Hosea 9:7

7 Days of visitation be come, days of yielding be come. Know ye, that Israel is a fool, a mad prophet, a spiritual man, for the multitude of thy wickedness is also the multitude of madness. (Days of punishment have come, days of yielding vengeance have come, and Israel shall know it. And now the prophet shall be made a fool, and the spiritual man a madman, for the multitude of thy wickedness and thy hatred.)

Hosea 9:7 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 9:7

The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are
come
In which the Lord would punish the people of Israel for their sins, and reward them in a righteous manner, according as their evil works deserved; which time, being fixed and appointed by him, are called "days"; and these, because near at hand, are said to be "come"; and this is repeated for the certainty of it: Israel shall know [it];
by sad experience, that these days are come; and shall acknowledge the truth of the divine predictions, and the righteousness of God in his judgments. Schultens ^F26, from the use of the phrase in the Arabic language, interprets it of Israel's suffering punishment; with which agrees the Septuagint version, "Israel shall be afflicted", or it shall go ill with him; and to the same purpose the Arabic version: the prophet [is] a fool;
so Israel said, before those days came, of a true prophet of the Lord, that he was a fool for prophesying of evil things, but now they shall find it otherwise. So the Targum,

``they of the house of Israel shall know that they who had prophesied to them were true prophets;''

but rather this is to be understood of false prophets, who, when the day of God's visitation shall come on Israel in a way of wrath and vengeance, will appear both to themselves and others to be fools, for prophesying good things to them, when evil was at hand: the spiritual man [is] mad;
he that was truly so, and prophesied under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, was accounted a madman for speaking against the idolatry of the times, and foretelling the judgments of God that would come upon the nation for it; but now it would be manifest, that not he, but such who pretended to be spiritual men, and to be directed and dictated by the Spirit of God, when they promised the people peace, though they walked after the imagination of their hearts, were the real madmen; who pursued the frenzies and fancies of their own minds, to the deception of themselves and the people, and called these the revelations of God, and pretended they came from the Spirit of God: for the multitude of thine iniquities, and the great hatred;
that is, either those evil days came upon them for their manifold sins and transgressions, which were hateful to God, and the cause of his hatred of them; or they were suffered to give heed to those foolish and mad prophets, because of their many sins, especially idolatry; and because of their great hatred of God, and of his true prophets, and of his laws and ordinances, of his word, will, and worship, and of one another, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to a judicial blindness and hardness of heart, to believe a lie, and whatsoever those false prophets declared unto them, because they did not like to retain him in their knowledge, to walk according to his law, and to believe his prophets. The Targum is,

``but the false prophets besotted them, so as to increase thy transgression, and strengthen thine iniquities.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 Animadv. Philol. in Job, p. 78.

Hosea 9:7 In-Context

5 What shall ye do in the solemn day, in the day of the feast of the Lord? (What shall ye do on the solemn day, yea, on the feast day of the Lord?)

6 For lo! they be gone out from destroying. Egypt shall gather them together, Memphis shall bury them. A nettle shall inherit the desirable silver of them, a clote shall be in the tabernacles of them (Nettles shall inherit their treasures of silver, thorns shall grow in their tents).

7 Days of visitation be come, days of yielding be come. Know ye, that Israel is a fool, a mad prophet, a spiritual man, for the multitude of thy wickedness is also the multitude of madness. (Days of punishment have come, days of yielding vengeance have come, and Israel shall know it. And now the prophet shall be made a fool, and the spiritual man a madman, for the multitude of thy wickedness and thy hatred.)

8 The beholder of Ephraim with my God is a prophet; a snare of falling is made now on all the ways of him, strong vengeance is in the house of his God. (The watchman for Ephraim was sent from his God; but the prophet is made a snare of falling in all their ways, and strong vengeance is in the House of his God/but a snare of falling is made on all the ways of the prophet, and strong vengeance is in the House of his God.)

9 They sinned deeply, as in the days of Gibeah. The Lord shall have mind on the wickedness of them, and shall visit the sins of them. (They sinned deeply, like in the days of Gibeah. The Lord shall remember their wickedness, and shall punish them for their sins.)