Hosea 9

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Verse 1

9:1 do not rejoice: This is probably a reference to the Festival of Shelters, when Israel celebrated the final harvest of the year. This festival was ordained by God (Deut 16:13-15), but the Israelites had turned it into a wild pagan festival, behaving as other nations did. • hiring yourselves out like prostitutes (literally you have loved a prostitute’s pay): The Israelites ignorantly believed that their grain and wine were payment for their worship of the Canaanite fertility god.

Verse 2

9:2 As punishment for their prostitution, the Lord would so reduce the Israelites’ harvests that they would go hungry (cp. Hag 1:3-11).

Verse 3

9:3 God would exile the Israelites to Assyria in 722 BC. There, in an unclean land, they would eat ceremonially unclean food, further separating themselves from their covenant with the Lord.

Verse 4

9:4 In exile, the Israelites could not offer legitimate sacrifices because any sacrifice in a foreign land was unclean and defiled.

Verse 6

9:6 Even if some Israelites were to escape Assyrian exile by fleeing to Egypt, God’s relentless judgment would reach them there.

Verse 7

9:7 Apostate Israelites refused to believe God’s words of judgment as delivered by the prophets and mockingly cried that the prophets were crazy.

Verse 8

9:8 The watchman stood guard on the wall of the city to warn of any threat (e.g., 1 Sam 14:16). In the same way, a prophet was God’s watchman, stationed to warn Israel of her sin and of the judgment that sin would inevitably bring (see Jer 6:17; Ezek 3:17). Despite his service to the people, all the prophet received was hostility.

Verse 9

9:9 what they did in Gibeah long ago: See Judg 19–21.

Verse 10

9:10 when I first found you: Hosea, like Ezekiel (Ezek 16), speaks of the Lord’s finding and adopting chaste, innocent Israel in the desert. But Israel soon deserted God for idols at Baal-peor (Num 25:1-4). Participation in idolatry had made the Israelites vile. This strong word can also be translated “detestable” (Deut 29:17) or “Abominable” (Jer 7:30). They inevitably resembled what they worshiped.

Verse 11

9:11 Israel worshiped the baals to ensure that they would have many children, but God would punish them by preventing birth, pregnancy, and even conception.

Verse 13

9:13 for slaughter: Rather than gaining them more children, the Israelites’ idolatry would backfire, resulting in their children’s deaths.

Verse 15

9:15 All their wickedness began at Gilgal: Gilgal was the base camp for Joshua’s army (Josh 5:10; 10:6, 43) and the place where Saul was made king (1 Sam 11:15). Saul also disobeyed God and was rejected as king at Gilgal (1 Sam 13:8-15; 15:10-23). Israel’s leaders, including its first king, had led the nation away from their true king, the Lord. • I will love them no more: Although a different Hebrew word is used here, the prophetic judgment reflects the name of Hosea’s daughter (Hos 1:6).

Verse 17

9:17 wanderers: God’s judgment on the Israelites would cut them off from the land, leaving them with no home.