Hosea 9:1 ¶ Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.
Hosea 9:2 The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.
The prophet calls for the people to recognize the seriousness of their situation. He warns them against rejoicing in the flesh because they are so spiritually sick. They had prostituted themselves to the false gods of the heathen nations and are going to reap God’s judgment because of it. The crops are going to fail because they have misused them in the worship of these false gods.
Hosea 9:3 They shall not dwell in the LORD’S land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
Hosea 9:4 They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD.
The people of the Northern Kingdom were to be carried off into captivity by the Assyrians—to conditions very much like what they experienced in Egypt. While in captivity they will be forced to eat unclean foods. They will lose the ability to sacrifice to God in accordance with His will. They are compared to mourners who automatically defile what they touch. They will not have the option of going to the temple.
Hosea 9:5 What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?
Hosea 9:6 For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles.
Verse 5 is basically emphasizing that they will no longer have the ability to celebrate their festivals in accordance with God’s will. Why? Because they will be living in captivity and the land of Israel left to ruin. Those who escape capture by the Assyrians will fall to Egypt.
Hosea 9:7 ¶ The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.
Hosea 9:8 The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.
Hosea 9:9 They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.
The “days of visitation” speak of God’s judgment, and the prophet is declaring that the time for that judgment has come. Because the people were so possessed by their sin, they had declared God’s prophets to be fools and madmen. They refused to recognize them as true prophets of God sent to call them to repentance from their sin and deliver them from His judgment.
I liked the NLT version of verse 8: “The prophet is a watchman for my God over Israel, yet traps are laid in front of him wherever he goes. He faces hostility even in the house of God.“
I couldn’t help but think about how Christian fundamentalists, those who unabashedly believe in scripture as the literal word of God and seek to live according to its principles, are today lumped in with the radicals of false religions. Why do they do this? Because we are intolerant in belief and are outspoken about sin. Society does not want to be confronted with their sin; they want others to embrace their sin. I can’t help but be reminded of Paul’s words to the Romans.
Romans 1:28–32 “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
I believe “the days of Gibeah” are in reference to the wicked actions of the men of Benjamin as described in Judges 19-20, the consequences of which almost wiped out that tribe’s existence. At that time the other tribes came together in judgment against and in the eventual preservation of that tribe. This time it will be God coming against Israel in judgment and eventual preservation of the nation.
Ironside: “Sin never dies a natural death; it must be thoroughly judged. Like leaven, it is stopped by fire-by ‘judgment,’ self-judgment or God’s judgment; for sin ever works on until it is judged.”
Hosea 9:10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.
When God set apart the nation of Israel as His chosen people, He considered them a special delight and treasure in comparison to the heathen nations surrounding them.
Baalpeor is a reference to the time that the men of Israel were lured into adultery and idolatry with the people of Moab as described in Numbers 25—and this was before they even took possession of the Promised Land. The miracles of God on their behalf were still quite recent, yet still they chose rebellion and disobedience without thought of the possible consequences to their future. Their mindset was one of experiencing the pleasures of sin for a season; they had no thoughts regarding their eternal future.
The most telling statement in this verse—“their abominations were according as they loved.” They loved their sin more than God and acted accordingly.
Hosea 9:11 ¶ As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.
Hosea 9:12 Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!
Hosea 9:13 Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.
The Northern Kingdom had once been thriving and prosperous. God was going to take away their glory with a judgment of infant mortality and infertility. Those children that did survive would meet an untimely death in other ways. Though they had once been as prosperous as the city of Tyre, their children would not live to experience that same kind of prosperity. It’s interesting to note that “Ephraim” means fruitfulness, and her judgment would make her fruitless and barren.
Again, I couldn’t help but make a comparison to the circumstances in America today. We have been blessed as a nation with great growth and prosperity. During my lifetime, however, we have thrown God out of the schools and the public square and turned away from embracing the concept of “one nation under God.” I believe that just as surely as Israel suffered great loss because of rejecting God, so will America. Just as Israel murdered their children, we have murdered millions of our children before ever giving them a chance at life.
Hosea 9:14 Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
At this point Hosea calls out for God’s judgment, but he calls out for mercy in the process. He would rather there be no children at all than for those children to come into the world only to suffer because of the judgment of their parents’ sin.
This is one of those difficult issues in scripture. I empathize with Hosea’s heart. I am a doting Grandma, yet I am concerned about what my grandchildren will face in the future for as long as the Lord chooses to tarry. I rest in the truth that God loves these children even better than I do. I rest in the truth that everything God does is righteous and holy. I don’t have to understand His ways; I just have to trust Him because of Who He is—and I do.
Hosea 9:15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.
Hosea 9:16 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.
Hosea 9:17 My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
Hosea notes that the disobedience of the people at Gilgal (as recorded in Joshua 9) laid the foundation for the troubles they were experiencing now. They were to have destroyed the people of the land as they took possession of it…
Deuteronomy 20:16–18 “But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee: That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.”
…instead, they fell for deception and made a pact with the Hivites that allowed these idolaters to stay in the land. Because of their continued idolatry God has determined to drive them from His house, their home, the land of Israel. This action is in fulfillment of His words to Solomon.
2 Chronicles 7:17–20 “And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and shalt observe my statutes and my judgments; Then will I stablish the throne of thy kingdom, according as I have covenanted with David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel. But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations.”
The LORD emphasizes again that Ephraim will become unfruitful and shrink in numbers because of their sin. They were destined to be wanderers among the nations.
There has been much said about the so-called ten lost tribes of Israel. That is not really true. Scripture is clear in declaring that there were representatives of all the tribes in the land of Judah after the two kingdoms separated from one another.
2 Chronicles 11:14–16 “For the Levites left their suburbs and their possession, and came to Judah and Jerusalem: for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest’s office unto the LORD: And he ordained him priests for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made. And after them out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their hearts to seek the LORD God of Israel came to Jerusalem, to sacrifice unto the LORD God of their fathers.”
It is true, however, that there was never a mass return to Israel by those from the Northern Kingdom comparable to the return of Judah from the Babylonian captivity. The people as a whole that did live in Israel were once again dispersed among the nations after the Roman conquest of Jerusalem in 70 AD. This was a consequence not only of forsaking God’s law and embracing the traditions of men, but for rejecting His Son, the Messiah that came to redeem them. The reestablishment of the nation of Israel in 1948 is an important fulfillment of prophecy that signifies the Messiah will soon return.
Ezekiel prophesied that the day would come when God would once again resurrect Israel as a nation and put His Spirit within them and cause them to live in the land of Israel.
Ezekiel 37:12–14 “Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.”
The nation is being gathered and I know that spiritual restoration will soon follow.
Hosea 10:1 ¶ Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.
I think the word “empty” is better understood from the Hebrew as spreading out with fruitfulness as translated in some other versions considering the context of the verse. Problem was that the people of Israel considered their prosperity a result of their own actions and connected to the worship of their false gods. The more prosperous they became, the more they focused on pleasing these false gods.
Again, I think we (particularly in America) today suffer from the same faulty thinking and practices. For some reason, we want to credit self or anybody or anything else rather than Almighty God for the blessings and prosperity we enjoy.
Hosea 10:2 Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images.
Hosea 10:3 For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the LORD; what then should a king do to us?
Hosea 10:4 They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.
“Their heart is divided” – When I read this phrase, I immediately thought of the following scripture:
Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
The Hebrew indicates that to be found “faulty” is to be found “guilty.” This makes sense in the context of these verses. God has found His people guilty of sin and rebellion and is going to bring judgment upon them that will destroy the altars at which they worship their false gods as well as the images that represent them.
It seems that the prophet is saying that the people will understand that the judgment that causes them to lose self-rule under their own king will be a direct result of their rejection of God as their Lord. They rightly realize that a king is no protection against the judgment of God.
Their history proves them to be a people quick to make promises, but not reliable concerning the keeping of those promises. Their lack of integrity has resulted in a culture that lacks justice. Hemlock is a poison, so to compare “judgment” in the land as proliferating like hemlock is describing a growing culture of corruption in judgment.
Again, I can’t help but make application to America today. In my lifetime I have witnessed “judgment springing up as hemlock” that is resulting in a growing culture of corruption in judgment in our land. I firmly believe that this is a direct result of the determined actions by our government to remove God from our schools, our government and our courts. We the people have to accept the responsibility for allowing this cancer to grow through apathy of involvement because we were wallowing in success and prosperity that we mistakenly assumed was totally a result of our own actions. We have lost sight of the fact that it is God that provides us with the talents and provisions to succeed and prosper according to His own purposes. Personally, I believe America was allowed to grow and prosper to help provide for the establishment of the state of Israel. We have now joined the nations in pushing for the dividing of the land—an act that God specifically identifies as one that will bring down His hand of judgment.
Joel 3:2 “I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.”
Ezekiel 36:5–7 “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey. Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen: Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I have lifted up mine hand, Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame.”
Hosea 10:5 The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it.
Hosea 10:6 It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.
Hosea 10:7 As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water.
Hosea 10:8 The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.
This section of verses is basically declaring that God will show the calf idol worshipped by His people (centered in Samaria) to be an impotent false god. It will be taken captive by the Assyrians along with the people of the Northern Kingdom and given to its king as a gift. (The Hebrew declares “Jareb” to be a symbolic name for Assyria.) The people of the Northern Kingdom will be shamed because of the trust that they place in this false god. They will lose their king and the altars for their false gods will be covered over as the weeds and thornbushes take over the landscape. The shame of the people will be so great that they will wish they were dead.
Hosea 10:9 ¶ O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them.
Hosea 10:10 It is in my desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows.
Once again reference is made to the sin of the Benjamites in Gibeah against the Levite’s concubine as described in Judges 19-21. It would seem that the spiritual condition of Israel had been on a downward spiral since that time except for a few times of revival under the leadership of a few godly kings in the line of David.
The NIV Commentary indicated that the “two furrows” made reference to the double sin of forsaking God and departing from the rule of David’s house. God declares that it is His desire to chastise His people for these sins; chastisement is punishment that is meant to correct behavior.
I thought it was interesting that a couple of translations (NIV and CJB) start verse 10 with the idea of “When I please” or “when I wish to.” That is a truth that we often choose to ignore. God is very clear in His word that He works according to His own plan, His own purposes, and His own timing.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:”
Isaiah 14:24 “The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:”
Galatians 4:4–5 “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
Ephesians 1:9–10 “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:”
Hosea 10:11 And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.
Hosea 10:12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
Hosea 10:13 Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.
I think the point of this section is that Ephraim, the people of the Northern Kingdom, had basically experienced blessing without much adversity. The Lord is basically saying that the whole nation, both Northern and Southern Kingdoms, are going to be placed under the yoke of servitude.
The Lord declares through His prophet that if His people will sow seeds of righteousness (turn back to Him in faith and obedience), they will reap mercy (God’s favor and kindness). The “fallow ground” references their stubborn, rebellious hearts. They need to seek the LORD in repentance, faith and obedience and determine to maintain that spiritual mindset until He comes and fulfills His covenants with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David.
Up to this point in time the people had sown seeds of wickedness and reaped a culture of immorality and unrighteousness. They had followed their leaders who had deceived them into trusting in their own strength and prowess instead of trusting God in obedience—motivated, of course, by their own greed.
Will we never learn! This scenario has been repeated over and over in the history of the nations. No man or woman can handle great power and authority and be trusted to rule with impartiality and integrity without the help of Almighty God. Those who possess power and authority of any type and exercise it apart from guidance and direction from Almighty God always seek to use it for their own gain. By nature, man is basically selfish and full of pride. The following quote from the prophet Ezekiel though describing Israel I think has universal application.
Ezekiel 22:24–27 “Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation. There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof. Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.”
Hosea 10:14 Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman spoiled Betharbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.
Hosea 10:15 So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.
Though I can’t definitively point to scripture regarding this reference, it is likely a reference to the campaign of Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, who conquered Samaria as recorded in 2Kings 17.
The main point of these verses is that a terrible judgment was coming upon Israel because of her sin. That judgment would result in loss of sovereignty as a nation under the rule of her own king. The throne would be completely cut off.