Charles Ellicott Commentary Hosea 9
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Hosea 9
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Hosea 9
"Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, like the peoples; for thou hast played the harlot, [departing] from thy God; thou hast loved hire upon every grain-floor." — Hosea 9:1 (ASV)
For joy.—Better, to exultation. The harlot’s hire on every corn-floor expresses in bold imagery the prophet’s scorn for the idolatrous corruption of the people. The bounteous yield of the harvest is called the “harlot’s hire,” which lures Jehovah’s faithless bride to worship the false deity from whose hands these gifts were supposed to come. The people’s momentary prosperity is attributed to their idols. (Jeremiah 44:17–19.)
"The threshing-floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail her." — Hosea 9:2 (ASV)
Winepress.—Understand this as wine-vat (as noted in the margin), into which the tîrôsh, new wine (or “grape-juice”), flowed from the winepress. (Compare Isaiah 5:2.) For the phrase “fail in her,” understand it as deceive her, according to the Septuagint and Vulgate.
"They shall not dwell in Jehovah`s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. They shall not pour out wine-offerings to Jehovah, 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 shall be for their appetite; it shall not come into the house of Jehovah." — Hosea 9:3-4 (ASV)
Canaan, the land of Jehovah, is holy, Assyria unholy (Amos 7:17), where there was no temple or sacred ordinances. Since meat was not a divinely sanctioned food, except in connection with a Jehovah festival, it became in the land of exile unclean. This became true in the eyes of Hosea of all eating. “In the family every feast was a Eucharistic sacrifice” (W. R. Smith, Old Testament in the Jewish Church, pp. 235 and 237). (Compare to Ezekiel 4:13.)
"They shall not pour out wine-offerings to Jehovah, 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 shall be for their appetite; it shall not come into the house of Jehovah." — Hosea 9:4 (ASV)
Offer—that is, pour out as a libation. A better rendering is obtained by abandoning the Hebrew accentuation: And their sacrifices will not be pleasing to Him; it will be to them as bread of sorrow—that is, funeral food, which defiles for seven days those who partake of it. Another reference to the Mosaic legislation (Deuteronomy 26:14)—Yes, their bread is for their appetite (that is, only for bodily sustenance), it does not come to Jehovah’s house as a sacred offering. These verses show that Hosea did not consider the worship of the Northern Kingdom as in itself illegal.
Kuenen (Hibbert Lecture, p. 312) proposes an alteration in the text, by which the parallelism becomes more harmonious and the construction simpler. He then renders, They will pour no libation of wine to Jehovah, and will not lay out their sacrifices before Him: as food eaten in mourning is their food. This agrees better with Hosea 3:4.
"What will ye do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of Jehovah?" — Hosea 9:5 (ASV)
See Note on Hosea 2:11.
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