Hosea 13:15 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Hosea 13:15
Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.
to bear fruit · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
brethren
אַחִ֖ים'a.Chim
H251
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · noun, common masculine plural absolute
wind
קָדִים֩ka.Dim
H6921
the fore or front part · noun, common masculine singular absolute
come
יָב֣וֹאya.Vo'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
wind
ר֨וּחַRu.ach
H7307
wind · noun, common feminine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֜הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
up
עֹלֶ֗ה'o.Leh
H5927
to ascend · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
wilderness
מִמִּדְבָּ֣רmi.mid.Bar
H4057
a pasture (i.e. open field · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
spring
מְקוֹרוֹ֙me.ko.Ro
H4726
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
dry
בּוּשׁbûwsh
H954
properly
fountain
מַעְיָנ֔וֹma'.ya.No
H4599
a fountain (also collectively) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
up
וְיֶחֱרַ֣בve.ye.che.Rav
H2717
to parch (through drought) i.e. (by analogy · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine singular
spoil
יִשְׁסֶ֔הyish.Seh
H8154
to plunder · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
treasure
אוֹצַ֖ר'o.Tzar
H214
a depository · noun, common masculine singular construct
pleasant
חֶמְדָּֽהchem.Dah
H2532
delight · noun, common feminine singular absolute
vessels
כְּלִ֥יke.Li
H3627
something prepared · noun, common masculine singular construct
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
Ezekiel 19:12 But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withe…
Ezekiel 17:10 Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it? it shall wither in the furrows wh…
Genesis 41:52 And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.
Genesis 48:19 And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his you…
Genesis 49:22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
Jeremiah 4:11 At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my peo…
Deuteronomy 33:17 His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to…
Job 18:16 His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Hosea 13:9–end
The first of these verses is the summary, or contents, of all the rest (Hos 13:9), where we have, 1. All the blame of Israel's ruin laid upon themselves: O Israel! thy perdition is thence; it is of and from thyself; or, "It has destroyed thee, O Israel! that is, all that sin and folly of thine which thou art before charged with. As thy own wickedness has many a time corrected thee, so that has now at length destroyed thee." Note, Wilful sinners are self-destroyers. Obstinate impenitence is the grossest self-murder. Those that are destroyed of the destroyer have their blood upon their own head; they have destroyed themselves. 2. All the glory of Israel's relief ascribed to God: But in me is t…
fruitful--referring to the meaning of "Ephraim," from a Hebrew root, "to be fruitful" (Gen 41:52). It was long the most numerous and flourishing of the tribes (Gen 48:19).
wind of the Lord--that is, sent by the Lord (compare Isa 40:7), who has His instruments of punishment always ready. The Assyrian, Shalmaneser, &c., is meant (Jer 4:11; Jer 18:17; Eze 19:12).
from the wilderness--that is, the desert part of Syria (Kg1 19:15), the route from Assyria into Israel.
he--the Assyrian invader. Shalmaneser began the siege of Samaria in 723 B.C. Its close was in 721 B.C., the first year of Sargon, who seems to have usurped the throne of Assyria while Shalmaneser was at the siege of Samaria. He…
Though he be fruitful - יפריא yaphri; a paronomasia on the word אפרים ephrayim, which comes from the same root פרה parah, to be fruitful, to sprout, to bud.
An east wind shall come - As the east wind parches and blasts all vegetation, so shall Shalmaneser blast and destroy the Israelitish state.
John Gill on Hosea 13:15
Though he be fruitful among his brethren,.... This is not spoken of Christ, as some think, who take the words to be a continuation of the prophecy concerning the Redeemer, who should increase his brethren, and bring many to him; and be as noxious to hell and death as the east wind is to persons and things, and dry up the fountains and springs of hell and death; the sins of men he should abolish, and be victorious over all his enemies, and divide their spoils: but they are rather the words of Christ himself concerning Ephraim, in connection with Hosea 13:13; expressing his character and state, and explaining the sorrows and calamities that should come upon him for his folly, in not staying th…
The Church Fathers
Wherefore let us direct our discourse to a second witness. And of what sort is this one? Listen to Hosea, as he speaks thus grandly: "In those days the Lord shall bring on a burning wind from the desert against them, and shall make their veins dry, and shall make their springs desolate; and all their goodly vessels shall be spoiled. Because they rose up against God, they shall fall by the sword, and their pregnant women shall be ripped up." And what else is this burning wind from the east than the antichrist that is to destroy and dry up the veins of the waters and the fruits of the trees in his times, because people set their hearts on his works? For which reason they shall serve him in his pollution.
"The Lord shall bring upon him a burning wind, and shall wither all his veins: and shall make his sources desolate, and he shall pull down all his fences: because he hath done wickedly." LXX: "The Lord will bring a scorching wind from the desert upon them, and he will dry up their springs. Their fountains shall be desolate, the land will be parched, and all that is in it will be ruined." I have read in the comments of someone that the whirlwind which the Lord brings from the desert, is the same one who struck Job's house at its four corners and made it collapse on the feasting sons (Job 1), and that it is one of those winds which we read of in the Gospel to blow and come as a storm with heavy rain and floods, to overthrow the house built on a rock or on sands (Matthew 7). Which seems not at all to me: for it is not written in Job that the Lord brought a wind from the desert; but the name of the Lord is silent, so that the wind from the desert, which had come against the holy man by its own will, might be taken as a contrary strength, and the winds that overthrow the foundations of houses cannot be referred to the good side. It remains that we understand the burning wind that the Lord will bring from the desert, as we also read about in Habakkuk: "God will come from the South, and the Holy One from Mount Paran" (Habakkuk 3:3): which, of course, is located in the desert and at midday. And in the Song we read: "Where do you feed, where do you rest at midday" (Song 1:6)? The Lord will bring this scorching wind, which dries up the veins of death and dries up its springs, from the ascending desert: from the desert, however, of the human race, in which even the devil seeking rest could not find. Whether we understand the desert to be the virgin womb of Saint Mary, which gave birth to this flower without the seed of man, which shot up through its pure and fecund union as a simple rod and produced that flower that says in the Song of Songs: "I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys" (Song of Songs 2:2). And beautifully, as much in Isaiah as in the present place, the ascending flower is said to be the ascending wind: because it ascends from the humility of the flesh to the heights, and he led us with him to the Father, saying in the Gospel: "And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself" (John 12:32). He himself, as though…
Dictionary and topics
East wind — The wind coming from the east (Job 27:21; Isa. 27:8, etc.). Blight caused by this wind, “thin ears” (Gen. 41:6); the withered “gourd” (Jonah 4: 8). It was the cause and also the emblem of evil (Ezek.…
Drought · 6:26;7:13; — 6:26;7:13;
Fountains And Springs · Drying up of, a severe punishment — Drying up of, a severe punishment
Meteorology And Celestial Phenomena · 9:7;26:7,8,11;27:20,21;28:24-27;29:19;36:27-33;37:6-22;38:8-11,22,24-29,31-35,37; — 9:7;26:7,8,11;27:20,21;28:24-27;29:19;36:27-33;37:6-22;38:8-11,22,24-29,31-35,37;
Wind · .In — .In
Wind, The · Mentioned in scripture: East — Mentioned in scripture: East
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).
Hosea 13:15
15. Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.
15. Quia ipse inter fratres fructum faciet (vel, augescet; vel, Quanvis ipse inter fratres suos augescat: alii putant 'chym positum esse pro 'chvym, inter germina: sed nimis coacta est interpretatio. Legamus igitur simpliciter ut verba sonant, Ipse inter fratres augescet;) veniet ventus orientalis, ventus Jehovae a deserto ascendens, et arefaciet venam ejus, et siccabitur fons ejus: ipse diripiet thesaurum omnis vasis desiderabilis.…
"For he will bear fruit among brethren. East wind will come, a wind of Jehovah, rising up from the desert; and his fountain will dry up, and his spring become dried. He plunders the treasuries of all splendid vessels." The connection between the first clause and the previous verse has been correctly pointed out by Marck. "Hos 13:15," he says, "adduces a reason to prove that the promised grace of redemption would certainly stand firm." כּי cannot be either a particle of time or of condition here (when, or if); for neither of them yields a suitable thought, since Ephraim neither was at that time, nor could become, fruit-bearing among brethren. Ewald's hypothetical view, "Should Ephraim be a fr…
The term here translated the grave (Hebrew Sheol) refers to the realm of the dead (see Job 3:11-19; see also study note on Job 7:9). The Lord is sovereign even over Sheol, and he could redeem Israel if he chose to. But he will not take pity on the Israelites, and he calls upon death to punish them.
Rashi on Hosea 13:15
For though he flourish among the marshes Heb. כִּי הוּא בֵּין אַחִים יַפְרִיא. Jonathan renders: For they are called sons, but they increased corrupt deeds. אַחִים An expression of an evil thing. Comp. (Ezekiel 21:20) “Woe! (אָח) It is made for a blade.” Also (ibid. 6:11) “And say, ‘Woe!’ (אָח) to all the... abominations.” יַפְרִיא An expression similar to (Deut. 29:17) פֹּרֶה רֹאשׁ וְלַעֲנָה, that hears (פֹּרַה) hemlock and wormwood.” But I say that אַחִים is an expression similar to (Gen. 41:2) “And they grazed in the marsh (בָּאָחוּ).”
For though he flourish among the marshes Heb. יַפְרִיא. Blossoms and grows in the marsh. Among the marshes, among those growing in the marshes, which alwa…
