Hosea 9:10-17, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Hosea 9:10-17
Grapes and First Figs Become Baal-Peor Shame, Bereavement, and Wandering
Grapes in the wilderness become Baal-peor, and glory flies from the womb
I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baal-peor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved. Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.
Precious beginning, then attachment that makes a people like what they loved. Fertility language then turns into loss. That is national-future speech through women's bodies. It is not a score of anyone's pregnancy, miscarriage, or infertility.
Give them a miscarrying womb is a cry inside war, not a policy
Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them. Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. Ephraim is compared, in a broken verse, with Tyre or a planted place. All their wickedness is in Gilgal. Though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb. My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
The petition may seek a lesser horror than children delivered to the sword. It remains morally dreadful. Children are not guilty vessels. The threats do not authorize miscarriage stigma, forced pregnancy, infertility blame, child harm, or violence against pregnant people. Baal-peor and Tyre do not license ethnic contempt. Wandering does not make displaced people rejected in every sense.
How this should shape us
In war, displacement, or reproductive loss, protect children, pregnant people, and grieving families. Offer care after miscarriage without suggesting the loss was punishment. No community may make a child's body carry institutional failure.
Teach it back
Explain Hosea 9:10-17 in your own words. Include its place in Hosea's prophetic movement, one material uncertainty, and one use the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Verse 13's text, verse 14's rhetorical purpose, historical literalness, Gilgal, and speaker changes remain open. The ethical severity and child vulnerability are not uncertain.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Hosea 9:10-17, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew, morphology, syntax, names, wordplay, repetitions, and the base text for translation questions.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Hos.xml, 9:10-17
Supports: Verse-level translation, textual, grammatical, historical, rhetorical, and uncertainty notes.
NET Bible Hosea PDF, printed pp. 1690-1691, translation and notes on 9:10-17
Supports: Whole-book movement, eighth-century setting, literary boundaries, composition, Baal polemic, empire, and verse-level alternatives.
John Day, 'Hosea,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 576, discussion of 9:10-17
Supports: Competing scholarly positions on difficult Hebrew, genre, history, religion, knowledge, metaphor, gender, and composition.
Kelle, 'Hosea 4-14 in Twentieth-Century Scholarship,' pp. 318-360; text pp. 318-321, rhetoric pp. 321-324, composition pp. 325-332, history pp. 333-345, theology pp. 346-349, literary and gender analysis pp. 350-360; applied to 9:10-17
Supports: Marriage metaphor, biography-symbol alternatives, gender hierarchy, domestic and sexual violence, victim blaming, and Hosea 11's parental counter-image.
Hadjiev, '(Not) Her Husband,' pp. 2-10, especially traditional and feminist readings pp. 2-5 and suspicion, trust, and the wider book pp. 6-10; applied to 9:10-17
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: Hosea 9:10-17, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Hosea
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew, morphology, syntax, names, wordplay, repetitions, and the base text for translation questions.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Hos.xml, 9:10-17
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Hosea with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level translation, textual, grammatical, historical, rhetorical, and uncertainty notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Hosea PDF, printed pp. 1690-1691, translation and notes on 9:10-17
Open source ↗scholarly commentary article
Hosea
John Day
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, edited by John Barton and John Muddiman, 2001
Supports: Whole-book movement, eighth-century setting, literary boundaries, composition, Baal polemic, empire, and verse-level alternatives.
Exact location: John Day, 'Hosea,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 576, discussion of 9:10-17
Open source ↗peer reviewed research survey
Hosea 4-14 in Twentieth-Century Scholarship
Brad E. Kelle
Currents in Biblical Research 8.3, 2010
Supports: Competing scholarly positions on difficult Hebrew, genre, history, religion, knowledge, metaphor, gender, and composition.
Exact location: Kelle, 'Hosea 4-14 in Twentieth-Century Scholarship,' pp. 318-360; text pp. 318-321, rhetoric pp. 321-324, composition pp. 325-332, history pp. 333-345, theology pp. 346-349, literary and gender analysis pp. 350-360; applied to 9:10-17
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access article
(Not) Her Husband: Hosea's God and Ricoeur's Hermeneutics of Suspicion and Trust
Tchavdar S. Hadjiev
Religions 13.2, article 163, 2022
Supports: Marriage metaphor, biography-symbol alternatives, gender hierarchy, domestic and sexual violence, victim blaming, and Hosea 11's parental counter-image.
Exact location: Hadjiev, '(Not) Her Husband,' pp. 2-10, especially traditional and feminist readings pp. 2-5 and suspicion, trust, and the wider book pp. 6-10; applied to 9:10-17
Open source ↗