3: Further Charges against Unfaithful Israel (Hosea 9:1-9:17)
2. Hosea’s Reaction: Israel Is Doomed (9:1-9)
Translation
9:1 O Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly like the nations,
for you are unfaithful to your God.
You love to receive a prostitute's wages
on all the floors where you thresh your grain.
2 Threshing floors and wine vats will not feed the people,
and new wine only deceives them.
3 They will not remain in the Lord’s land.
Ephraim will return to Egypt;
they will eat ritually unclean food in Assyria.
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.
5 So what will you do on the festival day,
on the festival days of the Lord?
6 Look! Even if they flee from the destruction,
Egypt will take hold of them,
and Memphis will bury them.
The weeds will inherit the silver they treasure –
thorn bushes will occupy their homes.
7 The time of judgment is about to arrive!
The time of retribution is imminent!
Let Israel know!
The prophet is considered a fool –
the inspired man is viewed as a madman –
because of the multitude of your sins
and your intense animosity.
8 The prophet is a watchman over Ephraim on behalf of God,
yet traps are laid for him along all of his paths;
animosity rages against him in the land of his God.
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.
Exegesis and Exposition
Hosea builds upon the Lord’s previous condemnation of Israel (8:1-14). God’s people have gone about pursuing their own ways such as by developing their own worship practices and devoting themselves to extensive building projects. The charges resemble the happy days of the early to mid-eighth century B.C. during the prosperous reigns of Jeroboam of Israel and Azariah (Uzziah) of Judah. Hosea sets the record straight. He urges his people not to be caught up in rejoicing over their practices and prowess. Although other nations do so, Israel should refrain from such jubilation, because the Lord’s charge against them is an accurate one: spiritually and morally Israel stands condemned in God’s sight.
Israel’s problem is a deep-seated one but simple enough to comprehend. The nation has broken its covenant with Yahweh and in its infidelity has prostituted itself in its debased religious rites. Israel’s success and prosperity have not come to pass because of its devotion to pagan fertility rites such as those associated with Baal. As McComiskey observes, “The scenes and symbols of their religious orgies will become catalysts for judgment. Israel had all the trappings of religion … but the heart of true religion: unfeigned faith and humble obedience to God.”1 Quite the opposite, Israel’s joy will soon turn to sadness. For Israel will experience a reversal of the land’s fertility. Such will demonstrate that the ground’s harvest does not come from Israel’s devotion to Baal or any other false god. The very threshing floors where these religious rites were carried out will become scenes of lack of grain. Not only will the grain be insufficient for the people’s sustenance but the wine will also fail. Rather than plenty, the land will produce only diminished harvests (vv. 1-2; cf. Deut. 28:38-41).
When this occurs, Israel should be warned. God’s judgment is about to descend in the form of military defeat and the people’s exile in the land of their captors (v. 3; cf. Deut. 28:53, 64-68). Employing the familiar motif of a return to Egypt as punishment for covenant breaking (Deut. 28:68), Hosea’s warning has to do with an invasion by the Assyrians, the very nation whose favor they courted (v. 3; cf. 7:11; 8:9-10).2
In captivity they will be reduced to eating food that is ceremonially unclean instead of the God-supplied grain and wine of their own land. They will no longer have their former privilege of offering joyous sacrifices because their food will be “like bread eaten in mourning” (v. 4). The simile likely compares the exiles situation of being unable to offer the prescribed sacrifices due to their being rendered ceremonially unfit by eating unclean food. Hosea’s comparison may envision several scenarios, not the least of which is contact with the dead or by being in the presence of the corpse (cf. Lev. 11:24, 28, 35-40; Num. 19:11-22).
Hosea’s points is that even if God’s people would be able to offer sacrifices while in captivity, these would not be acceptable. Certainly the products that they might choose to use could never have been brought into the Temple, for they might previously have been offered to a pagan deity. Moreover, as exiles God’s people have in a sense been in contact with death—the death of their nation, for which they would be in mourning. For many reasons, then, Israel’s sacrifices would be unacceptable to God. Not only because they were covenant breakers who had defiled themselves with harlotries associated with pagan worship practices, nor because living in exile would they have the Temple in which to worship, but also because their defiled lives in captivity made any sacrifice polluted, hence would be refused by God. What sorrow will be theirs! Their present jubilation (v. 1) will be turned into mere sad memories. Even more sorrowful will be their memories on “the festival days of the Lord” (v. 5). In any case, whatever bread they have will not be used for sacrifice, but only to “satisfy their appetites” (v. 4).
Hosea describes an additional problem that will beset God’s people. Those who escape the invading Assyrian army by fleeing to Egypt for safety will find little or no relief there. Instead, they will live meager existences, and die and be buried in the vast cemetery at Memphis (v. 6). As Andersen and Freedman point out, “The reference to Egypt has a sinister note, and the feminine verbs show that Egypt and Memphis are the subjects of the activity, and not just the location. The Israelites will not conduct their own burial rites.”3 Thus God’s exiled people will “succeed” only in leaving behind all that was precious to them including the tents (MT; NET, “homes”) where they lived. The land where these were once pitched will be overtaken by weeds and thorn bushes (NIV, “briars”).
The difficult Hebrew in verse 6 is best understood by simply viewing “silver” as metonymy for all that the Jews valued in their land of refuge, including even the tents in which they resided. So viewed, silver is also to be understood as satire—perhaps even sarcasm. Thus in their haste to flee the invading Assyrians, God’s people will be able to take precious little with them and that which they do salvage will perish. It is a prediction that carries a bleak outlook at best. It portrays well the judgment, which the Lord will allow to overtake His people because of their infidelity and profane lifestyle.
Hosea brings the first portion of this oracle (vv. 7-9) to a close by warning his hearers that the days of threatened judgment with all of their drastic conditions (vv. 1-6) were even now close at hand (MT, “have come”; cf. ESV; HCSB). It was time for Israel to receive the reward of its infidelity. Blinded by their own folly, God’s people have considered the prophets, whom God has sent to warn them, to be but fools and madmen (v. 7). Although they are God’s appointed “watchmen,” to care for and warn the people of danger, yet they face only danger themselves for the godly stand they have taken (v. 8).
The reason for all of this is clear. The people are now hopelessly mired in the pit of spiritual corruption. The land is as degraded as in the days of the atrocities at Gibeah when the Levite’s concubine was raped and murdered, and then dismembered by the Levite and sent to the twelve tribes of Israel in order to stimulate them to take vengeance on the citizens of Gibeah (Judg. 19:16-30; cf. Hos. 10:9-11). As Garrett remarks, “Hosea declares that the people of his day have fallen to the level of this most corrupt generation of Israel’s history.”4
The time had now come when God could no longer withhold His just judgment of Israel for their sins. Israel has prostituted itself beyond recall. Not only are God’s people guilty of violating their covenant with Yahweh (cf. Hos. 2:18-23; 4:1, 12; 5:4-7; 6:7; 8:1-6) via their entrenched idolatry (cf. 4:14-19; 5:1; 8:4-6), but this has led to moral corruption at every level (cf. 5:10-11; 6:8-10; 7:1-10). Simply put, Israel has become a prostitute (cf. 4:14-19; 5:3-4; 6:10), a thing forbidden in God’s law (Deut. 23:17). Unfortunately, Israel has come to regard God’s law as “something totally unknown to them” (Hos. 8:12). Because God’s people no longer acknowledge Him (cf. 4:1; 6:3) and in their infidelity have pursued their own idolatrous and immoral ways, it was now time for God to “repay them for their sins” (v. 9).5
Additional Notes
9:1 The NET (cf. HCSB, KJV, NASB) captures well the force of the MT: “Do not rejoice jubilantly like the nations.” The NLT simply translates, “Do not rejoice as other nations do.” Thus the two words for joy are viewed as a hendiadys. Some translations follow the lead of the LXX and Vulgate in reading the Hebrew áel as áal, hence two imperatives: “Do not rejoice, do not be jubilant (NIV)/exult (ESV, NRSV).” McComiskey also champions the MT, yet points to a similar expression in Job 3:22: “Those who rejoice exceedingly.”6
9:1-3 Hosea’s literary style appears in his employment of literary hooks to the previous chapter. Note for example his use of the themes of prostitution (v. 1; cf. 8:9), grain and wine (v. 2; cf. 8:7), and the coming exile (v. 3; cf. 8:13). Hosea has used all three themes in his earlier chapters as well: prostitution and covenant breaking in 4:1, 12, 14-19; 5:1, 4-7; 6:7; cf. 2:18-23, grain and wine in 2:8-9, 22; 7:14, and the coming exile in 7:16.
9:2 The loss of grain and wine should serve as a warning to the people of their covenant breaking and spiritual defilement. Both grain and wine were not only important products of Israel’s economy but also key ingredients in their religious observances. Both were used in the meal and drink offerings associated with the daily burnt offering (cf. Lev. 2; 6:14-18; 9:16-17; 23:18, 37; Num. 15:5; 28:3-8). Israel’s jubilation (v. 1) should have been a spiritual one as symbolized particularly in the burnt, meal, and drink offerings, which represented a life poured out to God in humble, dedicated service to Him.7 Because Israel’s observance of these and other offerings had degenerated into occasions of religious syncretism at best and pure paganism at worst, God warned that the products used in connection with these ceremonies would be cut off (cf. Joel 1:5-10). When they were, the people should realize that they had so severely broken their covenant with God that only the penalty in the law remained for them. For although grain and wine were acknowledged blessings of God upon His people (Deut. 7:12-15; Jer. 31:12; Joel 2:19), they could be taken away for breach of covenant (cf. Deut. 28:45-52; Hos. 2:8-13).
9:4 Laetsch suggests that the reason for the uncleanness of the Israelite food during their captivity was because it had not been sanctified to the Lord by the presentation of the first fruits (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.”8 Achtemeier adds, “Indeed, bread will be so scarce that there will be only enough to feed themselves.”9
9:5 Sweeney suggests that the people’s inability to offer sacrifice at festival celebrations will be most keenly felt at Sukkoth: “The term ‘festival’ (h£ag) … generally refers to the three pilgrimage festivals, Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkoth … but is most closely associated with Sukkoth (1 Kings 8:2, 65; 12:32-33; Ezra 3:4; 6:22). By asking the people what they will do on this holiday, he rhetorically asserts that they can do nothing as destruction is coming.”10
9:6 Memphis was an age-old and important city, which “was located some fifteen miles above the peak of the Nile Delta and was a place of exile or retreat for may foreigners who were settled and subsequently died there. It is noted for its huge grave sites or pyramids, built for its pharaohs during the Fourth Dynasty, ca. 2700-2200 BC.”11
9:6 The Hebrew of verse 6 is admittedly difficult. Therefore, the first line is rendered differently in the various versions. Most commonly it is treated as either an unlikely condition, “even if they escape destruction” (NIV; cf. NET, HCSB, NLT, NRST) or “for behold, they are going away from destruction” (ESV; cf. KJV, NKJV, NASB). The latter thought indicates that the Israelites will go or have gone away due to the destruction in the land. Land has been understood either as their own devastated land in Israel or refers to the desperate conditions in which they will find themselves in Egypt. Likewise, the point of reference in the much-debated word “silver” (e.g., the precious objects they have brought—Laetsch, Garrett, or idols—Andersen and Freedman) is best understood simply as metonymy for all that is precious to God’s people.
9:7 The charge that Israel’s regarding God’s prophets as fools or madmen is attested elsewhere in the OT (e.g., 2 Kings 9:11; Jer. 29:26). In the NT Paul points out that the message of salvation in Christ’s finished work is also considered foolishness to those who are perishing spiritually (1 Cor. 1:18-25). Paul portrays himself and the apostles as “fools for Christ” (1 Cor. 4:10).
9:8 For the prophets being likened to watchmen, see Isa. 56:10; Jer. 6:17; Ezek. 3:17; 32:2, 6-7; Hab. 2:1.
9:9 The account of the inhuman and heinous events at Gibeah apparently “was well-known in Hosea’s day, since he merely hast to mention the name of the city to raise the specter of lawless and scandalous behavior.”12
3. The Lesson on the Unprofitable Plants (9:10-17)
Translation
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.
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!
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.
13 Just as lion cubs are born predators,
so Ephraim will bear his sons for slaughter.
14 Give them, O Lord –
what will you give them?
Give them wombs that miscarry,
and breasts that cannot nurse!
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.
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.
17 My God will reject them,
for they have not obeyed him;
so they will be fugitives among the nations.
Exegesis and Exposition
Verses 10-17 contain a dialogue between the Lord and His prophet. After the Lord reminds Hosea concerning the checkered history of His relationship to Israel (vv. 10-13), Hosea reacts with his own indignation over Israel’s condition (v. 14). The Lord then relates more reasons why and how He must judge His people (vv. 15-16), to which Hosea adds his own summary statement (v. 17).
Yahweh fondly recalls the early days of His contact with His people (cf. Hos. 11:1-4; cf. Jer. 2:2-3). He likens the joy of that time to a traveler who discovers fresh grapes in the wilderness and to a person who finds the season’s first ripe figs. It was then a time of genuine refreshment. That the Lord is employing the imagery of the wilderness to remind the prophet and his people of His care and guidance for a young and yet faithful people in the days after the exodus from Egypt is underscored by the next event in that historical journey. Indeed, the tasteful refreshment of that early encounter soon turned to disappointment. For when the people came to Shittim, the whole scenario changed (Num. 25:1-3).
There in Moab Baal, the god of Mount Peor, was worshiped as a fertility deity. When the hireling prophet Balaam was unable to curse the Hebrews, he apparently designed a way to cause Israel to sin (Num. 31:16) by getting them to commit immorality with Moabite women. These in turn led God’s people into the fertility rites associated with Baal. Thus the Apostle John accuses Balaam of instructing “Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality” (Rev. 2:14). The result then was the slaying of some 24,000 Hebrews in the Lord’s judgment (Num. 25:4-9; cf. Deut. 4:3; Ps. 106:28). The implication is clear: if God so judged the vile, spiritual, and physical harlotry of that day so harshly, His justice would dictate that the Israel of Hosea’s day was in grave danger of judgment (v. 10).
Israel had passed through some glorious days in the first half of the eighth century B.C. Now that glory was about to “fly away like a bird” (v. 11; NIV, NLT). The basic cause was clear. Israel’s true “glory” was Yahweh Himself. By their syncretistic worship services, however, they had compromised the Lord’s glory, which He declares He will share with no other (Isa. 42:8). Because the Israel of Hosea’s day chose to attribute their glory to Baal rather than to Yahweh, the Lord would abandon them to their fate. They would perish among the nations with whom they flirted and whose favor they sought (v. 12b).13 Even worse, just as many died in the incident at Baal Peor, so now Israel’s families would face great tragedy. They would largely be bereft of children, for there would be widespread inability of conception or pregnancy. By means of another pseudo-sorites, it is declared that whatever children the people do manage to have, they will not survive (v. 12a). Thus Andersen and Freedman describe the situation: “Even if there is conception, there will be miscarrying wombs (v. 14b). If children are born, they will be killed (v. 16b). They will starve because the mothers will have dry breasts (v. 14). And even if they are raised, the parents will be bereaved of their children (v. 12a).”14
Verse 13 is notoriously difficult both as to the reading of the text and its interpretation. Therefore, the verse has received widespread difference in handling. The chief difficulty revolves around the mention of the city of Tyre in the first part of the verse (MT).15 It is apparent that an analogy is being drawn between that great Phoenician city and Israel. Thus the NLT translates, “I have watched Israel become as beautiful as Tyre. But now Israel will bring out her children for slaughter.” Indeed, the point seems to be that although the early eighth century B.C. Northern Kingdom was as prosperous as Tyre, the kingdom can now look forward only to its demise.16 The contrast is strikingly graphic. Employing the metaphor of Ephraim as a parent the Lord declares that in sharp contrast to its former glory, Israel will see its sons and daughters slain by an enemy invader. Garrett correctly points out that “both Tyre and Ephraim were ‘planted’ in advantageous circumstances, but both embraced the Baal cult, and both will receive due punishment.”17
In response to the coming judgment, which he has just heard, Hosea cries out via a rhetorical question for the Lord’s will to be accomplished. Despite his natural heartache, Hosea concurs with the Lord’s sentence against Israel. He answers his own rhetorical question by suggesting (perhaps tactfully) that it may be better for Israel’s women not to bear children at all rather than to see their children born only to experience a painful death (v. 14). The tenor of Hosea’s remark would seem to be somewhat more tender than harsh.18 Nevertheless, Hosea understands that what he is praying for is still a judgment for it constitutes a reversal of the covenant blessings of Deuteronomy 28:4, 11 as well as the spirit of Jacob’s blessing upon Joseph (Gen. 49:28). Hubbard correctly observes, “Whichever tone we hear in the prayer, it is clear that Hosea does not back away from the need for judgment. And even his prayer is couched in language appropriate to a people who have looked not to God but to Baal for vital wombs and nourishing breasts.”19
The Lord resumes His comments concerning Israel by directing Hosea’s attention to the city of Gilgal (cf. Hos. 4:15). The people of Israel committed civil disobedience there in crying out for an earthly king rather than the man of God’s own choosing (1 Sam. 8:4-22). It was there that Saul, whom they had chosen, was crowned (1 Sam. 11:14-15) and where Saul subsequently personally disobeyed the instructions of Samuel, the Lord’s prophet (1 Sam. 15:10-29). Gilgal also had become a cult center for pagan religion (cf. Hos. 12:11). Therefore, Gilgal became synonymous with God’s displeasure over Israel’s perpetual disobedience. Because of that disobedience, which was evident in the spiritual realm as well as the civil and social areas, God will expel Israel from its land.
In hyperbolic language God describes His relation with Israel as devoid of love.20
The point is, just as Hosea had been instructed to refrain from Gomer, his wife, for a period of time, so Yahweh will separate Himself from Israel. Early Israel found degraded love at Baal Peor (v. 10) and God’s people became as a result as detestable as the one whose rites they practiced. Current Israel is even more involved with Baal and thus is in an irreversible (even hateful), degraded, and debased condition. Rather than God’s love it deserves God’s righteous judgment. God’s disgust with the situation in Israel may be keenly felt in His declaration that “all the rulers are rebels” (v. 15). Indeed, rather than being living examples of administrators of holiness, Israel’s civil and religious leaders have both rebelled against the Lord and His standards, and set the pattern for disobedience among the people.
The degradation of Israelite society is portrayed under the metaphor of a fruit- bearing tree or perhaps a vine (cf. 10:1). This plant, however, is blighted (NIV; cf. NLT note) and its root system dried up (v. 16). Accordingly, it can yield no fruit whatsoever. It is an apt description of Israel’s spiritual condition. Israel is no longer alive with vitality for spiritual growth because God’s people have allowed their relationship with Yahweh to slide downwards. It has now reached a point that can only be described as fruitless. Moreover, the metaphor is an excellent description of Israel as a dying nation.
Israel’s lack of spiritual productivity will be reflected in the people’s inability to bear children. Under the figure of a pseudo-sorites the Lord declares that in the unlikely event that some women are able to have children, “their precious offspring” will be put to death. Thus in the coming desperate conditions of exile the parents’ “fruit” will either fail to reach fruition or be destroyed. The image of withering and dryness may well depict the drought and famine God’s exiled people will face in captivity as well as the harsh treatment from their captors.
The chapter closes with the prophet’s own pronouncement. Because God’s people have rejected the Lord’s rightful sovereignty over them and disobeyed Him both in their worship services and the covenantal standards of conduct, they must suffer God’s judgment in the form of going into exile as captives of the enemy. Had they desired to stray from God in their lives? So they shall! For they will wander as exiles from their own land. Their displacement from their homeland will then reflect their wandering from God. Because God will turn away from them (v. 12), they will indeed be fugitives from His gracious presence. Achtemeier expresses the situation well: “From the first, as a political entity among other nations, the Israelites spurned their God. God therefore now spurns them, and the people shall become wanderers among the nations, verse 17, without homeland, without God, without future.”21
Additional Notes
9:10 The mention of grapes and figs is a reminder of the OT motif of the vine and fig tree, which symbolized God’s fruitful blessing on His people (e.g., 1 Kings 4:25; 2 Kings 18:31; Isa. 36:10).
9:10 The observation that Israel became “as detestable as what they loved” points to the fact that Israel was so degraded that it was incapable of true love, much as the false god whose worship rites they enjoyed. Their love was a “dedication to shame.” As Sweeney observes, “The term ‘shame’ is frequently employed in place of the name ‘Baal’ in Israelite names (2 Sam 2:8) employs Ish-bosheth, but 1 Chr 8:33; 9:39 refers to him as Esh-baal; cf. 2 Sam 11:21) and other statements (Jer 3:24; 11:13). The term ‘detestable’ … is frequently applied to idols and idolatrous practice (Deut 29:16 [NRSV: 29:17]; 2 Kgs 23:13, 24; Isa 66:3; etc.). ‘Like the thing that they love’ refers back to Baal.”22 In addition to the sense of a miscarriage, the Hebrew verb employed here can describe “the form of God’s punishment for disobedience.23 Although the verb clearly conveys its normal meaning of miscarriage here, a sense of punishment in the form of the reversal of God’s blessing is also present.
9:15 The decision to drive Israel from its land is presented under the imagery of being forced out of a house. Israel has forgotten that where they lived was God’s land where He, too, dwelled. As Gomer was put out of Hosea’s house for a period of time (Hos. 2:7), so Israel will be driven out of the Lord’s “house” because of its infidelity and rebellious ways.
9:16 Stuart may be correct in suggesting that there is a play on the word for fruit (yrq) and the name Ephraim. “Ephraim the ‘doubly fruitful’ (cf. Gen 41:52) is now Ephraim the completely fruitless.”24
9:17 McComiskey rightly points out that the judgment associated with verses 15-17 reflects the punishment for sin and covenant violation expressed in the law: “This section of the prophecy (9:15-17) appears to be a crystallization of Deuteronomy 28:62-64. That passage affirms the diminution of the population should they fail to obey God… . The concept of wandering among the nations occurs in Deuteronomy as well… .(v. 64, NRSV). Hosea had the unhappy task of announcing to his people that the curses of Deuteronomy were soon to overtake them.”25
1 McComiskey, “Hosea,” 137.
2 For the use of a return to Egypt to symbolize Israel’s punishment for covenant breaking, see the note on Hos. 7:16.
3 Andersen and Freedman, Hosea, 530.
4 Garrett, Hosea, Joel, 196.
5 Millard Erickson (Christian Theology [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987], 580) observes, “Setting one’s own ideas above God’s revealed Word entails refusal to believe it to be true. Seeking one’s own will involves believing that one’s own values are actually higher than those of God. In short, it is failing to acknowledge God as God.”
6 McComiskey, “Hosea,” 136.
7 No need exists to limit Hosea’s intentions to the Feast of Tabernacles (or Sukkoth) as some suggest. See, for example, Sweeney, Twelve Prophets, 1:94, 96; Achtemeier, Minor Prophets, 1:72-73.
8 Laetsch, Minor Prophets, 73. The concern for clean food may also be noted in Daniel’s resolve not to be contaminated with the king’s provisions (Dan. 1:8-17). See also the inter-testament story of Judith (11:11-15; 12:1-4).
9 Achtemeier, Minor Prophets, 1:73.
10 Sweeney, Twelve Prophets, 1:96.
11 Achtemeier, Minor Prophets, 1:76.
12 Walton, Matthews & Chavalas, Bible Background Commentary, 757.
13 Because of Judah’s idolatry, Ezekiel similarly portrays the Lord as first leaving the Sanctuary and then the city of Jerusalem, thus allowing the Chaldean invaders of the Neo-Babylonian Period to overrun Judah (Ezek. 10).
14 Andersen and Freedman, Hosea, 538.
15 For the many suggested emendations together with their interpretations, see the text notes in BHS and the NET, as well as the discussion in Garrett, Hosea, Joel, 201-202.
16 Tyre will also come in for its own prophetic denunciation (Ezek. 26-28).
17 Garrett, Hosea, Joel, 201.
18 So also McComiskey, “Hosea,” 152; contra Garrett, Hosea, Joel, 202; Andersen and Freedman, Hosea, 544.
19 Hubbard, Hosea, 167.
20 Note God’s loving compassion in Hosea 11:8, however.
21 Achtemeier, Minor Prophets, 1:83-84.
22 Sweeney, Twelve Prophets, 1:99.
23 See Victor P. Hamilton, “lkv,” NIDOTTE, 4:106.
24 Stuart, Hosea-Jonah, 154.
25 McComiskey, “Hosea,” 157.