Hosea 9:1

It is amazing that so many commentators see nothing in this remarkable prophecy except the love of God, hailing Hosea as, "The messenger of God's love," and affirming that incredibly severe denunciations such as those given in this chapter do not really represent any permanent change in the status of the secular kingdom of Israel as "God's chosen people," and declaring further that:

"In the future God will be her helper. The day will come when idols will be abandoned and devotion to God will have full sway. Restored to her own land, Israel will once more enjoy material prosperity and divine blessings."[1]

Take a look at what this prophecy says in this chapter:

Let Israel's joy cease...Hosea 9:1.

Your (Israel's) food supply shall fail...Hosea 9:2.

Your vulgar licentiousness has disgusted me...Hosea 9:1.

You are a nation of harlots...Hosea 9:1.

You shall eat mourner's bread...Hosea 9:4.

You shall be defiled...Hosea 9:4.

You shall be removed from the land...Hosea 9:3.

You shall go back into slavery...Hosea 9:3.

You shall eat bread of affliction in Assyria...Hosea 9:3.

You will weep and not rejoice on festal days...Hosea 9:6.

Your land will be wasted...Hosea 9:6.

Your people will die of hunger...Hosea 9:6.

Egypt (slavery) will gather you...Hosea 9:6.

Memphis (the great cemetery) shall bury you...Hosea 9:6.

Nettles and thorns shall take your tents...Hosea 9:6.

Your treasures shall be destroyed...Hosea 9:6.

Your judgment of doom is at hand...Hosea 9:7.

Your prophets and seers are insane fools...Hosea 9:8.

Ephraim has climbed into the place of God...Hosea 9:8.

He is a trap for all the people...Hosea 9:8.

God is now going to punish you...Hosea 9:8,9.

You have become God's enemy...Hosea 9:9.

You are still continuing the wickedness you started at Gibeah...Hosea 9:9.

Your wickedness started even earlier at Baal-peor...Hosea 9:10.

Your glory has disappeared like a cloud...Hosea 9:11.

I cannot bear the sight of you...Hosea 9:12.

Your posterity shall perish...Hosea 9:12.

Your sons are to be murdered...Hosea 9:13.

Abortions and childlessness are to be your lot...Hosea 9:14.

All of your iniquity was evident at Gilgal...Hosea 9:15.

And it has never for a moment ceased...Hosea 9:15.

Therefore, I hate you...Hosea 9:15.

And I shall not love you anymore...Hosea 9:15.

Your nation is rotten, root and branch...Hosea 9:16.

I, your God, do cast you away...Hosea 9:16.

You shall wander forever among the nations...Hosea 9:16-17.

Of very great significance is the appearance of three historical examples in this chapter, showing that Israel had, from the very first, refused to accept the terms of their covenant with God. (1) At Baal-peor, they enthusiastically rejected the stern morality of the Decalogue and made a rebellious covenant with Baal (with all of the licentiousness that went with the worship of the bull-gods) in the very shadow of Sinai itself. (2) Both at Gibeah and at Gilgal, they had rejected the Theocracy through their insistence upon having a king like other nations, both places being sharply identified with Saul, their first king. As a matter of fact, this chapter shows that all of Israel's subsequent sin and rebellion was summarized in these two primary rejections of God's will. Their monarchy was one of their principal troubles, the root cause and expression of their evil ways. As Ward wrote:

"The kingdom had been a violation of the covenant with Jehovah, and so it was rejected as his instrument in the world. Therefore, it would come to an end in the scattered fragments of a disintegrated people."[2]

Some students of the Word of God have been troubled by the severity of God against Israel for doing the very same things that all other nations were doing throughout the whole world of that period. It was Israel's violated covenant with God that made the difference. If Israel had continued in that covenant, God's purpose of redeeming all men would have been gloriously aided; but by their wanton disobedience they actually jeopardized God's procurement of salvation (not just for Israel) for all mankind. This fundamental truth demanded their punishment and rejection.

In our paraphrase of this chapter in the list of denunciations given above, the actual words of it are not in any single version, but practically all of it is given in Harper's translation.[3]

Some of the text in this part of Hosea is obscure and uncertain, and the most frequent comments observed declare: "this verse is very difficult ... the meaning is not certain here ... this is not a full sentence ... part of the text is missing ... we have emended it as follows" ... etc. etc. Despite this, however, the certain meaning of the whole chapter is as plain as the sun in broad open daylight.

Hosea 9:1

"Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, like the peoples; for thou hast played the harlot, departing from thy God; thou has loved hire upon ever grain-floor."

This verse is not a mere prohibition of Israel's rejoicing at a good harvest, the key to understanding what is meant is in, "like the peoples"; and what is in view here is nothing innocent at all. The immoral orgies of the bull-god celebrations, after the manner of the old Canaanite paganism, are clearly in view, that being the import of, "thou hast played the harlot." Hindley, and others, have suggested that Hosea might have delivered this prophecy, "at one of the great harvest festivals";[4] but such a mere guess has nothing to sustain it and leads to a misunderstanding of Hosea 9:8. "The heathen nations indulged in orgies at their harvest festivals."[5] The allusion in this place is probably to "the orgies of the heathen festivals."[6] As Meyers said, "The threshing-floor had become in reality a den of iniquity, and Israel preferred the harlot's hire there to genuine thanksgiving to the Lord."[7]

"Upon every grain-floor ..." This is the same as a threshing-floor; and as Polkinghorne expressed it: "This remark about harlotry on the threshing-floor has a double meaning. Not only is there sacred prostitution, but there is the worship of false gods also."[8]