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Selected Verse: Hosea 9:10 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Ho 9:10	Strong Concordance	I found [04672] Israel [03478] like grapes [06025] in the wilderness [04057]; I saw [07200] your fathers [01] as the firstripe [01063] in the fig tree [08384] at her first time [07225]: but they went [0935] to Baalpeor [01187], and separated [05144] themselves unto that shame [01322]; and their abominations [08251] were according as they loved [0157].
	King James	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 Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
As the traveller in a wilderness is delighted at finding grapes to quench his thirst, or the early fig (esteemed a great delicacy in the East, Isa 28:4; Jer 24:2; Mic 7:1); so it was My delight to choose your fathers as My peculiar people in Egypt (Hos 2:15). at her first time--when the first-fruits of the tree become ripe. went to Baal-peor-- (Num 25:3): the Moabite idol, in whose worship young women prostituted themselves; the very sin Israel latterly was guilty of. separated themselves--consecrated themselves. unto that shame--to that shameful or foul idol (Jer 11:13). their abominations were according as they loved--rather, as Vulgate, "they became abominable like the object of their love" (Deu 7:26; Psa 115:8). English Version gives good sense, "their abominable idols they followed after, according as their lusts prompted them" (Amo 4:5, Margin).

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

As the traveller in a wilderness is delighted at finding grapes to quench his thirst, or the early fig (esteemed a great delicacy in the East, Isa 28:4; Jer 24:2; Mic 7:1); so it was My delight to choose your fathers as My peculiar people in Egypt (Hos 2:15).

at her first time--when the first-fruits of the tree become ripe.

went to Baal-peor-- (Num 25:3): the Moabite idol, in whose worship young women prostituted themselves; the very sin Israel latterly was guilty of.

separated themselves--consecrated themselves.

unto that shame--to that shameful or foul idol (Jer 11:13).

their abominations were according as they loved--rather, as Vulgate, "they became abominable like the object of their love" (Deu 7:26; Psa 115:8). English Version gives good sense, "their abominable idols they followed after, according as their lusts prompted them" (Amo 4:5, Margin).

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness - God is not said to find anything, as though "He" had lost it, or knew not where it was, or came suddenly upon it, not expecting it. "They" were lost, as relates to Him, when they were found by Him. As our Lord says of the returned prodigal, "This my son was lost and is found" Luk 15:32. He "found" them and made them pleasant in His own sight, "as grapes which a man finds unexpectedly, in "a great terrible wilderness of fiery serpents and drought" Deu 8:15, where commonly nothing pleasant or refreshing grows; or "as the first ripe in the fig-tree at her fresh time," whose sweetness passed into a proverb, both from its own freshness and from the long abstinence (see Isa 28:4). God gave to Israel both richness and pleasantness in His own sight; but Israel, from the first, corrupted God's good gifts in them. This generation only did as their fathers. So Stephen, setting forth to the Jews how their fathers had rebelled against Moses, and persecuted the prophets, sums up; "as your fathers did, so do ye" Act 7:51. Each generation was filling up the measure of their fathers, until it was full; as the whole world is doing now Rev 14:15. But they went to Baal-Peor - "They," the word is emphatic; these same persons to whom God showed such love, to whom He gave such gifts, "went." They left God who called them, and "went" to the idol, which could not call them. Baal-Peor, as his name probably implies, was "the filthiest and foulest of the pagan gods." It appears from the history of the daughters of Midian, that his worship consisted in deeds of shame Num. 25. And separated themselves unto that shame - that is, to Baal-Peor, "whose" name of "Baal, Lord," he turns into "Bosheth, shame" . Holy Scripture gives disgraceful names to the idols, (as "abominations, nothings, dungy things, vanities, uncleanness," in order to make people ashamed of them. "To this shame they separated themselves" from God, in order to unite themselves with it. The Nazarite "separated himself from" certain earthly enjoyments, and consecrated himself, for a time or altogether, to God; these "separated themselves from" God, and united, devoted, consecrated themselves "to shame." "They made themselves, as it were, Nazarites to shame." Shame was the object of their worship and their God, "and" their "abominations were according as they loved," i. e., they had as many "abominations" or abominable idols, "as" they had "loves." They multiplied abominations, "after their heart's desire;" their abominations were manifold, because their passions were so; and their love being corrupted, they loved nothing but abominations. Yet it seems simpler and truer to render it, "and they became abominations, like their loves;" as the Psalmist says, "They that make them are like unto them" Psa 115:8. : "The object which the will desires and loves, transfuses its own goodness or badness into it." Man first makes his god like his own corrupt self, or to some corruption in himself, and then, worshiping this ideal of his own, he becomes the more corrupt through copying that corruption. He makes his god "in his" own "image and likeness," the essence and concentration of his own bad passions, and then conforms himself to the likeness, not of God, but of what was most evil in himself. Thus the Pagan made gods of lust, cruelty, thirst for war; and the worship of corrupt gods reacted on themselves. They forgot that they were "the work of their own hands," the conception of their own minds, and professed to "do gladly" "what so great gods" had done. And more widely, says a father , "what a man's love is, that he is. Lovest thou earth? thou art earth. Lovest thou God? What shall I say? thou shalt be god." : "Naught else maketh good or evil actions, save good or evil affections." Love has a transforming power over the soul, which the intellect has not. "He who serveth an abomination is himself an abomination" , is a thoughtful Jewish saying. "The intellect brings home to the soul the knowledge on which it worketh, impresses it on itself, incorporates it with itself. Love is an impulse whereby he who loves is borne forth toward that which he loves, is united with it, and is transformed into it." Thus in explaining the words, "Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His Mouth," Sol 1:2, the fathers say , "Then the Word of God kisseth us, when He enlighteneth our heart with the Spirit of divine knowledge, and the soul cleaveth to Him and His Spirit is transfused into him."

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness - God is not said to find anything, as though "He" had lost it, or knew not where it was, or came suddenly upon it, not expecting it. "They" were lost, as relates to Him, when they were found by Him. As our Lord says of the returned prodigal, "This my son was lost and is found" Luk 15:32. He "found" them and made them pleasant in His own sight, "as grapes which a man finds unexpectedly, in "a great terrible wilderness of fiery serpents and drought" Deu 8:15, where commonly nothing pleasant or refreshing grows; or "as the first ripe in the fig-tree at her fresh time," whose sweetness passed into a proverb, both from its own freshness and from the long abstinence (see Isa 28:4). God gave to Israel both richness and pleasantness in His own sight; but Israel, from the first, corrupted God's good gifts in them. This generation only did as their fathers. So Stephen, setting forth to the Jews how their fathers had rebelled against Moses, and persecuted the prophets, sums up; "as your fathers did, so do ye" Act 7:51. Each generation was filling up the measure of their fathers, until it was full; as the whole world is doing now Rev 14:15.

But they went to Baal-Peor - "They," the word is emphatic; these same persons to whom God showed such love, to whom He gave such gifts, "went." They left God who called them, and "went" to the idol, which could not call them. Baal-Peor, as his name probably implies, was "the filthiest and foulest of the pagan gods." It appears from the history of the daughters of Midian, that his worship consisted in deeds of shame Num. 25.

And separated themselves unto that shame - that is, to Baal-Peor, "whose" name of "Baal, Lord," he turns into "Bosheth, shame" . Holy Scripture gives disgraceful names to the idols, (as "abominations, nothings, dungy things, vanities, uncleanness," in order to make people ashamed of them. "To this shame they separated themselves" from God, in order to unite themselves with it. The Nazarite "separated himself from" certain earthly enjoyments, and consecrated himself, for a time or altogether, to God; these "separated themselves from" God, and united, devoted, consecrated themselves "to shame." "They made themselves, as it were, Nazarites to shame." Shame was the object of their worship and their God, "and" their "abominations were according as they loved," i. e., they had as many "abominations" or abominable idols, "as" they had "loves." They multiplied abominations, "after their heart's desire;" their abominations were manifold, because their passions were so; and their love being corrupted, they loved nothing but abominations.

Yet it seems simpler and truer to render it, "and they became abominations, like their loves;" as the Psalmist says, "They that make them are like unto them" Psa 115:8. : "The object which the will desires and loves, transfuses its own goodness or badness into it." Man first makes his god like his own corrupt self, or to some corruption in himself, and then, worshiping this ideal of his own, he becomes the more corrupt through copying that corruption. He makes his god "in his" own "image and likeness," the essence and concentration of his own bad passions, and then conforms himself to the likeness, not of God, but of what was most evil in himself. Thus the Pagan made gods of lust, cruelty, thirst for war; and the worship of corrupt gods reacted on themselves. They forgot that they were "the work of their own hands," the conception of their own minds, and professed to "do gladly" "what so great gods" had done.

And more widely, says a father , "what a man's love is, that he is. Lovest thou earth? thou art earth. Lovest thou God? What shall I say? thou shalt be god." : "Naught else maketh good or evil actions, save good or evil affections." Love has a transforming power over the soul, which the intellect has not. "He who serveth an abomination is himself an abomination" , is a thoughtful Jewish saying. "The intellect brings home to the soul the knowledge on which it worketh, impresses it on itself, incorporates it with itself. Love is an impulse whereby he who loves is borne forth toward that which he loves, is united with it, and is transformed into it." Thus in explaining the words, "Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His Mouth," Sol 1:2, the fathers say , "Then the Word of God kisseth us, when He enlighteneth our heart with the Spirit of divine knowledge, and the soul cleaveth to Him and His Spirit is transfused into him."

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
Hos 9:10. "I found Israel like grapes in the desert, I saw your fathers like early fruit on the fig-tree in the first shooting; but they came to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to shame, and became abominations like their lover." Grapes in the desert and early figs are pleasant choice fruits to whoever finds them. This figure therefore indicates the peculiar pleasure which Jehovah found in the people of Israel when He led them out of Egypt, or the great worth which they had in His eyes when He chose them for the people of His possession, and concluded a covenant with them at Sinai (Theod., Cyr.). Bammidbâr (in the desert) belongs, so far as its position is concerned, to ‛ănâbhı̄m: grapes in the dry, barren desert, where you do not expect to find such refreshing fruit; but, so far as the fact is concerned, it also refers to the place in which Israel was thus found by God, since you can only find fruit in the desert when you are there yourself. The words, moreover, evidently refer to Deu 32:10 ("I found him Israel in the wilderness," etc.), and point implicite to the helpless condition in which Israel was when God first adopted it. The suffix to berē'shı̄thâh (at her beginning) refers to תּאנה, the first-fruit, which the fig-tree bears in its first time, at the first shooting. But Israel no longer answered to the good pleasure of God. They came to Baal-peor. בּעל־פּעור without the preposition אל is not the idol of that name, but the place where it was worshipped, which was properly called Beth-peor or Peor (see at Num 23:28 and Num 25:3). ינּזרוּ is chosen instead of יצּמד (Num 23:3, Num 23:5), to show that Israel ought to have consecrated itself to Jehovah, to have been the nazir of Jehovah. Bōsheth (shame) is the name given to the idol of Baal-peor (cf. Jer 3:24), the worship of which was a shame to Israel. 'Ohabh, the paramour, is also Baal-peor. Of all the different rebellions on the part of Israel against Jehovah, the prophet singles out only the idolatry with Baal-peor, because the principal sin of the ten tribes was Baal-worship in its coarser or more refined forms.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
I found Israel - The Lord speaks of himself in the person of a traveller, who unexpectedly in the wilderness finds a vine loaded with grapes; such love did God bear to Israel. Your fathers - Whom I brought out of Egypt. As the first - ripe - As the earliest ripe fruit of the fig - tree, which is most valued and desired. Separated themselves - Consecrated themselves to that shameful idol. Their abominations - Their idols, and way of worshipping them. As they loved - As they fancied.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness - While they were faithful, they were as acceptable to me as ripe grapes would be to a thirsty traveler in the desert. I saw your fathers - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Caleb, Samuel, etc. As the first ripe - Those grapes, whose bud having come first, and being exposed most to the sun, have been the first ripe upon the tree; which tree was now in the vigor of youth, and bore fruit for the first time. A metaphor of the rising prosperity of the Jewish state. But they went to Baal-Peor - The same as the Roman Priapus, and worshipped with the most impure rites. And their abominations were according as they loved - Or, "they became as abominable as the object of their love." So Bp. Newcome. And this was superlatively abominable.

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⁵ And offer [06999] a sacrifice of thanksgiving [08426] with leaven [02557], and proclaim [07121] and publish [08085] the free offerings [05071]: for this [03651] liketh [0157] you, O ye children [01121] of Israel [03478], saith [05002] the Lord [0136] GOD [03069].

⁸ They that make [06213] them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth [0982] in them.

²⁶ Neither shalt thou bring [0935] an abomination [08441] into thine house [01004], lest thou be a cursed thing [02764] like it: but thou shalt utterly [08262] detest [08262] it, and thou shalt utterly [08581] abhor [08581] it; for it is a cursed thing [02764].

¹³ For according to the number [04557] of thy cities [05892] were thy gods [0430], O Judah [03063]; and according to the number [04557] of the streets [02351] of Jerusalem [03389] have ye set up [07760] altars [04196] to that shameful thing [01322], even altars [04196] to burn incense [06999] unto Baal [01168].

³ And Israel [03478] joined [06775] himself unto Baalpeor [01187]: and the anger [0639] of the LORD [03068] was kindled [02734] against Israel [03478].

¹⁵ And I will give [05414] her her vineyards [03754] from thence, and the valley [06010] of Achor [05911] for a door [06607] of hope [08615]: and she shall sing [06030] there, as in the days [03117] of her youth [05271], and as in the day [03117] when she came up [05927] out of the land [0776] of Egypt [04714].

¹ Woe [0480] is me! for I am as when they have gathered [0625] the summer fruits [07019], as the grapegleanings [05955] of the vintage [01210]: there is no cluster [0811] to eat [0398]: my soul [05315] desired [0183] the firstripe fruit [01063].

² One [0259] basket [01731] had very [03966] good [02896] figs [08384], even like the figs [08384] that are first ripe [01073]: and the other [0259] basket [01731] had very [03966] naughty [07451] figs [08384], which could not be eaten [0398], they were so bad [07455].

⁴ And the glorious [06643] beauty [08597], which is on the head [07218] of the fat [08081] valley [01516], shall be a fading [05034] flower [06733], and as the hasty fruit [01061] before the summer [07019]; which when he that looketh [07200] upon it seeth [07200], while it is yet in his hand [03709] he eateth it up [01104].

² Let him kiss [05401] me with the kisses [05390] of his mouth [06310]: for thy love [01730] is better [02896] than wine [03196].

⁸ They that make [06213] them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth [0982] in them.

¹⁵ And [2532] another [243] angel [32] came [1831] out of [1537] the temple [3485], crying [2896] with [1722] a loud [3173] voice [5456] to him that sat [2521] on [1909] the cloud [3507], Thrust in [3992] thy [4675] sickle [1407], and [2532] reap [2325]: for [3754] the time [5610] is come [2064] for thee [4671] to reap [2325]; for [3754] the harvest [2326] of the earth [1093] is ripe [3583].

⁵¹ Ye stiffnecked [4644] and [2532] uncircumcised [564] in heart [2588] and [2532] ears [3775], ye [5210] do [496] always [104] resist [496] the Holy [40] Ghost [4151]: as [5613] your [5216] fathers [3962] did, so [2532] do ye [5210].

¹⁵ Who led [03212] thee through that great [01419] and terrible [03372] wilderness [04057], wherein were fiery [08314] serpents [05175], and scorpions [06137], and drought [06774], where there was no water [04325]; who brought thee forth [03318] water [04325] out of the rock [06697] of flint [02496];

³² It was [1161] meet [1163] that we should make merry [2165], and [2532] be glad [5463]: for [3754] this [3778] thy [4675] brother [80] was [2258] dead [3498], and [2532] is alive again [326]; and [2532] was [2258] lost [622], and [2532] is found [2147].

²⁴ For shame [01322] hath devoured [0398] the labour [03018] of our fathers [01] from our youth [05271]; their flocks [06629] and their herds [01241], their sons [01121] and their daughters [01323].

⁵ And the LORD [03068] put [07760] a word [01697] in Balaam's [01109] mouth [06310], and said [0559], Return [07725] unto Balak [01111], and thus thou shalt speak [01696].

³ And Balaam [01109] said [0559] unto Balak [01111], Stand [03320] by thy burnt offering [05930], and I will go [03212]: peradventure the LORD [03068] will come [07136] to meet [07125] me: and whatsoever [01697] he sheweth [07200] me I will tell [05046] thee. And he went [03212] to an high place [08205].

³ And Israel [03478] joined [06775] himself unto Baalpeor [01187]: and the anger [0639] of the LORD [03068] was kindled [02734] against Israel [03478].

²⁸ And Balak [01111] brought [03947] Balaam [01109] unto the top [07218] of Peor [06465], that looketh [08259] toward [06440] Jeshimon [03452].

¹⁰ He found [04672] him in a desert [04057] land [0776], and in the waste [08414] howling [03214] wilderness [03452]; he led him about [05437], he instructed [0995] him, he kept [05341] him as the apple [0380] of his eye [05869].

¹⁰ I found [04672] Israel [03478] like grapes [06025] in the wilderness [04057]; I saw [07200] your fathers [01] as the firstripe [01063] in the fig tree [08384] at her first time [07225]: but they went [0935] to Baalpeor [01187], and separated [05144] themselves unto that shame [01322]; and their abominations [08251] were according as they loved [0157].