Tyndale Open Study NotesHosea 9

• Do not rejoice: This likely refers to the Feast of Tabernacles, when Israel celebrated the year's final harvest. God ordained this festival (Deuteronomy 16:13–15), but the Israelites turned it into a wild pagan celebration, acting like other nations.

• you have played the harlot (literally you have loved a prostitute’s pay): The Israelites mistakenly believed their grain and wine were rewards for worshiping the Canaanite fertility god.

As punishment for their actions, the Lord would reduce the Israelites' harvests. This would cause them to go hungry (compare Haggai 1:3–11).

God would send the Israelites into exile in Assyria in 722 BC. There, in a land considered unclean, they would eat food that was ceremonially unclean. This would separate them even more from their covenant with the Lord.

In exile, the Israelites could not offer proper sacrifices because any sacrifice in a foreign land was considered unclean and defiled.

Even if some Israelites escaped the Assyrian exile by fleeing to Egypt, God’s judgment would still reach them there.

The Israelites who turned away from their faith did not believe God's warnings from the prophets. They mocked the prophets, calling them crazy.

The watchman stood on the city wall to warn of any threat (for example, 1 Samuel 14:16). Similarly, a prophet was God's watchman. They warned Israel about her sins and the judgment that would follow (see Jeremiah 6:17; Ezekiel 3:17). Even though the prophet served the people, they responded to him with hostility.

as in the days of Gibeah: See Judges 19–21.

I found Israel: Hosea, like Ezekiel (Ezekiel 16), describes the Lord finding and adopting pure, innocent Israel in the desert. But Israel soon left God for idols at Baal-peor (Numbers 25:1–4). Worshiping idols made the Israelites detestable. This strong word can also mean abomination (Deuteronomy 29:17; Jeremiah 7:30). They inevitably became like what they worshiped.

Israel worshiped the baals in hopes of having many children. But God would punish them by preventing conception, pregnancy, and birth.

for slaughter: Instead of having more children, the Israelites' worship of idols would lead to their children's deaths.

• All their evil appears at Gilgal: Gilgal was the base camp for Joshua’s army (Joshua 5:10; 10:6, 43) and the place where Saul became king (1 Samuel 11:15). Saul also disobeyed God and was rejected as king at Gilgal (1 Samuel 13:8–15; 15:10–23). Israel’s leaders, including its first king, led the nation away from their true king, the Lord.

• I will no longer love them: Although a different Hebrew word is used here, the prophetic judgment reflects the name of Hosea’s daughter (Hosea 1:6).

wanderers: God would judge the Israelites by removing them from the land, leaving them without a home.