As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird— No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!
Parallel translations
- WEB As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird. There will be no birth, no one with child, and no conception.
- KJV As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.
- BSB Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird, with no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.
- NKJV As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird— No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!
- NLT The glory of Israel will fly away like a bird, for your children will not be born or grow in the womb or even be conceived.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Ephraim's glory will fly away like a bird, with no birth, pregnancy, or conception.
Overview
The judgment touches Ephraim's very fruitfulness, as the glory of children and posterity vanishes. The threefold loss of conception, pregnancy, and birth reverses the blessing of fertility that idolatrous worship had sought to secure. This devastating withdrawal shows that life itself is God's gift, denied to those who reject Him and restored in the abundant life Christ gives.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Hos 9:14Give them — Yahweh what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
- Deut 28:18The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock will be cursed.
- Gen 41:52The name of the second, he called Ephraim: “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
- Hos 4:7As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me. I will change their glory into shame.
- Hos 10:5The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror for the calves of Beth Aven; for its people will mourn over it, Along with its priests who rejoiced over it, for its glory, because it has departed from it.
- Eccl 6:3If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that a stillborn child is better than he:
- Ps 58:8Let them be like a snail which melts and passes away, like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun.
- Deut 33:17The firstborn of his herd, majesty is his. His horns are the horns of the wild ox. With them he will push all the peoples, to the ends of the earth. They are the ten thousands of Ephraim. They are the thousands of Manasseh.”
- Job 18:18–19He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
- Gen 48:16–20the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. Let them grow into a multitude upon the earth.”
- Amos 1:13Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead, that they may enlarge their border.
- Deut 28:57toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of all things, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in your gates.
- Job 18:5“Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out, The spark of his fire shall not shine.
- Luke 23:29For behold, the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’
- Gen 49:22“Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a spring. His branches run over the wall.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
God's relentless love for an unfaithful bride dramatizes the gospel: 'Out of Egypt I called my son' is fulfilled in Jesus, who redeems an adulterous people at his own cost.
How Hosea 9:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.