Hosea 9:13-17
Hosea 9:13
(KJB)
Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place:
but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.
Both of the nations of Israel and Tyrus were the focus of
aggression by Assyria. The fact
that Israel was grouped with this Tyrus, a pagan nation, is because when Israel
decided to forsake the true God and go after the false gods, it lowered their
status to be just like one of the other nations.
Their children being brought out to the murderer refers to the fact that
Israel may fight against Assyria with her sons but the fact that since their
fate was decreed by God, their sons would be fighting a futile battle and would
result in their deaths.
Hosea 9:14
(KJB)
Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a
miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
Since the sons of Israel were to be slaughtered by their
enemies then the prophet had asked God if there was the possibility that Israel
would no longer have any children so they would not face slaughter.
This same type of desire was asked for during the siege of Jerusalem by
the Romans.
Luke 23:29 (KJV) For, behold, the days
are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs
that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.
Hosea 9:15
(KJB)
All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated
them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I
will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.
Gilgal was the center of much cultic activity but the
city in this case is being used as a general term denoting all the evil activity
which Israel committed against the LORD in the entire nation.
It was when they started to commit whoredom against God that he began to
hate them for their disobedience.
This verse alone teaches that God does hate the sinner and the sin.
He is not just stating he hated their wickedness but he is stating that
he hated them as the ones doing it.
The driving out of the house is referring to the fact that God is going to
remove them from the land which he gave them when they came out of Egypt.
God will also cease to have any more love for them and will add his
hatred of them to their sentence and leave them under the hand of the wicked
Assyrians. Their leaders both
religious and civil were idolaters since the time of Jeroboam and this included
all the kings in succession because there was not a godly king in the northern
kingdom. The word “revolter” may
also be understood as rebellious or stubborn.
Hosea 9:16
(KJB)
Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall
bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved
fruit of their womb.
Hosea begins to bring God’s hatred of Israel because of
their sins in the form of a tree. A
tree whose root is dried up will never grow.
In fact if the root is dried up the tree will die.
This will result in the fact that they will bear no fruit.
They shall remain a dead entity standing in the ground as a dead tree.
If they bring forth any fruit, that is, any children then God will also
slay them because they will grow up as idolaters as their parents were.
Dead trees do not bring forth living fruit.
They may die by disease or by some enemy who will invade their land or
even by the hand of one of their own.
Hosea 9:17
(KJB)
My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken
unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.