Hosea 9:11

11 As for Ephraim, their glory will go in flight like a bird: there will be no birth and no one with child and no giving of life.

Hosea 9:11 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 9:11

[As for] Ephraim, their glory shall flee away like a bird,
&c.] That is, suddenly, swiftly, and irrecoverably, and never return more; which some understand of God their glory, and of his departure from them, as in ( Hosea 9:12 ) ; others of their wealth and riches, and whatever was glorious and valuable among them, which should fly away from them in a moment, when taken and carried captive; rather their numerous posterity, in which they were very fruitful, according to their name, and in which they gloried, as children are the glory of their parents, ( Proverbs 17:6 ) ; which sense agrees with what follows, and which explains the manner of their fleeing away, and the periods of it: from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception;
that is, some of them, as soon as they were born; others while in the womb, being abortives; or, however, when they should, or as soon as they did, come from thence; and others, as soon as conceived, never come to any thing; or not conceived at all, as Kimchi interprets it, the women being barren.

Hosea 9:11 In-Context

9 They have gone deep in evil as in the days of Gibeah; he will keep in mind their wrongdoing, he will give them punishment for their sins.

10 I made discovery of Israel as of grapes in the waste land; I saw your fathers as the first-fruits of the fig-tree in her early fruit time; but they came to Baal-peor, and made themselves holy to the thing of shame, and became disgusting like that to which they gave their love.

11 As for Ephraim, their glory will go in flight like a bird: there will be no birth and no one with child and no giving of life.

12 Even though their children have come to growth I will take them away, so that not a man will be there; for their evil-doing will be complete and they will be put to shame because of it.

13 As I have seen a beast whose young have been taken from her, so Ephraim will give birth to children only for them to be put to death.