At first glance, today's reading contains reproaches against the people for ingratitude, for turning away from God after receiving everything from Him...
At first glance, today's reading contains reproaches against the people for ingratitude, for turning away from God after receiving everything from Him and forgetting Him in the end (v. 10). But a more attentive reading makes it clear that everything is not so simple. It is no accident that Israel is contrasted here with other nations (v. 1). It would seem that these others also do not know God and do not worship Him, just as Israel, having forgotten its God, does not worship Him. But those other nations had never known Him.
With Israel the situation is different: the very existence of the Jewish people is connected with God's direct intervention in history. Indeed, the Jewish nation was formed in the process of the Exodus, which would not have happened if God had not arranged it. With other nations everything was different; their existence was conditioned by natural causes, to the extent that social processes can be called natural. Of course, God does not abandon them either, but in general the history of these nations proceeds naturally. The history of the people of God, however, was conceived by God from the very beginning as a supernatural history, one conditioned not by social causes but by spiritual ones.
Of course, this would be possible only if the people agreed to it and allowed God to direct their life. Unlike natural processes, which proceed without asking for human consent, spiritual action always presupposes human participation, and, when we are speaking of God's action, voluntary participation. Therefore the people of God always have the possibility of refusing the path offered by God. But in that case their historical future disappears as well. The people of God were not meant to exist according to natural laws; in God's plans they were never one nation among many existing by such laws. They can exist only in the way God offers them to exist. The people of God are not adapted to any other existence; they cannot and must not exist otherwise, and there is no place for them in natural history. Every attempt to live "like everyone else" leads them only to spiritual degeneration, moral decay, and national catastrophe.
But, alas, in every age there have been people among the Jewish people who did not understand this. In Hosea's day they were the majority in the North. And God does not simply reproach His people for ingratitude: He warns them that they have only one possibility for surviving spiritually and physically: to turn to their God and remain faithful to Him. The same is true for everyone who has set out on God's path. It is a path one cannot leave without losing both God and oneself.
9 God threatens to deprive Israel of all their worldly enjoyments, Hos 9:1-5.
He dooms them to utter ruin, Hos 9:6-8.
Upbraids them with the wickedness of their fathers, Hos 9:9-10.
And threatens to root out their posterity, Hos 9:11-17.
9:1 As other people - With feastings, triumphs, and sacrifices of thanksgiving. A reward - Such as is given by adulterers to lewd women; thou hast loved to see thy floor full, and hast said thy idols gave thee this plenty.
9:2 The floor - The corn which is gathered into the floor.The wine - press - The wine that is prest out in it.Shall not feed - Shall not nourish and strengthen the idolaters.Shall fail - Samaria and all Israel expect a full vintage, but they expect it from their idols, and therefore shall be disappointed.
9:3 Ephraim - Many of Ephraim shall fly into Egypt.And they - The residue shall be carried captive into Assyria.
9:4 Wine - offerings - These were appointed to be offered with the morning and evening sacrifice, the sacrifice representing Christ, and pardon by him; the wine - offering, the spirit of grace: the sacrifice repeated, daily continued their peace and pardon. All this shall be withheld from these captives. Pleasing - If any should venture to offer.As the bread of mourners - It shall as much pollute them and displease God as if one mourning for the dead, and forbidden to sacrifice, should venture to do it. Their bread - Their bread which they were bound to offer with their sacrifices, they will now have no opportunity of bringing to the Lord's house.
9:5 What will ye do - You will not then be suffered to observe any of them.
9:6 They are gone - Some are already withdrawn from the desolation that cometh. Egypt - In Egypt they hope to be quiet and survive these desolations, but they shall die in Egypt. The pleasant places - Their beautiful houses built for keeping their wealth in. Nettles - Shall be ruined, and lie in rubbish, 'till nettles grow in them.
9:7 The prophet - The false prophet. The spiritual man - That pretends to be full of the spirit of prophecy. For thine iniquity - God began his punishments in giving them over to believe their false prophets.The great hatred - Which God had against your sins.
9:8 The watchman - The old true prophets indeed were with God.My God - The God of Hosea. The prophet - The false prophets have, as well as the people, left God. Is a snare - Their pretended predictions are but a snare, such as fowlers lay.And hatred - Such prophets are full of hatred and malice: yea, they are hatred itself.
9:10 I found Israel - The Lord speaks of himself in the person of a traveller, who unexpectedly in the wilderness finds a vine loaded with grapes; such love did God bear to Israel. Your fathers - Whom I brought out of Egypt. As the first - ripe - As the earliest ripe fruit of the fig - tree, which is most valued and desired.Separated themselves - Consecrated themselves to that shameful idol.Their abominations - Their idols, and way of worshipping them.As they loved - As they fancied.
9:11 Their glory - Their children or posterity, which was the glory of Israel. Shall fly - It is proverbial, and speaks a sudden loss of children. From the birth - As soon as born. From the womb - Their mothers shall not bring their fruit alive into the world.The conception - Their wives shall not conceive.
9:12 Not a man left - There shall be a total extirpation of them.When I depart - To compleat their misery, I will depart from them.It is sad to lose our children, but sadder to lose our God.
9:13 To the murderer - He will send them forth in mighty armies; but it will be sending them out to the slaughter.
9:14 Give then - It is an abrupt but pathetic speech of one that shews his trouble for a sinking, undone nation. A miscarrying womb - It is less misery to have none, than to have all our children murdered.
9:15 All their wickedness - The chief or beginning.There I hated them - As there they began to sin so notoriously, there I began to shew that I hated them.