Ephraim
is struck. Their root has dried up. They will bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, yet I will kill the beloved ones of their womb.
Hosea 9:16
Hosea 9 [10.] I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness.
I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at its first season;
but they came to Baal Peor, and consecrated themselves to the shameful thing,
and became abominable like that which they loved.
As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird.
There will be no birth, no one with child, and no conception.
Though they bring up their children,
yet I will bereave them, so that not a man shall be left.
Indeed, woe also to them when I depart from them!
I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place;
but Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.
Give them—Yahweh what will you give?
Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
Hosea 9 [15.] “All their wickedness is in Gilgal;
for there I hated them.
Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house!
I will love them no more.
All their princes are rebels.
Ephraim is struck.
Their root has dried up.
They will bear no fruit.
Even though they give birth, yet I will kill the beloved ones of their womb.”
My God will cast them away, because they did not listen to him;
and they will be wanderers among the nations.
Hosea 10 [1.] Israel is a luxuriant vine that produces his fruit.
According to the abundance of his fruit he has multiplied his altars.
As their land has prospered, they have adorned their sacred stones.
Their heart is divided.
Now they will be found guilty.
He will demolish their altars.
He will destroy their sacred stones.
Surely now they will say, “We have no king; for we don’t fear Yahweh;
and the king, what can he do for us?”
They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants.
Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.
Meaning:
Hosea preached to the northern kingdom of Israel in its last decades, before the Assyrians destroyed Samaria. Israel had turned to Baal, the Canaanite god believed to give rain, crops and children. In chapter 9 Hosea announces that the very blessings Israel sought from Baal would be taken away. God recalls how he once found Israel “like grapes in the wilderness” and how they turned to “the shameful thing” at Baal Peor (see the Context above).
- “Ephraim is struck”
Ephraim was the largest tribe of the northern kingdom, and Hosea often uses its name for the whole nation. The name sounds like the Hebrew word for “fruitful”, so the judgment that follows is a bitter play on words: fruitful Ephraim will bear no fruit.
- “Their root has dried up. They will bear no fruit”
God had planted Israel as a vine and looked for fruit, but Israel produced fruit only for itself (Hosea 10:1, in the Context above). Isaiah used the same picture: “he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression” (Isaiah 5:7). When the root dries up, there is no hope of a harvest. Jeremiah warned, “no grapes shall be on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade” (Jeremiah 8:13).
Jesus acted out this kind of prophecy when he cursed a fruitless fig tree, and the next morning the disciples “saw the fig tree withered away from the roots” (Mark 11:20).
- “Even though they give birth, yet I will kill the beloved ones of their womb”
Israel had looked to Baal for fertility, but the God who gives life would withdraw his blessing, and the coming invasion would take even their children. Turning from the Giver of life leads in the end to loss of life.
- God’s heart behind the judgment
Hosea’s warnings are not the words of an indifferent judge. Two chapters later God cries out, “How can I give you up, Ephraim?” (Hosea 11:8). The judgment was meant to turn his people back to the only source of true fruitfulness.
The Significance of Hosea 9:16
- Life comes from the true source
Jesus said, “He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
- God looks for fruit
Like the owner in Jesus’ parable who came “seeking fruit” on his fig tree (Luke 13:6-9), God looks for lives of faithfulness and love.
Cross-References:
Mark 11:20: "As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away from the roots." A tree dried from the roots.
Jeremiah 8:13: "no grapes shall be on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade" Another prophet’s picture of a fruitless people.
John 15:5: "I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit" The source of real fruit.
Conclusion: Hosea 9:16 announces that Ephraim, whose name speaks of fruitfulness, has been struck: its root has dried up and it will bear no fruit, and even its children will be lost. Israel had sought life and fertility from Baal, and God withdrew his blessing. Jesus’ withered fig tree echoed this warning, yet behind the judgment stands the God who says, “How can I give you up, Ephraim?” and who offers fruitfulness to all who remain in Christ.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible