Barnes' Notes on Hosea 9:16

A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.

Notes on the Whole Bible
Albert Barnes (1798–1870) · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.

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.” return to 'Top of Page'

Read Hosea 9:16 →Read the full chapter →John Gill's Exposition →Jamieson, Fausset & Brown →Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge →Keil & Delitzsch →

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