Chapter Introduction
God would have healed them. They are not healed because they refuse the Lord. They appeal to Him only when they realize their terrible circumstances and they have no control. God refused to be an accessory to his nation's waywardness. They must turn away and seek Him or suffer in the place they ran to.
Hosea 9:1-2
Things might not have been all bad at this time. Many people were still going about their lives as usual. Harvest time was a festive atmosphere, marked by feasting and celebration of the harvest. But for Israel, Hosea said they shouldn’t rejoice. The threshing floors were built on hilltops. These hilltop locations of the threshing floors soon became places to sacrifice to false gods. They used the threshing floor to ask other gods to bless their harvest. They were unfaithful to the Lord, not trusting Him with their crops and harvest. “Love for hire” is the price of prostitution. For these Israelites, they traded their love and worship for a harvest.
But the harvest always belonged to the Lord. Because of this idolatry, God said the threshing floor would no longer feed them. They might have looked at a good harvest and told Hosea he was wrong; they had plenty. But when they were killed and others hauled off to Assyria, others would eat the harvest.
Hosea 9:3-4
The return to Egypt is an undoing of what God had done for this nation. By His mighty hand, He delivered them from their bondage, redeeming them and delivering them to the Promised Land. There wouldn’t be any offerings or sacrifices because they would have nothing.
They would eat unclean things; things they found detestable at that time. The "bread of mourners" was unclean bread. A mourner would be someone who had touched a dead body. The home of those near the deceased would be unclean for seven days. All the food in the house would also be unclean. None of it could be used for an offering. Their bread would be just enough to sustain life. There would be no joy in eating it.
To what do we attribute our prosperity: hard work, luck, education, dedication, or the hand of the Lord? The Jews were warned in Deuteronomy 28 to remember the blessings and curses. Israel proved they were undeserving of the blessing by not acknowledging and obeying God. Abused blessings are withdrawn.
Hosea 9:5-6
What would they do on that day? God said they wouldn’t be feasting. They’ll be gone, returned to a life of bondage, similar to the one from which they came. The briars would overrun their homes, and their valuables would be lost in the undergrowth, for the day of punishment had arrived.
Hosea 7-9
In the culture, they heard mixed signals. One group of prophets claimed that all was well, advising against listening to radicals like Hosea, who warned of impending judgment. Sin had corrupted their thinking. Their false religions had led them astray. They looked at Hosea as insane. They considered Hosea a spiritual man marked as having an evil spirit. They claimed that God was the watchman of Ephraim, not the crazy prophets like Hosea.
Despite the days of prosperity in which they heard these things, judgment was coming. They would be punished for their sin and enmity toward God and His word.
In verse eight, we see the contrast of messages:
One claimed to know God and His word and accused the other of being a false prophet. Yet, the watchman was presumed to be of God, while the real prophet was called crazy. The people may have been trying to determine who was right.
False prophets were a source of this hostility toward God. However, the people yelled false prophet at anyone who didn’t tickle their ears with kind words. We can look back at Judges 19 to see the corruption and perversion in Gibeah. This becomes an example of what Israel looked like.
The prophets of God warned the people, and yet they paid no attention to them. Do we become so set in our ways and so confident that what we are doing is right that we can no longer hear the word of God? Do we disregard the uncomfortable words and let the false prophets tickle our ears? When we encounter or read something we disagree with, do we ask ourselves if God is revealing something new to us? Being fat, dumb, and happy is dangerous!
Hosea 9:10-13
God recalls the days when he looked on Israel as grapes in the wilderness. Grapes are rare, refreshing, and sweet to the taste. Those who find them are blessed by them (see Deut. 32:10). In those days, they bore fruit in season, as expected. It’s as if God looked back longingly for those days when the covenant relationship meant something to them.
That day was a stark contrast to these days of Hosea. They are similar to the time when their fathers went to Baal Peor, a reference to the events of Numbers 25. The men of Israel took the women of Moab and worshiped Baal in Peor. This was idolatry and sexual immorality. They became like the idol they sought after: an abomination, worthless, godless, unholy, defiled, dead, cold, useless, powerless, etc. The Lord’s anger burned against Israel and should have stood as a lesson for many generations to come.
The Lord’s anger burned against Israel once again. The glory of being God’s chosen, of walking in covenant relationship, of being cared for and watched over would fly away. They would become barren and fruitless. The Lord’s departure from them is associated with woe.
See Psalm 115:4-8 and Psalm 135:15-18 for more on idols.
Hosea 9:14
It’s as if Hosea began to pray, interceding on behalf of the people. Give them. What will You give them? What they deserve? Or mercy and more loving patience? Imagine the heart of the prophet who loved the Lord and knew that the Lord had been patient, yet the people were hardhearted and not listening. Yet, Hosea loved Israel and the people. How could he not? To love God is to love the things that are important and precious to God.
Hosea’s prayer became a prayer for barrenness. Some believe this is Hosea settling on an act of mercy. A barren womb would bring no more children into this world, in which judgment awaited. Others see this as an additional judgment in removing their ability to grow as a nation. This second idea is consistent with the prophecy of verse seven.
Hosea 9:15-17
Gilgal was a place concentrated with idolatry and, therefore, a focal point of God’s anger toward the nation's apostasy. And how ironic this is, considering Gilgal was the first place of worship when the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. Joshua set up the twelve stones taken from the Jordan as a testimony to their God.
Ephraim, the tribe named after Joseph’s second son, held a special place among the tribes. When Jacob blessed the two sons, he blessed Ephraim as the firstborn. Ephraim had the place of honor, being the firstborn in captivity, the seed of a nation that God would lead to the Promised Land. And with great blessings and places of honor come responsibilities. Ephraim stumbled and fell, failing at this responsibility. They were stricken, dried up, no longer seen like the refreshing grapes in the wilderness (vs. 10), but only a dried-up, useless vine to trip over.
They had gone to Baal in pursuit of fertility and fruitfulness, failing to give glory to God. The Lord judged them by removing their fruitfulness and restraining their fertility.
The children born were the treasures of their wombs, but in this judgment, they would not be allowed to keep those treasures. Hosea seems to clarify the passage in case anyone hadn’t grasped the core of the message. Israel had been cast away. Instead of a refreshing vine of grapes in the wilderness, they were a dried-up vine that was cast away. The simple truth was they had failed to acknowledge, and to some extent still failed to recognize Yahweh. They had been and remained disobedient and disloyal to Him. Because of this, they would be wanderers, They would lead unsettled lives.
It is the loss of freedom, a reduction to a state of bondage, and a surrender to the power of a foreign enemy. Israel is only free through his God, and remains so only so long as he serves Him; by apostasy from Him, he therefore forfeited that freedom, and therefore at last must lose it, and forego an independent existence.
Lange, J. P., Schaff, P., Schmoller, O., & McCurdy, J. F. (2008).
A commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Hosea (p. 78).
Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software
Is an unsettled, unsure, and vagabond life really life? Jesus came for us that we may have an abundant life, yet many reject that life. They seek their own life on their own terms, feeling they know of a better life and are capable of attaining it independently. They end up unsettled, lost in the wilderness, and looking very much like that dried-up and fruitless vine.
In our prosperity and the bounty of our harvest, we find a sign from God that we are in His will and favor. The correct response is to acknowledge the one who gave the bounty. We do this when we return thanks at the table before we eat. To recognize the wrong god in ignorance is forgivable by God, at least for a time. He will move them from their ignorance. However, for those who know the true God, to give thanks to another is a great offense to Him.
The defense of some might be to point to the false prophets and teachers to say it was their fault, they led the people to the false god. And when judgment came, the falseness of the false prophet was revealed. They would be held accountable, but that doesn’t excuse the people.
While God, through the prophets, speaks of harsh judgments, He doesn’t gain any joy from the destruction and death of the individual sinners. The judgment was to decimate the godless kingdom, a kingdom built to steal His glory, to plunder His people, and inhibit His kingdom.
This godless kingdom was an idea conceived through deceit, that man might seek his way and prosper, that he might create gods of his own understanding, that he might find a higher power that aligns with life on his terms. All this will be brought low; every knee will bow. The prophets call for repentance before it's too late.
©2006 DOUG FORD; FURTHER STUDY AND REVISION 2016, 2025
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