Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 9:14
Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
14. The prophet recognizes the necessity of a judgment, but pleads for a mitigation. Love for his people burns within him, and prompts him to do all that is consistent with his moral perceptions and the revelation made to him. Comp. the conduct of Moses in a similar case, Exo 32:11-14.
what wilt thou give them? ] The prophet considers what he had best ask for. He is a patriot, but he is also a prophet; he loves his nation with a feminine tenderness, but in zeal for his God he is not inferior to Amos or Isaiah. Hence his momentary perplexity. And yet this is perhaps too literal an interpretation. Rather is it, to use Ewald’s language, ‘a paroxysm of despair.’ Better were it that the Israelites should be condemned to barrenness than lose their choicest young population thus! It is an involuntary cry from the heart.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Give them a miscarrying womb – The prophet prays for Israel, and debates with himself what he can ask for, amid this their determined wickedness, and Gods judgments. Since Ephraim was to bring forth children to the murderer, then it was mercy to ask for them, that they might have no children. Since such are the evils which await their children, grant them, O Lord, as a blessing, the sorrows of barrenness. What God had before pronounced as a punishment, should, as compared to other evils, be a mercy, and an object of prayer. So our Lord pronounces as to the destruction of Jerusalem. Behold the days are coming, in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps that never gave suck Luk 23:29. O unhappy fruitfulness and fruitful unhappiness, compared with which, barrenness, which among them was accounted a curse, became blessedness.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. Give them, O Lord: what wilt thou give?] There is an uncommon beauty in these words. The prophet, seeing the evils that were likely to fall upon his countrymen, begins to make intercession for them; but when he had formed the first part of his petition, “Give them, O Lord!” the prophetic light discovered to him that the petition would not be answered and that God was about to give them something widely different. Then changing his petition, which the Divine Spirit had interrupted, by signifying that he must not proceed in his request, he asks the question, then, “What wilt thou give them?” and the answer is, “Give them a miscarrying womb, and dry breasts.” And this he is commanded to announce. It is probable that the Israelites had prided themselves in the fruitfulness of their families, and the numerous population of their country. God now tells them that this shall be no more; their wives shall be barren, and their land cursed.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Give them, O Lord; it is an abrupt but very pathetical speech of one that shows his trouble for the state of a sinking, undone nation, it is an intercession for them.
What wilt thou give? as if he should say he knew not what to ask, or how to pray for them; he knew God had peremptorily determined to punish them with a total extermination, and in a most dreadful manner, as described Hos 9:11-13. Now give some mercy.
Give them a miscarrying womb; the days are coming when the barren womb will be a blessing; give this, O Lord; it is less misery to have none, than to have all our children murdered by a barbarous enemy, Luk 23:29.
Dry breasts; not to starve the children born, but it is a further explication of the former; dry breasts are symptoms of a barren womb, whether by abortion or non-conception, by one or other. Prevent these woeful effects of our enemies unjust rage, and of thy most righteous displeasure against us, O Lord.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. what wilt thou give?As ifoverwhelmed by feeling, he deliberates with God what is mostdesirable.
give . . . a miscarryingwombOf two evils he chooses the least. So great will be thecalamity, that barrenness will be a blessing, though usually counteda great misfortune (Job 3:3;Jer 20:14; Luk 23:29).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Give them, O Lord: what wilt thou give them?…. The prophet foreseeing the butchery and destruction of their children, his heart ached for them; and, to show his tender affection for this people, was desirous of putting up a supplication for them; but was at a loss what to ask, their sins were so many, and so aggravated, and the decree gone forth for their destruction: or, “give them what thou wilt give them” l; so Jarchi, Kimchi, and Abarbinel, what thou hast threatened before to give them, Ho 9:11; do not give them to be butchered and murdered before the eyes of their parents by their enemies; but rather let them die in the womb, or as soon as born; so it follows:
give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts; the latter being a sign of the former, as physicians observe; or the words may be rendered disjunctively, give them one, or the other; that is, to the wives of the people of Israel, if they conceive, let them miscarry, prove abortive, rather than bring forth children to be destroyed in such a cruel manner by murderers; or if they bear them to the birth, and bring them forth, let their breasts be dried up, and afford no milk for their nourishment; and so die for lack of it, rather than fall into the hands of their merciless enemies: thus, of two evils, the prophet chooses and prays for the least. Some interpret this as a prediction of what would be, or an imprecation of it; but it rather seems a pathetic wish, flowing from the tender affection of the prophet, judging such a case to be preferable to the former; see Lu 23:29; though the other sense seems best to agree with what follows, and which is favoured by the Targum,
“give thou, O Lord, the recompence of their works; give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.”
l “da eis quod daturus es”, Junius Tremellius, Vatablus, Grotius “da illis id quod dabis”, Schmidt.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Interpreters translate these words in a different way: “Give them what thou art about to give,” then they repeats “Give them;” but, as I think, they do not comprehend the design of the Prophet, and are wholly mistaken; for the Prophet appears here as one anxious and perplexed. He therefore presents himself here before God as a suppliant, as though he said, “Lord, I would gladly intercede for this people: what then is it that I should chiefly desire for them? Doubtless my chief wish for them in their miserable dispersion is, that thou wouldest give them a killing womb and dry breasts;” that is, that none may be born of them. Christ says, that when the last destruction of Jerusalem should come, the barren would be blessed (Luk 23:29😉 and this he took from the common doctrine of Scripture, for many such passages may be observed in the Prophets. Among the blessings of God, this, we know, is not the least, the birth of a numerous offspring. It is, therefore, a token of dreadful judgement, when barrenness, which in itself is deemed a curse, is desired as an especial blessing. For what can be more miserable than for infants to be snatched from their mothers’ bosom? and for children to be killed before their eyes, or for pregnant women to be slain? or for cities and fields to be consumed by fire, so that children, not yet born, should perish together with their mothers? But all these things happen when there is an utter destruction.
We hence see what the prophet chiefly meant: the state of the people would be so deplorable that nothing could be more desirable than the barrenness of the women, that no offspring might be afterwards born, but that the name and memory of the people might by degrees be blotted out.
He has, indeed, already denounced punishments sufficiently grievous and dreadful; but we know that the contumacy and hardness of those are very great on whom religion has no hold. Hence all threatening were derided by that obstinate people. This is the reason why the Prophet now takes the part of an intercessor. “O Lord,”, he adds “give them;” that is, “O Lord, forgive them at least in some measure, and grant them yet something.” And “what wilt thou give?” Here he reasons with himself, being as it were in suspense and perplexity; and he also reasons with God as to what would be the most desirable thing. “I am indeed a suppliant for my own nation, whom I pity; but what shall I ask? I would wish thee, Lord, to pardon this people; but what shall be the way, what can give me comfort, or what sort of remedy yet remains? Certainly I see nothing better than that they should be barren, that none hereafter should be born of them; but that thou shouldest suffer them to consume and die away; for this will be their chief happiness in a condition so deplorable.” It was then the Prophet’s design here, to strike hypocrites and profane men with terror, that they might understand that God’s vengeance, which was at hand, could by no means be fully expressed; for it would be the best thing for them to be deprived of the blessing of an offspring, that their infants might not perish with them, that they might not see women with child cruelly slain by their enemies, or their children led away as a spoil. That such things as these might not take place, the Prophet says, that barrenness ought to be desired by them as the chief blessing. The Prophet, I doubt not, meant this. It now follows —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(14) Better universal childlessness than that the off-spring should be exposed to so terrible a fate. Compare this with our Lords words: Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, &c.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. The judgment is richly deserved. The prophet understands, with all his love for the people, that mercy has become impossible; in holy indignation he prays Jehovah to execute his judgment. The abruptness of the style indicates the deep emotion of the prophet.
What wilt thou give A rhetorical question. The prophet meditates what he should ask for. Shall it be mercy? That cannot be; and he offers a petition that Jehovah may allow justice to proceed. The interpretation of the verse as an “intercessory prayer on the part of the prophet that God will not punish the people too severely, but condemn them to barrenness rather than the loss of the young men,” is less probable.
Hos 9:15 is the continuation of Hos 9:13.
Their wickedness is in Gilgal Is focused there (Hos 4:15; Hos 12:10; compare Amo 4:4; Amo 5:5). Gilgal must have been a prominent center of Hebrew worship. Perhaps the prophet has in mind some recent flagrant outburst of wickedness, now unknown.
For Better, yea.
I hated The love for Ephraim (Hos 9:10) was transformed into hate as a result of their wickedness, which Jehovah can endure no longer.
Drive them out of mine house As in Hos 8:1, equivalent to my land; this will mean separation from his presence (see on Hos 9:3; compare 1Sa 26:19), and from his interest and love Jehovah will completely withdraw his mercy and favor.
All their princes are revolters Indicates one of the chief reasons for Jehovah’s rejection of Israel. The nobles who should have been the leaders of the common people have rebelled against their great leader, Jehovah, and thus they have become misleaders (Isa 3:12). The original contains a play upon words (as in Isa 1:23), which may be reproduced partly by rendering, “Their princes are unprincipled.” The judgment upon Israel is further described in Hos 9:16. In 16a, under the figure of a plant whose roots are dried up as a result of being smitten with withering heat (compare Jer 17:8), or by a worm (Jon 4:7), so that it can bear no more fruit (compare Hos 9:11 b); 16b returns to the thought of Hos 9:11-12, the destruction of the nation by cutting off the children and young men.
Hos 9:16 b would be most appropriate between Hos 9:11 and Hos 9:12; the former speaks of the cessation of childbirth; Hos 9:16 b continues, if by some chance children should be born, Jehovah will slay them; then Hos 9:12 adds, if somehow they should live for a while, they will die before reaching manhood (so Marti). In Hos 9:17 the prophet repeats, in his own words, the threat expressed by Jehovah in Hos 9:15.
My God He is still the prophet’s God, but no longer that of Israel.
Did not hearken The appeals of the prophet fell upon deaf ears (compare Hos 4:10). Now Jehovah must cast them off. Here the judgment is thought of not as extermination, but as banishment among the nations (Hos 9:15).
Wanderers Or, fugitives (Gen 4:12); the same verb is used in a different sense in Hos 7:13. To secure a more satisfactory logical connection Harper rearranges Hos 9:10-17 as follows, Hos 9:10-11; Hos 9:16; Hos 9:12 (except the last clause), Hos 9:13-15; Hos 9:12 (last clause), Hos 9:17.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Give them, O YHWH – What will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.’
Moved by what he sees before him at the feast Hosea calls on YHWH to act against the people in judgment. As he ponders what to ask for, he turns his thoughts to YHWH’s words in Hos 9:12, and in consequence asks for their fulfilment. Let Israel’s women be given ‘miscarrying wombs and dry breasts’, reversing the promised blessings in Exo 23:26; Gen 49:29. It sounds harsh, but it was asking that YHWH carry out His threatened curses, and at the same time it contains within it a thought of mercy. For his prayer is in response to the fact that if children are born it will be to a fate worse than death. It were thus better in his view that they were never born.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Hos 9:14. Give them a miscarrying womb As a punishment for having inhumanly exposed their infants to death, by sacrificing them to their false gods; or, for having exposed them to the cruelty of the Assyrians, who destroyed them in war. The present passage is strikingly emphatical. But it is to be considered rather as a prediction of what was to happen as a punishment of their crimes, than as an imprecation.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
There is the same strain in this part of the Prophet’s discourse as in the former: and the whole sum and substance of the sermon, is the Lord’s grace and Israel’s unworthiness. But I hope the Reader will not fail, under the teaching of God the Holy Ghost, to discover that the chastisements of the Lord here spoken of, are the chastisements of a friend; and all that is here spoken by the Lord, in reference to punishment, is with the view of sanctifying his dispensations to his glory, and Israel’s recovery in Christ Jesus. Hosea’s text to this and every sermon in his prophecy, is suited in that blessed scripture; O Israel thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. Hos 13:9
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Hos 9:14 Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
Ver. 14. Give them, O Lord: what wilt thou give?] This question implieth abundance of affection in the prophet, praying for this forlorn people devoted to destruction. It is the property of gracious spirits to be more sensible of, and more deeply affected with, the calamities that are coming upon the wicked, than those wicked ones themselves are; as Daniel was for Nebuchadnezzar, whose dream he had interpreted, Dan 4:19 , and as Habakkuk was for the Chaldeans, whose destruction he had afore prophesied, Hab 3:16 . Hosea likewise (out of great commiseration of Ephraim’s direful and dreadful condition) sets himself to pray for them; though himself seems set at a stand, and in a manner nonplussed, that he cannot well tell what to ask for them. God once made a fair offer to a foul sinner, even to Ahaz, that sturdy stigmatic, Isa 7:11 , “Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. But Ahaz said” (churlishly enough), “I will not ask, neither will I try the Lord,” Hos 9:12 , he would none of God’s kindness, which yet the Lord there heapeth upon him, Hos 9:14 , that where sin abounded grace might superabound. Had our prophet had but half such an offer, or any the least such encouragement, oh how gladly would he have embraced it, how hastily would he have catched at it, as those Syrians did at Ahab’s kind words, 1Ki 20:33 ? But he, considering the severity and certainty of God’s judgments denounced against them, Hos 9:12-13 , and being much amazed thereat, sets himself to intercede and make request for his deplored countrymen; as Samuel did for Saul, rejected by God, 1Sa 16:1 , as Paul did for the obdurate Jews, Rom 11:3 . And because he saw that he could not obtain of the impartial judge of the world to let go such an impenitent people altogether unpunished, he begs for them, that of two evils they may suffer the least; and rather bring forth no children at all, or children that may die as soon as born (this had been threatened Hos 9:11-12 ), than “bring forth children to the murderer”: it being the greatest misery that can befall a tender hearted parent, to see his dear children butchered before his eyes, as Zedekiah and Mauricius, the emperor, did; and before them both the king of Edom, whose eldest son was by the king of Moab sacrificed upon the wall, in his father’s sight, 2Ki 3:27 Amo 2:1 . Thus Rabbi Kimchi giveth the sense of this text: Give, Lord, what thou wilt give? viz. that they may suffer in the womb, or at least in their infancy, that which they should otherwise suffer by the enemies’ sword. Confer Jer 20:18 Luk 23:28 Ecc 4:2 Job 3:10-11 . The prophet knew well that God is never so bitterly bent against a people or person, but that something he will yield to faithful and fervent prayer, Mat 24:20 .
“ Flectitur iratus voce rogante Deus. ”
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
what: Hos 9:13, Hos 9:16, Mat 24:19, Mar 13:17, Luk 21:23, Luk 23:29, 1Co 7:26
a miscarrying womb: Heb. a womb that casteth the fruit, Job 21:10
Reciprocal: 2Ki 2:19 – barren Est 5:11 – the multitude Job 3:11 – died I Job 27:14 – children Hos 9:11 – from the womb
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hos 9:14. The man power of the nation was to be reduced in another way, Either the mothers would not be able to carry their infants through to mature birth, or, if they did so, they would not be able to nourish them because of failing breasts.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Hos 9:14. Give them, O Lord: what wilt thou give? The prophet here speaks as one greatly agitated, and at a loss what to say upon what he had just heard; but at last concludes with beseeching God rather to let the women be barren, or miscarry; or, if they brought forth children, have no milk in their breasts to give them, that they might die soon after their birth, rather than that they should grow up to be slain by their enemies before their parents eyes, or carried into captivity; or, as it is expressed in the foregoing verse, that their parents should be driven to the hard necessity of bringing them forth for the murderer. Some interpret the verse thus: Give them a miscarrying womb, &c., as a punishment for having inhumanly exposed their infants to death, by sacrificing them to their false gods; or, for having exposed them to the cruelty of the Assyrians, who destroyed them in war. The present passage is strikingly emphatical. But it is to be considered rather as a prediction of what was to happen as a punishment of their crimes, than as an imprecation.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
9:14 Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a {p} miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
(p) The Prophet seeing the great plagues of God toward Ephraim, prays to God to make them barren, rather than that this great slaughter should come upon their children.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Hosea called on Yahweh, after reflecting on her punishments, to disappoint Ephraim’s hopes concerning descendants and the inability to sustain their children. The combination of "womb" and "breasts" is a pairing that describes human fruitfulness (cf. Gen 49:25).