TEXT [Commentary]

  2.   Hosea’s reaction: Israel is doomed (9:1-9)

1 O people of Israel,

do not rejoice as other nations do.

For you have been unfaithful to your God,

hiring yourselves out like prostitutes,

worshiping other gods on every threshing floor.

2 So now your harvests will be too small to feed you.

There will be no grapes for making new wine.

3 You may no longer stay here in the LORD’s land.

Instead, you will return to Egypt,

and in Assyria you will eat food

that is ceremonially unclean.

4 There you will make no offerings of wine to the LORD.

None of your sacrifices there will please him.

They will be unclean, like food touched by a person in mourning.

All who present such sacrifices will be defiled.

They may eat this food themselves,

but they may not offer it to the LORD.

5 What then will you do on festival days?

How will you observe the LORD’s festivals?

6 Even if you escape destruction from Assyria,

Egypt will conquer you, and Memphis[*] will bury you.

Nettles will take over your treasures of silver;

thistles will invade your ruined homes.

7 The time of Israel’s punishment has come;

the day of payment is here.

Soon Israel will know this all too well.

Because of your great sin and hostility,

you say, “The prophets are crazy

and the inspired men are fools!”

8 The prophet is a watchman over Israel[*] for my God,

yet traps are laid for him wherever he goes.

He faces hostility even in the house of God.

9 The things my people do are as depraved

as what they did in Gibeah long ago.

God will not forget.

He will surely punish them for their sins.

NOTES

9:1 rejoice as other nations do. Lit., “Do not rejoice, O Israel, unto exultation as the peoples [do].” The NLT combines “rejoice” and “exultation” of the Hebrew text into one thought. The MT’s ’el gil ka‘ammim [TH1524A/5971A, ZH1637/6639] (unto exultation as the nations) is altered by some scholars (e.g., Stuart 1987:14) who redivide the consonantal text so as to read ’al gileka ‘ammim (do not shout for joy, my people) or emend ’el gil to read ’al tagel [TH408/1524A, ZH440/1637] (“do not exult”; Wolff 1974:149; cf. LXX, Vulgate, NRSV). The MT is defensible, however, and should be understood as continuing the negation of the previous clause: “do not rejoice” (’al tismah). McComiskey (1992:136) points to similar phraseology in Job 3:22: hassemekhim ’ele-gil, “those who exceedingly rejoice.”

hiring yourselves out like prostitutes. Hosea’s remarks serve as a connection to the previous oracle (cf. 8:9, 13), as do the mention of harvests in 9:2 (cf. 8:7) and the exile of the people in 9:3 (cf. 8:13).

9:2 harvests . . . grapes. Lit., “threshing floor and wine vat . . . new wine.” The NLT catches the intention of the prophet’s words. The products of the field and vineyard were the gracious bestowal of God upon a loyal people. Their withholding was a sign of divine chastisement (see notes and commentary on Joel 1:7, 9, 10) and warned of possible invasion and captivity (cf. Deut 28:38-41, 49-51).

9:4 They will be unclean, like food touched by a person in mourning. The law with regard to eating the bread of affliction had to do especially with bread eaten at funeral meals (Deut 26:14). It was regarded as unclean because all who came in contact with the house were defiled by the presence of the corpse. The captivity will be like a condition of mourning. Laetsch (1956:73) suggests, however, a different legal precedent: “All food which was not sanctified to the Lord by the presentation of the firstfruits was unclean food to Israel (Exod 22:29; 23:19; 34:22, 26; Lev 23:10-12, 15-17). In the heathen lands Levitically clean food could hardly be obtained.”

9:6 Even if you escape destruction from Assyria. Lit., “for behold they have gone from destruction.” The NLT follows the lead of many translations and expositors in rendering this as a conditional clause detailing an unlikely occurrence (“Even if”). The syntax of the MT, however, suggests that this clause should be read as a prophetic perfect, a future event that is viewed as having already taken place. The prophet’s words were predictive: Covenant-breaking Israel would go into exile amidst the destruction of their land.

Memphis. The word mop [TH4644, ZH5132] is used here rather than the usual nop [TH5297, ZH5862] (cf. Isa 19:13; Jer 2:16; 44:1; Ezek 30:13, 16). The Egyptian name for Memphis (mn nfr) owes its origin to the pyramid and city of the sixth-dynasty pharaoh Pepi I, who reigned in Memphis in the third millennium BC. The name may have meant “[Pepi is] established [and] beautiful” (Gardiner 1957:183). Always a major city in Egypt and traditionally an administrative capital, it fell to the Assyrian king Esarhaddon (681–668 BC) in 671 BC.

Although some (e.g., McComiskey 1992:141, 188) understand the reference to Egypt and Memphis as mere metaphors for the future captivity in Assyria, it is instructive that Jewish refugees from the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem did seek asylum in Memphis (Jer 44:1).

Nettles . . . thistles. The NLT renders the syntactical force of the anticipatory emphasis in the MT: “As for their silver and valuables, briers/nettles will possess them [and] thorns/brambles [will be] in their tents.” The point is that God’s people will be despoiled and left desolate (cf. Keil 1954:122).

9:7 prophets are crazy . . . inspired men are fools! “Inspired men” is lit., “men of the spirit.” God’s prophets were often condemned as madmen and fools (e.g., 2 Kgs 9:11; Jer 29:26). Covenant-breaking Israel’s taunts against God’s prophets were “rooted in the magnitude of their sins’ guiltiness and their ‘hostility’” (Stuart 1987:146).

9:8 The prophet is a watchman. The OT prophets were often likened to watchmen (e.g., Jer 6:17; Ezek 3:17; 33:2, 6-7; see note on Hab 2:1).

9:9 Gibeah. The reference is to the horrors surrounding the rape and murder of the Levite’s concubine in the days of the judges (Judg 19–21). See commentary on 10:9-11.

COMMENTARY [Text]

Hosea’s response to God’s message in 8:1-14 was in full agreement with the Lord’s condemnation of Israel. As God had charged, Israel had been disloyal to its Lord. Spiritually and politically, Israel was a transgressor. In a forceful simile, the conduct of the people was likened to that of a prostitute. Israel appeared to be ready to receive and submit to any god other than the true God. Therefore, in keeping with his covenant with them the Lord would bring decreased productivity to the land. The reduction of grain and wine should stand as a warning to Israel of God’s displeasure with their disobedience (9:1-2).

Not only that, but continued disloyalty would lead to Israel’s captivity. There they would not be able even to offer the sacrifices that they now take so lightly. God’s people faced the imminent threat of exile to Assyria and the likelihood that many of them would die. Some would perish in a vain attempt to avoid capture by fleeing to Egypt. Again and again, God had sent his prophets to his people, commissioning them to serve as watchmen warning of approaching danger—all to no avail. For in callous disdain, even sheer hatred, the citizenry had branded them as madmen and sought to do them harm. There was no safety for God’s servants even in the house of the Lord.

Yet what God’s messengers reported would come to pass. For in God’s sight, Israel’s spiritual and moral condition was as vile as that of all those responsible for what occurred in Gibeah so long ago when the Levite’s concubine was raped, murdered, and dismembered (Judg 19). God could not overlook the guilt of Hosea’s Israel either. He would deal severely with them because of their sins (9:3-9; cf. 7:2).

The issues presented here have come up before. Thus, Hosea’s condemnation of Israel’s covenant unfaithfulness (e.g., 2:18-23; 4:1, 12; 5:4-7; 6:7; 8:1-6) and idolatrous worship practices (e.g., 4:14-19; 5:1; 8:4-6) is a familiar theme. The former has too easily led to the latter; both are labeled “prostitution,” a term that implies spiritual unfaithfulness, religious egocentrism, and moral perversion (see, e.g., 4:10-19; 5:3-4; 6:10). Hosea brought them together here to point out that Israel’s sin stemmed basically from its low view of God. In this, Israel had followed the shameful practices of non-revealed religion and reproduced sin in its basic form: the rejection of God’s rightful place as sovereign over people’s lives, whether individually or corporately (cf. Exod 20:3; Deut 6:4-6; Mark 12:28-30; Luke 10:25-28; 1 John 5:21).[15]

Likewise, Hosea repeatedly recorded God’s denunciation of Israel’s flirtation with the surrounding nations (e.g., 5:13-15; 7:8-16; 8:8-10). Then he pointed out the end result of such foolish preoccupation. They would go into captivity and, tragically, they would not be able to offer proper sacrifices to the Lord. This would violate Mosaic regulations in several ways. First, they would eat food that would be regarded as unclean, thereby rendering themselves unclean (Lev 11; 14:1-21).[16] Second, because there would not be a properly sanctioned site to worship the Lord where sacrifices could be presented to him (cf. Lev 1:3; 3:1-2; 4:4, 13-14; 5:5-6; 6:14, 25; 7:1-2), the sacrifices would be unacceptable. This being the case, contact with the slain sacrificial animals would also render the offerers impure and their sacrifice unacceptable. Third, many of them would die in exile. Mosaic law specified that contact with the dead, whether animals or humans, rendered the person ritually unclean (Lev 11:24, 28, 35-40; Num 19:11-22). Because the specified purification procedures could not be observed, the uncleanness would remain.

Hosea spoke of the bread of mourning (9:4). Periods of mourning could be observed for various reasons such as sorrow in response to an announcement of judgment (Ezek 7:27; Joel 2:12-14) or contrition for sinning against God (Ezra 10:6). Wicked Haman grieved over his humiliation at the hands of Mordecai, whom he hated (Esth 6:12). David mourned his separation from his fleeing son Absalom (2 Sam 13:37). Even nature is said to mourn due to God’s judgment (4:3; Joel 1:10). The greatest sorrow came from the death of a loved one (2 Sam 1:17-27; 19:1-4). In connection with the Mosaic law regarding the triennial tithe, the offerer was to declare concerning it, “I have not eaten any of it while in mourning; I have not handled it while I was ceremonially unclean; and I have not offered any of it to the dead” (Deut 26:14). Hosea’s mentioning of “food touched by a person in mourning” may well have some allusion to this Deuteronomic legislation (McComiskey 1992:140).

Hosea’s words are instructive. No mere carrying out of sacrificial ritual is pleasing to the Lord. Those who would truly worship God must come to him in purity and sincerity of heart (Ps 24:3-6; John 4:24). Where sin clutters the life, it must be confessed and God’s forgiveness sought (Ps 51:1-12; Matt 6:12; Jas 4:7-10; 1 John 1:8-9). Thank God that One has come and offered the perfect sacrifice by which the believer may have full access to God’s presence (Heb 10:19-22). Indeed, in him alone can the mourner find true comfort (Isa 61:1-2) and a life of full productivity and satisfaction both for one’s self and, more importantly, for God.