Hosea 9 KJV
Punishment for Israel
Punishment for Israel
The chapter explicitly links Israel's idolatry to the incident at Baal-peor (Numbers 25), portraying the current generation as repeating the same 'shame' that provoked a deadly plague, thereby framing their punishment as a recurring pattern of covenant betrayal rather than isolated sin.
1ejoice 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.
2 The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.
3 They shall not dwell in the LORD’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
4 They 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.
5 What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?
6 For, 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.
7 The 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.
8 The 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.
9 They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.
10 I 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 Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.
12 Though 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!
13 Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.
14 Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
15 All 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.
16 Ephraim 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.
17 My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
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Did You Know?
The chapter explicitly links Israel's idolatry to the incident at Baal-peor (Numbers 25), portraying the current generation as repeating the same 'shame' that provoked a deadly plague, thereby framing their punishment as a recurring pattern of covenant betrayal rather than isolated sin.
Verse 9's reference to 'the days of Gibeah' invokes the horrific gang-rape and civil war in Judges 19-21, equating Israel's moral state with the anarchic violence that nearly eradicated Benjamin and required near-total tribal warfare to resolve.
The prophet's self-description as a 'fool' and 'spiritual man' who is 'mad' (v.7) captures the social inversion where authentic divine messengers are pathologized, echoing later biblical motifs of rejected prophets facing institutional hostility.
The 'watchman' imagery in verse 8 casts the prophet as Ephraim's sentinel aligned with God, yet ensnared by a 'snare of a fowler,' illustrating the lethal opposition true prophecy encounters in a corrupt society.
The pronouncement of 'no wine' and inability to 'offer wine offerings' in the Lord's house (v.4) underscores exile's disruption of cultic joy, transforming agricultural abundance from a sign of blessing into an instrument of judgment when the covenant is broken.
The final chapter of Hosea employs rare agricultural imagery of God as dew to Israel and a cypress tree, promising future healing of apostasy rather than the dominant judgment themes found throughout the rest of the book.
This account illustrates Scripture’s emphasis on the extension of salvation beyond Jewish boundaries and Jesus’ willingness to cross social barriers to reveal truth.
The Israelites lived in Egypt for approximately 430 years.
Commentary & Study Notes Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871) · Public Domain Rejoice not... for joy — literally, "to exultation." Thy exultation at the league with Pul, by which peace seems secured, is out of place: since thy idolatry will bring ruin on the…
Classic verse-by-verse commentary on Hosea 9 from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871). Covers: Warning against Israel's joy at partial relief from their troubles: their crops shall fail, and the people leave the Lord's land for Egypt and assyria, where they cannot, if so inclined, serve God according to the ancient ritual: folly of their false prophets.
- 1
- Rejoice not... for joy — literally, "to exultation." Thy exultation at the league with Pul, by which peace seems secured, is out of place: since thy idolatry will bring ruin on thee. as other people — the Assyrians for instance, who, unlike thee, are in the height of prosperity. loved a reward upon every corn floor — Thou hast desired, in reward for thy homage to idols, abundance of corn on every threshing-floor (Ho 2:12).
- 2
- (Ho 2:9, 12). fail — disappoint her expectation.
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