FRAMEWORKS: Hosea 9: The form of Punishment for Israel

 

[Preliminary Comment: The prophecy continues to drum home the same message: your future is limited, God's judgment is upon you for your ongoing idolatry, and so this will basically be your end, no future here, no children, no identity; it is a forlorn outlook which comes as an implied strong warning to them to repent at the present time while they can.]

 

 

v.1 Unlike other nations you have God, but don't rejoice over your idolatry

 

v.1  Do not rejoice, Israel;
    do not be jubilant like the other nations.
For you have been unfaithful to your God;
    you love the wages of a prostitute
    at every threshing-floor.
     

v.2 You will find judgment means you will have harvest shortages

  

v.2  Threshing-floors and winepresses will not feed the people;
    the new wine will fail them.
    

v.3 You'll find yourselves ending up in the lands of others

   

v.3  They will not remain in the Lord's land;
    Ephraim will return to Egypt
    and eat unclean food in Assyria.
    

v.4 There you'll find their sacrifices are unpalatable to you

   

v.4  They will not pour out wine offerings to the Lord,
    nor will their sacrifices please him.
Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners;
    all who eat them will be unclean.
This food will be for themselves;
    it will not come into the temple of the Lord.

      

v.5 Where then, you'll ask, had your wonderful feast days gone?

  

v.5  What will you do on the day of your appointed festivals,
    on the feast days of the Lord?
    

v.6 Should you survive there, it will be thoroughly unpleasant

    

v.6  Even if they escape from destruction,
    Egypt will gather them,
    and Memphis will bury them.
Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers,
    and thorns will overrun their tents.
    

v.7 Understand those will be days of punishment for your ongoing sins

  

v.7  The days of punishment are coming,
    the days of reckoning are at hand.
    Let Israel know this.
Because your sins are so many
    and your hostility so great,
the prophet is considered a fool,
    the inspired person a maniac.
    

v.8 You reject God's prophet and seek to bring him down

  

v.8  The prophet, along with my God,
    is the watchman over Ephraim,
yet snares await him on all his paths,
    and hostility in the house of his God.
   

v.9 Because of the depth of your sin, the Lord will hold you accountable

   

v.9  They have sunk deep into corruption,
    as in the days of Gibeah.
God will remember their wickedness
    and punish them for their sins.

    

v.10 You had a good start as a nation but went badly astray

   

v.10  ‘When I found Israel,
    it was like finding grapes in the desert;
when I saw your ancestors,
    it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig-tree.
But when they came to Baal Peor,
    they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol
    and became as vile as the thing they loved.
   

v.11 Your glory will be gone, your potential future generations a nothing

   

v.11  Ephraim's glory will fly away like a bird –
    no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.
    

v.12 Where present children have survived, they have no future

   

v.12  Even if they bring up children,
    I will bereave them of every one.
Woe to them
    when I turn away from them!
    

v.13 You might have looked good like Tyre, but your end is decreed

  

v.13  I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre,
    planted in a pleasant place.
But Ephraim will bring out
    their children to the slayer.'

     

v.14 Stop them Lord procreating further unfaithful generations [implied]

   

v.14  Give them, Lord –
    what will you give them?
Give them wombs that miscarry
    and breasts that are dry.

    

v.15 Their wicked rebellion means they are on their own

   

v.15  ‘Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal,
    I hated them there.
Because of their sinful deeds,
    I will drive them out of my house.
I will no longer love them;
    all their leaders are rebellious.
    

v.16 You are blighted so there will be no future generations of unfaithfulness

  

v.16  Ephraim is blighted,
    their root is withered,
    they yield no fruit.
Even if they bear children,
    I will slay their cherished offspring.'

    

v.17 Rejected for their unfaithfulness they will wander without identity

   

v.17  My God will reject them
    because they have not obeyed him;
    they will be wanderers among the nations.

  

   

Continue to Chapter 10

    

   

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