Deeper Commentary

Hos 9:1 Don’t rejoice in jubilation, Israel, like the other nations; for you were unfaithful to your God. You love the wages of a prostitute at every grain threshing floor- Perhaps Hosea uttered this prophecy at some harvest festival. The "jubilation" was the joy of harvest, at the threshing floor (:2). Baal was a fertility cult. Blessings of good harvests, corn and wine, were promised to Israel for their loyalty to the covenant. But they prostituted themselves to Baal, trusting Baal for such harvests. And now like the other nations, in a year of good harvests, they joyfully thanked Baal. But the difference between them and the other nations was that they had thereby been maritally unfaithful to Yahweh. The apparent blessings of corn and wine were a reward not for their obedience to His covenant, but were the wages received for their prostitution with Baal. Hosea experienced the same with Gomer, who received payment in terms of food and clothing from her lovers, when these were what Hosea was obliged to give her as his covenanted wife.

Hos 9:2 The threshing floor and the winepress won’t feed them, and the new wine will fail her- Threshing floor and winepress are also figures for judgment. By rejoicing in the apparent fertility given by the Baal cult, probably sleeping with the cult prostitutes on the threshing floors, Israel were living out their own judgment. They would be threshed / judged for this.

Hos 9:3 They won’t dwell in Yahweh’s land; but Ephraim will return to Egypt- They would return to Egypt and be derided there (Hos. 7:16). God says this clearly in Hos. 8:13. But just as clearly He says that they will not return to Egypt (Hos. 11:5). Here we see how God's changes of heart were so kindled, as were Hosea's regarding Gomer (Hos. 11:8). He is not capricious, rather does He allow Himself to genuinely struggle within Himself over His people, wishing to save and so not wanting to condemn. See on :6.

Another possibility is that returning to Egypt is meant to be understood as God saying that just as He had brought them out of Egypt and entered a marriage covenant with them at Sinai (see on Hos. 8:1), now He was sending them back to their land of origin- which was Egypt rather than Canaan. He was divorcing them, sending away His wife. So often in Hosea we read as if God / Hosea is on the very verge of divorcing Israel / Gomer, and is making a literally last minute appeal to her to change. Thus we keep reading that the invasion is about to happen, the eagle is circling and about to dive. But Hosea lived with Gomer for at least 50 years. He is never recorded as divorcing her. Although he so often says he is about to. So we have here an extraordinary window onto the feelings of God in the run up to Israel being sent into captivity in Assyria, and Judah in Babylon. This was the culmination of a heart wrenching period of teetering on the edge of the divorce. And even then, His actions, like Hosea's, were studded with dreams of reconcilliation. In no way did He act with raw, offended anger that is the dominant emotion rather than love. Absolutely not.

And they will eat unclean food in Assyria- God confirms men in the downward path they choose. Israel didn't want to be obedient to God's laws, and so they would go to Assyria where they would have to break those laws. Both an evil and holy spirit come from God, confirming us in the paths we choose. The next verse continues this theme.

Hos 9:4 They won’t pour out wine offerings to Yahweh, neither will they be pleasing to Him- As noted on :3, Israel didn't want to be obedient to God, and so He sent them into a situation in exile where they could not properly offer to Him, as they had no temple nor acceptable altar. God confirms sinners in the downward spiral they themselves desire. The ten tribes had declined to go up to the Jerusalem temple and now in captivity they would be left without that possibility at all. If we don't take our spiritual opportunities, they are taken away from us; it's a case of use it or lose it. Their offerings were not "pleasing" to God whilst within the land (Jer. 6:20; Mal. 3:4 s.w.); and they would now be put into a position where their offerings in exile could not "please" Him.

Their sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat of it will be polluted. Their bread will merely be for their hunger, it will not come with acceptance as an offering into the house of Yahweh- "Bread of mourners", "like food eaten at funerals" (GNB) is literally the bread of aven, of sin, of idolatry. Their eating pagan sacrifices in the name of Yahweh worship had amounted to this; and their attempts to worship Yahweh in captivity would be seen likewise. The ten tribes hadn't wanted to go up to "the house of Yahweh"; and so their attempts to consider that somehow their sacrifices offered in exile came into His house were not going to be acceptable. All too late they would wish to somehow have fellowship with His house; but too late. This is the tragedy of the rejected, that they will want all too late to enter God's house, knocking on the closed door.

Hos 9:5 What will you do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of Yahweh?- As noted on :3 and :4, in captivity they would have no opportunity to acceptably keep the feasts. They had no temple nor functioning priesthood. But this was because they themselves had sacrificed to Baal in the name of Yahweh worship. "The day of solemn assembly" may refer to the day of atonement. They had not wanted to keep it as intended whilst they could, and in exile it wouldn't be possible.

Hos 9:6 For, behold, they have marched off to destruction; Egypt will gather them up, Memphis will bury them- The references to death at Memphis in Egypt sound as if for sure, God would send them into captivity in Egypt. The GNB has: "When the disaster comes and the people are scattered, the Egyptians will gather them up- gather them for burial there at Memphis!". This was clearly stated in Hos. 7:16; 9:3,6. But just as clearly He says that they will not return to Egypt (Hos. 11:5). Here we see how God's changes of heart were so kindled, as were Hosea's regarding Gomer (Hos. 11:8). He is not capricious, rather does He allow Himself to genuinely struggle within Himself over His people, wishing to save and so not wanting to condemn. We note the past tenses, when the threatened captivity was yet future. God's word of judgment is sure, but in the gap between statement and fulfilment, we can repent and change it. This is the intensity of the human moment in which we live hour by hour.

Nettles will possess their pleasant things of silver, thorns will come up in their tents- This may refer to the high places and tents set up for pagan rites on the high places of Israel. They would be abandoned and overgrown with nettles and thorns, the sign of the curse for sin in Eden.

Hos 9:7 The days of visitation have come, the days of reckoning have come. Israel will consider the prophet to be a fool, and the inspired man to be insane- They considered Hosea to be mad. And indeed the stress within Hosea was so enormous that he may indeed have had some kind of breakdown; not only from his relationship with Gomer, but because he had real insight into God's feelings for Israel. The psychological strengthening of the prophets (see on Ez. 2:4-6) was absolutely necessary- for no human being can live in a constant state of inspiration without breaking. The composer Tchaikovsky commented: “If that condition of mind and soul, which we call inspiration, lasted long without intermission, no artist could survive it. The strings would break and the instruments be shattered into fragments” (Rosa Newmarch, The Life And Letters Of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (New York: Vienna House, 1973 ed.) pp. 274,275). The whole tremendous experience of having God’s mind in them, sharing His perspective, seeing the world through His eyes, made the prophets appear crazy to others. There’s a marked emphasis upon the fact that they were perceived as madmen (e.g. Jer. 29:24,26; 2 Kings 9:11). For us to walk down a street for even ten minutes, feeling and perceiving and knowing the sin of every person in those rooms and houses and yards, feeling the weeping of God over each of them… would send us crazy. And yet God strengthened the prophets, and there’s no reason to think that He will not as it were strengthen us in our sensitivity too.

Because of the abundance of your sins, and because your hostility is great- Like Gomer with Hosea, Israel would never have considered themselves hostile to God. But this is how He sees our behaviour. But perhaps there was indeed some level of anger with God, and anger with Hosea by Gomer. Like addicts, she came to hate Hosea, the very one who enabled her as a person, who alone had loved her truly (9:7,8). And yet Hosea loved her to the end. All this is of course a simple warning against sexual addiction, which is one of the most untabulated and significant addictions in our society. But for a man to love a woman like this is a marvellous picture of God’s love for His Israel, both then and now.

 

Hos 9:8 A prophet watches over Ephraim with my God. A fowler’s snare is on all of his paths, and hostility in the house of his God- The GNB captures the sense: "God has sent me as a prophet to warn his people Israel. Yet wherever I go, you try to trap me like a bird. Even in God's Temple the people are the prophet's enemies". God watches over His word to perform it (Jer. 1:12). But He did so through Hosea and the prophets. Yet the people tried to trap him in his words and were openly hostile to him in the temple courts- just as happened to the Lord. Hostility in the temple would have come from the two tribe kingdom of Judah; despite the Mosaic rituals being observed there, the people opposed God's word as represented by Hosea.

Hos 9:9 They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah- The sin of Gibeah was the rape and murder of the Levites' concubine, and the Levite sending parts of her body throughout Israel (Jud. 19). The sin of Gibeah was performed by the Benjamites, and Hosea has just lamented the opposition he faced in the Jerusalem temple at the hands of Judah and Benjamin (:8). It was the priests with whom Gomer was sleeping; the very people who were murdering Yahweh's prophets, Hosea's brethren. And yet he still desperately loved her, as God loved those who slew His Son.

 

He will remember their iniquity, He will punish them for their sins- As noted on Hos. 7:2; 8:13, there is an assumption that if we forget our sins, then God does too. The passage of time and fading of memory thereby works a kind of pseudo atonement for us. But God remembers. And we must ever consider this in our hearts. This is a basic theme in Hosea, arising no doubt from Hosea's noticing and remembering all of Gomer's unfaithfulness, even though she thought he hadn't noticed.

Hos 9:10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at its first season- God fell in love with Israel in the wilderness, according to Ez. 16 and Jer. 2. The parallel is with how Hosea had indeed fallen in love with the prostitute Gomer, and had seen her "as" perfect and wonderful- which is what love does. Grapes are not found naturally in the wilderness, that is not their normal habitat; the idea is that God saw them as something they naturally were not. This seems to imply that in the same way as God fell in love with Israel in the wilderness, even though they were worshipping idols even then, so Hosea did actually find Gomer attractive initially. The emphasis is upon how God "found" and "saw" them to be attractive at Sinai, and entered into a marriage covenant with them. But as Ez. 20 reminds us, they carried the idols of Egypt with them at this time, carrying the star of Remphan and the tabernacle of Moloch with them along with that of Yahweh. But despite that, God imputed righteousness to them and saw them as wonderfully attractive, just as Num. 23:21; 24:6 say that God did not see iniquity in Israel but saw them as beautiful trees. The idea of imputed righteousness was there in the Old Testament; it is part of love. In Hosea's terms, God says He saw them as grapes and ripe figs, as if they had spiritual fruit when they did not. Grapes and figs don't grow in the desert; but God saw them like this. We struggle to believe that God and His Son really see us so positively, "unblameable... without spot... in His sight". But this is what faith in the love of God is all about.

 

God 'finding' Israel could mean, as suggested above, that this is how they appeared to Him, how He saw them. But it could equally mean that God searched for them and found them. God’s search for man is a repeated theme of the prophets. “He found him in a desert land… He encircled him, He cared for him, He kept him as the apple of his eye” (Dt. 32:10). “I said, Here am I, here am I… I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people… I called, no one answered” (Is. 50:2; 65:1,2; 66:4). “I have found David my servant” (Ps. 89:20). God is in search of man. If we are in search of Him, there is an electric moment when His search for us and ours for Him come to meeting point. And yet in another sense, we don’t so much as find God, as realize that He already is earnestly with us. Every man and woman is somehow a life “bound in the bundle of living in the care of the Lord” (2 Sam. 25:29). We come to realize that before we were formed in the womb, God knew us (Jer. 1:5).

But they came to Baal Peor, and consecrated themselves to the shameful thing- I noted above that God saw Israel encamped in beauty and without sin, and the visions of Balaam state this clearly. But immediately after those visions, Israel sinned with Baal Peor and joined themselves sexually and spiritually to Baal (Num. 23:28; 25:18; 31:16). So Balaam's visions may be in view in Hosea's words. Israel were now being judged for the sin at and with Baal Peor, and we recall the comment of Josh. 22:17, that "we are not cleansed from the iniquity of Peor even until this day". This was because the essence of that sin was continued in subsequent generations, including Hosea's. Despite God looking so positively at Israel, imputing righteousness to them, yet they prostituted themselves to Baal and slept with the Moabite Baal prostitutes. This of course was reflecting exactly the situation between Hosea and Gomer.

 

And became abominable like that thing which they so loved- We become like what we worship. And we have a desire to worship coded within our natures. We must therefore make a conscious election as to what we will worship, knowing that we shall become like it in due course. We become like what and whom we love. If we are transfixed by the gracious salvation that is in the Lord, we will become like Him in thought and deed.

 

9:11 As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird- There was a tremendous sensitivity in Hosea to both God and to the sin of His people, honed and developed by his own relationship with Gomer. At the start of Hosea’s prophecy, Israel were prosperous. They worshipped Yahweh, and assumed He was with them. And yet Hosea discounts their worship of Yahweh as being effectively idolatry. Time and again Hosea accuses Israel of idolatry, using words to describe their idolatry which are word plays on language associated with Yahweh. He speaks of their kabod [glory] (Hos. 9:11; 10:5)- a word usually used about the glory of Yahweh. They worshipped lo’al (Hos. 7:16)- and he uses al to refer to Yahweh in Hos. 11:7. They worshipped sor (Hos. 9:13)- the same consonants as sur, the “rock” of Yahweh (Dt. 32:31). He calls Yahweh qados (Hos. 11:9), but they worshipped qedosim (Hos. 12:1). We tend to assume that Hosea’s denunciation of idolatry meant that Israel worshipped both Yahweh and various other images and idols of their pagan gods. But that seems to be an over-simplification. Archaeologists have actually not found much evidence of such gods as stand alone entities. Summarizing much research, Cogan concludes: “There is no evidence of Assyrian interference in the Israelite cult prior to the 720 BCE annexation of Samaria [after Hosea’s time]… Israel was free of any cultic obligation” (M. Cogan, Imperialism And Religion: Assyria, Judah and Israel in the Eighth and Seventh Centuries BCE (Missoula: Scholars Press, 1974) pp. 103,104). And yet, Hosea speaks for all the world as if there were shrines etc. to other gods all over the place. My conclusion is that the idols, shrines etc. to which Hosea refers were therefore actually understood by Israel as a form of Yahweh worship. But he points out to them that actually, their worship of Yahweh is a form of idolatry. And all this has relevance to us. For actually things like daily Bible reading, attending church, going through the formalities of a religion, can become a form of fetishism rather than parts of the dynamic, Spirit filled life which they ought to be a vital part of. Worshipping Yahweh in the “high places”, i.e. the pagan shrines, was Israel’s besetting sin. It’s rather like the way they turned the bronze snake of the wilderness into an idol. They, like us, never simply turned their back on the true Way. Rather did they mix it with the way of the flesh, the way of the world, and pronounced that as in fact Yahweh worship. And it was all this which Hosea was so deeply sensitive to, as demonstrated by the careful word plays he made, in order to demonstrate that their worship of Yahweh was in fact idol worship.

 

There will be no birth, none with child, and no conception- Gomer had no conception from Hosea, and became infertile, just like Israel were to God (:14).

No conception, barren wombs, dead children, wandering (Hos. 9:11,15-17) is the language of the curses for breaking the covenant (Lev. 26:26). As Gomer had broken the marriage covenant, so Israel had broken the old covenant. But they were by grace being offered a new covenant- but even that they, and Gomer, refused. And so it was offered to us.

Hos 9:12 Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them, so that not a man shall be left. Indeed, woe also to them when I depart from them!- It would seem from :12-15 that Gomer’s children were killed during one of the invasions, and she became infertile, with “a miscarrying woman and dry breasts” (:14). In Jewish terms of those days, to marry such a woman was pointless and absurd. But still, Hosea dreamt of the way when she would return to him in her heart and they could re-establish their relationship. She had nothing at all to offer him. Just like us with God. But such is His senseless love… “O Israel thou hast destroyed thyself: but in me is thine help” (Hos. 13:9). Gomer's sexual addiction was a reflection of the way she was crying out for love. The crying tragedy was that the love of Hosea, reflective as it was of God's love, was just surpassing. And yet she didn't perceive it, didn't want it... and so her mad search for love led her to the chronic sexual addiction which destroyed her and left her barren. And finally, God would depart from them, but only because they had first departed from Him (Hos. 7:14 s.w.). This was the final "woe", that the most amazing lover had now gone. We wonder whether this was ever realized in Hosea departing from Gomer. We sense that he never did, just as God has never fully left His natural people.

Hos 9:13 I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place- The analogy with Tyre is perhaps because Israel had accepted the idols of Tyre into their worship, not least because Ahab and his descendants had married into the royal family of Tyre; Jezebel was from there. The appropriacy goes further, however. We see from Ez. 27 [see notes there] that Tyre presented itself as another Jerusalem, as the "pleasant place" [s.w. "holy habitation" of Yahweh, Ex. 15:13; Is. 33:20], the city where in fact the true sanctuary of God was to be found. Ephraim would not go to worship at the Jerusalem temple, but instead chose Tyre. And this would lead to Israel's children being slain as Tyre's would be.

 

But Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer- I suggested on :12 that this was matched by Gomer's illicit children being killed during one of the invasions or raids upon Israel.

Hos 9:14 Give them--Yahweh, what will you give them? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts- As noted on :12, Gomer became infertile, the result of her idolatry and promiscuity. The children she had from her illicit affairs were killed by the invaders; so infertility was a curse with a slightly silver lining in her case. Hosea loved her all the same; but she would be a useless partner for him, in Hebrew terms. And the same was true of God's love for Israel. Israel in this section is addressed as "Ephraim", meaning 'fruitful'. Ephraim was now to have the possibility of bearing fruit taken away, because they didn't wish to bear fruit anyway. Again we encounter the idea of spiritual capacity and opportunity being removed from us unless we use it. Yet all this is backdrop to the final intention of God expressed in Hos. 14, that Israel like Gomer would still miraculously bring forth fruit / children to Him.

Hos 9:15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them- The mention of Gilgal is difficult because we are unaware that there was any more idolatry there than elsewhere. But probably the reference is to the way that Israel's demand for a human king at Gilgal was the epitome of their unfaithfulness to Yahweh; they thereby rejected Him as their king, master and husband; see on :17 and Hos. 10:3. They of course claimed to still have Him as their king, just as Gomer protested she was still Hosea's wife whilst having affairs with others. As Hosea went through flashes of hatred against Gomer, so did God. But His hatred was for a moment, because Hosea's prophecies go on to declare His undying love for His people. See on Hos. 10:9. And yet Gilgal apparently was a centre of idolatry at this time (Hos. 4:15; 12:11; Am. 4:4; 5:5). Yahweh hated how He was worshipped there in the form of Baal worship. Possibly Gomer worked there as a cult prostitute; so there Hosea hated her.

God several times speaks of His "hate" for persons and behaviour. And the Hebrew word means just that, not "to love less". His love is not unconditional; that is a myth of humanism, even if it has become a buzzword within liberal Christianity. God's love did evolve throughout Hosea, and it did from the Old Testament to the New, but it still required acceptance of it. Even if it is so that the conditions are waived or ammended [we think of the progressive urging of anyoneto come in to the marriage supper, or to go work in the vineyard even for an hour]. But there has to be some "Yes!" to the offer of love. God's love and our response to it is chesed, covenant love... love within a covenant, loyalty. This doesn't mean we won't sin nor fail. Nor are we any kind of equal in the Divine-human encounter. But still, there must be a "yes" and a wilful abiding within the covenant. Outside of that is the darkness of separation from God, albeit self chosen.

 

Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of My house!- This part of the prophecy is directed at Ephraim, the ten tribes who refused to go to the temple. Now, they were barred from it. But being driven out of a husband's house is also a figure for divorce; the same language is used of how Hagar was driven out of her husband Abraham's house. The Hebrew for "drive out" here is specifically used of divorce (e.g. Lev. 21:7,14; "her that is put away" Ez. 44:22). So often God and Hosea had these flashes of desire to divorce their partners, which given the gross adultery involved, they could have quite legitimately done. The protestation of God's eternal love for Israel is the more meaningful and intense once we realize that He had these feelings of hatred towards them at times. Our sins likewise anger God, and His love for us must be seen in that context and against that background.

 

I will love them no more- It was because of his great love for Gomer that Hosea came to feel the passionate anger with her which he did at times; and in this his spirit was that of God toward Israel. “I will love them no more” has to be balanced against his later profession that “I will love them freely” (Hos. 14:4). In the end, because he loved her, as God loved Israel, finally giving up this terrible woman proved impossible: “How shall I give you up?... My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of My anger…” (Hos. 11:8,9). The offer of the new covenant relationship with Judah is made with the comment that God loves Israel with "an everlasting love" (Jer. 30:3). But this wonderful fact is nuanced by the way God arrived at that conclusion- through times when He felt that He would not love them any more. And covenant relationship with Him is so often predicated upon His people remaining faithful to the covenant (Dt. 7:12,13). Just as Hosea felt to Gomer. Here for all time we have the answer to the assumption that God's love is unconditional. More correctly, He says that it is conditional, and says He withdraws love; but in reality, His love for Israel continued, through all the wrath of judgment. To speak of His love as "unconditional" is to over simplify the profound. The fact is, some objects of God's love are not reached by that love, because they refuse it. And some who were reached by it withdraw themselves from it.

 

All their princes are rebels- The "princes" were represented by the children of Gomer, whom we can assume rebelled against their quasi father Hosea. The princes of Israel and Judah are mentioned several times as rebellious.

 

Hos 9:16 Ephraim is struck- God smote Israel in His anger (Is. 60:10 s.w.); but the word is used of how God struck His children in order to discipline them (Jer. 2:30 s.w.). God smote them, but intended to bind them up at the restoration (Hos. 6:1 s.w.). His judgments are designed to elicit repentance and are not the outpouring of pure anger alone. We note the present tense: "Is struck", although they had not yet been smitten- see on :6.

 

 Their root has dried up. They will bear no fruit. Even though they bring forth, yet I will kill the beloved ones of their womb- As noted on :12 and :14, Gomer like Israel was to become barren; and the children of adultery were to be killed by the invaders. Here the figure is changed to a crop with a dry root and therefore no fruit. They had never borne fruit to God, as Gomer had not for Hosea; and so the opportunity for spiritual fruit bearing was taken away from them. But the same word for "dried up" is used of the lifeless, dried bones of Ez. 37:11, which could be revived by the Spirit given under the new covenant.

Hos 9:17 My God will cast them away- God has been speaking in the first person in the previous verses. But Hosea's feelings and spirit were those of God. He now interjects with his own summary of the situation, and that too is inspired or in-spirited by God. He was no mere printing device pumping out a message. God did "cast them away", and yet finally "God has not cast away His people" (Rom. 11:1), just as Lev. 26:44 had promised He would not, even though He send them into exile. I suggested on :15 that Israel's sin in choosing a human king was there in view; this had been the ultimate action which epitomized their rejection of God as their king and husband. The same word for "cast away" is used in this context in 1 Sam. 10:19; they thereby "rejected your God". Because they "rejected" [s.w. "cast away"] knowing God, having relationship with Him in the Hebraic sense of 'knowing', He rejected them (Hos. 4:6).

 

Because they did not listen to Him- If by this God meant 'They weren't obedient to My specific commandments', then a different word would have been used. God is not a casuist nor a legalist. The Hebrew for "listen" better means to perceive, to literally listen to a person, as one listens to the lover with whom you wish to develop a relationship. This is not to say that obedience to specifics is unimportant to God; but essentially He sought a relationship with Israel, as Hosea did with Gomer. But Gomer refused to 'know' Hosea, perhaps sexually, but also in terms of relationship; and so it was with Israel toward their God.

 

And they will be wanderers among the nations- The same word has already been used in Hos. 7:13 for how Israel wandered from God, and went to the nations not only in idolatry but in seeking their help against their invaders, rather than God's help. Always, the judgments upon Israel are only a reflection back to them of how they had been with God. Quite simply, all who truly with all their hearts "love His appearing" shall be saved (2 Tim. 4:8). If we don't want to be in His Kingdom, then we will not be; if with all our hearts we do, then we shall be. If we wander off from God and prefer the world, then we shall go to the world and be "condemned with the world" (1 Cor. 11:32). We make the answer now. The analogy with Hosea-Gomer is that Gomer wandered from lover to lover and never found stability. And this category, Jude says, will wander in darkness like lost stars. That is what the condemnation experience will be about- living out the essence of how they chose to live in this life.