Hosea 9

Do not celebrate, Israel. Do not shout for joy the way the other nations do. You have been unfaithful to your God, like a wife who sells herself, and you have loved the payment handed out on every threshing floor.

1Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.

NoteA threshing floor was a flat, hard-packed open area, usually on a windy rise, where harvested grain was beaten out and tossed in the air to separate it from the chaff. It was also where the harvest was stored and celebrated. "Playing the harlot" is the prophets' standard image for worshiping other gods: the nation is pictured as a wife who takes other lovers. The "payment" is the fee paid to a prostitute, here the grain heaped on the floor, which the people credited to Baal, the Canaanite storm god thought to give rain and fertility.

2The threshing floor and the winepress will not feed them, and the new wine will run out on them.

2The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.

NoteA winepress was a hollow cut in rock where grapes were trodden, with a channel running into a lower basin to catch the juice. "New wine" is the fresh juice of the year's grape harvest; along with grain and oil it was one of the three staples of the land.

3They will not stay in the LORD's land. Ephraim will go back to Egypt, and in Assyria they will eat food that is unclean.

3They shall not dwell in the LORD’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.

NoteEphraim was the largest tribe of the northern kingdom, and Hosea regularly uses its name for that whole kingdom. Going "back to Egypt" means returning to the country Israel had been slaves in (the exodus run backwards. Assyria was the empire to the northeast that conquered the northern kingdom in 722 BC and deported its people. Israel's law marked out which foods could be eaten and how they had to be prepared and drained of blood; in exile, living among foreigners, none of that could be kept, and food itself is called "unclean") that is, unfit to be brought near what is holy.

4They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, and their sacrifices will not please him. Their sacrifices will be to them like the bread eaten at a funeral: everyone who eats it becomes unclean. Their bread will feed only themselves; it will not come into the house of the LORD.

4They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD.

NoteWine offerings were libations: wine poured out at the altar alongside a sacrifice. A death made a household ritually unclean, so food eaten in a house of mourning could not be taken to the sanctuary, and anyone who ate it was barred from worship until they were cleansed. "The house of the LORD" is the sanctuary, the temple or shrine where sacrifices were brought.

5What will you do on the appointed festival day, on the day of the LORD's feast?

5What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?

NoteIsrael's year was structured around fixed pilgrim festivals when people traveled to the sanctuary with offerings. "The feast of the LORD" often meant the autumn harvest festival, Tabernacles, the largest of them. The question bites because people scattered in exile could keep none of it.

6Look, they have run from the destruction, but Egypt will gather them up and Memphis will bury them. Nettles will take over the places they prized for their silver, and thorns will fill their tents.

6For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles.

NoteMemphis was one of Egypt's great cities, on the Nile just south of present-day Cairo, ringed by enormous burial grounds. To be buried there rather than in the family tomb at home was, to an Israelite ear, the picture of dying a stranger far from your own land.

7The days of punishment have come. The days of payback have come. Israel will know it. The prophet is called a fool, and the man who speaks by the spirit is called crazy, because your sin is so great and your hatred so strong.

7The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.

Note"Visitation" in older English means an official coming to inspect and call to account, not a friendly call. "The man who speaks by the spirit" translates "man of the spirit," a term for a prophet. The Hebrew here is compressed and readers have long disagreed on who is speaking: it may be Hosea quoting the mockery flung at him, or a verdict passed on prophets who were in fact fools.

8The prophet is the watchman over Ephraim, along with my God, yet a bird catcher's trap lies on every path he takes, and hatred waits in the house of his God.

8The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.

NoteA watchman was the lookout posted on a city wall or tower to spot an approaching army and raise the alarm, a standing picture of what a prophet was for. A fowler was a bird catcher, who hid nets, snares and sticky traps along the paths birds used. The Hebrew of this verse is damaged or unusually obscure, and translations differ over who stands with God and who is laying the traps.

9They have sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah. So he will remember their guilt; he will punish their sins.

9They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.

Note"The days of Gibeah" points back to the story in Judges 19–21, in which men of the town of Gibeah gang-raped a traveling man's concubine until she died, and the nation tore itself apart in the civil war that followed. It had become shorthand for the worst thing Israel had ever done to itself.

10When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes out in the desert. When I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the first ripe figs on a fig tree early in the season. But they went to Baal-peor and gave themselves to that shameful thing, and they became as disgusting as the thing they loved.

10I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.

NoteFinding grapes growing wild in the desert is a stroke of unexpected luck. The early figs, which ripen weeks ahead of the main crop, were a prized delicacy, both images are of something rare and delightful. Baal-peor refers to the incident in Numbers 25, where Israelites joined in the worship of the local Baal at Mount Peor and slept with Moabite women. "That shameful thing" is literally "the Shame": Hebrew writers sometimes substituted the word for shame in place of the name Baal rather than pronounce it.

11As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird: no birth, no pregnancy, no child conceived.

11As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.

NoteThe name Ephraim sounds like the Hebrew word for "fruitful," so a threat of childlessness against Ephraim turns the tribe's own name against it. The three terms run backwards through the stages (birth, pregnancy, conception) canceling each in turn.

12Even if they do raise children, I will take every one of them away, so that not one person is left. Yes, and trouble comes to them when I turn away from them.

12Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!

13I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place. But Ephraim will lead his own children out to the man who kills them.

13Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.

NoteTyre was the Phoenician port city up the coast, immensely rich from sea trade and famous for being unassailable on its island; naming it evokes wealth and security. The Hebrew of this verse is uncertain, and the ancient Greek translation reads it quite differently, so the comparison may originally have been to a palm planted in a meadow rather than to Tyre at all.

14Give them something, LORD. What will you give them? Give them wombs that lose their babies and breasts with no milk.

14Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

NoteThe speaker changes here: the prophet breaks in and addresses God directly, before God resumes speaking in the next verse.

15All their evil shows itself at Gilgal; that is where I hated them. Because of the wicked things they do, I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more. All their leaders are rebels.

15All 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.

NoteGilgal was a sanctuary town near Jericho, the site of Israel's first camp after crossing the Jordan and where Saul was made king. By Hosea's time it was a major place of worship that he attacks repeatedly. "My house" can mean the sanctuary or, more broadly, the land as God's household, the phrase does not settle which. "Princes" here means the officials and leading men of the kingdom, not royal sons.

16Ephraim is struck down. Their root is dried up, and they will bear no fruit. Even if they do have children, I will kill the dear children of their womb.

16Ephraim 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.

NoteThe picture is a tree or vine with its root killed off. The same Hebrew word covers the fruit of a plant and the offspring of a womb, so the image of a barren tree and the loss of children are one thought, not two.

17My God will reject them, because they did not listen to him. They will be wanderers among the nations.

17My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

NoteTo wander among the nations meant living stateless and landless, outside the protection of any clan or territory, in the ancient world a condition close to defencelessness. The phrase echoes the sentence passed on Cain in Genesis 4.