Hosea 9:8

The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) Prophet.—Many hold that here (as in the previous verse) this word is used in a bad sense (false prophet), and standing contrasted with “the watchman of Ephraim” (or true prophet, Hosea himself, Jeremiah 6:17; Ezekiel 3:17). They would render:—“The watchman of Ephraim is with my God.” But the verse is capable of an altogether different, and, on the whole, more satisfactory interpretation: Ephraim is a lier-in-wait, in conflict with my God. As for the prophet, the fowler’s snare is in all his ways. (Comp. Matthew 23:34-35.) There is persecution in the house of his God. The objection to this rendering lies in this use of the Hebrew ‘im (“in conflict with”). But the word might be read ‘am, “people” (comp. LXX. on 2Samuel 1:2): “Ephraim, the people of my God, is a lier-in-wait”—a thought full of pathos, and in harmony with the main idea of this prophecy.

Benson Commentary

Hosea 9:8-9. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God — Or, as some read. it, on the authority of divers MSS., אלהיו, his God, or, as the LXX. read it, with God. “The watchman is here evidently a title by which some faithful prophet is distinguished from the temporizers and seducers. But who in particular is this watchman, thus honourably distinguished, and how is he with his God? I think,” says Bishop Horsley, “the allusion is to Elijah, and his miraculous translation. ‘Elijah, that faithful watchman, that resolute opposer of idolatry in the reign of Ahab and Jezebel, is now with God, receiving the reward of his fidelity in the enjoyment of the beatific vision. But the prevaricating prophets, which now are, are the victims of judicial delusion.’“ They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah — They have not only sinned lightly, or trivially, but have sunk into the deepest wickedness, and have become as bad altogether as the men of Gibeah were in former times: see Jdg 19:15, &c. Therefore he will remember their iniquity, &c. — God, who hateth such workers of iniquity, will not pardon their crimes, but severely punish them.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:7-10 Time had been when the spiritual watchmen of Israel were with the Lord, but now they were like the snare of a fowler to entangle persons to their ruin. The people were become as corrupt as those of Gibeah, Jud 19; and their crimes should be visited in like manner. At first God had found Israel pleasing to Him, as grapes to the traveller in the wilderness. He saw them with pleasure as the first ripe figs. This shows the delight God took in them; yet they followed after idolatry.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The watchman of Ephraim was with my God - These words may well contrast the office of the true prophet with the false. For Israel had had many true prophets, and such was Hosea himself now. The true prophet was at all times with "God." He was "with God," as holpen by God, "watching" or looking out and on into the future by the help of God. He was "with God," as walking with God in a constant sense of His presence, and in continual communion with Him. He was "with God," as associated by God with Himself, in teaching, warning, correcting, exhorting His people, as the Apostle says, "we then as workers together with Him" 2 Corinthians 6:1.

It might also be rendered in nearly the same sense, "Ephraim was a watchman with my God," and this is more according to the Hebrew words. As though the whole people of Israel had an office from God , "and God addressed it as a whole, 'I made thee, as it were, a watchman and prophet of God to the neighboring nations, that through My providence concerning thee, and thy living according to the law, they too might receive the knowledge of Me. But thou hast acted altogether contrary to this, for thou hast become a snare to them. '"

Yet perhaps, if so construed, it would rather mean, "Ephraim is a watchman, beside my God," as it is said, "There is none upon earth, that I desire with Thee" Psalm 73:25, i. e., beside Thee. In God the Psalmist had all, and desired to have nothing "with," i. e., beside God. Ephraim was not content with God's revelations, but would himself be "a seer, an espier" of future events, the prophet says with indignation, "together with my God." God, in fact, sufficed. Ephraim not. Ahab hated God's prophet, "because he did not speak good concerning him but evil" 1 Kings 22:8, 1 Kings 22:18. And so the kings of Israel had court-prophets of their own, an establishment, as it would seem, of four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and four hundred prophets of Ashtaroth 1 Kings 18:19, which was filled up again by new impostors 2 Kings 3:13; 2 Kings 10:19, when after the miracle of Mount Carmel, Elijah, according to the law Deuteronomy 13:5; Deuteronomy 17:5, put to death the prophets of Baal. These false prophets, as well as those of Judah in her evil days, flattered the kings who supported them, misled them, encouraged them in disbelieving the threatenings of God, and so led to their destruction. By these means, the bad priests maintained their hold over the people. They were the antichrists of the Old Testament, disputing the authority of God, in whose name they prophesied. Ephraim encouraged their sins, as God says of Judah by Jeremiah, "My people love to have it so" Jeremiah 5:31. It willed to be deceived, and was so.

"On searching diligently ancient histories," says Jerome, "I could not find that any divided the Church, or seduced people from the house of the Lord, except those who have been set by God as priests and prophets, i. e. watchmen. These then are turned into a snare, setting a stumbling-block everywhere, so that whosoever entereth on their ways, falls, and cannot stand in Christ, and is led away by various errors and crooked paths to a precipice." : "No one," says another great father, "doth wider injury than one who acteth perversely, while he hath a name or an order of holiness." "God endureth no greater prejudice from any than from priests, when He seeth those whom He has set for the correction of others, give from themselves examples of perverseness, when "we" sin, who ought to restrain sin. What shall become of the flock, when the pastors become wolves?"

The false prophet is the snare of a fowler in - (literally, "upon") all his ways i. e., whatever Ephraim would do, wherever the people, as a whole or any of them, would go, there the false prophet beset them, endeavoring to make each and everything a means of holding them back from their God. This they did, "being hatred in the house of his God." As one says, "I am (all) prayer" Psalm 109:4, because he was so given up to prayer that he seemed turned into prayer; his whole soul was concentrated in prayer; so of these it is said, "they" were "hatred." They hated so intensely, that their whole soul was turned into hatred; they were as we say, hatred personified; hatred was embodied in them, and they ensouled with hate. They were also the source of hatred against God and man. And this each false prophet was "in the house of his God!" for God was still his God, although not owned by him as God. God is the sinners God to avenge, if he will not allow Him to be his God, to convert and pardon.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. The watchman … was with my God—The spiritual watchmen, the true prophets, formerly consulted my God (Jer 31:6; Hab 2:1); but their so-called prophet is a snare, entrapping Israel into idolatry.

hatred—rather, "(a cause of) apostasy" (see Ho 9:7) [Maurer].

house of his God—that is, the state of Ephraim, as in Ho 8:1 [Maurer]. Or, "the house of his (false) god," the calves [Calvin]. Jehovah, "my God," seems contrasted with "his God." Calvin's view is therefore preferable.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The watchman of Ephraim was with my God; the old true prophets indeed were with God, heard what he spake, and told it to the people; they were for God, for his honour, law, worship, and temple; and so should prophets now be. Ephraim once had such prophets, such were Elijah and Elisha, but none such now, or Ephraim cares not for them. The prophet speaks of God, the true God, as his God, in opposition to idols, on which Ephraim doted now, whose pretended oracles they believed.

But the prophet; the prophets now-a-days, who call themselves prophets, and are so accounted by the people, have, as the people, left God, and do no more consult with God.

Is a snare of a fowler; their pretended predictions and promises are but a snare, such as fowlers lay to take fowl in; and these impostors are conscious to themselves that they are deceivers; at least they cannot but know that the true God never gave them answer at any of their images, yet they pretend he hath done it, and that he will prosper them; so they insnare the people first in sin, next in punishment.

In all his ways; and all they design and endeavour by all means is to keep the people in this opinion and hope.

And hatred in the house of his God; so is hatred in the sight of God, he doth hate such deceivers; and he is hatred, i.e. ere long will he hatred, in the sight of the people he deceived; they shall hate their false prophets, who from the house of their God, by answers from the idols in their temples, confirmed the people in their rebellion, and hardened them against returning to God, which ends in their ruin: or else hatred, &c., i.e. cause of the people’s hatred, against God and one another.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The watchman of Ephraim was with my God,.... Formerly the watchmen of Ephraim, or the prophets of Israel, were with the true God, whom the prophet calls his God; as Elijah and Elisha, who had communion and intimacy with him; had revelations and instructions from him; and were under the direction and inspiration of his Spirit, and prophesied in his name things according to his will, and for the good of his people: or "the watchman of Ephraim should be with my God"; on his side, and promote his worship and service, his honour and interest; and give the people warning from him, having heard the word at his mouth: but now they were not with him, nor for him, nor did as they should: or one that bore this character of a watchman in the ten tribes, pretended to be such a one, and would be thought to be with God, and to have his mind and will, and to be sincere for his glory:

but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways; the false prophet, the same with the watchman, instead of guiding and directing Ephraim in the right way in which he should go, lays snares for him in all the ways he takes, to lead him wrong, and draw him into sin, particularly into idolatry, both by his doctrine and example:

and hatred in the house of his God; and so became detestable and execrable it the house of his own god, the calf at Bethel, in the temple there: prophesying such things as in the event prove false, and drawing into such practices as brought on ruin and desolation. The Targum interprets it, of laying snares for their prophets, their true prophets; and Kimchi and Jarchi of slaying Zechariah the prophet in the temple.

Geneva Study Bible

The watchman of Ephraim {i} was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.

(i) The Prophet's duty is to bring men to God, and not to be a snare to pull them from God.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God] Rather, is with my God. There is a various reading ‘his God’ (so also Rashi), but ‘my God’ can be well defended; for the watchman spoken of is Hosea himself. We have ‘my God’ again in Hosea 9:17. The figure implied is developed more fully in Jeremiah 6:17, ‘Also I set watchmen over you, (saying,) Hearken to the sound of the trumpet.’ ‘With my God’ = ‘in communion with’ or ‘helped by.’ The connexion will, however, be improved if we suppose that, owing to the fact that ‘Ephraim’ ends with a Mem, the same letter has dropped out at the beginning of the next word. In this case, render (connecting this and the next clause), Ephraim’s watchman, appointed by my God [comp. in the Hebrew, Isaiah 8:11], even the prophet—a fowler’s snare is, &c. An entirely wrong view of the construction is suggested by the vowel-points (which of course form no part of the text proper), viz. ‘Ephraim looketh out (for help) beside my God’; but ‘beside’ cannot mean ‘apart from’; or ‘Ephraim is a lier in wait (in his fight) against my God.’

but the prophet is, &c.] See last note. The prophet meant is a true not a false prophet (as Keil takes it), for though the false prophets might be likened to a fowler’s snare, their conduct could not be spoken of as ‘envious’ or ‘persecuting’ towards Ephraim. It is rather the Ephraimites who are always laying snares (comp. Isaiah 29:21) for their troublesome ‘watchman.’

hatred] Rather, enmity (or, hostility; or, persecution).

in the house of his God] This must to some extent be equivalent to the parallel words ‘in all his ways.’ In Hosea 9:15 ‘mine house’ means the land of Canaan, and so probably here. Jehovah is not their God, for they (Israel) ‘know’ Him not; and they cannot abide those who, like Hosea (Hosea 9:8) and the psalmist (Psalm 73:23), are ‘continually with Him.’

Hosea 9:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"The days of visitation are come, the days of retribution are come; Israel will learn: a fool the prophet, a madman the man of spirit, for the greatness of thy guilt, and the great enmity. Hosea 9:8. A spy is Ephraim with my God: the prophet a snare of the bird-catcher in all his ways, enmity in the house of his God. Hosea 9:9. They have acted most corruptly, as in the days of Gibeah: He remembers their iniquity, visits their sins." The perfects in Hosea 9:7 are prophetic. The time of visitation and retribution is approaching. Then will Israel learn that its prophets, who only predicted prosperity and good (Ezekiel 13:10), were infatuated fools. אויל וגו introduces, without kı̄, what Israel will experience, as in Hosea 7:2; Amos 5:12. It does not follow, from the use of the expression 'ı̄sh rūăch, that the reference is to true prophets. 'Ish rūăch (a man of spirit) is synonymous with the 'ı̄sh hōlēkh rūăch (a man walking in the spirit) mentioned in Micah 2:11 as prophesying lies, and may be explained from the fact, that even the false prophets stood under the influence of a superior demoniacal power, and were inspired by a rūăch sheqer ("a lying spirit," 1 Kings 22:22). The words which follow, viz., "a fool is the prophet," etc., which cannot possibly mean, that men have treated, despised, and persecuted the prophets as fools and madmen, are a decisive proof that the expression does not refer to true prophets. על רב עונך is attached to the principal clauses, השּׁלּם ... בּאוּ. The punishment and retribution occur because of the greatness of the guilt of Israel. In ורבּה the preposition על continues in force, but as a conjunction: "and because the enmity is great" (cf. Ewald, 351, a). Mastēmâh, enmity, not merely against their fellow-men generally, but principally against God and His servants the true prophets. This is sustained by facts in Hosea 9:8. The first clause, which is a difficult one and has been interpreted in very different ways, "spying is Ephraim עם אלהי" (with or by my God), cannot contain the thought that Ephraim, the tribe, is, according to its true vocation, a watchman for the rest of the people, whose duty it is to stand with the Lord upon the watch-tower and warn Israel when the Lord threatens punishment and judgment (Jerome, Schmidt); for the idea of a prophet standing with Jehovah upon a watch-tower is not only quite foreign to the Old Testament, but irreconcilable with the relation in which the prophets stood to Jehovah. The Lord did indeed appoint prophets as watchmen to His people (Ezekiel 3:17); but He does take His own stand upon the watch-tower with them. Tsâphâh in this connection, where prophets are spoken of both before and after, can only denote the eager watching on the part of the prophets for divine revelations, as in Habakkuk 2:1, and not their looking out for help; and עם אלהי cannot express their fellowship or agreement with God, if only on account of the suffix "my God," in which Hosea contrasts the true God as His own, with the God of the people. The thought indicated would require אלהיו, a reading which is indeed met with in some codices, but is only a worthless conjecture. עם denotes outward fellowship here: "with" equals by the side of. Israel looks out for prophecies or divine revelations with the God of the prophet, i.e., at the side of Jehovah; in other words, it does not follow or trust its own prophets, who are not inspired by Jehovah. These are like snares of a bird-catcher in its road, i.e., they cast the people headlong into destruction. נביא stands at the head, both collectively and absolutely. In all its ways there is the trap of the bird-catcher: i.e., all its projects and all that it does will only tend to ensnare the people. Hostility to Jehovah and His servants the true prophets, is in the house of the God of the Israelites, i.e., in the temple erected for the calf-worship; a fact of which Amos (Amos 7:10-17) furnishes a practical example. Israel has thereby fallen as deeply into abomination and sins as in the days of Gibeah, i.e., as at the time when the abominable conduct of the men of Gibeah in connection with the concubine of a Levite took place, as related in Judges 19ff., in consequence of which the tribe of Benjamin was almost exterminated. The same depravity on the part of Israel will be equally punished by the Lord now (cf. Hosea 8:13).