Hosea 9:16

Hos 9:16 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay [even] the beloved [fruit] of their womb.

Ver. 16. Ephraim is smitten] As a tree that hath received a deadly wound, or that hath the bark pulled off it, so that the sap cannot find the way to the branches; or that is blasted, as the fig tree in the Gospel was by Christ’s curse; and as a vine smitten by great hailstones, and beaten down to the ground. "The Lord shall smite Israel," saith another prophet, "as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel," &c., 1Ki 14:15, root and branch in one day.

The root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit] "The root of the righteous shall not be moved," Pro 12:3. "The root of the matter is found in me," saith Job, Job 19:28. "The holy seed shall be the substance thereof," Isa 6:13; "as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them." The Duke of Florence gave for his ensign a great tree with many spreading boughs, one of them being cut off with this posy, Uno avulso non deficit alter Aureus (Virg.). But it is otherwise with the ungodly; as it was with Nebuchadnezzar, Dan 4:14, nay, worse; for not so much as a stump of their roots is left in the earth, but they are written in the earth, Jer 17:13, written childless, Jer 22:30, their root is dried up, the parents shall perish; they shall bear no fruit, beget no children, which are the fruit of the womb, Deu 28:11; Deu 28:18 Luk 1:42. Doeg’s doom shall befall them, Psa 52:5, "God shall destroy thee for ever; he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah."

Yea, though they bring forth] As Ahab did seventy sons, after that God had threatened his utter extirpation, following the work of generation so much the rather; {See Trapp on "Hos 9:13"}

Yet I will slay] For it is God that lets in and sets on the enemy; it is he that killeth and maketh alive, 1Sa 2:6.

Even the beloved fruit of their womb] Heb. their desires, or their desirable ones, their dearest children, called by Cicero also his desideria, Valete, mea desideria, valete (Cic.). The Latins seem to have their filius, a son, from φιλος, beloved: there is an ocean of love in a father’s heart; though the more he loveth the less he is loved sometimes (as David by Absalom), and is sure, if he belong to God, to be crossed in his earthly idol. Children are certain cares, but uncertain comforts; they may prove as Augustus’ three children did, whom he called his three ulcers or cancers, Tres vomicas tria carcinomata (Sueton.).

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

"Ephraim is smitten: their root is dried up; they will bear no fruit: even if they beget, I slay the treasures of their womb. Hos 9:17. My God rejects them: for they have not hearkened to Him, and they shall be fugitives among the nations." In Hos 9:16 Israel is compared to a plant, that is so injured by the heat of the sun (Psa 121:6; Psa 102:5), or by a worm (Jon 4:7), that it dries up and bears no more fruit. The perfects are a prophetic expression, indicating the certain execution of the threat. This is repeated in Hos 9:16 in figurative language; and the threatening in Hos 9:11, Hos 9:12, is thereby strengthened. Lastly, in Hos 9:17 the words of threatening are rounded off by a statement of the reason for the rejection of Israel; and this rejection is described as banishment among the nations, according to Deu 28:65.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

The figures "root," "fruit," are suggested by the word "Ephraim," that is, fruitful (see on Hos 9:11-12). "Smitten," namely, with a blight (Psa 102:4).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 16. Ephraim is smitten] The thing being determined, it is considered as already done.

Their root is dried up] They shall never more be a kingdom. And they never had any political form from their captivity by the Assyrians to the present day.

Yea, though they bring forth] See Clarke on Ho 9:11; "Ho 9:12".

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Prophet again threatens extreme vengeance to the Israelites. It is no wonder that the same sentence is so often repeated; for hypocrites, we know, too much flatter themselves, and are not frightened even by the most grievous threatening. As then hypocrites are so stupid, they must be often, nay, frequently pricked, and most sharply, that they may at length be awakened out of their torpor. Hence the Prophet repeats the threatening which he had often before announced, and says, that Israel had been so smitten, that their root had dried up The comparison is taken from a tree, which not only has had its branches cut off, but has also been torn from the roots. The meaning is, that God would take such vengeance on this miserable people, as wholly to destroy them, without any hope of recovery. The root then is dried up, they will produce fruit no more.

He then leaves this similitude or metaphor, and says, If they generate, I will slay the desirable fruit of their womb; that is, though some seed be begotten, I will yet destroy it.

We now then apprehend the design of the Prophet, which was to show, that the Lord would no more be content with some moderate punishment, for he had often found that this abandoned people were in vain chastised by paternal love; but that extreme vengeance awaited them, which would consume not only the men, but also their children so that no residue should remain. The reason is afterwards added —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(16) They shall bear no fruit.—Ephraim, whose very name signifies fruitfulness.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

16. Ephraim is smitten …] Ephraim’s population is compared to the branches of a tree, and the national vitality to the root. The tree is ‘smitten’ by the withering heat, or by lightning, or, like Jonah’s ‘ricinus’, by ‘worms’ (Jon_4:7), so that root and branches dry up; the idea of Hos_9:11 b in figurative form. Comp. Amo_2:9; Mal_4:1.

yea (even) though they bring forth] The prophet steps out of the language of metaphor, and repeats in effect Hos_9:12 a. This defines the meaning of ‘bear no fruit’,

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

My God will cast them away,.... With loathsomeness and contempt, having sinned against him, and done such abominable things; cast them out of their own land, as men not fit to live in it; cast them out of his sight, as not able to endure them; cast them away, as unprofitable and good for nothing; reject them from being his people; no more own them in the relation they had stood in to him; nor show them any more favour, at least until the conversion of them in the times of the Messiah. These are the words of the prophet, who calls the Lord his God, whom he worshipped, by whom he was sent, and in whose name he prophesied; and this in opposition to, and distinction from Israel, who worshipped other gods, and who had cast off the true God, and were now, or would be, cast away by him, and so no longer their God:

because they did not hearken unto him; to his word, as the Targum; to him speaking by his prophets; to the instructions, admonitions, threatenings, and predictions delivered to them from him; they did not obey his law, regard his will, or attend his worship; which was the cause of the rejection of them, and a just one:

and they shall be wanderers among the nations; being dispersed by the Assyrians in the several nations of the world, where they were fugitives and vagabonds; as their posterity are to this day.

Next: Hosea Chapter 10

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Ephraim is smitten - The prophet, under the image of a tree, repeats the same sentence of God upon Israel. The word “smitten” is used of the smiting of the tree from above, especially by the visitation of God, as by “blasting” and “mildew” Amo 4:9. Yet such smiting, although it falls heavily for the time, leaves hope for the future. He adds then, “their root is” also “withered,” so that “they should bear no fruit;” or if, perchance, while the root was still drying up and not quite dead, any fruit he yet found, “yet will I slay,” God says, “the beloved,” fruit “of their womb,” the desired fruit of their bodies, that which their souls longed for. : “So long as they have children, and multiply the fruit of the womb, they think that they bear fruit, they deem not that “their root is dried,” or that they have been severed by the axe of excision, and “rooted out of the land of the living;” but, in the anguish at the “slaying” of those they most loved, they shall say, better had it been to have had no children.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Dried up. They are compared to a vine, chap. x. 1. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Ephraim is smitten: this gives us some guess at the time of this prophecy, which was after Jeroboam’s death, in whose life and reign Ephraim was as a very flourishing tree, whose roots were full of sap and life; but after the death of this king they were, as here it is expressed, a tree smitten, as if scorched with lightning, or burnt up with a vehement and continued heat and drought by day; blasted they were, whatever was the means: or possibly it may refer to those seditions, civil wars, and rebellious conspiracies which (say some) did for some years afflict the kingdom of the ten tribes, which unnatural wars were as an axe to the root of this tree, and gave Pul king of Assyria opportunity and courage to set upon them, of whom they were forced to buy their peace at a dear rate, viz. a thousand talents of silver; or to the captivating of Naphtali, and taking many fortified towns out of Pekah’s hand by Tiglath-pileser, who came up to the rescue of Ahaz, 2Ki 15.

Their root is dried up; this hath dried up the very roots of this tree; this blast from heaven hath not only scorched the top boughs, but rent the very body of this Israelitish tree, and hath spoiled its roots; or civil wars first, and foreign wars next, have cut up the roots of this tree, the strong and valiant young men, who were to perpetuate the life and beauty of this people.

They shall bear no fruit: as such a dead root cannot spring out; so these Ephraimites never shall spring forth, they shall ever be barren. Though they bring forth; suppose they should yet bring forth, (such a supposition you meet with Hos 9:12, which see,) they shall not grow to maturity and greatness.

Yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb; either by diseases, which are legibly from God’s hand, or by the sword of one another, or of a foreign invader: if you do not enumerate all the ways God will take, we are sure he will take ways enough to make good his own word, and slay their beloved children, those children that were the more beloved for that their parents had either few, or else had lost some they had before.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

General Information:

Yahweh is speaking in verse 16. Hosea begins speaking in verse 17.

Ephraim is diseased, and their root is dried up; they bear no fruit

Yahweh speaks of the people of Israel as if they were a diseased tree that does not produce fruit and is ready to be cut down. This is a statement that the people have become weak, and that soon their enemies will come and defeat them. (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

Ephraim

fruit

children

beloved

die

God

reject

obey

nation

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

they shall not produce fruit It is not good for them to multiply, for, even if they bear children, I will slay the precious ones of their womb.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.