Hosea 9:3-13

3 They shall not remain in ¹the land of the Lord, but ²Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and ³they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

4 ⁴They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord, ⁵and their sacrifices shall not please him. It shall be like ⁶mourners’ bread to them; all who eat of it shall be defiled; for their bread shall be for their hunger only; ⁷it shall not come to the house of the Lord.

5 ⁸What will you do on the day of the appointed festival, and on the day of the feast of the Lord?

6 For behold, they are going away from destruction; but ⁹Egypt shall gather them; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess ¹⁰their precious things of silver; ¹¹thorns shall be in their tents.

7 ¹²The days of punishment have come; the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it. ¹³The prophet is a fool; the man of the spirit is mad, because of your great iniquity and great hatred.

8 The prophet is ¹⁴the watchman of Ephraim with my God; yet ¹⁵a fowler’s snare is on all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.

9 ¹⁶They have deeply corrupted themselves as ¹⁷in the days of Gibeah: ¹⁸he will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins.

10 Like grapes in the wilderness, ¹⁹I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers. But ²⁰they came to Baal-peor and ²¹consecrated themselves to the thing of shame, and ²²became detestable like the thing they loved.

11 Ephraim’s ²³glory shall fly away like a bird— ²⁴no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!

12 ²⁵Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them till none is left. ²⁶Woe to them when ²⁷I depart from them!

13 Ephraim, ²⁸as I have seen, was like a young palm^[a] planted in a meadow; but ²⁹Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter. ^[b]

Hosea 9:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO HOSEA 9

This chapter is an address to Israel or the ten tribes, and contains either a new sermon, or is a very considerable part of the former upon the same subject, the sins and punishment of that people. It begins with an instruction to them, not to rejoice in their prosperity, as others did; since it would soon be at an end, because of their idolatry, which was everywhere committed, and for which they expected a reward of temporal good things, Ho 9:1; but, on the contrary, they are threatened with famine, with want both of corn and wine, Ho 9:2; and with an ejection out of their land into foreign countries; where they should be obliged to eat things unclean by their law, Ho 9:3; and where their sacrifices and solemnities should be no more attended to, Ho 9:4,5; yea, where their carcasses should fall and be buried, while their own country and houses lay waste and desolate, Ho 9:6; for, whatsoever their foolish and mad prophets said to the contrary, who pretended to be with God, and know his will, and were a snare to them that gave heed unto them, and brought hatred on them, the time of their punishment would certainly come, Ho 9:7,8; and their iniquities would be remembered and visited; seeing their corruptions were deep, like those that appeared in Gibeah, in the days of old, Ho 9:9; they acting the same ungrateful part their fathers had done, of whom they were a degenerate offspring, Ho 9:10; wherefore for these, and other offences mentioned, they are threatened with being bereaved of their children, and drove out of their land, to wander among the nations, Ho 9:11-17.

Cross References

• 1. 9:3 Jer. 2:7; 16:18; See Lev. 25:23
• 2. 9:3 See ch. 8:13
• 3. 9:3 Ezek. 4:13; Dan. 1:8
• 4. 9:4 [ch. 3:4]
• 5. 9:4 [ch. 8:13]
• 6. 9:4 Deut. 26:14; Ezek. 24:17
• 7. 9:4 [Hag. 2:13]
• 8. 9:5 [Isa. 10:3]
• 9. 9:6 See ch. 8:13
• 10. 9:6 [ch. 10:8; Isa. 2:20]
• 11. 9:6 [ch. 10:8]
• 12. 9:7 See Isa. 10:3
• 13. 9:7 Ezek. 13:3
• 14. 9:8 Ezek. 3:17
• 15. 9:8 Ps. 91:3; [ch. 5:1]
• 16. 9:9 [ch. 5:2]
• 17. 9:9 ch. 10:9; Judg. 19:22
• 18. 9:9 [ch. 5:2]
• 19. 9:10 [Ps. 80:8; Isa. 5:1]
• 20. 9:10 Num. 25:3; Ps. 106:28
• 21. 9:10 [ch. 4:14]
• 22. 9:10 [Rom. 1:28, 29]
• 23. 9:11 ch. 10:5; [ch. 4:7]
• 24. 9:11 [Isa. 26:18]
• 25. 9:12 ch. 13:16
• 26. 9:12 ch. 7:13
• 27. 9:12 ch. 5:6; 1 Sam. 28:15, 16; Ezek. 10:18
• 28. 9:13 [Ezek. 27:3]
• 29. 9:13 [See ver. 12 above]

Footnotes

• [a] 9:13 Or 'like Tyre'
• [b] 9:13 Hebrew 'to him who slaughters'