Hosea 9:7 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Hosea 9:7
The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.
wind · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
man
אִ֣ישׁ'ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular construct
mad
מְשֻׁגָּע֙me.shu.Ga'
H7696
to rave through insanity · verb, pual passive participle, masculine singular absolute
multitude
רֹ֣בro
H7230
abundance (in any respect) · noun, common masculine singular construct
iniquity
עֲוֹנְךָ֔'a.vo.ne.Kha
H5771
perversity · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
great
וְרַבָּ֖הve.ra.Bah
H7227
abundant (in quantity · conjunction + adjective, feminine singular absolute
hatred
מַשְׂטֵמָֽהmas.te.Mah
H4895
enmity · noun, common feminine singular absolute
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
Acts 26:24-25 And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad.
Micah 7:4 The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall…
2 Kings 9:11 Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and one said unto him, Is all well? wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? And he said un…
Mark 3:21 And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.
Isaiah 10:3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will…
Jeremiah 10:15 They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
Lamentations 2:14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have s…
Ezekiel 13:3 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Hosea 9:7-10
For their further awakening, it is here threatened,
I. That the destruction spoken of shall come speedily. They shall have no reason to hope for a long reprieve, for the judgment slumbers not; it is at the door (Hos 9:7): The days of visitation have come, and there shall be no more delay; the days of recompence have come, which they have been so often warned to expect; their prophets have told them that destruction would come, and now it has come, and the time of the divine patience has expired. Note, 1. The day of God's judgments is both a day of visitation, in which men's sins are enquired into and brought to light, and a day of recompence, in which men's doom will be passed, and a reward…
visitation--vengeance: punishment (Isa 10:3).
Israel shall know it--to her cost experimentally (Isa 9:9).
the prophet is a fool--The false prophet who foretold prosperity to the nation shall be convicted of folly by the event.
the spiritual man--the man pretending to inspiration (Lam 2:14; Eze 13:3; Mic 3:11; Zep 3:4).
for the multitude of thine iniquity, &c.--Connect these words with, "the days of visitation . . . are come"; "the prophet . . . is mad," being parenthetical.
the great hatred--or, "the great provocation" [HENDERSON]; or, "(thy) great apostasy" [MAURER]. English Version means Israel's "hatred" of God's prophets and the law.
Adam Clarke on Hosea 9:7
The days of visitation - Of punishment are come.
The prophet is a fool - Who has pretended to foretell, on Divine authority, peace and plenty; for behold all is desolation.
The spiritual man - איש הרוח ish haruach, the man of spirit, who was ever pretending to be under a Divine afflatus.
Is mad - He is now enraged to see every thing falling out contrary to his prediction.
John Gill on Hosea 9:7
The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come,.... In which the Lord would punish the people of Israel for their sins, and reward them in a righteous manner, according as their evil works deserved; which time, being fixed and appointed by him, are called "days"; and these, because near at hand, are said to be "come"; and this is repeated for the certainty of it:
Israel shall know it; by sad experience, that these days are come; and shall acknowledge the truth of the divine predictions, and the righteousness of God in his judgments. Schultens (z), from the use of the phrase in the Arabic language, interprets it of Israel's suffering punishment; with which agrees the Septua…
The Church Fathers
"The days of visitation have come, the days of retribution have come: know, O Israel, a foolish prophet, a spiritual madman because of the multitude of your iniquity, and the multitude of your madness." LXX: "The days of vengeance have come, the days of your retribution have come, and Israel shall be afflicted as a raving prophet, a man who had the Spirit, because" "the multitude of your iniquities, your madness has multiplied." And in this place there is a usual error: for where we have translated, "know, O Israel," that is, Israelites, and in Hebrew it is read Jadau, the Septuagint has translated "and will be afflicted:" thinking Jod is the vowel and Res the consonant instead of it, and reading it for Daleth: the former of which means knowledge, the latter affliction or malice. Therefore came the days of visitation, of which it was said above (Verse 5): "What will you do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord? The days of retribution have come." O Israel, now know your words, who called the prophet speaking true things to you, and prophesying by the Holy Spirit, a fool and insane, according to what the princes spoke to Jehu in Ramoth Galaad: "What is this madman coming to you?" (4 Kings 9:11). Therefore, because of the multitude of your injustices, in which you have revelled in wickedness for a long time, recognize that you are not my prophet, but rather insane, who labours to trample on my words. For "insanity," Aquila translates ἐγκότησιν, which we can also say in Latin as "anger" or "memory of pain". Some interpret the day of vengeance and retribution as the day of judgment, when Israel, who now boasts of seeing God, will be afflicted, not guided by the Holy Spirit but swept into various parts by demons, not knowing what they are saying: calling the Son of God a creature, denying the Holy Spirit God. And again another good God, asserting another creator of the world: their madness is manifold, because there were many iniquities. We said that he was a foolish prophet, and they interpreted him as a seventy pseudoprophet. And lest, by often repeating the same things, we seem to distrust the prudence of the reader, we briefly admonish that whatever is said about Israel and Ephraim in this prophet must be referred to heretics, who truly speak lies against God, being insane.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Hosea 9:7
7. The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.
7. Venerunt dies visitationis, venerunt dies retributionis; agnoscet Israel; stultus Propheta (vel, uno contextu, sicuti alii legunt, cognoscet Israel stultum Prophetam,) insanum virum spiritus, propter multitudinem iniquitatis tuae, et multum odium (vel, stultus Prophets, vaesanus vir spiritus propter multitudinem iniquitatis tuae et multum odium: et propter accentun melior est distinctio, quam secundo loco posui, cognoscet Israel, stultus est Propheta: et que sequuntur poterunt legi…
"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. Hos 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. Hos 9:9. They have acted most corruptly, as in the days of Gibeah: He remembers their iniquity, visits their sins." The perfects in Hos 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 (Eze 13:10), were infatuated fools. אויל וגו introduces, without kı̄, what Israel will exper…
Apostate Israelites refused to believe God’s words of judgment as delivered by the prophets and mockingly cried that the prophets were crazy.
Rashi on Hosea 9:7
the visitation When your sins will be visited.
recompense the payment of sins.
the prophet shall be a fool Even some of their true prophets will be fools, e.g. Hananiah son of Azzur, who was originally a true prophet.
and the hatred is great which the Holy One, blessed be He, hates your deeds.