Hosea 9:2

2 There won't be enough grain to feed people. There won't be enough wine to go around.

Hosea 9:2 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 9:2

The floor and the winepress shall not feed them
Though their expectations from their worship of idols were large, they should find themselves mistaken; for there would not be a sufficiency of corn on the floor, nor of wine in the press, to supply them with what was necessary for their sustenance; either through a blight upon their fields and vineyards, or through the invasion of an enemy, treading them down, and spoiling and foraging them: or else supposing a sufficient quantity of corn and wine got in; yet those blessings should be either turned into curses, or carried off by the enemy, that they should do then, no good; or if they enjoyed them, yet they should receive no nourishment from them; but should become lean, and look like starved and famishing creatures in the midst of plenty; by all which it would appear that their idols could neither give them a sufficiency of provisions, nor make those nourishing to them they had: and the new wine shall fail in her;
in the congregation or land of Israel: or, "shall lie to her" F19; shall not answer their expectations, but disappoint and deceive them; whereas they expected great plenty from the promising prospect of the vines, these by one means or another should be destroyed, so that they would yield but little, and balk them; see ( Habakkuk 3:17 ) ( Haggai 1:6 Haggai 1:10 Haggai 1:11 ) ( 2:16 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F19 (hb vxky) "mentietur in ea", Pagninus, Montanus, Zanchius; "mentietur isti", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Liveleus, Schmidt.

Hosea 9:2 In-Context

1 Israel, don't rejoice. Don't celebrate as other nations do. You have been unfaithful to your God. You have sold sex on every threshing floor.
2 There won't be enough grain to feed people. There won't be enough wine to go around.
3 The people of Ephraim won't stay in the LORD's land. They will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They won't pour wine offerings to the LORD, and their sacrifices won't please him. Their sacrifices will be like the food that mourners eat. All who eat this food will be unclean. Their food will only satisfy their hunger. It will not be brought [as an offering] to the LORD's temple.
5 What will they do on the day of an appointed festival or on the LORD's festival days?
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