Hosea 9

1 thou hast loved a reward (hire) upon every cornfloor. The meaning may be, “Thou hast loved to see thy floor full, and hast attributed thy plenty to thy idols, rejoicing before them at the ingathering of thy corn”: cp. ii. 12; Jer. xliv. 17.

2 shall fall in her. i.e., shall disappoint their expectations.

3 they shall eat unclean things in Assyria. As they have preferred unclean things in their own holy land, they shall soon be forced to eat their food in a foreign country, where all is defiled. Cp. Dan. i. 8.

4 as the bread of mourners. See note on Ezek. xxiv. 17.

for their bread for their soul, etc. Rather, “Their bread shall be for their soul (i.e., for themselves only); it shall not come into the house of Jehovah.” It shall be only for the satisfaction of their appetite: lacking the consecration imparted by offering to God.

6 they are gone because of destruction. Rather, as R.V., “they are gone away from destruction.”

Egypt shall gather them up. For burial.

the pleasant [places] for their silver. Or, “their pleasant things of silver,” R.V., i.e., decorations, utensils, perhaps idols. These shall be buried in the earth, and nettles shall grow over them.

7 the prophet is a fool. This and the following clause are Hosea’s quotation of what the people say, and then he goes on “for the multitude of thine iniquity,” etc.

10 like grapes in the wilderness. Israel was at first as acceptable to Me as grapes are to a traveller in the desert, or as the earliest figs are to the eater: see note on Jer. xxiv. 2. But the people soon gave themselves up to idolatry and licentiousness: see Numb. xxv. 1-5.

separated themselves unto [that] shame. “Consecrated themselves unto the shameful thing” (R.V.).

And [their] abominations, etc. i.e., they became as abominable as the impure gods which they loved.

11 their glory shall fly away. Their “glory,” or prosperity, shall be destroyed by the failure of population; for they shall have few children, and those few shall be slain (12, 13). “From the birth,”

etc., should be rendered, “There shall be no birth,” etc.

13. Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus.

14. Give them a miscarrying womb. Some suppose this to be the prophet’s intercession. Rather, inflict upon them barrenness than let them bring forth children “for the murderer”: cp. Luke xxiii. 29.

15. All their wickedness is in Gilgal. See iv. 15.

Mine house. Meaning probably the land of Israel: cp. viii. 1.