Chapter 9 of Hoshea opens with a startling call: the prophet forbids Israel to rejoice. Not because joy itself is flawed, but because the joy toward which they direct themselves is the joy of other nations - a joy derived from the influence of the celestial constellations and natural order, rather than from the Holy One, blessed be He. From there, the chapter continues to depict the cessation of the threshing floor and the winepress, exile to Egypt and Assyria, the termination of libations and sacrifices, and Israel's dismissive attitude toward the true prophets. Let us examine the verses in order, studying the insights of the Malbim and Radak.
אַל־תִּשְׂמַח יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶל־גִּיל כָּעַמִּים כִּי זָנִיתָ מֵעַל אֱלֹהֶיךָ אָהַבְתָּ אֶתְנָן עַל כׇּל־גׇּרְנוֹת דָּגָן׃ - Rejoice not, O Israel, to exultation like the nations, for you have gone astray from your God; you have loved a harlot's hire upon every threshing floor of grain.
The Malbim explains here a linguistic distinction that he reiterates in numerous places: simchah (joy) is continuous - an enduring, steady state of gladness; whereas gilah (exultation) is a sudden burst of excitement, aroused when something new occurs at that very moment, such as good news, a windfall, and the like, filling a person's heart with exuberance. The prophet says to Israel: You cannot experience simchah, nor can you experience gilah, like the other nations.
And why? Because the other nations are governed by the celestial sphere. "Which the Lord your God has allotted" to all the nations - this refers to the natural order and the stars, which He assigned to the nations of the world. When the celestial arrangement is favorable and the constellations align well, they have joy. But Israel is not constituted this way: you are neither influenced by the stars nor subject to their rule. Rather, the people of Israel are betrothed to Hashem, "For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of Hosts is His name." The abundance we receive comes solely from "your Maker, your husband" - from the Holy One, blessed be He - and not from celestial constellations.
And if we turn and worship the stars, what are we doing? We are akin to a woman who is unfaithful beneath her husband. This is the metaphor we have already seen earlier in Hoshea: an unfaithful wife straying from her husband symbolizes the Jewish people abandoning the Holy One, blessed be He, who is "your Maker, your husband," to seek sustenance from the nations, from the constellations, and from natural forces outside of Hashem. Therefore, the prophet proclaims: "Rejoice not, O Israel, to exultation like the nations" - the nations may exult when they receive bounty from their celestial alignments, but for us, this is impossible: "for you have gone astray from your God." Seeking to draw down abundance through celestial forces is sheer unfaithfulness toward Hashem.
"You have loved a harlot's hire" - you resemble a harlot who craves her wages, and thus wanders among the threshing floors to engage in promiscuity there and collect payment from the owners of the grain. In the same way, you wander from nation to nation to secure your livelihood and sustenance instead of turning to the Holy One, blessed be He - just like that woman seeking hire "upon every threshing floor of grain."
גֹּרֶן וָיֶקֶב לֹא יִרְעֵם וְתִירוֹשׁ יְכַחֶשׁ בָּהּ׃ - Threshing floor and winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail her.
The threshing floor and winepress they had in their Land are a metaphor for the sustenance that a husband obligates himself to provide for his wife, referring here to what the Holy One, blessed be He, pledged to Knesset Yisrael. "Shall not feed them [lo yir'em]" - they will not find adequate pasture or livelihood in them, akin to the phrase "The Lord is my shepherd [ro'i], I shall not want"; they will not find enough food in the threshing floors and winepresses of their Land. Radak explains: Since they fail to acknowledge that I am the One who gives them the grain, the wine, and the oil, choosing instead to worship idols, "threshing floor and winepress shall not feed them."
"And the new wine shall fail her" - wine will no longer be found there either. The word "yechachesh" is related to deceit and denial (sheker); that is, it will prove false, for wine will simply not materialize. The Malbim adds: Wine is blessed on account of those who dwell in the Land, but now "the new wine shall fail her" because they will no longer reside in the Land of Hashem. Another reason for the blessing upon wine was the libations offered in the Temple, as Chazal teach that the Holy One, blessed be He, said: Pour libations before Me so that your wine may be blessed. And this, too, will cease, as will be clarified in the verses that follow.
לֹא יֵשְׁבוּ בְּאֶרֶץ יְהֹוָה וְשָׁב אֶפְרַיִם מִצְרַיִם וּבְאַשּׁוּר טָמֵא יֹאכֵלוּ׃ - They shall not dwell in the land of Hashem, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and in Assyria they shall eat defiled food.
Why did it say earlier, "Threshing floor and winepress will not feed them, and new wine will fail in her"? Because the prophecy is informing them that they will be exiled from the land, and the land will become desolate. As a result, "and Ephraim shall return to Egypt" - they will return to Egypt to settle there, "and in Assyria," where they will be exiled, "they shall eat defiled food" - they will eat their bread in defilement among the nations. This either means that they will literally eat ritually defiled food, or that they will eat in a place of defilement, as ritual impurity was decreed upon the land of the nations (eretz ha'amim), which is a place of defilement.
לֹא־יִסְּכוּ לַיהֹוָה יַיִן וְלֹא יֶעֶרְבוּ־לוֹ זִבְחֵיהֶם כְּלֶחֶם אוֹנִים לָהֶם כׇּל־אֹכְלָיו יִטַּמָּאוּ כִּי־לַחְמָם לְנַפְשָׁם לֹא יָבוֹא בֵּית יְהֹוָה׃ - They shall not pour wine libations to Hashem, neither shall their offerings be pleasing to Him; they shall be to them like the bread of mourners, all who eat thereof shall become defiled, for their bread is for their own souls, it shall not come into the House of Hashem.
The Malbim explains: Not only will they not bring wine libations - which are always considered secondary to the primary offering itself - but "neither shall their offerings be pleasing to Him"; even the sacrifices they offer will not find favor with Hashem, meaning Hashem will not accept their sacrifices and offerings. Sacrifices were called the "bread of Hashem," as it says, "the fire-offerings of Hashem, the food of their God, they offer, and they shall be holy." But here, he says that this bread will not be called the bread of Hashem; it is not pleasing to Hashem. And what will it be called? "Bread of mourners."
What is "bread of mourners" (lechem onim)? It is like the bread eaten by people during acute mourning (aninut), mourning over their deceased relatives, eating the meal of comfort (seudat havra'ah) provided by others. So too, the peace-offerings (shelamim) that they eat will not be joyous offerings, but rather like a mourner's meal, the food a person eats when mourning over their dead. And the law regarding the bread of an onen (an acute mourner whose deceased relative lies before him) is that it becomes defiled by the onen touching it, as the onen is impure from tending to the corpse. So too with the meat of their sacrifices - "all who eat thereof shall become defiled"; the bread defiles those who eat it, just like bread touched by an onen.
Rashi cites another explanation for "like the bread of onim," not from the root of mourning (aninut), but from the root of strength and force (on): bread obtained through theft, by sheer force and power. However, all the other commentators explain it in terms of mourning, and the continuation of the verse also proves this - "all who eat thereof shall become defiled," clearly referring to ritual defilement, which fits the context of aninut.
The verse continues: "For their bread is for their own souls" - the bread they eat is for their own dead soul. Bread of mourning is eaten when someone passes away, but who has died here? The prophet says: "their bread is for their own souls" - this is the bread of mourning for the death of their own soul. Their soul has died within their body, and they eat the sacrifice as a meal of condolence for their own inner death. Therefore, "it shall not come into the House of Hashem," for it is considered defiled bread.
מַה־תַּעׂוּ לְיוֹם מוֹעֵד וּלְיוֹם חַג־יְהֹוָה׃ - What will you do on the appointed day, and on the day of the feast of Hashem?
Here there are two approaches in explaining the verse. Radak follows Rashi's approach: "an appointed day" (yom mo'ed) does not mean a festival (Yom Tov), but rather the day appointed for destruction, as in the verse, "He has called an assembly against me to crush my young men," and similarly, "they set their signs... like on an appointed day." That is to say: on the day Hashem summons the nations to assemble and come destroy the Beit HaMikdash - what will you do then? And this is a continuation of what was said earlier, "They shall not pour wine libations to Hashem, neither shall their offerings be pleasing to Him": you think you are pleasing Hashem, yet Hashem is destined to destroy the Beit HaMikdash, and what will you do then?
The Malbim explains that this verse is a continuation of the beginning of the chapter, "Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations": only the nations have reason to rejoice over the influence of the heavenly spheres, but we have no cause to rejoice in it, for we are under the direct providence of Hashem. And what is the difference between a "day of appointed time" (yom mo'ed) and a "festival day" (yom chag)? A chag is the time when they would bring the festival peace-offerings (shalmei chagigah); whereas a mo'ed is any appointed gathering time, which includes the festive celebrations held, for example, at the time of the harvest.
Indeed, we find that in their times, they would celebrate a festive day at harvest time. Thus, when Dovid HaMelech sent to make a request of Naval HaCarmeli during the festive celebration he made for the harvest, Dovid told him that "we have come on a festive day." Likewise, on the occasion when Amnon was murdered by Avshalom, they invited Dovid HaMelech to come during the harvest season, which was a time of rejoicing; Dovid did not go himself but sent Amnon, and then Avshalom murdered him.
Concerning this, the prophet says: If you wish to rejoice on an appointed day, as the nations rejoice during the barley and wheat harvest and during the season of ingathering - how will you rejoice? After all, it has already been said, "The threshing floor and the winepress will not sustain them" - they will not find sustenance from the threshing floor and winepress. If so, "do not rejoice like the nations" - you have no ability to celebrate at harvest time as the nations do. Furthermore, "What will you do on the festival day of Hashem?" On the festival day of Hashem, they used to offer sacrifices and pour wine libations, but once the sacrifices and libations have ceased - with what will you celebrate Hashem's festival? It turns out that the words here are a continuation of what we have seen: you have no reason to rejoice like the nations.
כִּי־הִנֵּה הָלְכוּ מִשֹּׁד מִצְרַיִם תְּקַבְּצֵם מֹף תְּקַבְּרֵם מַחְמַד לְכַסְפָּם קִמּוֹשׂ יִירָשֵׁם חוֹחַ בְּאׇהֳלֵיהֶם׃ - For behold, they have gone away from destruction; Egypt will gather them, Mof will bury them; the coveted treasures of their silver, nettles will inherit them, thorns shall be in their tents.
The Radak explains: "For behold, they have gone away from destruction" - they went down to Egypt because of the severity of the famine. And this is what the prophet asked them earlier: "What will you do on the appointed day?" Where will you flee for help? Behold, on account of the famine, they fled to Egypt. According to the Radak, shod ("destruction") refers to famine, as in the phrase "destruction and ruin" (ha-shod ve-ha-shever). "Egypt will gather them" - they gathered there because of the famine. "Mof will bury them" - Mof is equivalent to Nof, a major city in Egypt, as we find in Scripture, "Nof and Tachpanches." Do not wonder that the letter mem interchanges with nun, for we find this elsewhere in Tanach, such as Chimham and Chimhan. And there, those who went will die by the sword and by famine.
"The coveted treasures of their silver" - those desirable homes where their silver treasures were kept, what they possessed in the Land of Israel; "nettles will inherit them" - what will grow and thrive there? Thorns and nettles. In the very place where you abandoned your home, there will be desolation; the houses will be ruined, and thorns will sprout within them; and here he is speaking of the exile. "Thorns shall be in their tents" - the cho'ach is also a species of thorn. Targum Yonatan interprets this as varieties of wild beasts, wildcats and the like, meaning that in those places, various wild animals will move into the abandoned homes.
The Malbim explains "they have gone away from destruction" (halchu mi-shod) in a different way: shod is related to shad, a mother's breast. After all, it says, "And Ephraim will return to Egypt," and when Ephraim returned to Egypt, he was confident that he was returning to the land of his birth. For our origins are in Egypt: Yaakov went down to Egypt, we were there for two hundred and ten years, and from there the nation ascended to the Land of Israel. The nation was originally born in Egypt. So when he returns to Egypt, he feels as though he is returning to the mother, to nurse from her breasts. This is the meaning of "for behold, they have gone mi-shod" - they went to nurse from their mother's breasts, to return to their former state. This is similar to the verse, "and you shall nurse the breast (shod) of kings," where shod likewise means a breast, referring to the abundance received from kings.
The prophet tells them: Know that this is a false illusion. The place where the true mother is found is the Land of Israel; there they nursed milk and honey, for that is the land that bore them. Now that they have been exiled from their land, they have effectively detached from their mother's breasts. And not only are you not returning to a mother who will nurse you, but quite the contrary - you are heading to your burial place: "Egypt will gather them, Mof will bury them." That place will be your grave, not a place of life. Egypt gathers them only so that Mof may bury them, and they will not inherit their estate and prosperity. This is the meaning of "the coveted treasures of their silver, nettles will inherit them" - the place where they imagine bringing their silver and gold, which they covet, there nettles and thorns will dwell in their tents, and there desolation will reign.
בָּאוּ יְמֵי הַפְּקֻדָּה בָּאוּ יְמֵי הַשִּׁלֻּם יֵדְעוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל אֱוִיל הַנָּבִיא מְשֻׁגָּע אִישׁ הָרוּחַ עַל רֹב עֲוֺנְךָ וְרַבָּה מַשְׂטֵמָה׃ - The days of visitation have come, the days of retribution have come; Israel shall know: the prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is mad, because of the abundance of your iniquity and the greatness of the animosity.
The Radak explains: "The days of visitation" is the time when God will reckon their iniquity, and "the days of retribution" when He will repay them according to their evil deeds. And according to the Radak, "the prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is mad" refers to the false prophets: at that time, Israel will say of those false prophets who misled them - those who declared, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace - how foolish and mad they were to mislead us into following them. "Because of the abundance of your iniquity" - since you strayed after the false prophets and abandoned the true prophets, the days of visitation and retribution have arrived. And through this, "the animosity is great" - the wrath of the Holy One, blessed be He, was aroused against the House of Israel, because they turned away from the true prophets and followed prophets who told them things pleasing to their ears.
The Malbim explains along a different line. Until now, they did not know Hashem and did not believe in the prophets, who continually warned them that if they strayed from the path, punishment and calamity would come. Now, when the days of visitation have arrived and Hashem visits their iniquities, and the days of retribution have come and the words of the prophets are being fulfilled - then Israel will know how right the prophets' words were. And notice the novel insight: "the prophet is a fool" refers, according to the Malbim, to the true prophet! Until now they thought that the prophet foretelling them the truth was a fool, and they treated him like a "madman is the man of the spirit" - a person who does not know what he is talking about, refusing to believe his rebukes. Therefore, "animosity is great," and therefore the days of visitation and retribution have arrived: because we lacked faith in the words of the prophets, for had we believed their words we would have changed our ways, but we treated them like madmen and fools, and consequently we did not take their words seriously.
And what is the difference between the days of visitation (*pekudah*) and the days of retribution (*shillum*)? The Malbim says: Retribution comes after visitation. First, Hashem visits their sin - and *poked* (visits) means counting and tallying - and afterward He pays them their recompense. And similarly in the verse, "Shall I not visit for these things... shall not My soul avenge itself on a nation such as this?" - "Shall I not visit" is the visitation, while "shall not My soul avenge itself" is already the retribution. Thus, the days of visitation and the days of retribution are two distinct stages.
The Malbim explains the multiplicity of titles for the prophet. From the very fact that the spirit of Hashem enclothes a person and through it he attains prophetic perceptions, he is called *ish haruach* ("a man of the spirit"). But they would say: indeed, a spirit, but do you know what kind of spirit? He is mentally ill, full of delusions. They did not believe that he was truly a man of the spirit, but rather "walking after their own spirit." And what do you call a person who follows his delusions and imagines prophecies, thinking that Hashem speaks to him? A madman. Therefore, they called the man of the spirit a "madman," meaning that he was acting in madness and folly due to that spirit he was receiving, which in their view was not the spirit of Hashem, but a deranged spirit.
Another title for him is *navi* (prophet), which comes from *niv sefatayim* - the fruit and utterance of the lips, as he speaks words of rebuke to the people. And to this they called him *evil* ("a fool"). The Malbim mentions in several places, and as we have learned extensively in Sefer Mishlei, that *evil* relates to *ulai* (perhaps), indicating doubt and uncertainty. That is to say, they told him: You call yourself a prophet; a prophet is one who speaks words of mussar and wisdom - yet we tell you that you are the opposite of wisdom. Nothing of what you say can be known with certainty; all your words are matters of doubt, things that are by no means definitely true. You are not a prophet speaking words of knowledge, but a fool, for a fool speaks of things he is unsure of and doubts.
And there is a difference between a *ro'eh* (seer), a *chozeh* (visionary), and a *tzofeh* (watchman). The *ro'eh* is one who looks with physical eyes to set the people straight in interpersonal matters; he sees what is happening among the people and corrects them. The *chozeh* sees with the eyes of his heart, in spiritual matters, as we say, "I envision in my mind's eye," or "I beheld a vision" - for a vision (*chizayon*) always refers to something spiritual; the *chozeh* perceives matters of Godliness with his heart's eye and his spiritual vision. And the *tzofeh* is the one who watches and anticipates the future, knowing what to look out for and seeing what calamity is destined to come, as it is written: "I have made you a watchman (*tzofeh*) to the House of Israel."
From here, the Malbim explains, you can understand that in the people's animosity toward the watchman there is also animosity toward God, Who appointed him. They are not merely angry at the prophet who pesters them with his words, warning that things will go badly, that the Beit HaMikdash will be destroyed, that exile will occur - rather, the animosity is also toward the One Who sent him. When you tell us things that are unpleasant to hear, we are also angry at the One Who sent you, at the Holy One, Blessed is He. Thus, there is animosity toward Hashem as well, and this is "and animosity is great." Toward the prophet himself their hatred is even greater, because he rebukes them, and the moment he speaks unpleasant truths they seek to harm him - as we have seen in countless examples in the Book of Yirmiyahu and elsewhere, where they sought to persecute the prophet, and as we saw with Zecharyah, whom they killed in the Beit HaMikdash, as we will mention shortly.
צֹפֶה אֶפְרַיִם עִם־אֱלֹהָי נָבִיא פַּח יָקוֹשׁ עַל־כׇּל־דְּרָכָיו מַשְׂטֵמָה בְּבֵית אֱלֹהָיו׃ - Ephraim's watchman is with my God; as for the prophet, a fowler's snare is on all his ways, animosity in the house of his God.
The Radak explains: "Ephraim's watchman" - Ephraim set for itself a watchman alongside its god, meaning it set up the false prophet, who proclaims his prophecies in the name of his god, in the name of his idol. And this prophet is defined by Hoshea as "a prophet who is a fowler's snare": just as a fowler's snare is a trap that captures birds, so this prophet ensnares them with his prophecies. For all the prophecies of the false prophets were soothing reassurances; while the true prophet sounded the alarm of truth, the false prophets always sounded false reassurances of calm. Thus, his function is literally a fowler's snare - a booby-trap, where the reality is dire, but instead of taking the severity of the trouble into account, you remain complacent, and on the contrary, by doing so you intensify the trouble you are in, failing to realize what you are heading toward. In this way, Ephraim was ensnared by their prophet.
"Animosity in the house of his God" - Radak explains that this refers to the temple of the calves, which were their gods, and there this aroused hatred: the false prophet who prophesied false visions there caused animosity between them and Hashem, Blessed be He. Radak cites an additional explanation, that this refers to the Beit HaMikdash itself, where they brought this stumbling block and corruption, as rendered by Targum Yonatan. And Chazal expound this verse as referring to Zecharyah the prophet, who was murdered in the Beit HaMikdash. However, Radak finds this somewhat difficult, since Zecharyah was killed by the people of Yehudah in the Beit HaMikdash, whereas here the text speaks of the people of Ephraim, and Ephraim is not the location of the Mikdash.
The Malbim explains that the prophet's intention is: your animosity has grown great toward the watchman of Ephraim who is with my God. According to the Malbim, this does not refer at all to a watchman who is a false prophet, but to the true prophet. The watchman is the true prophet who warned them of impending calamities, and because you hated Hashem and hated His prophets, you prepared and set a fowler's snare along all his paths. Hashem placed a watchman for you, placed a prophet to help you be saved from troubles, and instead you set a fowler's snare for him to trip him up, seeking to kill him - in the words of the verse, "They have dug a pit to catch me and hidden snares for my feet." And as we saw with Yirmiyahu, who said, "I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to those who pluck out hair, I did not hide my face from humiliation and spitting," and how many times they placed him in the court of the guard and how many times they attempted to kill him. The reality was that the prophets were persecuted.
"Enmity in the house of his God" - hatred was directed against him even within the House of God. You stirred up wrath against the prophet, for indeed you murdered Zechariah right inside the Beit HaMikdash; see how you aroused animosity even there.
הֶעְמִיקוּ שִׁחֵתוּ כִּימֵי הַגִּבְעָה יִזְכּוֹר עֲוֺנָם יִפְקוֹד חַטֹּאותָם׃ - They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah; He will remember their iniquity, He will punish their sins.
The Malbim explains: Besides all this, they acted deeply to hide their counsel from Hashem, based on the verse, "Those who go deep to hide their counsel from Hashem, and their deeds are in darkness." Beyond what they displayed openly, they went further and corrupted themselves with immorality in secret. Regarding this, he reminds them, "as in the days of Gibeah" - like the incident of the Concubine of Gibeah (Pilegesh b'Givah), where their deeds mirrored the deeds of the men of Sodom, wicked toward Hashem and wicked also in interpersonal matters. He informs them that as a result, "He will remember their iniquity, He will punish their sins" - Hashem will recall their wrongdoing and punish them for it.
One should note that alongside the Malbim's explanation referring to the Concubine of Gibeah, Rashi explains that this refers to Gibeah of Shaul, where they demanded a king and rebelled against the words of the prophet. "As in the days of Gibeah" - just as occurred then in Gibeah of Shaul, when you went to demand a king for yourselves and spurned the prophet and Hashem.
The chapter opens with the prohibition to rejoice like the nations, for while the nations are subject to the natural celestial order, Israel is governed directly by Hashem, and any turning to an outside source for sustenance is straying in unfaithfulness from their God. From there on, the prophet details the consequence: the threshing floor and winepress will not sustain them, the new wine will fail, they will be exiled from Hashem's land to Egypt and Assyria and eat defiled bread; the libations and sacrifices will not be accepted, and their offerings will be like the bread of mourners over their departed souls; and there will be nothing over which to rejoice, neither on an appointed day nor on a festival day of Hashem. Going to Egypt, which seemed to them like returning to their mother's bosom, will turn out to be a journey to their graves, and nettles and thorns will inherit their homes. Above all - the root of the retribution is their dismissal of the prophets' words: they called the true prophet, the man of the spirit, a madman and a fool, set a fowler's snare upon his paths, and murdered Zechariah in the Beit HaMikdash; consequently, they did not take the rebuke seriously, until the days of visitation and days of retribution arrived, and only then did Israel realize how true the words of the prophets were.