Book of Hosea Chapter 9 Vs. 12

 The Lord Will Punish Israel

Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them! Hos. 9:12

Though they bring... God had threatened to deprive them of children, in every stage before or at their birth. Now, beyond this (he tells them), as to those who should escape this sentence, he would bereave them of them, or make them childless.

there shall not... There shall be a total extinction of them and their memory; or else, I will cut them off from among men, as the phrase will bear.

woe also to... To complete their misery, I will leave them, I will depart from them. It is sad to lose children, it is sadder to lose their God. When I depart from them; withdraw my presence, favor, and protection from them; or remove my Shekinah from them, as the Targum; and leave them to the spoil and cruelty of their enemies, which would be a greater calamity and judgment than the former.

The name Ephraim means double fruit. They were a very fruitful nation. They were blessed with children from God. It appears that their vast numbers would diminish greatly, because the Lord would take away their fruitfulness. The blessings of God were removed from them, because of their worship of false gods. When God departs from them, their blessings are replaced by curses.

No more birth, no more motherhood, no more conception! Blasted is Ephraim, withered the root of them, fruit they produce not: yea, even when they beget children I slay the darlings of their womb. Yea, though they bring up their sons I bereave them, till they are poor in men. Yea, woe upon themselves also, when I look away from them!

Appropriately many of those who had tried to secure fertility through Baal worship would become sterile and barren (cf. Hos. 4:10 and, in contrast, Deut. 7:14). Others would miscarry or watch their children die in the forthcoming invasion (Hos. 9:12-13; cf. 9:16). The women’s breasts would be dry for they would have no children to nurse (Hos. 9:14).