Hosea 9:1
in Hosea 9Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations, for you have played the harlot against your God; you have made love for hire on every threshing floor.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, like the peoples; for thou hast played the harlot, departing from thy God; thou hast loved hire upon every grain-floor.
KJV
Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.
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This verse in Hosea 9
Commentary
9 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people - Literally, “rejoice not to exultation,” so as to bound and leap for joy (as in Job 3:22). The prophet seems to come across the people in the midst of their festivity and mirth, and arrests them abruptly stopping it, telling them, that had no cause for joy.
This site's exposition
Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy
on Hosea 9:1-2
Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people opens the chapter by forbidding the harvest festival's usual gladness, because the reward Israel loved on every cornfloor was credited to Baal in the nation's own telling rather than to the Lord. The threshing floor and the winepress, the very places the false thanksgiving was offered, are named as the places that will fail to feed the nation, judgment landing exactly where the sin was committed. The bench reads the whole unit as an answer to the fertility cult behind Israel's worship, the true giver of grain and wine withdrawing what the false gods had been credited with supplying.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
It is not fitting for you to rejoice and exult like the rest of the peoples. For they did not receive any teaching which might lead them to piety, but you, after much instruction and knowledge of God, rebelled against the knowledge which had been …
"Do not rejoice, Israel: do not exult as the peoples: for you have committed fornication with your God: you have loved the reward above all the wheat fields. The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the wine shall deceive them." LXX: "Do not rejoice, Israel, and do not be glad like the other peoples: for you have committed fornication against your God; you have loved the wages of fornication above every wheat floor. The threshing floor and winepress shall not feed them, and the wine will deceive them."
The Reformation1 voice
Though he may not openly put forth his hand, though he may not pursue us, we ought yet to anticipate his wrath; for it is the proper office of faith, not only to find out from present punishment that God is angry, but also to fear, on account of any prevailing vices, the punishment that is far distant.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
As other people - With feastings, triumphs, and sacrifices of thanksgiving. A reward - Such as is given by adulterers to lewd women; thou hast loved to see thy floor full, and hast said thy idols gave thee this plenty.
Other people were idolaters, but that sin was not, in them, going a whoring from God, as it was in Israel that had been married to him. Note, The sins of those who have made a profession of religion and relation to God are more provoking to him than the sins of others.
2 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Rejoice not - Do not imitate the heathens, nor serve their idols. Do not prostitute thy soul and body in practicing their impurities. Hitherto thou hast acted as a common harlot, who goes even to the common threshing places; connects herself with the meanest, in order to get a hire even of the grain there threshed out.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
Rejoice not, O Israel like the other peoples, for they did not receive a Torah, and they did not come to My lot, but you strayed from Me and lost many benefits.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
16 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אַל־ | ʾal- | may not | H408 → | 724 times |
| תִּשְׂמַ֨ח | tismach | you rejoice | H8055 → | |
| יִשְׂרָאֵ֤ל׀ | yisrael | O Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| גִּיל֙ | gil | rejoicing | H1524 → | |
| כָּֽעַמִּ֔ים | kaamim | like the peoples | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| כִּ֥י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| זָנִ֖יתָ | zanita | you have prostituted yourself | H2181 → | 94 times |
| מֵעַ֣ל | meal | from with | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ | ʾeloheikha | God your | H430 → | 2601 times |
| אָהַ֣בְתָּ | ʾahavta | you have loved | H157 → | 211 times |
| אֶתְנָ֔ן | ʾetnan | [the] hire of a prostitute | H868 → | |
| עַ֖ל | ʾal | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| כָּל־ | kol- | all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| גָּרְנ֥וֹת | garenot | threshing floors of | H1637 → | 36 times |
| דָּגָֽן׃ | dagan | grain | H1715 → | 40 times |
אַל־may not
ʾal-H408 →724 times
תִּשְׂמַ֨חyou rejoice
tismachH8055 →
יִשְׂרָאֵ֤ל׀O Israel
yisraelH3478 →2507 times
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
גִּיל֙rejoicing
gilH1524 →
כָּֽעַמִּ֔יםlike the peoples
kaamimH5971 →1873 times
כִּ֥יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
זָנִ֖יתָyou have prostituted yourself
zanitaH2181 →94 times
מֵעַ֣לfrom with
mealH5921 →5755 times
אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָGod your
ʾeloheikhaH430 →2601 times
אָהַ֣בְתָּyou have loved
ʾahavtaH157 →211 times
אֶתְנָ֔ן[the] hire of a prostitute
ʾetnanH868 →
עַ֖לon
ʾalH5921 →5755 times
כָּל־all
kol-H3605 →5413 times
גָּרְנ֥וֹתthreshing floors of
garenotH1637 →36 times
דָּגָֽן׃grain
daganH1715 →40 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
James 4:16As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil.
it leads to
- Proverbs 27:1
Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
- 1 Corinthians 5:6
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough?
- Psalms 52:7
“Look at the man who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself by destruction.”
- Proverbs 25:14
Like clouds and wind without rain is the man who boasts of gifts never given.
- Proverbs 27:1
Through
Hosea 10:5The people of Samaria will fear for the calf of Beth-aven. Indeed, its people will mourn with its idolatrous priests— those who rejoiced in its glory— for it has been taken from them into…
it leads to
- Hosea 9:11
Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird, with no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.
- 2 Kings 23:5
Josiah also did away with the idolatrous priests ordained by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem—those who…
- Hosea 5:8
Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah; raise the battle cry in Beth-aven: Lead on, O Benjamin!
- Hosea 9:11
Through
Hosea 4:12My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 2:27
say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their backs to Me and not their faces, yet in the time of trouble…
- Jeremiah 2:27
About Hosea
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jerome, Commentary on Hosea 9:1-2; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Theodore of Mopsuestia, COMMENTARY ON HOSEA 9.