Hosea 9

Chapter 9



1 Rejoice 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.

Israel is told not to celebrate the harvest because they were attributing their prosperity to false gods, not the true One.

The threshing floor was common place for pagan rituals.

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.

Israel will again be in captivity like when they were in Egypt, and they will go to Assyria and not be able to keep the dietary laws. Most likely they were keeping the dietary laws out of pride, though they were ignoring the more important parts of the Law; those parts concerning how to treat the poor, how to do business fairly, and how to treat their family. It is much easier and much more ego boosting to be legalistic than to love our neighbors.

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.

God is going to fix it so they can’t even be legalistic. They won’t have the option of keeping the dietary and sacrifice laws.

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.

Nettles have fine, very sharp stickers all over them. They grow in wild places and are actually a medicinal herb, though I don’t think God was concerned with medicine at this moment. He was promising that Jerusalem would be so desolate that the annoying weeds would grow up in the middle of it.

7 The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense 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.

The men who were calling themselves prophets were saying that Israel would be delivered from the Assyrians and would return to the greatness of the time of Solomon. God is calling these men fools.

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.

Finding grapes where they haven’t been cultivated or the first fruit off of a tree is a delightful thing. Fruit is very refreshing and pleasant to eat. God’s instant desert. This is how pleased God was with Israel at first, but now she has gone to other gods.

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

As punishment, infertility will increase as will miscarriages. Low birth rates are a punishment from God. (And modern Western Culture has chosen to encourage low birth rates. This is not wise)

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!

Even those who manage to have children won’t see them to adulthood and marriage. The Assyrians will carry them away as slaves.

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.

Without modern formulas, a baby whose mother’s milk dried up was pretty much doomed. Even today, formula is a far lower second choice to the natural food God made for babies.

Imagine the heartache; first you have trouble even getting pregnant. Then you miscarry. Then, after you actually manage to carry a baby long enough he survives the birth, he dies of starvation because your body won’t produce enough milk to feed him. If you do manage to successfully feed one, the Assyrians will come in and kill him or carry him of to a foreign land and you will never see him again.

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.

The Assyrians had the practice of removing people from their homeland and settling them in a foreign country. This made them less likely to fight because they were no longer protecting their homes and their people would be too far away from each other to band together. Israel would be one of those nations scattered throughout the kingdom.