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.