> [[hosea-08|← Previous]] | [[hosea-00|TOC]] | [[hosea-10|Next →]] --- # Hosea, Chapter 9 ## Chapter 9 ### From Days of Celebration to Days of Punishment 1 Do not rejoice, Israel, ^hosea-09-1 do not exult like the nations! For you have prostituted yourself, abandoning your God, loving a prostitute’s fee upon every threshing floor. 2 Threshing floor and wine press will not nourish them, ^hosea-09-2 the new wine will fail them. 3 They will not dwell in the LORD’s land; ^hosea-09-3 Ephraim will return to Egypt, and in Assyria they will eat unclean food. 4 They will not pour libations of wine to the LORD, ^hosea-09-4 and their sacrifices will not please him. Their bread will be like mourners’ bread, that makes unclean all who eat of it; Their food will be for their own appetites; it cannot enter the house of the LORD. 5 What will you do on the festival day, ^hosea-09-5 the day of the LORD’s feast? 6 When they flee from the devastation, ^hosea-09-6 Egypt will gather them, Memphis will bury them. Weeds will overgrow their silver treasures, and thorns, their tents. 7 They have come, the days of punishment! ^hosea-09-7 they have come, the days of recompense! Let Israel know it! “The prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is mad!” Because your iniquity is great, great, too, is your hostility. 8 The watchman of Ephraim, the people of my God, is the prophet; ^hosea-09-8 yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways, hostility in the house of his God. 9 They have sunk to the depths of corruption, ^hosea-09-9 as in the days of Gibeah; God will remember their iniquity and punish their sins. ### From Former Glory to a History of Corruption 10 Like grapes in the desert, ^hosea-09-10 I found Israel; Like the first fruits of the fig tree, its first to ripen, I looked on your ancestors. But when they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the Shameful One, they became as abhorrent as the thing they loved. 11 Ephraim is like a bird: ^hosea-09-11 their glory flies away— no birth, no pregnancy, no conception. 12 Even though they bring up their children, ^hosea-09-12 I will make them childless, until no one is left. Indeed, woe to them when I turn away from them! 13 Ephraim, as I saw, was a tree ^hosea-09-13 planted in a meadow; But now Ephraim will bring out his children to the slaughterer! 14 Give them, LORD! ^hosea-09-14 give them what? Give them a miscarrying womb, and dry breasts! 15 All their misfortune began in Gilgal; ^hosea-09-15 yes, there I rejected them. Because of their wicked deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no longer; all their princes are rebels. 16 Ephraim is stricken, ^hosea-09-16 their root is dried up; they will bear no fruit. Were they to bear children, I would slay the beloved of their womb. 17 My God will disown them ^hosea-09-17 because they have not listened to him; they will be wanderers among the nations. \* (9:1) Threshing floor: an allusion to harvest festivals in honor of Baal, to whom the Israelites had attributed the fertility of the land; cf. [2:7]. \* (9:4) Mourners’ bread: bread eaten at funeral rites ([Dt 26:14]). The presence of a corpse also made all food prepared in that house unclean ([Jer 16:5] – [7]). \* (9:5) The LORD’s feast: probably the important autumn feast of Booths, the most important of the Israelite public celebrations ([Lv 23:34]). \* (9:6) Instead of gathering for celebration (v. [5]), they will be gathered for death. Memphis: known for the monumental pyramid tombs. Silver treasures: the silver statues of Baal ([8:4]). \* (9:8) Prophets, like Hosea himself, are called to be sentinels for Israel, warning Israel of God’s coming wrath (see ([[ezekiel-03|Ez 3]]:17]; [33:7]), but often meet rejection. \* (9:9) The days of Gibeah: the precise allusion is not clear. Perhaps it is a reference to the outrage committed at Gibeah in the days of the judges ([Jgs 19] – [21]), or to questions surrounding Saul’s kingship at Gibeah ([1 Sm 10:26]; [14:2]; [22:6]). \* (9:10) Baal-peor: where the Israelites consecrated themselves for the first time to Baal ([Nm 25]; see note on [Hos 5:1] – [2]). Baal is here called the Shameful One. \* (9:15) Gilgal: possibly a reference to Saul’s disobedience to Samuel ([1 Sm 13:7] – [14]; [15]), or to the idolatry practiced in that place (see note on [Hos 4:15]). \* (9:16) Wordplay on the Hebrew word for “fruit” (*peri*) and Ephraim (see note on [8:9]). The whole passage (vv. [10] – [17]) presents a reversal of Ephraim’s name ([Gn 41:52]). He will have no fruit, a condition which will result in extinction. a. (9:4) [Dt 26:14]. b. (9:7) [2 Kgs 9:11]; [Jn 10:20]. c. (9:8) [Jer 6:17]; ([[ezekiel-03|Ez 3]]:17]; [33:2], [6], [7]. d. (9:9) [Jgs 19] – [21]. e. (9:10) [Is 28:4]; [Jer 2:2]. f. (9:10) [Nm 25]. g. (9:11) [Dt 28:18]. h. (9:14) [Jb 3:11] – [12]; ([[luke-23|Lk 23]]:29]. i. (9:16) [Am 2:9]. j. (9:16) ([[matthew-21|Mt 21]]:19]. k. (9:17) [Gn 4:12], [14]; [Dt 28:64] – [65]. --- _New American Bible, revised edition_ (2010, 1991, 1986, 1970) Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. > [[hosea-08|← Previous]] | [[hosea-00|TOC]] | [[hosea-10|Next →]]