Hosea 9:1-7

Fertility Cult Festivals Have Intoxicated Israel

9:1 O Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly ¹  like the nations,

for you are unfaithful ²  to your God.

You love to receive a prostitute's wages ³ 

on all the floors where you thresh your grain.

9:2 Threshing floors and wine vats will not feed the people, ⁴ 

and new wine only deceives them. ⁵ 

Assyrian Exile Will Reverse the Egyptian Exodus

9:3 They will not remain in the Lord’s land.

Ephraim will return to Egypt;

they will eat ritually unclean food in Assyria.

9:4 They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the Lord;

they will not please him with their sacrifices.

Their sacrifices will be like bread eaten while in mourning;

all those who eat them will make themselves ritually unclean.

For their bread will be only to satisfy their appetite;

it will not come into the temple of the Lord.

9:5 So what will you do on the festival day,

on the festival days of the Lord?

No Escape for the Israelites This Time!

9:6 Look! ⁶  Even if ⁷  they flee from the destruction,

Egypt will take hold ⁸  of them,

and Memphis will bury them.

The weeds will inherit the silver they treasure ⁹  –

thorn bushes will occupy their homes. ¹⁰ 

9:7 The time of judgment ¹¹  is about to arrive! ¹² 

The time of retribution ¹³  is imminent! ¹⁴ 

Let Israel know! ¹⁵ 

Israel Rejects Hosea’s Prophetic Exhortations

The prophet is considered a fool ¹⁶  –

the inspired man ¹⁷  is viewed as a madman ¹⁸  –

because of the multitude of your sins

and your intense ¹⁹  animosity.

¹ tn Heb “do not rejoice unto jubilation”; KJV “Rejoice not…for joy”; NASB “Do not rejoice…with exultation.”

² tn Heb “you have committed adultery”; NRSV “you have played the whore.”

³ tn Heb “you love the wages of the prostitute” (NIV similar); NAB “loving a harlot’s hire.”

⁴ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn Heb “her” (so KJV, ASV). This is taken as a collective singular (so also most modern English versions).

⁶ tn The deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “Behold!”) is used frequently in prophetic announcements, introducing a solemn or important declaration, particularly in threats of judgment (BDB 244 s.v. הִנֵּה b.β). Many modern English versions leave this particle untranslated here.

⁷ tn The conjunction כִּי (ki) introduces a concessive clause: “Although, when, if, even if” (BDB 473 s.v. כִּי 2.c.β). It has a force approximating “even if” (so NIV, NCV, NRSV, CEV, NLT), but it represents a situation as more likely to occur than אִם (‘im, “if”). The concessive use of כִּי is normally followed by an imperfect, but occasionally a perfect is used, as is the case here (e.g., Mic 7:8; Nah 1:10; Pss 21:12; 119:83).

⁸ tn The verb קָבַץ (qavats, “to gather together”) should be nuanced “grab hold” in this context (HALOT 1063 s.v. קבץ). This pictures a personified Egypt taking the fugitives prisoner.

⁹ tn Heb “the treasured things of their silver”; NASB, NIV, TEV, NLT “treasures of silver.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “their tents” (so NIV, NRSV); CEV “your tents.”

¹¹ tn Heb “the days of the visitation”; NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “the days of punishment.”

¹² tn Heb “has come” (בָּאוּ, ba’u). The two perfect tense (suffix-conjugation) verbs בָּאוּ (Qal perfect 3rd person common plural from בּוֹא, bo’, “to come”) repeated in this verse are both examples of the so-called “prophetic perfect”: the perfect, which connotes completed or factual action, is used in reference to future events to emphasize the certainty of the announced event taking place.

¹³ tn Heb “the days of the retribution”; NIV “of reckoning”; NRSV “of recompense.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “has come”; NIV “are at hand”; NLT “is almost here.”

¹⁵ tc The Aleppo Codex and Leningrad Codex (the MT ms employed for BHS) both place the atnach (colon-divider) after יֵדְעוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל (yedÿ’u yisra’el, “Let Israel know!”), indicating that this line belongs with 9:7a (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV). However, the LXX reads κακωθήσεται (kakwqhsetai) which reflects an underlying Vorlage of יָרֵעוּ (yare’u, Qal imperfect 3rd person common plural from יָרַע, yara’, “to cry”), as opposed to the MT יֵדְעוּ (yedÿ’u, Qal jussive 3rd common plural from יָדַע, yada’, “to know”). The Old Greek connects יֵדְעוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל (“Israel cries out”) with the following lines (cf. NRSV), which appear to be quotations of Israel mocking Hosea. Aquila (ἔγνω, egnw) and Symmachus (γνώσεται, gnwsetai) both reflect the proto-MT tradition. For a discussion of this textual and syntactical problem, see H. W. Wolff, Hosea (Hermeneia), 150.

¹⁶ tn Or “is distraught”; cf. CEV, NLT “are crazy.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “the man of the Spirit”; NAB, NRSV “spirit.”

¹⁸ tn Or “is driven to despair.” The term מְשֻׁגָּע (mÿshugga’, Pual participle masculine singular from שָׁגַע, shaga’, “to be mad”) may be understood in two senses: (1) It could be a predicate adjective which is a figure of speech: “to be maddened,” to be driven to despair (Deut 28:34); or (2) it could be a substantive: “a madman,” referring to prophets who attempted to enter into a prophetic state through whipping themselves into a frenzy (1 Sam 21:16; 2 Kgs 9:11; Jer 29:26; see BDB 993 s.v. שָׁגַע). The prophetic context of 9:7 favors the latter option (which is followed by most English versions). Apparently, the general populace viewed these mantics with suspicion and questioned the legitimacy of their claim to be true prophets (e.g., 2 Kgs 9:11; Jer 29:26).

¹⁹ tn Heb “great.”