Hosea 9:16

"Ephraim is smitten: their root is dried up; they will bear no fruit: even if they beget, I slay the treasures of their womb. Hos 9:17. My God rejects them: for they have not hearkened to Him, and they shall be fugitives among the nations." In Hos 9:16 Israel is compared to a plant, that is so injured by the heat of the sun (Psa 121:6; Psa 102:5), or by a worm (Jon 4:7), that it dries up and bears no more fruit. The perfects are a prophetic expression, indicating the certain execution of the threat. This is repeated in Hos 9:16 in figurative language; and the threatening in Hos 9:11, Hos 9:12, is thereby strengthened. Lastly, in Hos 9:17 the words of threatening are rounded off by a statement of the reason for the rejection of Israel; and this rejection is described as banishment among the nations, according to Deu 28:65.

In this chapter, I. God threatens to deprive this degenerate seed of Israel of all their worldly enjoyments, because by sin they had forfeited their title to them; so that they should have no comfort either in receiving them themselves or in offering them to God (Hos 9:1-5). II. He dooms them to utter ruin, for their own sins and the sins of their prophets (Hos 9:6-8). III. He upbraids them with the wickedness of their fathers before them, whose steps they trod in (Hos 9:9, Hos 9:10). IV. He threatens them with the destruction of their children and the rooting out of their posterity (Hos 9:11-17).