Text -- Hosea 9:9-17 (NET)

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

9:9 They have sunk deep into corruption as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their wrongdoing. He will repay them for their sins. 9:10 When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the wilderness. I viewed your ancestors like an early fig on a fig tree in its first season. Then they came to Baal-Peor and they dedicated themselves to shame– they became as detestable as what they loved.

The Fertility Worshipers Will Become Infertile

9:11 Ephraim will be like a bird; what they value will fly away. They will not bear children– they will not enjoy pregnancy– they will not even conceive! 9:12 Even if they raise their children, I will take away every last one of them. Woe to them! For I will turn away from them. 9:13 Just as lion cubs are born predators, so Ephraim will bear his sons for slaughter. 9:14 Give them, O Lord– what will you give them? Give them wombs that miscarry, and breasts that cannot nurse! 9:15 Because of all their evil in Gilgal, I hate them there. On account of their evil deeds, I will drive them out of my land. I will no longer love them; all their rulers are rebels. 9:16 Ephraim will be struck down– their root will be dried up; they will not yield any fruit. Even if they do bear children, I will kill their precious offspring. 9:17 My God will reject them, for they have not obeyed him; so they will be fugitives among the nations.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Hos 9:9

¹ tn Or more literally, “they are deeply corrupted.” The two verbs הֶעְמִיקוּ־שִׁחֵתוּ (he’miqu-shikhetu; literally, “they have made deep, they act corruptly”) are coordinated without a conjunction vav to form a verbal hendiadys: the second verb represents the main idea, while the first functions adverbially (GKC 386-87 §120.g). Here Gesenius suggests “they are deeply/radically corrupted.” Several translations mirror the syntax of this hendiadys: “They have deeply corrupted themselves” (KJV, ASV, NRSV), “They have been grievously corrupt” (NJPS), and “They are hopelessly evil” (TEV). Others reverse the syntax for the sake of a more graphic English idiom: “They have gone deep in depravity” (NASB) and “They have sunk deep into corruption” (NIV). Some translations fail to represent the hendiadys at all: “You are brutal and corrupt” (CEV). The translation “They are deeply corrupted” mirrors the Hebrew syntax, but “They have sunk deep into corruption” is a more graphic English idiom and is preferred here (cf. NAB “They have sunk to the depths of corruption”).

NET Notes: Hos 9:10

¹ tn Heb “fathers”; a number of more recent English versions use the more general “ancestors” here.

NET Notes: Hos 9:11

¹ tn Heb “their glory” (so NASB); TEV “Israel’s greateness.”

² tn Heb “no childbearing, no pregnancy, no conception.” The preposition מִן (min) prefixed to the three parallel nouns functions in a privative sense, indicating deprivation (BDB 583 s.v. מִן 7).

NET Notes: Hos 9:12

¹ tn Heb “I will bereave them from a man”; NRSV “I will bereave them until no one is left.”

NET Notes: Hos 9:13

¹ tc The MT is corrupt in 9:13. The BHS editors suggest emending the text to follow the LXX reading. See D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:250-51.

NET Notes: Hos 9:14

¹ tn Heb “breasts that shrivel up dry”; cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV “dry breasts.”

NET Notes: Hos 9:15

¹ tn Heb “out of my house” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV, NCV, NLT “my land.”

NET Notes: Hos 9:16

¹ tn Or perhaps, following the plant metaphor, “will be blighted” (NIV similar).