Hosea 9:12

12 Even if they raise their children, I will destroy them till none is left - and woe to them when I leave them, too!"

Hosea 9:12 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 9:12

Though they bring up their children
Though this be the case of some, as to be conceived, carried in the womb to the full time, and be born, and brought up to a more adult age, and appear very promising to live, and perpetuate the names of their fathers and their families: yet will I bereave them;
their parents of them, by the sword, famine, pestilence, or by carrying them captive into a foreign country: [that there shall] not [be] a man [left];
in the whole land of Israel, but all shall be destroyed, or carried captive; or, "from men" ^F9; that is, either from being men, as the Targum; though they are brought up to some ripeness, and a more adult age than others, yet arrive not to such a time and age as to be called men, as Kimchi observes; or from being among men, being either taken away by death, or removed from the society of men to live among beasts, and to he slaves like them: yea, woe also to them, when I depart from them;
withdraw my presence, favour, and protection from them; or remove my Shechinah from them, as the Targum; and leave them to the spoil and cruelty of their enemies, which would be a greater calamity and judgment than the former. The Septuagint, and so Theodotion, render it, "woe is to them, my flesh is of them"; which some of the ancients interpret of the incarnation of Christ, not considering that the words are spoken of Ephraim, or the ten tribes; whereas the Messiah was to spring, and did, from the family of David, and tribe of Judah.

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 (Mdam) "ab homine", Montanus, Tigurine version, Schmidt; "ut non sint homines", Pagninus.

Hosea 9:12 In-Context

10 "When I found Isra'el, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing a fig tree's first figs in its first season. But as soon as they came to Ba'al-P'or, they dedicated themselves to something shameful; they became as loathsome as the thing they loved.

11 The glory of Efrayim will fly away like a bird - no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.

12 Even if they raise their children, I will destroy them till none is left - and woe to them when I leave them, too!"

13 Efrayim, as I see it, is like Tzor, planted in a pleasant place; but Efrayim will bring out his children to the slaughterer.

14 ADONAI, give them - what will you give? Give them wombs that miscarry and dried-up breasts!