Hosea 9:11
in Hosea 9Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird, with no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird: there shall be no birth, and none with child, and no conception.
KJV
As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.
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This verse in Hosea 9
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away, like a bird - Ephraim had parted with God, his true Glory. In turn, God would quickly take from him all created glory, all which he counted glory, or in which he gloried. When man parts with the substance, his true honor, God takes away the shadow, lest he should content himself therewith, and not see his shame, and, boasting himself to be something, abide in his nothingness and poverty and shame to which he had reduced himself. “Fruitfulness,” and consequent strength, had been God’s special promise to Ephraim.
This site's exposition
their glory shall fly away like a bird
on Hosea 9:11-14
Ephraim's glory is pictured flying away like a bird from three points at once, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception, a judgment reaching back before life even begins. Even children raised past infancy give no security, though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, and Ephraim's own pleasant planting, compared to Tyrus at the height of her prosperity, is said to bring forth children only to the murderer rather than to a future. The prophet's own prayer in verse fourteen matches the judgment's severity, give them, O Lord, a miscarrying womb and dry breasts, one of the harshest lines in the book, and the bench reads it as the prophet's grief voiced as intercession rather than as his own wish.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"As I found grapes in the desert, I saw Israel, as the first figs of the fig tree in the top thereof: but they went in to Beelphegor, and alienated themselves to that confusion, and became abominable, as those things were which they loved." LXX: "As I found Israel in the desert like a grape, and as I saw their fathers like a fig tree's temporary figs, but they entered Baal Peor and became alienated in confusion and became abominable like their love."
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
Their glory - Their children or posterity, which was the glory of Israel. Shall fly - It is proverbial, and speaks a sudden loss of children. From the birth - As soon as born.
Note, Worldly glory is glory that will fly away; but those that have their God their glory have in him an unfading everlasting glory. Ephraim has been as a fruitful tree. But now Ephraim is smitten, is blasted; their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit,
Ephraim is as strong and rich as ever Tyre was, and as proud and secure. The Chaldee paraphrase gives this sense of it, The congregation of Israel, while they observed the law, was like to Tyrus in prosperity and security.
6 For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles. The people of Israel are charged with spiritual adultery: O Israel! thou hast gone a whoring from thy God,
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-run:34w-of-52
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
As for Ephraim, their glory shall flee away like a bird,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
their glory shall fly away--fit retribution to those who "separated themselves unto that shame" (Ho 9:10). Children were accounted the glory of parents; sterility, a reproach. "Ephraim" means "fruitfulness" (Ge 41:52); this its name shall cease to be its characteristic. from the birth . . . womb . . . conception--Ephraim's children shall perish in a threefold gradation;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
Their glory shall fly away - It shall suddenly spring away from them, and return no more. From the birth - “So that there shall be no birth, no carrying in the womb, no conception.” - Newcome. They shall cease to glory in their numbers; for no children shall be born, no woman shall be pregnant, for none shall conceive. Here judgment blasts the very germs of population.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
Like grapes in the desert Like grapes, which are precious in the desert, so did I love Israel.
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
7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֶפְרַ֕יִם | ʾefrayim | Ephraim | H669 → | 180 times |
| כָּע֖וֹף | kaof | like <the> bird | H5775 → | 71 times |
| יִתְעוֹפֵ֣ף | yitofef | it will fly away | H5774 → | |
| כְּבוֹדָ֑ם | kevodam | glory their | H3519 → | 200 times |
| מִלֵּדָ֥ה | miledah | from child bearing | H3205 → | 496 times |
| וּמִבֶּ֖טֶן | umibeten | and from womb | H990 → | 72 times |
| וּמֵהֵרָיֽוֹן׃ | umeherayon | and from conception | H2032 → |
אֶפְרַ֕יִםEphraim
ʾefrayimH669 →180 times
כָּע֖וֹףlike <the> bird
kaofH5775 →71 times
יִתְעוֹפֵ֣ףit will fly away
yitofefH5774 →
כְּבוֹדָ֑םglory their
kevodamH3519 →200 times
מִלֵּדָ֥הfrom child bearing
miledahH3205 →496 times
וּמִבֶּ֖טֶןand from womb
umibetenH990 →72 times
וּמֵהֵרָיֽוֹן׃and from conception
umeherayonH2032 →
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
Genesis 41:52And the second son he named Ephraim, saying, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
it leads to
- Genesis 49:22
Joseph is a fruitful vine—a fruitful vine by a spring, whose branches scale the wall.
- Genesis 50:23
He saw Ephraim’s sons to the third generation, and indeed the sons of Machir son of Manasseh were brought up on Joseph’s knees.
- Genesis 49:22
Through
Hosea 4:7The more they multiplied, the more they sinned against Me; they exchanged their Glory for a thing of disgrace.
it leads to
- Hosea 13:6
When they had pasture, they became satisfied; when they were satisfied, their hearts became proud, and as a result they forgot Me.
- Philippians 3:19
Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.
- Hosea 13:6
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
- 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 4:15
Though you prostitute yourself, O Israel, may Judah avoid such guilt! Do not journey to Gilgal, do not go up to Beth-aven, and do not swear on oath, ‘As surely as the LORD lives!’
- 2 Kings 23:5
Through
Hosea 9:14Give them, O LORD—what will You give? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that dry up!
it leads to
- Luke 23:29
Look, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore, and breasts that never nursed!’
- Luke 23:29
About Hosea
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Hosea 9:10-11; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.