2 The distress and captivity of Israel for their sins and idolatry.
Hos 9:1 Do not rejoice, Israel; do not be jubilant like the other nations. For you have been unfaithful to your God; you love the wages of a prostitute at every threshing floor.
The first half of this chapter, vs. 1–9, presents a warning against any feeling of false security arising from a period of temporary prosperity. Israel under Jeroboam II was prosperous (see on ch. 2:8), and after the departure of Tiglath-pileser III, king of Assyria (2 Kings 15:19; see on 1 Chron. 5:26), the land had peace under Menahem.
Until Tiglath-pileser invaded Israel even Pekah was somewhat strong, for in his alliance with Rezin of Syria he was an object of fear to Judah (2 Kings 16:5, 6).
Loved wages.
This explains the reason for their joy. The blessings of the harvest were the rewards for their idol worship (see Jer. 44:17, 18). Little wonder that Hosea refers to these blessings as the hire of a harlot, and not as evidences of the Lord’s favor!
Hos 9:2 Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people; the new wine will fail them.
Though Israel exults over her harvest blessings, the people would be unable to enjoy the abundant produce of their fields, because they would be carried away captive to Assyria, as apparently is implied in v. 3. When God’s blessings are turned to the purposes of sin, in mercy He takes them away (see PK 21).
Hos 9:3 They will not remain in the LORD’s land; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.
The Lord’s land. That is, in Palestine (see Ps. 85:1; Joel 2:18), which God intended should be His people’s permanent possession. Through their sin and apostasy, however, they were to lose it. It was theirs only based on the covenant relationship. Now that they had renounced the covenant (Hosea 6:7; 8:1; 9:1), it was fitting that they should be removed from the land (see ch. 9:15, 17; cf. on ch. 2:5, 9).
Return to Egypt. See on ch. 8:13. Eat unclean things. In the land of their captivity the people would eat that which was unclean, since they could not readily conform to the requirements of the law forbidding the eating of certain animals (see Lev. 11; Eze. 4:13).
Hos 9:4 They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, nor will their sacrifices please him. Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat them will be unclean. This food will be for themselves; it will not come into the temple of the LORD.
Bread of mourners. This was food eaten at a funeral meal by those mourning for the dead. Any such food was legally unclean because a corpse ceremonially defiled for seven days the dwelling where it was and all who entered therein (see on Num. 19:14). Therefore, those who ate this food would be ceremonially unclean. Thus, it would be with the captives in the polluted land of their exile.
Hos 9:5 What will you do on the day of your appointed festivals, on the feast days of the LORD? Off in a strange land the people would feel keenly the loss of their yearly celebrations, their annual feasts, and religious solemnities (see on ch. 2:11).
Hos 9:6 Even if they escape from destruction, Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them. Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers, and thorns will overrun their tents.
The prophet pictures Israel’s exile in the land of captivity as an event that has already taken place. The possession and occupancy of “the Lord’s land” (see on v. 3) was evidence of the enjoyment of the Lord’s love. Therefore, since the people’s iniquity brought upon them divine disfavor, expulsion from their homeland was only to be expected.
Egypt is evidently still used in a figurative sense, indicating that the land of their punishment will be a second land of bondage (see on ch. 8:13). Far from their native land they shall be gathered and doomed to be buried.
The ornamented homes of the people of Israel would become utterly desolate and deserted so that nettles and thorns would possess them.
Hos 9:7 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.
Evidently the false prophets of Hosea’s day, like those of other days, had scoffed at the idea that the days of God’s wrath would come, assuring the people that they need have no fear (see Jer. 14:13–15; Eze. 13:9, 10; Amos 6:3).
Bitter experience would teach Israel the folly of those who deceived the people by their false predictions. It seems that whenever God raises up a true prophet, Satan sends forth false prophets. Moses had to contend with the magicians of Egypt and with Balaam (Ex. 7:10, 11; 8:6, 7; Num. 22 24).
Elijah at Mt. Carmel had to meet the 450 prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18). Micaiah at Samaria had to meet another 400 (1 Kings 22:6–23). Such false prophets would arise even until the closing days of the earth’s history (see Matt. 24:11, 24).
In his downward path of sin the transgressor first neglects God, then he willfully disobeys God. Finally, when he falls under God’s chastisement because of his willful course, he hates his Maker.
Hos 9:8 The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim, yet snares await him on all his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.
The watchman. If we consider the prophet and the spiritual man (see on v. 7) to be true prophets at whom the people sneered and scoffed as being fools and fanatics, Hosea is here declaring that his God is the God of these watchmen.
And regardless of how they were treated, as God’s watchmen (see Eze. 3:16–21; 33:7–9), the Lord would protect them.
With my God.
The word “with” here is meaningful. If the false prophet was with the people to curry their favor and condone their sinful ways, the true prophet was always with the Lord, to receive His help and direction, with Him in communion, with Him to carry out the divine will in the face of all opposition.
Hos 9:9 They have sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah. God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.
Days of Gibeah. To show the people of the northern kingdom to what depths of corruption they have fallen, Hosea introduces an allusion to Gibeah. This is perhaps a reference to the abominable and shameful abuse of the Levite’s concubine by the men of Gibeah, one of the foul incidents in the period of the Judges (see Judges 19).
Remember their wickedness.
Just as the sin of Gibeah was bloodily avenged by the near annihilation of the tribe of Benjamin—although for a time it seemed that God had overlooked the sinners’ guilt and permitted Benjamin to be victorious over the other tribes (see Judges 20)—so will it be with the northern kingdom.
They will not escape the divine visitation of wrath in their exile, though for many years it would seem that their transgressions had been overlooked by God.
Hos 9:10 “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.
Like grapes. To find grapes and first ripe figs in a wild and uncultivated wilderness is particularly delightful. The Lord expresses the great joy He had toward Israel of old when He took them to Himself (Deut. 32:10).
Baal-peor.
A reference to the terrible spiritual and literal adultery that Moab enticed Israel to commit, an enticement suggested by the apostate Balaam (see Num. 25:1–5).
Consecrated themselves.
From the Heb. nazar, which, in the form here found, means “to dedicate oneself.” Nazar is the root of nazir, Nazirite (see on Num. 6:2).
But when they came to Baal Peor, they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved.
Shameful idol. The Moabitish maidens sacrificed their virginity to this revolting and filthy god; and in this iniquitous business the Israelites, who were to be separated unto God and His service, were involved (Num. 25:6–9).
In contrast to the Nazirites, who separated themselves from that which would interfere with their consecration unto God (see Num. 6), these transgressors separated themselves from God and His ways and joined themselves unto shame, thus becoming, so to speak, “Nazirites of shame” (see above under “Consecrated themselves”.)
Men tend to become in character like the object of their worship (see on Ps. 115:8). This was true of Israel. Having become degenerate in morals and character, they were regarded by God as being abominable, like the heathen abominations they worshiped.
Hos 9:11 Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird— no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.
After drawing the parallel between Israel’s present evil and those shameful ones of the past, Gibeah and Baal-peor (vs. 9, 10), Hosea passes on to announce the deserved punishment about to fall upon the northern kingdom.
Hos 9:12 Even if they rear children, I will bereave them of everyone. Woe to them when I turn away from them! God’s departure from His people was the cause of all their woe (see Deut. 31:16–18). Since Israel had parted from God (Hosea 7:13), there was nothing left for God but to part from them (see 2 Chron. 15:1, 2).
Hos 9:13 I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place. But Ephraim will bring out their children to the slayer.” The LXX for this clause reads, “Ephraim, as I saw, gave their children for a prey.” No ancient nation was more cruel to a conquered foe than were the Assyrians (see ch. 10:14).
Hos 9:14 Give them, LORD— what will you give them? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that are dry.
The prophet concurs with the punishment assigned.
Hos 9:15 “Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there. Because of their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of my house. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious.
It is a fearful thing when our sins provoke God’s hatred, and severe will be those judgments which are the effects of this hatred. However, we may rest assured that although God hates the sin, He still loves the sinner (SC 54).
If the sinner will not separate himself from his iniquity, he must someday reckon with the divine abhorrence of evil that brings the final destruction of sin.
Ephraim’s sin was no common sin, no sin of ignorance. It was a sin against the full light of God’s will and therefore worthy of the greater condemnation (see Luke 12:47, 48). applies only to the nation as a whole. It does not refer to individuals, many of whom remained true to the Lord and His ways. There were many such in Israel, and God loved them, as He always has and will (see 1 Kings 19:18; 2 Chron. 16:9; Rom. 8:35–39; PK 292).
All their leaders. This shows how utterly hopeless the spiritual condition of the northern kingdom was, for not one of its kings did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.
How tragic that this nation, which should have been a light to the Gentiles (see Isa. 49:6), became a land of spiritual darkness.
Hos 9:16 Ephraim is blighted, their root is withered, they yield no fruit. Even if they bear children, I will slay their cherished offspring.”
Israel is blighted.
Though Israel was set as a pleasant plant in the garden of God’s love, the disease of apostasy has smitten its root, and it has withered. When the root is dried up there can be no hope of fruit. Ephraim’s tree, therefore, that unless they first forsake Him for ways of God, will produce nothing but leaves, and so merit the divine judgment (see Matt. 21:18, 19).
Hos 9:17 My God will reject them because they have not obeyed him; they will be wanderers among the nations.
God is not the God of those who, by their disobedience, depart from Him. God never forsakes men unless they first forsake Him for ways of their own choosing (see on v. 12).
Wanderers.
Centuries before, God had forewarned Israel that this would be their fate if they departed from the Lord (see Deut. 28:63–65). The ten tribes, as a nation, were not to return, but would be “wanderers among the nations” until the end of time (see PK 298).
How strikingly this divine prediction has been fulfilled is amply seen in the history of the Jews from Hosea’s day to the present. They have gone from nation to nation, a people without a country. However, this prophecy does not say that members of the ten tribes could not return from captivity as individuals, for they could, and some of them did, with the returning captives of Judah, after Judah’s term of exile (see on Hosea 1:11).