16 Ephraim is struck. Their root has dried up. They will bear no fruit. Even though they bring forth, yet I will kill the beloved ones of their womb."
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
The Prophet again threatens extreme vengeance to the Israelites. It is no wonder that the same sentence is so often repeated; for hypocrites, we know, too much flatter themselves, and are not frightened even by the most grievous threatening. As then hypocrites are so stupid, they must be often, nay, frequently pricked, and most sharply, that they may at length be awakened out of their torpor. Hence the Prophet repeats the threatening which he had often before announced, and says, that Israel had been so smitten, that their root had dried up The comparison is taken from a tree, which not only has had its branches cut off, but has also been torn from the roots. The meaning is, that God would take such vengeance on this miserable people, as wholly to destroy them, without any hope of recovery. The root then is dried up, they will produce fruit no more. He then leaves this similitude or metaphor, and says, If they generate, I will slay the desirable fruit of their womb; that is, though some seed be begotten, I will yet destroy it. We now then apprehend the design of the Prophet, which was to show, that the Lord would no more be content with some moderate punishment, for he had often found that this abandoned people were in vain chastised by paternal love; but that extreme vengeance awaited them, which would consume not only the men, but also their children so that no residue should remain. The reason is afterwards added --
Ephraim is smitten - The prophet, under the image of a tree, repeats the same sentence of God upon Israel. The word "smitten" is used of the smiting of the tree from above, especially by the visitation of God, as by "blasting" and "mildew" Amos 4:9. Yet such smiting, although it falls heavily for the time, leaves hope for the future. He adds then, "their root is" also "withered," so that "they should bear no fruit;" or if, perchance, while the root was still drying up and not quite dead, any fruit he yet found, "yet will I slay," God says, "the beloved," fruit "of their womb," the desired fruit of their bodies, that which their souls longed for. : "So long as they have children, and multiply the fruit of the womb, they think that they bear fruit, they deem not that "their root is dried," or that they have been severed by the axe of excision, and "rooted out of the land of the living;" but, in the anguish at the "slaying" of those they most loved, they shall say, better had it been to have had no children."
Ephraim is smitten - The thing being determined, it is considered as already done.
Their root is dried up - They shall never more be a kingdom. And they never had any political form from their captivity by the Assyrians to the present day.
Yea, though they bring forth - See the note on Hosea 9:11-12 (note).
Ephraim is smitten,.... The people of the ten tribes, the kingdom of Israel, who had been like a tree planted in a pleasant place, Hosea 9:13; and were in very flourishing circumstances in the times of Jeroboam the second; but now were like a tree smitten with thunder and lightning, or hail stones, and beat to pieces; or with the heat of the sun, or with blasting winds, or by worms; as in the succeeding reigns, by the judgments of God upon them; by civil wars, conspiracies, and murders among themselves; and by the exactions of Pul and depredations of Tiglathpileser kings of Assyria; and quickly would be smitten again; the present being put for the future, because of the certainty of it, as usual in prophetic writings; or be utterly destroyed by Shalmaneser, and be no more a kingdom:
their root is dried up; like the root of a tree that has no sap and moisture in it, and can communicate none to the body and branches of the tree, which in course must die. This may be understood of their king, princes, nobles, and chief men, the support and strength of the nations; and of parents and heads of families, cut off by one judgment or another:
they shall bear no fruit; as a tree thus smitten, and its root dried up, cannot; so neither, this being their case, there would be none to beget, nor any to bear children, and bring them forth; called the fruit of the womb, in allusion to the fruit of trees:
yea, though they bring forth; though some of them should be spared, women with their husbands, and should procreate children:
yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb; their children they should bring forth, on whom their affections were strongly set; and the rather, as they were but few, and from whom they had raised expectations of building up their families; even these the Lord would stay, or suffer to be slain, either by the sword of the enemy, or by famine, or by pestilence, or by some disease or another; so that there should be no hope of a future posterity, at least of no great number of them.
The figures "root," "fruit," are suggested by the word "Ephraim," that is, fruitful (see on Hosea 9:11-12). "Smitten," namely, with a blight (Psalm 102:4).
"Ephraim is smitten: their root is dried up; they will bear no fruit: even if they beget, I slay the treasures of their womb. Hosea 9:17. My God rejects them: for they have not hearkened to Him, and they shall be fugitives among the nations." In Hosea 9:16 Israel is compared to a plant, that is so injured by the heat of the sun (Psalm 121:6; Psalm 102:5), or by a worm (Jonah 4:7), that it dries up and bears no more fruit. The perfects are a prophetic expression, indicating the certain execution of the threat. This is repeated in Hosea 9:16 in figurative language; and the threatening in Hosea 9:11, Hosea 9:12, is thereby strengthened. Lastly, in Hosea 9:17 the words of threatening are rounded off by a statement of the reason for the rejection of Israel; and this rejection is described as banishment among the nations, according to Deuteronomy 28:65.
*More commentary available at chapter level.