In Hosea 9, we see that Israel was not contented with the good land God gave them. They turned to idol worship to get what they want. The blessing of being the people of God was not treasured.

They also gave themselves to depravity.

We can identify three sections in Hosea 9.

Firstly, Hosea spoke strongly against their unfaithfulness. It will result in the deprivation of their privileges in being God’s people. (vv.1-6)

Secondly, he stressed the certainty of the coming judgment. (v.7)

Thirdly, he expressed God’s disappointment over Ephraim. They were illustrious and precious to God. Yet they were unfaithful. They were also depraved. God would punish them. (vv8-17).

This study comments on the translation issues that are found in each of the three sections.

In the first section of Hosea 9, we see that:

Hosea spoke strongly against their unfaithfulness. It will result in the deprivation of their privileges in being God’s people.

In verse 1, Hosea told Israel not to rejoice. He charges them with unfaithfulness.

1. Do not rejoice, Israel, with jubilation like the nations!

For you have been unfaithful, abandoning your God. (NASV)

This statement concerning Israel is derived from Hosea 8. There it was made clear that they had broken their covenant with God. They worshiped idols and sought alliances with Assyria and other nations. They trusted their own strength.

Their harvests will fail them. They will end up being taken captive to Assyria or else seeking refuge in Egypt.

The greatest loss of all would be the blessing of being the people of God. This they had despised.

Hosea 9: 4-6 prophesy that Israel will be deprived of their worship and be taken away from their possessions and die in Egypt.

We have verse 4a in NASV as follows:

1. They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the LORD,

Nor will their sacrifices please Him.

This first part of verse 4 could be translated more literally. We would then have verse 4a as:

They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the LORD,

Nor shall they pledge their sacrifices to Him.

The idea that ‘they shall not pledge their sacrifices to the LORD’ in accord with the prophetic statements related to the other two offerings, namely the drink offerings and the bread or grain offering.

We see that Hosea says, in verse 4a, that they will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the LORD. He speaks of the bread or grain offering in verse 4b. It is probably a tithe of their harvest.

Hosea in verse 4b says this also they will not do. Ceremonially, they would be unclean.

Their bread will be to them like mourners’ bread;

All who eat it will be defiled,

Deuteronomy 26:14a can help us understand this section. The Israelites are to make a declaration when bringing the tithe of their harvest:

I have not eaten of it while mourning

This declaration suggests that when a person is in mourning, he is defiled. When he eats from his produce, the produce is defiled. He should then not bring the tithe of the produce to the LORD.

Verse 4b says they would not bring their bread or grain to the house of the LORD. They will eat the food for their own sustenance.

Because (Preferably: For) their bread will be for themselves alone;

It will not enter the house of the LORD.

The Israelites would be in sorrow or mourning in their exile. They would probably have family members who were killed in an invasion whilst they were taken into exile. It would then not just be the separation from the Temple that prohibited them from bringing a tithe. Ceremonially, they would be unclean and thus prohibited from bringing a tithe.

So the prophetic statements say that the drink offering and the grain offering will not be made. It is more likely that the intended sense is that the sacrifices will also not be made.

This gives better sense because sacrifices to the LORD are to be made only at the Temple in Jerusalem. If it is not at the Temple, then the sacrifice should not be made. Whilst they are in exile, they are not in a position to make sacrifices. Furthermore, when Judah fell, the Temple would be destroyed.

Another issue in translation is seen in verse 6.

Hosea also speaks of the deprivation of the days of celebration.

5. What will you do on the day of the appointed festival

And on the day of the feast of the LORD?

6. For behold, they will be gone because of destruction;

Egypt will gather them together, Memphis will bury them.

However the NIV has verse 6 as,

6. Even if they escape from destruction,

Egypt will gather them,

and Memphis will bury them.

The ESV says,

For behold, they are going away from destruction;

but Egypt shall gather them;

Memphis shall bury them.

So the issue is whether it is the feasts days that are gone or the people who are gone.

This question in verse 5 and the answer in verse 6 probably belong together. Hosea speaks directly to the Israelites. He is looking ahead and asking the question to those who would be in exile in that future time:

5. What will you do on the day of the appointed festival

And on the day of the feast of the LORD?

He presses home his point in saying ‘For behold, they will be gone because of destruction;’

The ‘they’ in verse 6 probably refers to the day of the appointed festival and the day of the feast of the LORD.

So, the ‘they’ is not referring to the people going away or escaping from destruction as indicated by the NIV and ESV translations.

This point may be quite settled from the Hebrew grammar. The ‘they’ in the phrase ‘they will be gone’ is third person common plural. The common plural is appropriate in referencing the days.

On the other hand, the ‘them’ in the phrases ‘Egypt shall gather them’ and ‘Memphis will bury them’ are third person masculine plurals. The Hebrew masculine plural is appropriate in referencing people, even if the group referred to includes males and females.

So the idea is that in their situation, either in Egypt or Assyria, it is the days of festival and feast that would be gone.

They were given the privilege of celebrating the days. But they despised them. The festivals which were occasions of great joy would be gone.

This prophecy related not just to the exile of the northern kingdom of Israel. It would refer also to the destruction of Judah and the Temple. They would be deprived of the privilege and joy of celebrating the festival and worshiping the LORD at the Temple.

Hosea then prophesies that those who sought refuge in Egypt would die there.

Egypt will gather them together, Memphis will bury them.

Now he reverts to speaking about them as we see in verses 3 and 4.

The Israelites would die in Egypt.

Their possessions in the land would be abandoned and overgrown with weeds and thorns.

Weeds will take possession of their treasures of silver;

Thorns will be in their tents.

In the second section of Hosea 9, Hosea stressed the certainty of the coming judgment.

In verse 7, Hosea emphasises the time for retribution has come. This would remind his hearers of their prior neglect to heed God’s rebuke.

7. The days of punishment have come,

The days of retribution have come;

Let Israel know this!

There were many things they did that merited punishment. However, in the grace of God, the punishment was withheld. It was to give them opportunity to repent. However, they failed to turn from their unfaithfulness.

They had listened to false prophets. These spoke their own words. They probably spoke what their listeners wanted to hear.

Now Hosea addressed what these prophets were in reality.

The prophet is a fool,

The inspired person is insane,

Hosea did speak against the priests of Israel in other parts of his writing. We can note particularly Hosea 11: 6,

And the sword will whirl against their cities,

And will destroy their oracle priests

And consume them, because of their counsels.

Hosea stressed the certainty of the coming punishment. Then he derided the prophet and the inspired person. Most likely, these had dismissed the coming judgment. Hosea’s comment on them was like an aside.

He then continued to complete what he was saying. He gives the reason for the certainty of the judgment.

Because of the grossness of your wrongdoing,

And because your hostility is so great.

The judgment comes on account of the grossness of the people’s wrongdoing. They come because their hostility towards God was so great.

The NIV places the clause, ‘The prophet is considered a fool, the inspired person a maniac’ at the end of the sentence.

The days of punishment are coming,

The days of reckoning are at hand.

Let Israel know this.

Because your sins are so many

And your hostility so great,

The prophet is considered a fool, the inspired person a maniac.

NIV takes the clause as stating the Israelites’ attitude towards genuine prophets and inspired persons of God. The Israelites were derogative of God’s servants.

But let us note that in the NIV there is a change of the position of the clause and insertion of the word ‘considered’

The NASV version is probably preferable. It is Hosea speaking in derision of the false prophets. They denied the coming certain judgment.

Hosea described the prophets who failed to speak the truth of God as ‘a fool’ and ‘insane’.

So, the people of Israel were not turned from their evil. They themselves also did not want to turn.

In the third section of Hosea 9, Hosea expressed God’s disappointment over Ephraim.

They were illustrious and precious to God. Yet they were unfaithful. They were also depraved. God would punish them.

Hosea 9: 8 probably heads the remaining part of chapter 9.

There are differences in the translation of this verse between the different versions of the Bible. We only need to compare between the NASV and the NIV.

NASV says:

Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet;

Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways,

And there is only hostility in the house of his God.

NIV says:

The prophet, along with my God:

Is the watchman over Ephraim,

Yet snares await him on all his paths,

And hostility in the house of his God.

The main difference is in the first half of the verse.

The literal translation would be:

watching     Ephraim     with      my God      a prophet

In English, a verb ending in ‘ing’ can be a noun.

For instance, ‘Eating is my past time.’

This kind of word, termed a participle, can also be a noun in Hebrew. Not only that, it can be used to refer to the agent doing the action.

For instance, ‘judging’ is used to mean ‘judges’ (Judges 25:5)

So here in Hosea, ‘watching’ is used to mean ‘watchman’

In Hebrew, ‘watching’ and ‘Ephraim’ placed side by side could mean

equative, as in

NASV – ‘Ephraim was a watchman’ (the context determines the tense).  

or it could mean

‘of’, as in ‘watchman of Ephraim’

Which NIV renders ‘watchman over Ephraim’

Then NASV takes ‘a prophet’ as a noun phrase providing additional information to the subject, ‘Ephraim’

So, we have the first part of verse 8 as follows:

NASV:

Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet

This is probably appropriate. It is based on standard Hebrew syntax or order of words.

As for the NIV, we have:

The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim

There is considerable liberty in understanding how the words and phrases should be related.

In the Hebrew, the word ‘prophet’ does not have a definite article. This is reflected in the NASV version.

We can also look at how each translation fits into the text.

Hosea’s discourse, in Hosea 9, is about Ephraim/Israel. He even talks directly to them. So, recognizing ‘Ephraim’ as the subject of the sentence in verse 8 is appropriate.

Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet

In the Hebrew, the word ‘Ephraim’ being the subject, is suitably sited at the beginning of the sentence.

The word is preceded only by the participle ‘watching’ which is also standard.

In the NIV, ‘the prophet’ becomes the subject of the sentence.

‘The prophet’ as subject creates indefiniteness in our understanding of what Hosea wants to say.

The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim,

The immediate question is, who is the prophet?

Is he a particular person? Or is the term referring to any prophet?

Hosea seems to distinguish himself from this particular person or one of the ‘any prophet’.

Looking again at the NIIV translation:

The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim,

If this was really what Hosea said, we see that the words would suggest that Hosea excludes himself. The word ‘my’ from ‘my God’ would refer to Hosea. So, the prophet he speaks of, has to be someone else.

In Hosea’s time, if there really was a prophet who was the watchman of Ephraim, it should have been Hosea.

Otherwise, it would be Amos, a contemporary of Hosea. There is no indication given why Amos was the watchman and Hosea wasn’t.

Israel had several prophets prior to Hosea. The words in NIV, verse 8b:

Yet snares await him on all his paths,

and hostility in the house of his God.

speaks of something future. The words ‘snares await him’ suggest an event that is yet to happen. So, it would rule out Hosea speaking of the earlier prophets of Israel.

Speaking of an undefined prophet who will encounter snares detracts from the rest of the message in the chapter.

Otherwise, did Hosea simply intend to illustrate Ephraim’s opposition to God? He places snares in the way of God’s prophet.

So, the NIV translation or other similar translation would introduce a subject that is not clearly defined.

The NASV translation has harmony with the text.

This is particularly so when we recognize verse 8 as commencing a series of tragic outcomes.

Hosea 9:8-17 and even to Hosea 10:2 would present Ephraim or Israel as a scion who turn out to be wayward. He would face God’s judgment.

We should probably take NASV as portraying what Hosea wanted to say in verse 8.

We can identify 3 sub-sections in Hosea 9:8-17.

The first two regards Ephraim/Israel’s spiritual blessings not treasured by them. 

The third is Ephraim/Israel’s physical advantage that would not help them in the time of God’s judgment.

We see also in each section the LORD’s disapproval and the punishments He will inflict.

The 3 sub-sections from verse 8-17 would be:

Firstly, Ephraim lost his calling as a prophet, verses 8-9.

Secondly, Israel lost his place as a prized possession of God, verse 10.

Thirdly, his secure habitation would not save him, verses 13-17.

These great losses occurred through their worship of idols and their evil conduct. 

Firstly, Ephraim lost his calling as a prophet, verses 8-9.

The history of Ephraim bears testimony to his high calling.

In the early years, Ephraim was an important tribe in the united nation of Israel.

Moses organised the Israelites who left Egypt as an army. They were divided into 4 quarters with 3 tribes in each quarter. Ephraim was the leading tribe in one of the quarters.

In the time of the Judges, Ephraim played their part in delivering the nation from oppressors.

Joshua was from the tribe of Ephraim. He led the nation to conquer Canaan.

In the early years, Israel was faithful to God and accounted as a watchman, a prophet.

However, Hosea testified of God’s disappointment regarding them in verse 8b.

Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways,

And there is only hostility in the house of his God.

They were illustrious. Yet they were the ones who lured others to unfaithfulness.

Not only that, God saw depravity in them.

9. They are deeply depraved

As in the days of Gibeah;

The depravity was the same as in the days of Gibeah. This was when certain worthless men from the tribe of Benjamin wanted to sexually abuse a Levite traveller. When the Levite brought out his concubine to them, they raped and abused her and she died at their hands.

Ephraim had a high calling. But they never separated themselves fully from their depravity. What happened in Gibeah was a picture of what could now be found in Israel.

In verse 9b, Hosea says:

He will remember their guilt,

He will punish their sins.

Secondly, Israel lost his place as a prized possession of God, verse 10.

From the beginning, Israel had shown inclination to depravity and unfaithfulness.

Verse 10 says:

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness;

I saw your forefathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.

But they came to Baal-peor and devoted themselves to shame,

And they became as detestable as that which they loved.

God did great miracles in bringing them out from Egypt. He fed them for forty years in the wilderness. They were approaching the Promised Land. Then in Numbers 23, we see that they committed infidelity with the women of Moab. They were lured to eat the sacrifices and bow down to the gods of Moab.

In verses 11-12, Hosea spoke God’s word to Ephraim/Israel:

Their glory will depart and they will be deprived of children.

11. As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird—

No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!

12. Though they bring up their children,

Yet I will bereave them of their children until not a person is left.

Yes, woe to them indeed when I depart from them!

The third sub-section is from verse 13-17. It tells us that Ephraim was planted in a pasture.

Ephraim, as I have seen,

Is planted in a pasture like Tyre;

The reference to Tyre is probably with regards to its security and strength. The word ‘pasture’ is otherwise translated as habitation/dwelling.

Probably, the idea is that Ephraim’s habitation is strong and secure.

However, it will not keep them safe. The LORD’s word to them in verse 13b is:

But Ephraim is going to bring out his children for slaughter.

However, that is not all. Verse 14 speaks of the failure of their pregnancies. They would have no milk to nourish their children.

14. Give to them, LORD—what will You give?

Give them a miscarrying womb and dried-up breasts.

Why? Verse 15 gives us the answer.

15. All their evil is at Gilgal;

Indeed, I came to hate them there!

Gilgal was where the Israelites had just witnessed a great miracle of God. He dried up the flooded River Jordan for them to cross over into the Promised Land. The further outcome of the miracle was for them to fear the LORD forever.

It was also where they were circumcised as a nation. That was when the shame of their slavery in Egypt was taken away.

But in the latter years, Gilgal had become a place of idolatry.

Their idolatry led them on to wickedness. And the LORD spoke of how He would deal with them.

Because of the wickedness of their deeds

I will drive them out of My house!

I will no longer love them;

Their leaders led them in rebellion against God.

All their leaders are rebels.

The illustrious one will be bereaved of children. They will be wanderers among the nations.

16. Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up,

They will produce no fruit.

Even though they give birth to children,

I will put to death the precious ones of their womb.

17. My God will reject them

Because they have not listened to Him;

And they will be wanderers among the nations.

What they thought would not happen, happened. The nation was invaded. Children were killed. Many others were killed. The nation went into exile. The Temple in Jerusalem was later destroyed. Israel was bereft of all that made them illustrious.

Ephraim was a wayward scion.

They were one of the stronger tribes of Israel.

When they took possession of the land, they were not contented with what they had. They worshipped idols with the hope of getting better harvests.

They disregarded the privilege of worshipping God at His Temple.

Instead of walking in God’s ways, they engaged in depravity.

Now they became the subject of a strong rebuke and stern prophecies of God’s coming judgments against them.