The Lord Will Punish Israel
Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor. Hos. 9:1
Rejoice not, O... The 11th prophecy in Hosea (Hos. 9:1-17, fulfilled). Next, Hos. 10:1.
Twenty-one Predictions—Fulfilled:
1. Your crops will fail (Hos. 9:2).
2. Ephraim will trust in Egypt for help, but it will not save her; she will be defeated and taken captive to Assyria (Hos. 9:3).
3. They will not offer wine offerings to the Lord (Hos. 9:4).
4. They will not be pleasing to the Lord.
5. Their sacrifices will be to them as bread for mourners who refuse to eat.
6. They will be destroyed (Hos. 9:6).
7. Egypt will gather them up and bury them.
8. Nettles will be in their treasure houses, and thorns in their homes.
9. Israel will know the time of her visitation and the days of her recompense (Hos. 9:7).
10. God will remember and visit the iniquity of the prophets (Hos. 9:8-9).
11. The glory of Ephraim will fly away like a bird (Hos. 9:11).
12. Israel will be cut off in conception, in the womb, and in birth.
13. I will destroy their children (Hos. 9:12).
14. There will not be a man left.
15. I will depart from Israel.
16. Ephraim will bring forth children to be murdered (Hos. 9:13).
17. I will drive them out of My house because of their sins (Hos. 9:15).
18. I will love them no more (meaning that generation, and others should they continue in the same sins).
19. They will bear no fruit, yet if they do have children, I will slay them (Hos. 9:16).
20. God will cast them away (Hos. 9:17).
21. They will be wanderers among the nations.
for thou hast... Two great sins of Israel:
1. They had gone a whoring from God which would cause them to commit other sins.
2. They loved rewards (i.e., they took bribes).
reward upon every... It was customary and right for people to rejoice at harvest time. Israel, however, was commanded not to do so, because she attributed the abundance, she experienced on the cornfloor (Hebrew goren dagan, a place where the harvest of grain was processed), to the idols she worshiped, instead of God who sent it. The harvest festivals were probably accompanied by shameful fertility acts (4:13-14).
There is no rejoicing in sin. Sin brings great sorrow. The instant the sin is committed, guilt sets in and sorrow from that guilt begins. This is almost as if God is saying, the least you could do is be sorrowful for your sin.
This could have taken place at harvest time, which was generally a time of rejoicing, because the corn-floor was mentioned. They wanted all the blessings of God, but they were not willing to be faithful to God. God promised to bless them, if they kept His commandments. Since they had not kept His commandments, they did not deserve a blessing.
THE EFFECTS OF EXILE
Hosea now turns to describe the effects of exile upon the social and religious habits of the people. It must break up at once the joy and the sacredness of their lives. Every pleasure will be removed, every taste offended. Indeed, even now, with their conscience of having deserted Jehovah, they cannot pretend to enjoy the feasts of the Ba’alim in the same hearty way as the heathen with whom they mix. But, whether or not, the time is near when nature-feasts and all other religious ceremonies-all that makes life glad and regular and solemn-shall be impossible.
Rejoice not, O Israel, to the pitch of rapture like the heathen, for thou hast played the harlot from thy God; a harlot’s hire hast thou loved on all threshing-floors.
Israel’s Guilt and Punishment Reiterated
This judgment message contains four subunits. The first (Hos. 9:1-9) begins with a direct address to Israel, which serves as a formal marker of a new section (cf. Hos. 6:4). Each of the other subunits begins with an allusion to Israel’s early history (Hos. 9:10; 10:1; 11:1).
Israel’s hostility punished.
Israel was not to rejoice in expectation of a plentiful harvest (cf. Hos. 9:2) because her unfaithfulness had precluded any further divine blessing (Hos. 9:1; cf. Hos. 2:8-9).
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