Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 9:9
They have deeply corrupted [themselves], as in the days of Gibeah: [therefore] he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.
9. as in the days of Gibeah ] The atrocity described in Jdg 19:22-30, and referred to by Hosea again in Hos 10:9. All the Benjamites were destroyed except 600 men (Jdg 20:46-48) a warning for Ephraim!
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They have deeply corrupted themselves – Literally, they have gone deep, they are corrupted. They have deeply immersed themselves in wickedness; have gone to the greatest depth they could, in it; they are sunk in it, so that they could hardly be extricated from it; and this, of their own deliberate intent; they contrived it deeply, hiding themselves, as they hoped, from God.
As in, the days of Gibeah – When Benjamin espoused the cause of the children of Belial who had worked such horrible brutishness in Gibeah toward the concubine of the Levite. This they maintained with such obstinacy, that, through Gods judgment, the whole tribe perished, except six hundred men. Deeply they must have already corrupted themselves, who supported such guilt. Such corruption and such obstinacy was theirs still.
Therefore he will remember their iniquity. God seemed for a time, as if He overlooked the guilt of Benjamin in the days of Gibeah, for at first He allowed them to be even victorious over Israel, yet in the end, they were punished, almost to extermination, and Gibeah was destroyed. So now, although He bore long with Ephraim, He would, in the end show that He remembered all by visiting all.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hos 9:9
As in the days of Gibeah.
The lessons of an old story
(Jdg 19:20.):–
1. When men to whom we seek for protection deal falsely with us, their wickedness is great in the eyes of God.
2. We may meet with worse usage from those who profess religion than from those who profess it not.
3. God may regard those as unholy and unclean who make a fair show of religion.
4. For men to stand up impudently and boldly in the defence of wickedness committed is abomin able in the eyes of God.
5. To join with others in defence of evil is worse than to stand out ourselves in evil.
6. Those who defend evil may for awhile prosper, but they must at last perish. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
Corrupting forms of wickedness
From the sad and dreadful story of Gibeah learn–
1. Contempt of true prophets, and delighting in deceivers and their delusions, will draw men upon abominable wickedness.
2. As men once giving way to gross sins will soon involve themselves so that they cannot recover themselves, so it is a dreadful condition to be entangled in sin without hope of recovery, and for men to be active in hardening themselves.
3. As there is no wicked course or measure of sin, wherein men have fallen, but the Church, departing from God, may fall upon it again, so the sins of progenitors will be put upon the account of the present generation who imitate them, and this will draw to a great account. (George Hutcheson.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah] This relates to that shocking rape and murder of the Levite’s wife, mentioned Jdg 19:16, &c.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They, the people of the ten tribes, prophets, priests, princes, and people, have deeply corrupted themselves, have strangely and horribly debauched one another; beside all their idolatry, there is more than brutish filthiness among them.
As in the days of Gibeah; the story whereof you have Jdg 19.
Therefore he, God, who hateth such workers of iniquity,
will remember their iniquity; he will not pardon their iniquity, but charge it upon them: when God saith he will not remember, it is a promise of pardon; When he threatens he will remember, it is a threat of not pardoning.
He will visit their sins; he will punish: see Hos 9:7.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. as in the days of Gibeahasin the day of the perpetration of the atrocity of Gibeah, narrated inJud 19:16-22, &c.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They have deeply corrupted [themselves], as in the days of Gibeah,…. Not the false prophets and watchmen only; but rather Ephraim, or the ten tribes, through their means became extremely corrupt in principle and practice; they had most sadly degenerated, and were deeply sunk and immersed in all manner of wickedness, and rooted in it, and continued obstinate and incorrigible, so that there was no hope of reformation among them; they had got to as great a pitch of wickedness, and were guilty of the like uncleanness, lewdness, barbarity, and cruelty, as were acted by the men of Gibeah, with respect to the Levite and his concubine, Jud 19:1; for Gibeah of Benjamin is here meant, where the people asked a king, and rebelled against the words of the prophet, as some in Jarchi interpret it:
[therefore] he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins: that is, God, my God, as the prophet calls him in Ho 9:8, will not forgive and forget their sins; pardon being often expressed by a non-remembrance of sins; but will make inquiry after them, and visit them in a way of wrath and vengeance, and punish for them as they deserve: they being obstinate and impenitent, and persisting in their sins, like the men of Gibeah and Benjamin.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Hosea declares here, that the people were so sunk in their vices, that they could not be drawn out of them. He who has fallen can raise up himself when one extends a hand to him; and he who strives to emerge from the mire, finding a helper to assist him, can plant his foot again on solid ground: but when he is cast into a gulf, he has no hope of a recovery. I extend my hand in vain, when one sinks in a shipwreck, and is fallen into the deep. So now the Prophet says, that the people were unhealable, because they were deeply fixed; and further, because they were infected with corruptions. He therefore intimates that their diseases were incurable, that they had struck roots so deeply, that they could by no means be cleansed. They were then deeply fixed, and were corrupt as in the days of Gibeah
The Gibeonites, we know, were so fallen, that their city differed nothing from Sodom; for unbridled licentiousness in all kinds of vices prevailed there, and lusts so monstrous reigned among them, that there was no distinction between good and evil, no shame whatever. Hence it was, that they ravished the Levite’s wife, and killed her by their filthy obscenities: and this was the cause of that memorable slaughter which nearly demolished the whole tribe of Benjamin. The history is related in the Book of Judges Jud 19:1; and it deserved to be recorded, that people might know what it is not to walk with care and fear in obedience to the Lord. Who could indeed have believed that a people taught in the law of God could have fallen into such a state of madness as this city did, which was nigh to Jerusalem, the destined place of the temple, though not yet built? and, not to mention the temple, who could have thought that this city, which was in the midst of the people, could have been so demented, that, like brute beasts, they should abandon themselves to the filthiest lusts? nay, that they should have been more filthy than the beasts? For monstrous lusts, as I have said, were there left unpunished, as at Sodom and in the neighbouring cities.
The Prophet says now, that the whole of Israel had become as corrupt as formerly the citizens of Gibeah. Deeply sunk, then, were the Israelites in their vices, and were as addicted as the inhabitants of Gibeah to their corruptions. What, then, is to follow? God, he says, will remember their iniquities, and will visit their sins The Prophet means two things first, that as the Israelites were wholly disobedient, and would receive no instruction, God would in no other way deal with them, as though he said, “The Lord will no longer spend labour in vain in teaching you, but he will seize the sword and execute his vengeance; for ye are not worthy of being taught by him any longer; for his teaching is counted a mockery by you.” This is one thing; and the other is, that though God had hitherto spared the people of Israel, he had not yet forgotten the filth of sins which prevailed among them. Hence God, he says, will at length remember and, as he had said before, will visit your sins.
We now then perceive the simple meaning of the Prophet. But let us hence also learn to rouse ourselves; and let us, in the first place, notice what the Prophet says of the Israelites, that they were deeply fixed; for men must be filled with contempt to God, when they thus descend, as Solomon says, (Pro 18:4,) to the deep. Lets then each of us stir up himself to repentance and carefully beware lest he should descend into this deep gulf. But since he says, “the Lord will remember and will visit”, let us know that they are greatly deceived who indulge themselves as long as the Lord mercifully bears with their sins; for though he may for a time conceal his displeasure yet an oblivion will never possess him: but at a fit time he will remember, and prove that he does so by executing a just punishment.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(9) For the reference to Gibeah, see Judges 19.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
They have deeply corrupted themselves,
‘As in the days of Gibeah,
He will remember their iniquity,
He will visit their sins.’
For YHWH’s charge against Israel was that their sins were as deep as the sins of Gibeah, which had also had sexual motivation and had been of the most despicable kind (see Jdg 19:22 ff). They had deeply corrupted themselves. And just as He had taken note of the sins of Gibeah, which had almost resulted in the extinction of one of the tribes of Israel, so He would remember theirs, and would visit them with judgment because of them.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Hos 9:9 They have deeply corrupted [themselves], as in the days of Gibeah: [therefore] he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.
Ver. 9. They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah ] The people are as bad as possible, shamelessly, lawlessly wicked; nothing better then those sons of Belial, the men of Gibeah, that were sunk to sin’s bottom; totally transformed into sin’s image, extremely flagitious, so that a worse people could hardly be found upon the face of the earth, Jdg 19:12-30 . As it was given in answer to a godly man who desired to know of God, why Phocas was set up for emperor? because there could not be a worse man found, and that the sins of Christians required it. Lipsius maketh mention of one Tubulus (about Cicero’s time) who was so desperately wicked, ut eius nomen non hominis sed vitii esse videretur, that his name seemed to be the name not of a man, but of wickedness itself. Lo, such were these men of Gibeah, Jdg 19:22-25 , nothing behind Sodomites in sin; as Samaria now was nothing behind them, and is therefore fitly coupled with her sister Sodom, Eze 16:46 . The reason of all which is here given, their wicked watchmen; according to that, Isa 3:12 , qui te ducunt, seducunt, “they which lead thee cause thee to err”; and again, Isa 9:16 , “the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.” It is thought that the Gibeah here mentioned, and to which this verse relateth, was the same which, Jos 21:17 , is called Gebah; which was a city given to the priests, who being lords and owners of the town, were probably the ringleaders of the rest in that matchless villany; and so were of the number of those worst of sinners, “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them,” Rom 1:32 .
Now will he remember their iniquities, and visit their sins
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the days of Gibeah. See Hos 10:9. This implies a common knowledge of the history of Jdg 19:15, &c.
therefore. Some codices, with three early printed editions (one Rabbinic, marg), read “now will He”, &c.
He: i.e. Jehovah. App-4. He will visit. Some codices read “that He may visit”. Compare Hos 8:13.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
deeply: Isa 24:5, Isa 31:6
Gibeah: Hos 10:9, Jdg 19:22-30, Jdg 20:1 – Jdg 21:25
therefore: Hos 8:13
Reciprocal: Exo 32:7 – corrupted Lev 18:25 – therefore Deu 4:25 – corrupt Deu 31:29 – corrupt yourselves Deu 32:5 – They have corrupted themselves Jdg 19:25 – and abused Jdg 20:13 – would not Jdg 20:42 – the battle Neh 1:7 – corruptly Psa 10:5 – His Psa 79:8 – remember Isa 10:29 – Gibeah Jer 7:15 – I will Jer 14:10 – he will Eze 29:16 – bringeth Hos 2:13 – I will visit Hos 5:8 – Gibeah Hos 7:2 – I remember Hos 12:2 – punish Amo 3:2 – punish Amo 5:25 – General Amo 8:7 – I will Zep 3:7 – corrupted
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hos 9:9. The comparison to Gibea is because of the gross Immorality that was committed at that place (Judges 19). The people of Israel were guilty of both physical and spiritual pollutions. ‘Will visit their sins means that God will punish his people for their sins by a visitation of some unpleasant experience.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
9:9 They {k} have deeply corrupted [themselves], as in the days of Gibeah: [therefore] he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.
(k) This people is so rooted in their wickedness, that Gibeah, which was similar to Sodom, was never more corrupt; Jud 19:22 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Israelites had delved deep into depravity, as when the men of Gibeah raped and murdered the visiting Levite’s concubine (Judges 19). This was another occasion in which the Israelites punished one of their own rather than protecting her. The Lord would remember their iniquities and punish their sins. This sin had resulted in war in Israel and almost the obliteration of the tribe of Benjamin (Judges 20). War would come again, and God would almost entirely obliterate all the Israelites for their sins.