The Prophet, by saying that the days of visitation had come, intended to shake off from hypocrites that supine torpor of which we have often spoken; for as they were agitated by their own lusts, and were in a state of continual fervour, so they hardened themselves against God’s judgement, and, as it were, covered themselves over with hardness. It was then necessary to deal roughly with them in order to break down such stubbornness. This is the reason that the Prophet repeats so often and in so many forms what might be expressed in this one sentence — That God would be a just avenger. Hence he cries out here, that the days of visitation had come. For when the Lord spared them, as sacred history relates, and as we said at the beginning, (and under the king Jeroboam the second, the son of Joash, their affairs were prosperous,) their pride and contempt of God the more increased. Since then they thought themselves to be now beyond the reach of harm, the Prophet declares that the days had come. And there is here an implied contrast in reference to the time during which the Lord had borne with them; for as the Lord had not immediately visited their sins, they thought that they had escaped. But the Prophet here distinguishes between time and time: “You have hitherto thought,” he says, “that you are at peace with God; as if he, by conniving at the sins of men, denied himself, so as not to discharge any more the office of a judge: nay, there is another thing to be here considered, and that is, that God has certain days of visitation, which he has fixed for himself; and these days are now come.”

And he again teaches the same thing, The days of retribution have come He uses another word, that they might know that they could not go unpunished for having in so many ways provoked God. For as the Lord disappoints not the hope of his people, who honour him; so also there is a reward laid up for the ungodly, who regard as nothing his judgement. “God will then repay you what you have deserved, though for a time it may please him to suspend his judgement.”

Then he says, Israel shall know This is the wisdom of fools, as it is said even in an old proverb; and Homer has also said, παθων δε τε νήπιος εγνω, (Even the foolish knows when he suffers.) The foolish is not wise, except when he suffers. Hence the Prophet says, that Israel, when afflicted, would then perceive that instruction had been despised, and that all warnings had been trifled with, at least had not been regarded. Israel then shall know; that is, he shall at length, when too late, understand that he had to do with God, even when the time of repentance shall be no more. The meaning then is that as the ungodly reject the word of God, and obey not wise admonitions and counsels, they shall at length be taken to another school, where God teaches not by the mouth but by the hand. Whosoever then does not now willingly submit to his teaching, shall find God to be a judge, and shall not escape his hand.

They who join what follows elicit this meaning, Israel shall know the Prophet to be foolish, the man of the spirit to be mad; that is, Israel shall then understand that he was deluded by flatteries, when the false Prophets promised that all things would be prosperous. We indeed know that they catched at those prophecies which pleased their ears; for which Micah also reproves them; hence he calls those who gave hope of a better state of things, the Prophets of wine and oil and wheat, (Mic 2:11.) The world wishes to be ever thus deceived. Since then there were many in Israel, who by their impositions deceived the miserable, he says, Israel shall at last know that he has been deluded by his own teachers. If we receive this sense, there is then here a reproof to Israel for thinking that the vengeance of God was in some way restrained, when the false Prophets said that he was pacified, and that there was no danger to be feared. For do not men in this way stultify themselves? And how gross is their stupidity, when they think that God’s hands are tied, when men are silent, or when they perfidiously turn the truth into a lie? And yet even at this day this disease prevails in the world, as it has prevailed almost in all ages. For what do the ungodly seek, but to be let alone in their sins? When mouths are closed, they think that they have gained much. This madness the Prophet derides, intimating that those profane men, who have such delicate ears, that they can bear no words of reproof, shall at last know what they had gained by hiring prophets to flatter them. We hence see, in short, that the adulations, by which the ungodly harden themselves against God, will be to them the occasion of a twofold destruction; for such fallacies dementate them, so that they much more boldly provoke against themselves the wrath of God.

But if we read the two clauses apart, the rendering will be this, “The Prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is mad.” And as to the matter itself, there is not much difference. I will not then dwell on the subject; for when we are agreed as to the design of the Prophet and the truth remains the same, it is vain, at least it is of no benefit, to labour very anxiously about the form of the sentence. If then we begin a sentence with these words, אויל הנביא, avil enebia, the sense will be this, “I know that the Prophets promise impunity to you; but they who thus hide your sins, and cover them over as with plasters, are insane men, yea, they are wholly infatuated. There is then no reason why their flatteries should delight you; for the event will show that they are mere absurdities and idle ravings.” We now see that there is no great difference in the sense: for this remains still unaltered, that there were many flatterers among the people, who made it their business to lie, that they might thus procure the favour of the people; and this ambition has prevailed in all ages: and sometimes also cupidity or avarice takes such hold on men, that they use a meretricious tongue, and excuse all vices however grievous, and elude all threatening. This is what the Prophet shows in the first place; and then he shows, that men without any advantage indulge their vices, when there is no one severely to reprove them, or boldly to exhort them to repent; and that though all the Prophets should give them hope of safety they should yet perish: for men cannot by their silence restrain God from executing at last his judgement. Nay, we must remember this, that God spares men when he does not spare them; that is, when he chastises them, when he reproves their sins, and when he constrains them by terror, he then would spare them. And again, when God spares, he does not spare; that is, when he connives at their sins, and leaves men to their own will, to grow wanton at their pleasure, without any yoke or bridle, he then by no means spares them, for he destines them for destruction.

“

The man of the spirit,” some render “the man of the wind;” and some “the fanatical man;” but they are in my judgement mistaken; for the Prophet, I doubt not, uses a respectful term, but yet by way of concession. He then calls those the men of the spirit who were by their office prophets, but who abused that title, as those who at this day call themselves pastors when they are really rapacious wolves. The Prophets, as we know, always declared that they did not speak from their own minds but what the Spirit of God dictated to them. Hence they were men of the Spirit, that is, spiritual men: for the genitive case, we know, was used by the Hebrews to express what we designate by an adjective. The Prophets then were the men of the Spirit. He concedes this name, in itself illustrious and honourable, to impostors; but in the same sense as when I speak generally of teachers; I then include the false as well as the true. This then is the real meaning of the expression, as we may gather from the context: for he says the same thing twice, אויל הנביא, avil enebia, Fool is the Prophet, and then, משגע איש הרוח, moshigo aish eruch, Mad is the man of the spirit As he spoke of a Prophet, so he now mentions the same by calling him a man of the spirit, or a spiritual man.

At the end of the verse he adds, For the multitude of thine iniquity, for great hatred, or, much hatred; for it may be rendered in these two ways. Here the Prophet shows, that though the false Prophets stultified by their fallacies the people, yet this could by no means avail for an excuse or for extenuating the fault of the people. How so? Because they suffered the punishment of their own impiety. For whence comes it, that the Lord takes away his light from us, that after having once shown to us the way of salvation, he turns suddenly his back on us, and suffers us to go astray to our perdition? How does this happen? Doubtless, because we are unworthy of that light, which was a witness to us of God’s favour. For as much then as men through their own fault procure such a judgement to themselves, the Lord neither blinds them nor gives to Satan the power of deluding them, except when they deserve such a treatment. Hence the Prophet says, For the multitude of thine iniquity, and for thy crimes, by which thou hast excited against thyself the wrath and hatred of God. We hence see how frivolous are the pretences by which men clear themselves, when they object and say that they have been deceived and that if their teachers had been faithful and honest, they would have willingly obeyed God. When therefore men make these objections, the ready answer is this, that they had been deprived of true and faithful teachers, because they had refused the favour offered to them, and extinguished the light, and as Paul says, preferred a lie to the truth; and that they had been deceived by false Prophets, because they willingly hastened to ruin when the Lord called them to salvation. We now then understand the import of what is here taught.

The Prophet says, in the first place, that the day of vengeance was now at hand, because the Lord by forbearance could prevail nothing with the obstinate. He then adds, that as all threatenings were despised by the people, and as they were deaf to every instruction, they would at length know that God had not spoken in vain but would perceive that their were justly treated; for the Lord would not now teach them by his word, but by scourges. He adds, in the third place, that the Prophet was foolish and delirious, and also, that they who boasted themselves to be the men of the spirit were mad: by which expressions he meant that the flatteries, by which the people were lulled asleep were foolish; for God would not fail at last, when the time came, to execute his office. And, lastly he reminds them that this would happen through the fault of the people, that there was no reason for them to trace or to ascribe the cause of the evil to any thing else; for this blindness was their just punishment. The Lord would have never permitted Satan thus to prevail in his own inheritance, had not the people, by the immense filth of their sins, provoked God for a long time, and as it were with a determined purpose. It now follows —

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(7) The latter part of the verse should be translated Crazed is the prophet, mad the inspired one, because of the multitude of thy iniquity, while persecution is increased. The prophet is crazed either in the depraved public opinion that Hosea scornfully describes, or, he is driven mad, distracted, by the persecutions to which he is subjected. The latter is more probable. (Comp. the following verse.) Other commentators, including Maurer and Hitzig (preceded by Jerome and many Jewish as well as Christian expositors) take the words for prophet in this verse as signifying false prophet, and would connect the clauses thus:Israel shall recognise that the prophet (who prophesied good to them) is a fool, the inspired one a madman, because of, &c. But it is doubtful whether the Hebrew for inspired one (sh harach) can bear this unfavourable sense, with the definite article affixed (comp. 1Ki. 22:21, Heb.); so Nowack. The passage is very difficult, and no decisive superiority can be claimed for any rendering yet proposed.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

‘The days of visitation are come,

The days of recompense are come,

Israel will know it, the prophet is a fool,

The man who has the spirit is mad,

For the abundance of your iniquity,

And because the enmity is great.’

For what they would now face would not be ‘days of assembly’ and ‘days of YHWH’s feasts’. They would rather be ‘days of visitation’ by an angry God, and ‘days of recompense’ for their sins. The plural of ‘days’ indicates that it was to be no short judgment. And then Israel will know the truth about what was to happen and would recognise that their false prophets who had prophesied peace and security were fools, and that the man who had professed to have ‘the spirit of prophecy’ and had encouraged them in their ways, had been mad. For this false spirit of prophecy compare 1Ki 22:22-23; Mic 2:11. And this would occur because of the fullness of their iniquity, and because, to some extent without their necessarily realising it, their enmity with YHWH as He really was had been great.

Some see here an indication that it was Hosea who was called ‘a fool’ and ‘mad’, and that might well have been so. This may indeed have given him the idea. But the real point here is that the people had been misled by false prophets.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Hos 9:7. The prophet is a fool, &c. Stupid is the prophet, &c.; that is to say, the false prophets, who foretel nothing but peace, shall be convinced of their folly and madness, when they see the events happen contrary to what they had foretold. See Calmet and Lowth. The title of prophet seems to have been given to all of the prophetical order; that is, to all who had been educated in the schools of the prophets; because these were usually the persons to whom the gift of prophesy was imparted, though it was by no means given to all, or even to the greater part of them. Some, perhaps, among them pretended to it, who had never received it at all; and others, to whom it was in some degree given; temporized in the use of it, by profane accommodations to the humour of the people, the religious opinions, or the political measures of the court. Of the latter in particular we have a remarkable instance in those prophets of Israel, who encouraged Ahab to the expedition against the Syrian, for the recovery of Ramoth Gilead, which proved so fatal to himself. That the gross imposture of pretences to the spirit of prophesy by persons that had it not at all, was actually practised, seems to be implied in Mic 2:11 and Jer 23:31-32. That those, who had the extraordinary gift, pretended, upon some occasions, to visions which they had never seen, and to commands which they had never received, is certain, from the very memorable history of the imposition practised by the old prophet, who dwelt in Beth-el at the time of the schism of the ten tribes, upon the man of God of Judah, who had prophesied against Jeroboam’s altar, 1 Kings 13. The old prophet, whatever his crime might be in this deceit, and it certainly was great, appears to have been in his general character a true servant of God. But the more frequent crime was certainly that of temporizing, in the manner of delivering messages of warning, which had been really received. The persons guilty of this conduct were deeply implicated in the guilt of the nation, and were promoters of the idolatry to which the kings and the people were so much addicted; and they are reproved and threatened in every page of the prophetical writings. These are the persons, who, in this text of Hosea, under the title of prophets, are taxed with stupidity and madness. The communication of the gift of prophesy, to persons so false to the duties of their office, seems somewhat analogous to the communication of the miraculous gifts, in the primitive church, to many who made, if not a wicked, certainly an improper and injudicious use of them. And analogous to the threatened punishment of false teachers, in the latter ages of Christianity, was the punishment of these prevaricating prophets. “God sent them strong delusion that they should believe a lie.” See 2Th 2:11. “If the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet; and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.” Eze 14:9. How it was, that God deceived the prophet, is an awful question, to be cautiously touched. It is evident, from the text of Ezekiel, that the prophet himself was highly criminal in the deception which he suffered. It may be, that, for his unworthiness, the spirit of wisdom and understanding was withheld from him, which might have enabled him to discern the true meaning of the allegorical visions presented to his imagination. Or it may be, that, for the guilt of the nation, the prophetic spirit was imparted to those, who wilfully misinterpreted their visions. Thus the vision was true, and the whole falsity was in the error, or the dishonesty, of the prophet. It cannot be conceived, that falsified scenes of futurity could be obtruded by the Holy Spirit on the prophet’s mind. I would observe, that in the case of Ahab, the lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets was not a spirit that lied to them, but a spirit that incited them in effect to lie to the king.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Reader! do not fail still to pursue the subject with an eye to the Lord’s grace, for the whole Chapter is full of it. The Lord, to whose comprehensive view, all things past, present, and future, form but one and the same object; beheld the visitation as at the door. His watchmen had shown it. The event cannot be passed over. But pray remark, how tenderly the Lord still speaks of Israel, in the days of his espousals. The Lord found Israel, like grapes in the wilderness; that is, as grapes are peculiarly grateful in such a place; so Israel was to the Lord; pleasant and delightful. See Jer 2:2-3 . Reader there is a peculiar aggravation in the sins of God’s people, after they have known the Lord. This is to wound the Redeemer in the house of his friends. Zec 13:6 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Hos 9:7 The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know [it]: the prophet [is] a fool, the spiritual man [is] mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.

Ver. 7. The days of visitation are come ] A visitation that is like to prove a vexation; for every transgression and disobedience, that is, omission and commission, shall receive a just recompense of reward from the God of recompenses (so he is called, Jer 51:56 ), whose eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men, Psa 11:4 ; the former points out his knowledge, the latter his judgment, or his critical descant in his visitation or inquisition, the days whereof are set, Stat sua cuique dies, and Israel’s days are come, are come, it is repeated for more assurance, as “Babylon is fallen, is fallen,” certo, cito, penitus; and as Eze 7:5-7 , the prophet tells them, “The end is come, is come, is come”; and so some ten or twelve times, that he might beat it into them, and awaken them out of the snare of the devil. The wicked’s happiness will take its end surely and swiftly; but it is hard persuading them so; and the Jews, as they were ever noted for obstinate and overweening, so to this day they are light, aerial, and Satanical, apt to work themselves into the fool’s paradise of a sublime dotage. But they shall know it to be so as I have said, by woeful experience, that mistress of fools.

Israel shall know it ] sc. To his sorrow, he shall pay for his learning, buy his wit, open his eyes (as the mole doth) when death is upon him, oculos incipit aperire moriendo (Plin.); roar and look upward, Isa 8:21 , as the hog doth when the knife is at his throat. O Lord (saith the same prophet, Isa 26:11 ), “when thy hand is lifted up” (and thy hand is a mighty hand, Jas 4:10 , it falls heavy), “they will not see,” they wink wilfully, or seek straws to put out their eyes with, as Bernard hath it, Festucam quaerunt unde oculos sibi eruant; ” but they shall see,” will they nill they, “and be ashamed” of their former oscitancy, or rather obstinacy, when that hand of God, which was lifted up in threatening, shall fall down in punishing, and the “fire of thine enemies shall devour them”; how much more at that last and great visitation, that terrible day of retribution, when they shall answer for all, with the flames about their ears. Tunc sentient magno suo malo, then shall they feel, to their eternal woe, the truth of all the threatenings, which till then they heard, and read, as a man doth an almanac prognostications of wind or foul weather, which he thinks may come to pass, and it may be not; and give nothing so much credit to them as the prior of St Bartholomew’s, in London, did to an idle and addle-headed a astrologer, when he went and built him a house at Harrowon-the-hill to secure himself from a supposed flood that that astrologer foretold.

The prophet is a fool, &c. ] , a naughty man: the Hebrew word here is evil, and signifieth a rash and unadvised fellow, that is headstrong and headlong; such were their false prophets that promised peace when war was at their gates, and made all fair weather before them when the tempest of God’s wrath was even bursting out upon them; such a tempest as should never be blown over. These should now appear to be fools, or rather impostors, that had brought the credulous people into a fool’s paradise.

The spiritual man is mad ] Heb. the man of the spirit, or ventosus, the windy man, that uttereth vain and empty conceits, humani cerebelli Minervas, the brats of his own brain, light, airy nothings, the disease of this age, full of flashes and figments, idle speculations of “men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth.” These pretend altogether to the spirit, and would be thought the only spiritual men; as the Swenkfeldians (whom, for their ill favour, Luther called Stenckfeldians), who bewitched many with those glorious words (which were ever in their mouths) of illumination, revelation, the inward and spiritual man, &c., and entitled themselves the confessors of the glory of Christ. So the enthusiasts and Anabaptists, what boast make they of the spirit; professing that they will deliver nothing but what they have immediately revealed to them from heaven. Munzer (their ringleader) wrote a base book against Luther (which he dedicateth to King Jesus), wherein Lutherum flagellat quod euthusiasmorum spiritu careat et nil nisi carnalia sapiat, he falls foul upon Luther, as wanting the spirit of revelation, and one that savoureth nothing but carnal things. All his followers look upon Luther as more pestiferous than the pope; and for Calvin they say (and I have heard it), that it had been happy for the Church if he had never been born. It was their practice of old (as Leo Judae observed in his epistle before Bullinger’s book against the Catabaptists), and is still, to discourage and disparage Christ’s faithful ministers all they can, as carnal, and not relishing the things of the spirit; the right offspring they are of those ancient heretics called Messalanii (the same with the Euchites and Enthusiasts), who, in A.D. 371, professed to be wholly made up of the spirit, gave themselves much to sleep, and called their dreams and wild phantasies prophecies and revelations.

For the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred ] Heb. the great Satanic hatred that thou hast borne against God and thy neighbour, but especially God’s faithful prophets, whom thou heartily hatedst for their plain dealing; as Ahab did Micaiah, because he never spoke good to him. It is very probable that Micaiah was that disguised prophet who brought Ahab the fearful message of displeasure and death, for dismissing Benhadad; for the which he was ever since fasted in prison, deep in disgrace. Lo, this is the world’s wages. Truth breeds hatred, great hatred, as the text hath it, devilish hatred, and this is through the multitude of men’s iniquities, the overflow of sins, which wretched men hold so dear to themselves, that they cannot but rage against those that disclaim against them, and proclaim hell fire against their hateful practices; they cannot stand still to have their eyes picked out, how should they? say. Now, for such, what wonder is it if God in justice give them up to the efficacy of error that they may believe a lie, since they would not receive the love of the truth? 2Th 2:11 , ut infatuati seducantur, et seducti iudicentur (Augustin in loc.), that being infatuated they may be seduced, and being seduced, perish? what wonder also if he deliver them up, as to “strong delusions,” so to “vile affections,” and abominable actions, that they may receive in themselves that recompense of their error that is meet, Rom 1:27 . What marvel, if men that will not endure sound doctrine be left to seducers? if those that have itching ears meet with clawing preachers? if such as turn away their ears from the truth, be turned to fables and fopperies? 2Ti 4:3-4 . It is for the multitude of men’s iniquities, and especially for their great hatred to the truth, that the Church is so pestered with impostors, 2Pe 2:1-2 who bring in “damnable heresies,” even denying the Lord that bought them. Do not our modern seducers so among us, when (among other portentous opinions held by them) they stick not to affirm, that Christ is a carnal or fleshly thing; that those that are grown Christians may go to God immediately without a Christ; that Christ did not rise again, &c. Others contemn him by the notion of the man dying at Jerusalem – Oh horrible! (Dr Homes’ Character of the Present Times, 200.) There was a time when the popes were so notoriously naughty as to speak thus basely of Christ; to deny, or at least to doubt the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, &c.; and then a poor popeling cried out, that the sins of that synagogue were so great, as that it deserved not to be ruled by any other than reprobates. Certain it is, that God plagues contempt of the truth (that great gospel sin) with an inundation of errors and enormities.

a Applied contemptuously to one whose intellect seems muddled. D

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Hos 9:7-9

7The days of punishment have come,

The days of retribution have come;

Let Israel know this!

The prophet is a fool,

The inspired man is demented,

Because of the grossness of your iniquity,

And because your hostility is so great.

8Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet;

Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways,

And there is only hostility in the house of his God.

9They have gone deep in depravity

As in the days of Gibeah;

He will remember their iniquity,

He will punish their sins.

Hos 9:7 The days of punishment This means visitation (BDB 824 CONSTRUCT 398). This is a neutral term, but because of the context (parallelism of line 2), it means visitation for the purpose of judgment and that judgment is now (i.e., have come repeated).

The days of retribution The prophets often use the courtroom metaphor to communicate truth. This refers to a judicial decision (BDB 1024 CONSTRUCT 398). It can mean guilty or not guilty. Because of the context, it refers to God’s imminent judgment.

Let Israel know this This VERB (BDB 393, KB 390, Qal IMPERFECT) is used in a JUSSIVE (command) sense. Israel claimed to know in Hos 8:2, but obviously they did not know Him or His prophet!

The prophet is a fool,

The inspired man is demented These two lines of parallel poetry are difficult to translate. This seems to be the people’s response to Hosea’s message (same word used in Jer. 29:36). Apparently they were trying to associate him with the earlier ecstatic prophetic groups (cf. 1Sa 10:6 ff) and thereby ridicule his message. God’s word was strange to them because of the depth of their sin (cf. Hos 8:12).

David A. Hubbard, Hosea (Tyndale OT Commentaries), p. 159, makes an interesting comment about the inspired man, which is literally the man of the spirit. He asserts that it is used in a negative sense because of Hosea’s use of spirit in such negative ways (cf. Hos 4:12; Hos 4:19; Hos 5:4).

NASBBecause of the grossness of your iniquity

NKJVBecause of the greatness of your iniquity

NRSVBecause of your great iniquity

TEVyour sin is so great

NJBgreat is your guilt

The last two poetic lines of Hos 9:7 are a summary of the cause of Israel’s coming exile. They do not know God or His law!

The term grossness (BDB 913) means multitude or abundance. It is used of God’s laws in Hos 8:12, but here of Israel’s sins.

NASBBecause your hostility is so great

NKJV. . .and great enmity

NRSV. . .your hostility is great

TEVYou people hate me so much because your sin is so great

NJBall the greater then the hostility

The NOUN hostility (BDB 966) expresses a settled enmity and grudge against God and His spokespersons. It is used only in Hos 9:7-8.

Hos 9:8

NASBEphraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet

NKJV, NJBThe watchman of Ephraim is with my God

NRSVThe prophet is a sentinel for my God over Ephraim

TEVGod has sent me as a prophet to warn his people Israel

This Hebrew phrase is very ambiguous. There are three theories: (1) Ephraim was meant to be God’s representative (cf. Exo 19:5-6); (2) Ephraim was persecuting God’s prophet; or (3) there is a possibility that it could refer to Ephraim following false prophets. Hosea expresses how he sees himself, a prophet, a watchman, a true and obedient covenant man.

the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways The next two lines of poetry seem to describe Israel’s opposition to God’s message by attacking the messenger. God’s people who need and should welcome God’s message are filled with hostility instead of eager receptiveness!

in the house of his God This could refer to some YHWHistic shrine (i.e., Bethel or Dan), but it may refer to the whole land (cf. Hos 8:1; Hos 9:4; Hos 9:15).

Hos 9:9

NASBThey have gone deep in depravity

NKJVThey are deeply corrupted themselves

NRSVthey have deeply corrupted themselves

TEVthey are hopelessly evil

NJBthey have become deeply corrupt

The two VERBS of this line of poetry:

1. make deep – BDB 770, KB 847, Hiphil PERFECT

2. spoil, ruin – BDB 1007, KB 1469, Piel PERFECT

function together as a hendiadys, where the second VERB is the main idea and the first serves as an ADVERB. This term, spoil, is used of the spiritual condition of those who worshiped at (1) the golden calf Aaron made in Exo 32:7; Deu 9:12; Deu 32:5; (2) of the Israelites at the golden calves of Jeroboam I, Hos 9:9; (3) of Judah in Isa 1:4; Jer 6:28; Eze 20:44; Eze 23:11; Zep 3:7; (4) of human nature in general in Psa 14:1; Psa 53:1.

in the days of Gibeah There is a list of historical allusions beginning in Hos 9:9 and running through chapter 10. These are linked to specific cities and the idolatry that occurred in them. Gibeah is mentioned in Hos 10:9. There are several possibilities: (1) this was Saul’s home; (2) this was the site of Saul’s first sin (cf. 1Sa 13:8-14); (3) this refers to the events of Judges 19-21; or (4) modern interpreters are uncertain of the exact historical reference.

He will remember When God remembers it is a reference to judgment. Man calls on God to forget! God calls on man to remember the covenant (cf. Hos 7:2; Hos 8:13; Hos 13:12).

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

The days of visitation are come. Reference to Pentateuch (Exo 32:34). App-92. Compare Luk 19:44; Luk 21:22.

recompence = retribution.

know [it] = discover [her wickedness, when she said].

spiritual man = man of the Spirit: i.e. God’s prophet, who is defined as a man in whom the Spirit of God was.

for the multitude, &c. = for great is thine iniquity, great is thine enmity.

iniquity = distortion. Hebrew. ‘avah. App-44.

hatred = provocation.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

days of visitation: Isa 10:3, Jer 10:15, Jer 11:23, Jer 46:21, Eze 7:2-7, Eze 12:22-28, Amo 8:2, Mic 7:4, Zep 1:14-18, Luk 21:22, Rev 16:19

Israel: Isa 26:11, Eze 25:17, Eze 38:23

the prophet: Hos 9:8, Jer 6:14, Jer 8:11, Jer 23:16, Jer 23:17, Lam 2:14, Eze 13:3, Eze 13:10, Mic 2:11, Zep 3:4, Zec 11:15-17

spiritual man: Heb. man of the spirit

mad: 2Ki 9:11, Jer 29:26, Mar 3:21, Act 26:24, Act 26:25, 2Co 5:13

the multitude: Eze 14:9, Eze 14:10, 2Th 2:10-12

Reciprocal: Job 31:14 – when he Psa 5:10 – the Son 5:7 – watchmen Isa 56:10 – are blind Isa 59:15 – maketh himself a prey Jer 5:13 – the prophets Jer 6:15 – at the time Jer 20:7 – I am Jer 23:13 – prophets Jer 47:4 – the day Jer 48:44 – the year Eze 7:4 – but Eze 9:10 – but Hos 2:13 – I will visit Hos 4:5 – and the prophet Mat 11:18 – He 1Co 4:10 – are fools 1Co 14:23 – will 2Pe 2:16 – the madness

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

ENTHUSIASTS!

The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad.

Hos 9:7

I. Enthusiasm is a term employed in a good sense, and is used to describe the feeling with which men often devote themselves to national interests and secular professions. The politician, the poet, the painter, the man of science and of literature, or, what is more to the purpose at present, the physician and the surgeon, who give themselves to the science and philosophy of their professionwho enlarge its boundaries and unravel its mysteries and promote its advancementthese men are spoken of with rapture for the extravagance and eccentricity of zeal which they consume on the promotion of their favourite pursuits; they are thus spoken of by the very men who, when a tithe of such zeal appears in the professors of a science, in comparison with which every other sinks into insignificance, are ever ready to express their pity in the language of contemptthe prophet is a fool, or the preacher is mad.

II. Now, conduct like this is just anything but wisdom.To use a familiar comparison, it is like the feeling of a man who, on seeing the successful application of medicine in suddenly raising an individual from the bed of sickness, and bringing him forth into society in vigour and in health, should fix his admiration, not upon the skill of the physician who had restored the patient, but upon the skill of the operatives who selected the fashion of his coat, or the figure of his shoe. Any extravagance, in fact, on the subject of religion is more rational and more dignified than indifference; and any folly is tolerable and innocent but that which admires the enthusiasm often absurdly devoted to present interests and temporary claims, and condemns that which belongs to the eternal, the infinite, and the future.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

Hos 9:7. Day of visitation denotes the day when God’s threatened judgments would be heaped upon them. Prophet . . , spiritual man mad . , . fool. According to Lamentations 2; 14; Eze 13:3; Mic 3:11 and Zeph aniah 3; 4, this prophet and spiritual man means the false prophet who had made predictions about the safety of t.he nation. When the exile comes upon the people they will realize that their prophets were fools.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Hos 9:7. The days of visitation are come The days of punishment, or retribution, are at hand. This resembles the well-known line of Virgil:

Venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus Dardani. N. lib. 2. 50:324.

The fatal day, th appointed hour is come, The time of Troys irrevocable doom.

Israel shall know it The Hebrew is only, Israel shall know, namely, that I have spoken the truth; that is, in denouncing misery and calamity against them, as the Chaldee supplies the ellipsis. Gods judgments upon the ten tribes shall be so evident, that the most incredulous shall not be able to deny it. Others interpret this clause in connection with the following words, thus: Israel shall know that the prophet was foolish, that the man of the spirit was mad, namely, who encouraged the Israelites to continue in their sins, by promising them peace and prosperity notwithstanding their corrupt manners. Bishop Horsleys translation of the passage is peculiarly spirited and sublime: The days of visitation are come! The days of retribution are come! Israel shall know it. Stupid is the prophet! The man of the spirit is gone mad! Stupid, he remarks, if he himself discerneth not the signs of the times. Gone mad, if, aware of the impending judgment, he flatters the people with delusive hopes; and by that conduct makes himself an instrument in bringing on that public ruin, in which he himself must be involved. For the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred Namely, which thou deservest. Or probably the sense is, as Bishop Horsleys version gives it, In proportion to the greatness of thine iniquity, great also is the vengeance.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

9:7 The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know [it]: {h} the prophet [is] a fool, the spiritual man [is] mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.

(h) Then they will know that they were deluded by those who claimed themselves to be their prophets and spiritual men.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The cause: opposition to prophets 9:7-9

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Israel was to know that the days of her punishment and retribution were imminent because the nation’s iniquity was fat and its hostility to the Lord was great. Another reason for her judgment was that the Israelites had regarded the prophets whom the Lord had sent to them as demented fools (cf. 2Ki 9:11; Jer 29:26-27). This probably included Hosea.

"The prophet represents Yahweh as saying that the captivity was a payment for the sin of the nation. One of the primary themes of this prophecy is the stark truth that sin demands requital, and Israel was soon to know that by experience. The present respite from national calamity was not to last forever." [Note: McComiskey, p. 144.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)