Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 9:17
My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
17. The prophet has quelled his brief paroxysm, and calmly proceeds. But the threat is not now extermination.
My God ] No longer, alas! Israel’s God. Comp. Isaiah’s ‘this people’ for ‘my people’ (Isa 6:9).
wanderers ] Or, fugitives (it is the participle of the verb used in Hos 7:13, see note).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
My God hath cast them away – My God (he saith) as if God were his God only who clave to him, not theirs who had, by their disobedience, departed from Him. My God. He had then authority from Him, whom he owned and who owned him, and who bade him so Speak, as though God were his God, and no longer theirs. God casts them away, lit. despises them, and so rejects them as an object of aversion to Him, because they did not hearken to Him. God never forsakes unless He be first forsaken. When they would not hearken, neither doing what God commanded, nor abstaining from what He forbade, God at last rejected them, as worthless, lacking altogether to that end for which He created them.
And they shall be wanderers among the nations – This was the sentence of Cain Gen 4:12; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. So God had forewarned them. The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth – and among these nations shalt there find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest Deu 28:64-65.
The words of the prophet imply an abiding condition. He does not say, they shall wander, but, they shall be wanderers. Such was to be their lot; such has been their lot ever since; and such was not the ordinary lot of those large populations whom Eastern conquerors transported from their own land. Those conquerors took away with them into their own land, portions of the people whom they conquered, for two ends. When a people often rebelled, they were placed where they could rebel no more, among tribes more powerful than they, and obedient to the rule of the conqueror. Or they were carried off; as slaves to work in bricks, like Israel in Egypt .
Their workmen, smiths, artificers, were especially taken to labor on those gigantic works, the palaces and temples of Nineveh or Babylon. But, for both these purposes, the transported population had a settled abode allotted to it, whether in the capital or the provinces. Sometimes new cities or villages were built for the settlers . Israel at first was so located. Perhaps on account of the frequent rebellions of their kings, the ten tribes were placed amid a wild, warlike, population, in the cities of the Medes. 2Ki 17:6. When the interior of Asia was less known, people thought that they were still to be found there.
The Jews fabled, that the ten tribes lay behind some mighty and fabulous river, Sambatyon , or were fenced in by mountains . Christians thought that they might be found in some yet unexplored part of Asia. Undeceived as to this, they still asked whether the Afghans, or the Yezides, or the natives of North America were the ten tribes, or whether they were the Nestorians of Kurdistan. So natural did it seem, that they, like other nations so transported, should remain as a body, near or at the places, where they had been located by their conquerors. The prophet says otherwise. He says their abiding condition shall be, they shall be wanderers among the nations, wanderers among them, but no part of them. Before the final dispersion of the Jews at the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jewish race, Josephus says , was in great numbers through the whole world, interspersed with the nations.
Those assembled at the day of Pentecost had come from all parts of Asia Minor but also from Parthia, Media, Persia, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Egypt, maritime Lybia, Crete, and Italy Act 2:9-11. Wherever the Apostles went, in Asia or Greece, they found Jews, in numbers sufficient to raise persecution against them. James writes to those whom, with a word corresponding to that of Hosea, he calls, the dispersion. James … to the twelve in the dispersion . The Jews, scoffing, asked, whether our Lord would go to the dispersion among the Greeks . They speak of it, as a body, over against themselves, to whom they supposed that He meant to go, to teach them, when He said, Ye shall seek Me and shall not find Me. The Jews of Egypt were probably the descendants of those who went there, after the murder of Gedaliah. The Jews of the North, as well as those of China, India, Russia, were probably descendants of the ten tribes.
From one end of Asia to the other and onward through the Crimea, Greece and Italy, the Jews by their presence, bare witness to the fulfillment of the prophecy. Not like the wandering Indian tribe, who spread over Europe, living apart in their native wildness, but settled, among the inhabitants of each city, they were still distinct, although with no polity of their own; a distinct, settled, yet foreign and subordinate race. : Still remains unreversed this irrevocable sentence, as to their temporal state and face of an earthly kingdom, that they remain still wanderers or dispersed among other nations, and have never been restored, nor are in likelihood of ever being restored to their own land, so as to call it their own. If ever any of them hath returned thither, it hath been but as strangers, and all, as to any propriety that they should challenge in it, to hear the ruins and waste heaps of their ancient cities to echo in their ears the prophets words, Arise ye and depart, for this is not your rest; your ancestors polluted it, and ye shall never return as a people thither, to inhabit it, as in your former condition Mic 2:10.
Meanwhile Ephraim here is an example, not only to particular persons, that as they will avoid personal judgments, so they take care faithfully to serve God and hearken unto Him; but to nations and kingdoms also, that as they will prevent national judgments, so they take care that God be truly served, and the true religion maintained in purity and sincerity among them. Ephraim, or lsrael, held their land by as good and firm tenure as any people in the world can theirs, having it settled on them by immediate gift from Him who is the Lord of the whole earth, who promised it to their forefathers, Abraham and his seed forever Gen 13:14-15; Deu 34:4, called therefore the land which the Lord sware unto them Num. 14; and which He had promised them Deu 9:28, the land of promise Heb 11:9. Who could have greater right to a place, better and firmer right, than they had to the Lords land, by His promise which never fails, and His oath who will not repent, confirmed to them?
Certainly, if they had observed conditions and kept covenant with Him, all the people in the world could never have driven them out, or dispossessed them of it. But, seeing they revolted and brake His covenant, and did not hearken to Him, He would not suffer them longer to dwell in it, but drave and cast them out of it, so that they could never recover it again, but continue to this day wandering among the nation, having no settled place of their own, nowhere where they can be called a people, or are for such owned. If God so dealt with Israel on their disobedience and departing from His service, to whom He had so particularly engaged himself to make good to them the firm possession of that land; how shall any presume on any right or title to any other, or think to preserve it to themselves by any force or strength of their own, if they revolt from Him, and cast off thankful obedience to Him? The Apostle cautioneth and teacheth us so to argue, if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee, and therefore warneth, be not high-minded, and presumptuous, but fear Rom 11:20-21.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hos 9:17
My God will cast them away . . . and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
Divine severities for a nation
1. It is a judgment to have an unsettled spirit. A spirit wandering up and down, unable to settle to anything, sometimes in this place, sometimes in that, sometimes in this way, and sometimes in another, this is a judgment of God. The wandering of mens appetites and desires works them a great deal of vexation.
2. Those who are cast away out of Gods house can have no rest; they go about like the unclean spirit, seeking rest, but can find none. The Church of God and His ordinances are Gods rest. But you will say. May not men be wanderers; that is, may they not be cast out of their habitations and countries, and wander up and down, and yet not be cast off from God? There is no evil in wandering if we carry a good conscience with us. But there it is, They shall be wanderers among the nations. It was a great judgment of God for Israel to be scattered among the nations, for they were a people that were separated from the nations, and not to be reckoned among the nations; they were Gods peculiar treasure. This curse is upon the Jews to this very day,–how are they wanderers among the nations! (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
Wanderers among the nations.
The lost ten tribes
The words of the prophet imply an abiding condition. He does not say, They shall wander, but They shall be wanderers. Such was to be their lot; such has been their lot ever since; and such was not the ordinary lot of those large populations whom Eastern conquerors transported from their own land. The transported population had a settled abode allotted to it, whether in the capital or the provinces. Sometimes new cities or villages were built for the settlers. Israel at first was so located. Perhaps on account of the frequent rebellions of their kings the ten tribes were placed amid a wild, warlike population, in the cities of the Medes. When the interior of Asia was less known, people thought that they were still to be found there. The Jews fabled, that the ten tribes lay behind some mighty and fabulous river, Sambatyon, or were fenced in by mountains. Christians thought that they might be found in some yet unexplored part of Asia. Undeceived as to this, they still asked whether the Afghans or Yezides, or the natives of North America were the ten tribes, or whether they were the Nestorians of Kurdistan. So natural did it seem that they, like other nations so transported, should remain as a body near or at the places where they had been located by their conquerors. The prophet says otherwise. He says, their abiding condition shall be, they shall be wanderers among the nations; wanderers among them, but no part of them. Before the final dispersion of the Jews at the destruction of Jerusalem the Jewish race, Josephus says, was in great numbers throughout the whole world, interspersed with the nations. Those assembled at the Day of Pentecost had come from all parts of Asia Minor, but also from Parthia, Media, Persia, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Egypt, maritime Lybia, Crete, and Italy. Wherever the apostles went in Asia or Greece they found Jews, in numbers sufficient to raise persecution against them. The Jews, scoffing, asked whether our Lord would go to the dispersion among the Greeks. The Jews of Egypt were probably the descendants of those who went thither after the murder Of Gedaliah. The Jews of the North, as well as those of China, India, Russia, were probably descendants of the ten tribes. From one end of Asia to the other, and onward through the Crimea, Greece, and Italy, the Jews, by their presence, bare witness to the fulfilment of the prophecy. Not like the wandering Indian tribe, who spread over Europe, living apart in their native wildness, but, settled among the inhabitants of each city, they were still distinct, although with no polity of their own, a distinct, settled, yet foreign and subordinate race. Still remains unreversed this irrevocable sentence as to the temporal state and face of an earthly kingdom, that they remain still wanderers, or dispersed among other nations, and have never been restored, nor are in any likelihood of ever being restored to their own land, so as to call it their own. If ever any of them hath returned thither, it hath been but as strangers. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 17. My God will cast them away] Here the prophet seems to apologize for the severity of these denunciations; and to vindicate the Divine justice, from which they proceeded. It is –
Because they did not hearken unto him] That “my God,” the fountain of mercy and kindness, “will cast them away.”
And they shall be wanderers among the nations.] And where they have wandered to, who can tell? and in what nations to be found, no man knows. Wanderers they are; and perhaps even now unknown to themselves. Some have thought they have found them in one country; some, in another; and a very pious writer, in a book entitled, The Star in the West, thinks he has found their descendants in the American Indians; among whom he has discovered many customs, apparently the same with those of the ancient Jews, and commanded in the Law. He even thinks that the word Je-ho-vah is found in their solemn festal cry, Ye-ho-wa-he. If they be this long lost people, they are utterly unknown to themselves; their origin being lost in a very remote antiquity.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
My God; no more thy God, O Ephraim, thou canst no more have hope on that account, but my God, saith the prophet, my God who hath revealed his purpose to me, and who will accomplish it, who will make good the word I have spoken against you.
Will cast them away: your sins have been a weariness, a loathing to my God, and now as a vile, loathed, and wearisome thing is cast off by a man, so shall you be cast off from your God.
They did not hearken unto him; neither did hearken to God to prevent apostacy, nor would ever after hearken to God at first to repent and turn to him; like a wilful adulteress, they would not keep faithful to their Husband, nor return to him when once departed from him.
They shall be wanderers; have no city of their own, no settled dwelling-place; as much suspected, hated, ill used, and punished as vagabonds are in well-ordered commonwealths; all which is fully come upon them.
Among the nations: Gentiles were such the proud circumcision did despise and hate, but now the sins of the circumcised shall bring them under as much contempt with the nations; nay, these proud apostates from God, when cast off and wanderers, shall account it a favour to be admitted to incorporate with, and so to grow up heathens among heathens, as after long time they did.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17. My God“My,” incontrast to “them,” that is, the people, whose God Jehovahno longer is. Also Hosea appeals to God as supporting his authorityagainst the whole people.
wanderers among . . .nations (2Ki 15:29;1Ch 5:26).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Prophet, as I have lately hinted, assigns a reason why God had resolved to deal so severely with this people, namely because he saw their unnameable perverseness. For the Prophets always defend the justice of God against the impious complaints of those men who murmur whenever God severely punishes them, and cry out that he is cruel, and exceeds moderation. The Prophets do therefore shut up the mouth of the ungodly, that they may not vomit out their blasphemies against God; and the Prophet is now on this subject. Hence he says, that destruction was nigh the Israelites, because God had rejected them; for the verb מאס, mas, means to reject, to cast away, to despise. As long then as the Lord vouchsafed to care for this people, they possessed at least some eminence; but the Prophet says that now they were wholly cast away. What then remained for them but entire ruin?
And he says, My God will cast them away By this expression he claims authority to himself, and thunders against the whole people; for though the whole worship of God was shamefully corrupted in the kingdom of Israel, they yet boasted that they were the holy seed of Abraham, and the name of God was as yet ready in every mouth, as we know that the ungodly take to themselves the liberty of profaning the name of God without any hesitation or shame. Since then this false glorying prevailed as yet among the Israelites, the Prophet says, “He is no more your God, mine he is.” Thus he placed himself on one side, and set himself alone in opposition to the whole people. But at the same time he proves that he has more authority than they all; for he brings forward God as the supporter and defender of his doctrine. ‘My God,’ he says, ‘will cast them away.’ So also Isaiah says, when reproving Ahab,
‘
Is it not enough that ye be troublesome to men, except ye be also troublesome to my God?’ (Isa 7:13.)
And yet Isaiah was not the only one who worshipped God purely. This is true; but he had respect to the king and his company; and therefore he connected himself with God, and separated them all from himself, inasmuch as they had already by their perfidy separated themselves from him.
Then he says, ‘My God will cast them away.’ So at this day we may safely take the name of God in opposition to the Papists; for they have nothing in common with the true God, since they have polluted themselves with so many abominations: and though they may be proud against us, trusting in their vast multitude, and because we are few; yet we may boldly oppose them, since God, we know, can never be separated nor drawn away from his word, and his word, we know, stands on our side. We may then lawfully reprove the Papists, and say that God is opposed to them, for we fight under his banner.
Because, he says, they have not obeyed me We see that the cause of extreme vengeance is perverseness; that is, when men designedly harden their hearts against God. The Gentiles also perish, indeed, without any instruction; but vengeance is doubled, when the Lord extends his hand to the erring, and seeks to recall them to the way of salvation, and when they obstinately refuse to obey; yea, when they show their heart to be perverse in their wickedness. When, then, such perverseness is added to errors and vicious affections, God must necessarily come forth with his extreme vengeance, as he threatens here by his Prophet.
As, then, they obeyed not, the Lord will cast them away, and they shall be fugitives among the nations This seems to be a lighter punishment than what he had previously stated respecting their seed being destroyed. But we must remember the contrast between the rest given them by God, and this vagrant wandering, of which the Prophet now speaks. The land of Canaan was to them a quiet habitation, where they rested as though God cherished them under his wings; and hence it is even called the rest of God in Psa 95:0. (60) But now, when the Israelites wandered as fugitives, and sought rest here and there, and could not find it, it was more evidently a rejection of them; for the Lord proved, every day and every moment, that they were repudiated by him, inasmuch as they were deprived of that rest which he had promised them. Let us proceed —
(60) Psa 95:11. — fj.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(17) Wanderers.Strangely confirmed from Assyrian monuments and the entire subsequent history of the bulk of Israel; and Israel still wanders, not coalescing with any nation, unless they lose their ancient faith by corruption into idolatry, or conversion to Christianity. (See Pusey.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘My God will cast them away,
Because they did not listen responsively to him,
And they will be wanderers among the nations.’
For because they had continually refused to listen responsively to Him He now intended to cast them away, with the result that they would become wanderers among the nations, in accordance with the curse depicted in Deu 28:65; Lev 26:26-27. They would go on and on wandering, with nowhere to hide.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
REFLECTIONS
BLESSED Emanuel! how can I fail to behold thee, in this Chapter, under the endearing character of the Husband of thy Church; while hearing my Lord thus expostulating with his Israel of old, for their whoredoms and fornications! Indeed, indeed, precious Jesus! thou hast married our nature, in having taken that pure portion of it, which thy Father gave thee, into union with thyself. And thou hast thereby most plainly and fully proved, how great and unequalled the love thou hast fixed on thy spouse the Church. And didst thou not know, holy Redeemer, how unfaithful and unworthy thy wife would prove? Yea, Lord! thou didst not only know it, but didst declare it. I knew thou didst say, that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and be called a transgressor from the womb! Yet such was thy love, that this did not stop the graciousness of thine Almighty purposes; neither prevent thy union, or the manifestation of thy tender affection to thy people. In every age, to the worthlessness of thy chosen, thy grace hath been shown; neither hast thou kept back thy loving mercy from thy redeemed, even when like Israel here, thy Church hath gone a whoring, and set up the stumbling block of iniquity in the heart! Oh! Lamb of God! what patience but thine could have borne with the sins of thy people; yea, with the unceasing rebellions of the hand that now writes? From the first moment that thou didst pass by, and beheld our whole nature cast out to perish, and polluted in our blood, and didst bid us live to the present hour of thy Church; who shall recount most among all the members of thy redeemed, the greatest recoveries by grace, amidst the greatest undeservings of nature? Whose song on earth, or whose note of salvation in heaven, shall be the loudest in praise of Jesus’s love? Precious Lord Jesus! while I read Hosea’s prophecy; behold the relation of Israel’s sins, and thy mercy; while I call to mind how thy long suffering hath been exercised in the thousand and ten thousand instances of all thy people, from that period to the present; yea, from the garden of Eden, through all the ages of the Church; and to continue until the consummation of all things; I feel constrained to cry out in the language of thy servant the Prophet; who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage. Thou retainest not thine anger forever; because thou delightest in mercy. Yes! precious Jesus; thou wilt turn again; thou wilt have compassion upon us; thou wilt subdue our iniquities, and thou wilt cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Hos 9:17 My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
Ver. 17. My God will cast them away ] My God, not their God, for they are castaways and apostates; see the like, 1Jn 5:17 , and learn to stick to God the closer when others start from him; and to secure our own interest in a general defection, by siding with God, and subscribing, as here the prophet doth, to his perfect righteousness in the rejection and destruction of reprobates.
Will cast them away
Because they did not hearken unto him
Because they did not hearken unto him, they shall be wanderers among the nations
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
they shall be wanderers, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 28:64, Deu 28:65).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
My God: 2Ch 18:13, Neh 5:19, Psa 31:14, Isa 7:13, Mic 7:7, Joh 20:17, Joh 20:28, Phi 4:19
because: Hos 7:13, 1Ki 14:15, 1Ki 14:16, 2Ki 17:14-20, 2Ch 36:16, Psa 81:11-13, Pro 29:1, Isa 48:18, Jer 25:3, Jer 25:4, Jer 26:4-6, Jer 35:15-17, Zec 1:4, Zec 7:11-14, Act 3:23
and: Deu 28:64, Deu 28:65, Deu 32:26, Amo 8:2, Amo 9:9, Joh 7:35, Jam 1:1
Reciprocal: Gen 4:12 – a fugitive Psa 89:38 – But Isa 17:3 – fortress Jer 6:30 – the Lord Jer 7:15 – I will Hos 1:4 – avenge Hos 9:15 – I will drive Rom 11:1 – Hath God
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hos 9:17. This verse is a direct prediction of the exile of the ten tribes into the land of Assyria, the record of which is in 2 Kings 17.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Hosea’s God would cast the Ephraimites out of the land because they proved unresponsive to Him (cf. Deu 28:62-64). They would end up wandering among the other nations of the world. Because they had wandered from the Lord, they would wander in the earth, like Cain whom the Lord also cursed (cf. Gen 4:12).