Hosea 9 Study Notes

9:1-3 Hosea speaks in vv. 1-9. Israel was seeking prosperity by serving pagan fertility gods as the nations did, just as a woman would seek the wages of a prostitute. They could not rejoice jubilantly at the “Lord’s feast” (v. 5), however, because the Lord had withheld the harvest, causing deprivation that would increase during Israel’s exile (v. 3).

9:4-6 Israel’s failed harvest would leave the people with barely enough to eat, with nothing for offerings and sacrifices. The bread of mourners was food defiled by association with death. It could not be offered to God. Israel would seek refuge from devastation in Egypt, but they would die there outside their land.

9:7-9 God had sent prophets to warn the people, but their iniquity and hostility were such that they considered God’s inspired messengers to be insane fools. Nevertheless, God was with them. Watchman is a common biblical image for prophets (Jr 6:17; Ezk 3:17; 33:2). The bird trap may be what the prophet was to the pathways of foolish Israel (Is 8:14; 2Co 2:16). On the days of Gibeah, see note at 10:9.

9:10 God speaks in vv. 10-17. Israel initially brought God as much pleasure as grapes found in the wilderness or the first fruit of the fig tree, but that changed with the incident of pagan sexuality at Baal-peor (Nm 25:1-9; Ps 106:28-30) where the people tried to ensure fertility by worshiping Baal, here referred to as Shame. The point is that Israel was now repeating its foolish behavior.

9:11-12 Ephraim’s glory was the Lord, whose departure would end their fertility and cause them woe.

9:13 God had placed both Ephraim and Tyre in surroundings in which they should have flourished (meadow is figurative; Ezk 17:5-8), but both had turned to Baal worship and practiced child sacrifice. Both Tyre and Samaria were besieged by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser V. Both cities fell to Sargon II of Assyria in 722 BC.

9:14 The prophet asks the Lord to give Israel what they deserve: the opposite of Jacob’s blessing in Gn 49:25: “blessings of the breasts and the womb.”

9:15-17 Just as vv. 10-14 begin with an allusion to Baal-peor, these verses begin with an allusion to Gilgal (cp. 4:15; 12:11), a town so full of evil that God had rejected them (hate in v. 15 = reject in v. 17).