Hosea 9:14
in Hosea 9Give them, O LORD—what will You give? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that dry up!
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Give them, O Jehovah—what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
KJV
Give them, O Lord: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
⋯
This verse in Hosea 9
Commentary
9 notes on this verseGive 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.
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
"Give them, Lord: what will you give them? Give them a womb without children" (Vulg. "sons"), and dry breasts" LXX similarly. If we abuse those things which God gave us for a blessing and they are turned to the opposite of why they were given, it is better for them to be taken away from us.
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
Rather let them have no children than have them to be made miserable; for the same reason, when a total ruin was coming on the Jewish nation, Christ said, Blessed is the womb that never bore and the paps that never gave suck, Luke xxiii.
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
Give then - It is an abrupt but pathetic speech of one that shews his trouble for a sinking, undone nation. A miscarrying womb - It is less misery to have none, than to have all our children murdered.
Give them, O Lord: what wilt thou give them?....
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
what wilt thou give?--As if overwhelmed by feeling, he deliberates with God what is most desirable. give . . . a miscarrying womb--Of two evils he chooses the least.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
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 God’s 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.”
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
Give them, O Lord, what You will give The prophet prays that they should die when young, for the mourning for a child is not as bad as the mourning for an adult.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Ephraim, as I saw Tyre in its tranquility, enjoying royalty and wealth more than all the provinces, so did I see Ephraim, planted in a dwelling place. But Ephraim what recompense did he recompense Me?
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
11 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| תֵּן־ | ten- | give | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| לָהֶ֥ם | lahem | to them | ||
| יְהוָ֖ה | yahweh | O Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| מַה־ | mah- | what? | H4100 → | 752 times |
| תִּתֵּ֑ן | titen | will you give | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| תֵּן־ | ten- | give | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| לָהֶם֙ | lahem | to them | ||
| רֶ֣חֶם | rechem | a womb | H7358 → | |
| מַשְׁכִּ֔יל | mashkil | [which] miscarry | H7921 → | |
| וְשָׁדַ֖יִם | veshadayim | and breasts | H7699 → | |
| צֹמְקִֽים׃ | tzomekim | [which] dry up | H6784 → |
תֵּן־give
ten-H5414 →2011 times
לָהֶ֥םto them
lahem
יְהוָ֖הO Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
מַה־what?
mah-H4100 →752 times
תִּתֵּ֑ןwill you give
titenH5414 →2011 times
תֵּן־give
ten-H5414 →2011 times
לָהֶם֙to them
lahem
רֶ֣חֶםa womb
rechemH7358 →
מַשְׁכִּ֔יל[which] miscarry
mashkilH7921 →
וְשָׁדַ֖יִםand breasts
veshadayimH7699 →
צֹמְקִֽים׃[which] dry up
tzomekimH6784 →
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
Luke 23:29Look, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore, and breasts that never nursed!’
it leads to
- Matthew 24:19
How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers!
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Hosea 13:16
Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Luke 21:23–24
How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers! For there will be great distress upon the land and wrath against this people.
- Matthew 24:19
Through
Luke 21:23How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers! For there will be great distress upon the land and wrath against this people.
it leads to
- Lamentations 4:10
The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- 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!’
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Lamentations 4:10
Through
Matthew 24:19How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers!
it leads to
- Luke 23:29–30
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 21:23
How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers! For there will be great distress upon the land and wrath against this people.
- Deuteronomy 28:53–56
Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict…
- Luke 23:29–30
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 9:14; 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.