Hosea 9:8

The watchman of Ephraim [was] with my God,.... Formerly the watchmen of Ephraim, or the prophets of Israel, were with the true God, whom the prophet calls his God; as Elijah and Elisha, who had

The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God.

The watchman of Ephraim was with my God; the old true prophets indeed were with God, heard what he spake, and told it to the people; they were for God, for his honour, law, worship, and temple; and so should prophets now be. Ephraim once had such prophets, such were Elijah and Elisha, but none such now, or Ephraim cares not for them. The prophet speaks of God, the true God, as his God, in opposition to idols, on which Ephraim doted now, whose pretended oracles they believed. But the prophet; the prophets now-a-days, who call themselves prophets, and are so accounted by the people, have, as the people, left God, and do no more consult with God. Is a snare of a fowler; their pretended predictions and promises are but a snare, such as fowlers lay to take fowl in; and these impostors are conscious to themselves that they are deceivers; at least they cannot but know that the true God never gave them answer at any of their images, yet they pretend he hath done it, and that he will prosper them; so they insnare the people first in sin, next in punishment. In all his ways; and all they design and endeavour by all means is to keep the people in this opinion and hope. And hatred in the house of his God; so is hatred in the sight of God, he doth hate such deceivers; and he is hatred, i.e. ere long will he hatred, in the sight of the people he deceived; they shall hate their false prophets, who from the house of their God, by answers from the idols in their temples, confirmed the people in their rebellion, and hardened them against returning to God, which ends in their ruin: or else hatred, &c., i.e. cause of the people’ s hatred, against God and one another.

Hosea 9:8 The watchman of Ephraim [was] with my God: [but] the prophet [is] a snare of a fowler in all his ways, [and] hatred in the house of his God.Ver. 8. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God] i.e. The false prophets above mentioned pretend themselves to be with God, and for him speak, look, and act as if they came out of God’ s bosom, or were so many angels newly dropped from heaven; take upon them glorious titles to that purpose, as watchmen, prophets, spiritual men, he. These titles proved snares to many that inquired not narrowly into them; and especially because they preached placentia, pleasing things, soothed men up in their sins, sewed pillows under their elbows, daubed with untempered mortar, &c. Hence silly people lent both their ears to them (as birds do to the lure or whistle of the fowler), and were soon insnared. The prophet is as a snare of a fowler, &c.] Seducers have their pithanology, their art to persuade before they teach, as the Valentinians had; they are cunning, and insinuate, as Zanchy testifieth of Laelius Socinus, that by propounding questions he sought to insnare him, semper interrogans quasi cuperet doceri, labouring to drop into him certain dangerous principles of the Samosatenian heresy. This sly trick they have learned of that old manslayer, the devil, who by these emissaries of his catcheth simple people, as the fowler doth the bird, by casting baits; or as the fisher, by one fish catcheth another, that he may feed upon both. And hatred in the house of his God] Satanic hatred (as in the former verse), which these wicked watchmen do stir up against the true prophets, and faithful servants of God. Diodati carrieth it thus, These wicked watchmen are the chief occasion of God’ s hatred, and of the rejection of his people, who are as it were his family. Luther, Wigandus, and others set this sense upon the whole verse (taking the former part to be spoken of the good watchmen). These ancient watchmen of Ephraim were joined with my God, and wholly for him; but those to this day are a snare, &c., and if there be any yet left of the former stock, they have left off to do good, and are become hateful, as Psalms 36:2-3, their iniquity is found to be hateful. There are that render the words by way of exclamation thus, O rem odiosam et abominandam in domo Dei! Oh, hideous and hateful! oh, how hath the devil bestirred him, to stir up such seducers, to do so much mischief among God’ s people! There are those who interpret these two verses, not of false prophets, but of the true, who were looked upon as fools and madmen by the mad world; ever beside itself in point of salvation, &c. It is not for nought that Rivet saith, Hi duo versus saris sunt iutricati, These two verses are very intricate. And of this eighth verse Luther saith, that the brevity thereof hath caused obscurity.

(8) Prophet.—Many hold that here (as in the previous verse) this word is used in a bad sense (false prophet), and standing contrasted with “the watchman of Ephraim” (or true prophet, Hosea himself, Jeremiah 6:17; Ezekiel 3:17). They would render:—“The watchman of Ephraim is with my God.” But the verse is capable of an altogether different, and, on the whole, more satisfactory interpretation: Ephraim is a lier-in-wait, in conflict with my God. As for the prophet, the fowler’s snare is in all his ways. (Comp. Matthew 23:34-35.) There is persecution in the house of his God. The objection to this rendering lies in this use of the Hebrew ‘im (“in conflict with”). But the word might be read ‘am, “people” (comp. LXX. on 2 Samuel 1:2): “Ephraim, the people of my God, is a lier-in-wait”—a thought full of pathos, and in harmony with the main idea of this prophecy.

Verse 8. The watchman of Ephraim] The true prophet, was with-faithful to, God. The prophet] The false prophet is the snare of a fowler; is continually deceiving the people, and leading them into snares, and infusing into their hearts deep hatred against God and his worship.

8. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God] Rather, is with my God. There is a various reading ‘his God’ (so also Rashi), but ‘my God’ can be well defended; for the watchman spoken of is Hosea himself. We have ‘my God’ again in Hosea 9:17. The figure implied is developed more fully in Jeremiah 6:17, ‘Also I set watchmen over you, (saying,) Hearken to the sound of the trumpet.’ ‘With my God’ = ‘in communion with’ or ‘helped by.’ The connexion will, however, be improved if we suppose that, owing to the fact that ‘Ephraim’ ends with a Mem, the same letter has dropped out at the beginning of the next word. In this case, render (connecting this and the next clause), Ephraim’s watchman, appointed by my God [comp. in the Hebrew, Isaiah 8:11], even the prophet—a fowler’s snare is, &c. An entirely wrong view of the construction is suggested by the vowel-points (which of course form no part of the text proper), viz. ‘Ephraim looketh out (for help) beside my God’; but ‘beside’ cannot mean ‘apart from’; or ‘Ephraim is a lier in wait (in his fight) against my God.’ but the prophet is, &c.] See last note. The prophet meant is a true not a false prophet (as Keil takes it), for though the false prophets might be likened to a fowler’s snare, their conduct could not be spoken of as ‘envious’ or ‘persecuting’ towards Ephraim. It is rather the Ephraimites who are always laying snares (comp. Isaiah 29:21) for their troublesome ‘watchman.’ hatred] Rather, enmity (or, hostility; or, persecution). in the house of his God] This must to some extent be equivalent to the parallel words ‘in all his ways.’ In Hosea 9:15 ‘mine house’ means the land of Canaan, and so probably here. Jehovah is not their God, for they (Israel) ‘know’ Him not; and they cannot abide those who, like Hosea (Hosea 9:8) and the psalmist (Psalms 73:23), are ‘continually with Him.’

The watchman of Ephraim was with my God - These words may well contrast the office of the true prophet with the false. For Israel had had many true prophets, and such was Hosea himself now.

6. Already the prophet sees the people leaving the land of Jehovah to experience the deprivations of the exile pictured in Hosea 9:4-5. They are gone — The prophetic perfect in Hebrew.