Hosea 10:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Hosea 10:11
And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.
to have affection for (sexually or otherwise) · verb, qal active participle, feminine singular construct
out
לָד֔וּשׁla.Dush
H1758
to trample or thresh · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
over
עָבַ֔רְתִּי'a.Var.ti
H5674
to cross over · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
fair
ט֖וּבtuv
H2898
good (as a noun) · noun, common masculine singular construct
neck
צַוָּארָ֑הּtza.va.Rah
H6677
the back of the neck (as that on which burdens are boun… · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
Ephraim
אֶפְרַ֙יִם֙'ef.Ra.yim
H669
Ephrajim · proper noun, a man's name
ride
אַרְכִּ֤יב'ar.Kiv
H7392
to ride (on an animal or in a vehicle) · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common singular
Judah
יְהוּדָ֔הye.hu.Dah
H3063
Jehudah (or Judah) · proper noun, a place name
plow
יַחֲר֣וֹשׁya.cha.Ro.osh
H2790
to scratch · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Jacob
יַעֲקֹֽבya.'a.Ko
H3290
Jaakob · proper noun, a man's name
clods
יְשַׂדֶּדye.sa.ded-
H7702
to abrade · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Hosea 4:16 For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place.
Deuteronomy 25:4 Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.
Jeremiah 50:11 Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as…
2 Chronicles 28:5-8 Wherefore the LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them…
Isaiah 28:24 Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?
Hosea 2:5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me…
Hosea 3:1 Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the chil…
Hosea 9:1 Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Hosea 10:9–end
Here, I. They are put in mind of the sins of their fathers and predecessors, for which God would now reckon with them. It was told them (Hos 9:9) that they had corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah, and here (Hos 10:9), O Israel! thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah. Not only the wickedness that was committed in that age is revived in this, and reacted, a copy from that original, but the wickedness that was committed in that age has been continued in a constant series and succession through all the intervening ages down to this; so that the measure of iniquity had been long in filling; and still there had been made additions to it. Or, "Thou has sinned more than in the days of G…
taught--that is, accustomed.
loveth to tread out . . . corn--a far easier and more self-indulgent work than ploughing. In treading corn, cattle were not bound together under a yoke, but either trod it singly with their feet, or drew a threshing sledge over it (Isa 28:27-28): they were free to eat some of the corn from time to time, as the law required they should be unmuzzled (Deu 25:4), so that they grew fat in this work. An image of Israel's freedom, prosperity, and self-indulgence heretofore. But now God will put the Assyrian yoke upon her, instead of freedom, putting her to servile work.
I passed over upon--I put the yoke upon.
make . . . to ride--as in Job 30:22; that is, hurry Ep…
Ephraim is as a heifer that is taught - One thoroughly broken in to the yoke.
And loveth to tread out - Goes peaceably in the yoke; and is pleased because, not being muzzled, she eats of the corn.
I passed over upon her fair neck - I brought the yoke upon it, that she should not tread out the corn merely, but draw the plough and drag the harrow. These operations of husbandry are all referred to here, with some others. Ephraim shall tread out the corn, that there may be seed for the fields.
Judah shall plough - That the furrows may receive it.
Jacob shall break his clods - Harrow - that the seed may be covered with the mould.
Israel very frequently made great depredations on Judah; and as thi…
The Church Fathers
"Ephraim likes to tread his grain, as a trained cow; and I passed over his beauty in the hill and climbed over Ephraim: Judah will plow; Jacob will break up the land for himself." LXX: "Ephraim is a cow" (or "heifer:" for what is called Egla in Hebrew means both a calf and heifer), so "Ephraim is a trained cow that loves to thresh; but I will come over his beautiful hill; I will set upon Ephraim, and Judah will be silent. Jacob will again be strengthened." This passage, indeed, all that follows in this chapter, is involved in great obscurity. Therefore, both we who strive to explain, and the wise reader who pays attention, so that we may be able to investigate not the truth, which is very difficult, but at least the suspicion of what is probable. Divine language has this custom of expressing truth through allegory and metaphor in history. Therefore, Ephraim is like a cow or a young cow that learned from its youth to tread the area, and to pull iron wheels over heaps of crops, so that chaff could be separated from the grain; and not only did he learn, but began to love excessively what he was taught. And I," he said, "passed over the beauty of its hill. The Hebrew word Abarthi, that is, "I passed over," especially when said by God, always signifies wounds and adversity. Finally even the destroyer in Egypt is said to have passed over. Therefore, because Ephraim loves to graze in the area like a cow or calf, "I," he said, "passed over the beauty of its hill," and tamed the swelling necks with a yoke imposed. Why should I mention the yoke of the Law? I myself ascended upon it, and while I was working, Judas, that is, two tribes began to cleave the fields with a plow and recline the earth into furrows. However, carrying the yoke of Ephraim, and tilling, he broke the furrows for Jacob. Here we understand by the distinction of Israel and Judah that there were twelve tribes: they began to break the clods with plows ("Al." harrows), and to break apart the earth so that, softened, it may receive seeds and that, after a short time, fertile crops may sprout. For 'threshing floor' or 'area of contention,' the Septuagint translated, and the sense is: Because Ephraim does not want to receive the yoke of the Law, I will cross over and ascend on the beauty of his hill; for the contentious cow and the lustful labor which she does not want to do. But Judah will plow his own…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Harrow — (Heb. harits), a tribulum or sharp threshing sledge; a frame armed on the under side with rollers or sharp spikes (2 Sam. 12:31; 1 Chr. 20:3). Heb. verb sadad, to harrow a field, break its clods (Job…
Heifer — Heb. ‘eglah, (Deut. 21:4, 6; Jer. 46:20). Untrained to the yoke (Hos. 10:11); giving milk (Isa. 7:21); ploughing (Judg. 14:18); treading out grain (Jer. 50:11); unsubdued to the yoke an emblem of…
Ox — Heb. bakar, “cattle;” “neat cattle”, (Gen. 12:16; 34:28; Job 1:3, 14; 42:12, etc.); not to be muzzled when treading the corn (Deut. 25:4). Referred to by our Lord in his reproof to the Pharisees…
Cow · Used for pulling — Used for pulling
Heifer · Used for treading out wheat — Used for treading out wheat
Ox, The · Described as: Beautiful — Described as: Beautiful
Ploughing · Illustrative: Of a severe course of affliction — Illustrative: Of a severe course of affliction
Pride · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Threshing · By treading — By treading
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn,.... Like a heifer taught to bear the yoke, and to plough; but learned it not, as the Targum; does not like it; chooses to tread out the corn where it can feed upon it, its mouth not being then muzzled, according to the law; oxen or heifers were used both in ploughing and treading out corn, to which the allusion is. The sense is, that Ephraim or the ten tribes were taught to bear the yoke of the law, and yield obedience to it, and perform good works; but did not like such a course of life; had no further regard for religion than as they found their own worldly profit and advantage in it: or they did not care to labo…
Hosea 10:11
11. And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.
11. Ephraim juvenca est edocta ad diligendum trituram; [69] et ego transivi super pulchritudine colli ejus; equitare faciam Ephraim, arabit Judah, occabit sibi Jacob.
Some read the two words, "taught," and "loveth," separately, mlmdh, melamde, and 'hvty, aebti; for they think that at the beginning of the verse a reproach is conveyed, as though the Prophet had said, that Ephraim was wholly unteachable: though God had from childhood brought him up under his discipline, he yet now sh…
In the next verse the punishment is still further defined, and also extended to Judah. Hos 10:11. "And Ephraim is an instructed cow, which loves to thresh; and I, I have come over the beauty of her neck: I yoke Ephraim; Judah will plough, Jacob harrow itself." Melummâdâh, instructed, trained to work, received its more precise definition from the words "loving to thresh" ('ōhabhtı̄, a participle with the connecting Yod in the constructive: see Ewald, 211, b), not as being easier work in comparison with the hard task of driving, ploughing, and harrowing, but because in threshing the ox was allowed to eat at pleasure (Deu 25:4), from which Israel became fat and strong (Deu 32:15). Threshing,…
Because Israel was not faithful to the covenant, the Lord placed on her a heavy yoke—the divine correction required to bring her back to him.
Rashi on Hosea 10:11
And Ephraim is a goaded heifer Heb. מְלֻמָּדָה, porpojjnte in O.F. punctured, wounded in many places with the oxgoad, which is called agojjlon in O.F. I.e., many chastisements have I brought upon her, yet she has not humbled herself, and he always loves to thresh the grain in a place of food and fat, and she did not subject herself to be plowing, i.e., they did not subject themselves to My Torah, but follow the vision of their heart.
that loves Heb. אֹהַבְתִּי. The “yud” is superfluous. Comp. (Gen. 31: 39) “stolen by day (גְּנֻבְתִי).”
and I passed over her fair neck Therefore, I bring upon them kings who will weaken their strength.
I will cause Ephraim to ride, Judah shall plow etc. If y…
