Hosea 9:14

14. The judgment is richly deserved. The prophet understands, with all his love for the people, that mercy has become impossible; in holy indignation he prays Jehovah to execute his judgment. The abruptness of the style indicates the deep emotion of the prophet.

What wilt thou give A rhetorical question. The prophet meditates what he should ask for. Shall it be mercy? That cannot be; and he offers a petition that Jehovah may allow justice to proceed. The interpretation of the verse as an “intercessory prayer on the part of the prophet that God will not punish the people too severely, but condemn them to barrenness rather than the loss of the young men,” is less probable.

Hosea 9:15 is the continuation of Hosea 9:13.

Their wickedness is in Gilgal Is focused there (Hosea 4:15; Hosea 12:10; compare Amos 4:4; Amos 5:5). Gilgal must have been a prominent center of Hebrew worship. Perhaps the prophet has in mind some recent flagrant outburst of wickedness, now unknown.

For Better, yea.

I hated The love for Ephraim (Hosea 9:10) was transformed into hate as a result of their wickedness, which Jehovah can endure no longer.

Drive them out of mine house As in Hosea 8:1, equivalent to my land; this will mean separation from his presence (see on Hosea 9:3; compare 1 Samuel 26:19), and from his interest and love Jehovah will completely withdraw his mercy and favor.

All their princes are revolters Indicates one of the chief reasons for Jehovah’s rejection of Israel. The nobles who should have been the leaders of the common people have rebelled against their great leader, Jehovah, and thus they have become misleaders (Isaiah 3:12). The original contains a play upon words (as in Isaiah 1:23), which may be reproduced partly by rendering, “Their princes are unprincipled.” The judgment upon Israel is further described in Hosea 9:16. In 16a, under the figure of a plant whose roots are dried up as a result of being smitten with withering heat (compare Jeremiah 17:8), or by a worm (Jonah 4:7), so that it can bear no more fruit (compare Hosea 9:11 b); 16b returns to the thought of Hosea 9:11-12, the destruction of the nation by cutting off the children and young men.

Hosea 9:16 b would be most appropriate between Hosea 9:11 and Hosea 9:12; the former speaks of the cessation of childbirth; Hosea 9:16 b continues, if by some chance children should be born, Jehovah will slay them; then Hosea 9:12 adds, if somehow they should live for a while, they will die before reaching manhood (so Marti). In Hosea 9:17 the prophet repeats, in his own words, the threat expressed by Jehovah in Hosea 9:15.

My God He is still the prophet’s God, but no longer that of Israel.

Did not hearken The appeals of the prophet fell upon deaf ears (compare Hosea 4:10). Now Jehovah must cast them off. Here the judgment is thought of not as extermination, but as banishment among the nations (Hosea 9:15).

Wanderers Or, fugitives (Genesis 4:12); the same verb is used in a different sense in Hosea 7:13. To secure a more satisfactory logical connection Harper rearranges Hosea 9:10-17 as follows, Hosea 9:10-11; Hosea 9:16; Hosea 9:12 (except the last clause), Hosea 9:13-15; Hosea 9:12 (last clause), Hosea 9:17.