickedness of their doings, I will drive them out of my house, I will love them no more all their princes are rebellious.
Gilgal was where Israel's life in the land began — their first camp after crossing the Jordan, and the place of circumcision. Hosea names that same spot as the sum of the nation's evil, and from it God announces eviction from His house and the end of His love.
The charge only lands if you know what happened at that place:
No words could show the moral corruption Israel had fallen into more strongly than these: "All their wickedness is in Gilgal." Remember what Gilgal was. There Israel set up the twelve stones they took out of the Jordan. There they were circumcised after they crossed the Jordan (Joshua 5). There they pitched their camp, and there they had to return after every battle. It was therefore significant in every way of death to the flesh, of the end of the first man. Here, then, Israel forgot what Gilgal meant in their history. They practised their sins there, probably tied to idolatry, giving free rein to the flesh in all its inclinations and lusts instead of circumcising it.
(That wording is from an older translation. The ESV reads, "Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal.")
Sin anywhere would have been sin. Sin at Gilgal was defiance, and the judgment on it was heavy:
A blight would fall on their national prosperity, and their glory in their children would perish. And not only that: woe to themselves, forsaken by Jehovah! Murder and barrenness would come on Ephraim, who dared to make Gilgal itself the sink of their wickedness.
The prophet Elijah also began his last journey at Gilgal. God chose the route, and it led him back over Israel's own history:
His last journey started from Gilgal, with Elisha going along. The Lord could easily have taken His servant up from Gilgal itself. Instead He led him around — first to Bethel, next to Jericho, and then across the Jordan. It was a kind of retracing of Israel's steps in the days of Joshua. In this way God set before Elijah's mind the hopeless evil of the people he had served so well. At Gilgal Israel had shown their dependence on God by circumcising themselves in front of the enemy (Joshua 5). The place was now one of Israel's chief centres of idolatry.
The sentence is exile, and God passes it without giving up His own claim on the land:
Ephraim would not stay in the land, for the land was Jehovah's. God would not give up His rights, whatever the sin of the people might be. They would go into captivity and come no more into the house of Jehovah. The prophet and the spiritual man would no longer be a link between them and Jehovah.
The sentence was carried out, and its effects are still in front of us:
For their bold and wicked deeds Jehovah would drive them out of His house and love them no more. They would not only wander; they would be wanderers among the nations. How exactly this came true, to the letter! And it stands out all the more because they do not form a separate community, but mix with the Gentiles inside and outside Christendom.
Hosea does not stop at chapter 9. In chapter 14 God's answer reverses this verse:
Then comes Jehovah's answer in verse 4: "I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them." What mercy, shown to people who kept wandering away and whose hearts were firm only in rebellion! What tender love as well as mercy! Love free and full, with its motive in God Himself! He once struck His people in anger. Now He will be like the dew to them, who were so long without a drop of moisture to refresh them.
Gilgal was not a one-time stop. Israel's armies set out from it and came back to it:
Gilgal was the place of circumcision. From there the army of Jehovah set out before it had won a single victory. There it also gathered after victory (Joshua 10:15), and from there it set out again for fresh conquests. The judgment of the flesh was immovable. The people were to keep applying it to themselves. Otherwise the flesh would work to regain what it had lost, and a first victory would never be followed by a second.
- Place — Gilgal marked the crossing, the circumcision, and the camp Israel came back to after every battle. It stood for the end of the flesh.
- Ruin — Israel made that same place the home of their sin. They gave the flesh free rein where it should have been cut off.
- Sentence — God drove them out of His house into exile, and the prophet no longer linked the people to God.
- Proof — The words came true to the letter. Scattered among the nations, Israel still lives as wanderers, mixed in among others.
- Return — "I will love them no more" is not where Hosea ends. The same God promises to heal their apostasy and love them freely, with the motive in Himself.
Ephraim is smitten their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit; yea, though they should bring forth, yet will I slay the beloved [fruit] of their womb.
Hosea speaks here against a people whose very name promised fruit. The verse raises plain questions. Who is Ephraim? What does a dried root mean for a whole nation? And is that root the end of the story?
The name in this verse stands for far more than one tribe. Commentators take it as the title for all ten tribes together.
Ephraim is not only the name of one tribe. It is also the general title for the ten tribes who gathered under that leading tribe. The prophets use Judah and Ephraim as the two chief names when they contrast the two houses of Israel... Assyria carried Israel away into captivity, and as a people they never came back to the land.
That makes the words about bearing no fruit sharper still, because of what the name itself means. One writer draws the lesson from an earlier moment when the tribe's numbers fell instead of rising:
Ephraim's name means "fruitfulness." Yet this tribe stands in sad contrast to Manasseh, for its numbers fell from 40,500 to 32,500. This may teach us a lesson. If we lean on our reputation for bearing fruit, the fruit itself will shrink badly. The reason is that self has become our object instead of Christ.
The verse moves from the root to the womb. The judgment touches their prosperity, their children, and God's own house:
A blight would fall on their national prosperity. Their glory in their children would perish. And woe to themselves, forsaken by Jehovah! Murder and barrenness would come on Ephraim, who dared to make Gilgal itself the dumping ground of their wickedness. For their wicked, bold deeds Jehovah would drive them out of His house, and love them no more. They would not just wander; they would be wanderers among the nations. How completely this came true, to the letter! It is all the more striking because they do not form a separate community. They mix in with the Gentile nations, inside and outside the Christian world.
One writer reads these closing verses as an outburst from the prophet. He traces the loss back to what Israel did with God's love:
Think of a traveller who finds grapes and figs in the desert and delights in them. In the same way the Lord found Israel in the desert. They were His pleasure when He led them out of Egypt. But they repaid His love by going after Baal-peor, one of the filthiest gods of the pagan world. To this they devoted themselves... So the glory He had given to His people will fly away like a bird. Their immoral worship would take its own revenge: there would be no pregnancy and no birth. The promised increase would stop. It seems verses 14-17 are an outburst of the prophet. How exactly this sentence has come true. "They will be wanderers."
Nothing here is sudden. The same chapter names two old sins: Gibeah, from the time of the judges, and Baal-peor, on the way into the land:
Ephraim's corruption was as deep as in the days of Gibeah. The end of the book of Judges tells that story. And God would call them to account. God had chosen Israel from among the nations to be His delight, and they had gone after Baal-peor, even before they came into the land. If God is patient, He still takes note of everything. Ephraim would now be a wanderer among the nations.
Darby also notes what is at stake in their removal from the land: Ephraim would not remain in the land which was Jehovah's, "for God would not abandon His rights, whatever the iniquity of the people might be."
This verse is not the last word on Ephraim. Commentators read it beside the promise at the end of the book, where fruit comes from a new source:
The once dried root of Ephraim will send out shoots of freshness and strength (Hosea 9:16; 14:5). The God who has cast him away to be a wanderer among the nations will gather him again. The land of Joseph will be blessed... Its glorious beauty will no longer be like a fading flower, because Jehovah will no longer hold back the dew of His blessing. Then the fruit of the fruitful will be found in God, and not in man (Hosea 14:8).
- Root. Ephraim stands for all ten tribes, not one. The judgment strikes below the surface: not a bad season, but a dried root, so nothing can come up.
- Fruit. The name Ephraim means fruitfulness. A reputation for fruit is no substitute for fruit. This verse shows what happens when the two come apart.
- Cause. Commentators trace the dryness back to Baal-peor and to corruption as deep as the days of Gibeah. God noted that sin for a long time before He acted.
- Reach. The judgment touches their prosperity and their children. They lose the land and God's house, and become wanderers among the nations.
- Dew. The same book that dries the root also promises to water it. Jehovah's dew of blessing returns, the root shoots again, and the fruit of the fruitful is found in God, not in man.
My God hath rejected them, because they hearkened not unto him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
Hosea's ninth chapter ends in one short sentence that covers centuries. God rejects His people, and the reason is that they would not listen to Him. It raises two hard questions. How can the God who chose Israel cast them off? And is wandering the last word?
One writer traces the whole chapter and arrives at this closing line:
In Hosea 9 we find that touching mixture of affection and judgment which we meet again and again in this prophet. Ephraim would not stay in the land, for the land was Jehovah's, and God would not give up His rights, whatever the sin of the people. They would go into captivity and come no more into the house of Jehovah... God had chosen Israel out of the nations to be His delight, and they had gone after Baal-peor, even before they came into the land. God is patient, yet He takes note of everything. Ephraim would now be a wanderer among the nations.
The verse gives one reason. Another writer makes that reason the key to every trouble Israel ever knew:
Famine then was what the scattering is now, for the sin of the people must account for both. There is one reason, and one only, for their sorrows in every period. The voice in every calamity of Israel is the same: "My God will reject them because they have not listened to Him."
Is such a sentence fair? One writer answers by looking at the order of events:
Nothing could be more righteous than that God should sentence to open exile from Himself... those who had already turned away from Him in their hearts, after all discipline had failed to recover them and there was no remedy. This is always God's way. He never sentences anyone to a distance from Himself who has not already gone away in heart. So His judicial hand only seals them in the place where their own unbelief had put them.
The verse does not say they would wander for a time. It says what they would become. The same writer presses that difference:
For their wicked, brazen deeds Jehovah would drive them out of His house and love them no more. They would not only wander; they would be wanderers among the nations. How exactly this has come true! And it stands out all the more because they do not form a separate community, but mix with the Gentiles, inside and outside the Christian world.
The verse begins "My God" — these are the prophet's own words. One writer reads the chapter's close as his outburst:
It seems verses 14-17 are an outburst of the prophet. How literally the sentence has come true: "They will be wanderers."
God's rejection did not destroy them. One writer looks at what followed:
We stand amazed at the sight of a people with no country, scattered in many lands, with no unity and no centre. They survived cruel persecutions, and they refused to blend into the countries where they lived. By every rule that governs such situations, the Jew should have been absorbed without trace centuries ago. Apart from the power of God and the light Scripture throws on the subject, the Jew presents an insoluble mystery.
The sentence is not the end of the story. One writer sets it beside the promise of Ephraim's restoration:
The root of Ephraim, once dried up, will send out fresh and strong shoots. The God who has cast him away to be a wanderer among the nations will gather him again. The land of Joseph will be blessed... the dew of Jehovah's blessing will no longer be held back.
- Cause. The verse names one reason for the rejection — they did not listen. One writer traces every calamity in Israel's story, in every period, back to that one cause.
- Consent. God does not send anyone far from Himself who has not already left in heart. The exile only made public what unbelief had already chosen in secret.
- Character. They were not sentenced to wander for a while. Wandering became what they are — mixed among the nations, not settled as a people of their own.
- Continuance. Cast away, they were still not destroyed. A people with no country and no centre should have vanished under centuries of persecution. Apart from God and Scripture, their survival cannot be explained.
- Change. The God who scattered Ephraim is the God who gathers him. The dried root sends out fresh shoots, and the withheld blessing returns.