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Hosea 9:7-10

7 The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this. Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired person a maniac.
8 The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim,[a]yet snares await him on all his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.
9 They have sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah. God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.
10 “When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree. But when they came to Baal Peor, they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved.

Hosea 9:7-10 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 15

  • 1. Isaiah 34:8; Jeremiah 10:15; Micah 7:4; Luke 21:22
  • 2. S Job 31:14
  • 3. Jeremiah 16:18
  • 4. S 1 Samuel 10:11; Isaiah 44:25; S Lamentations 2:14; Ezekiel 14:9-10
  • 5. S Jeremiah 29:26; Hosea 14:1
  • 6. S Hosea 5:1
  • 7. S Ezekiel 22:26
  • 8. Zephaniah 3:7
  • 9. Judges 19:16-30; S Hosea 5:8; Hosea 10:9
  • 10. S Hosea 8:13
  • 11. S Hosea 4:9
  • 12. S Song of Songs 2:13
  • 13. S Isaiah 28:4
  • 14. Numbers 25:1-5; Psalms 106:28-29
  • 15. Jeremiah 11:13; S Hosea 4:14

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Or "The prophet is the watchman over Ephraim," / "the people of my God"
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