Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
Parallel translations
- WEB Give them — Yahweh what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
- BSB Give them, O LORD—what will You give? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that dry up!
- NKJV Give them, O Lord— What will You give? Give them a miscarrying womb And dry breasts!
- NASB Give to them, Lord—what will You give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dried-up breasts.
- NLT O Lord, what should I request for your people? I will ask for wombs that don’t give birth and breasts that give no milk.
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
The prophet, overwhelmed, asks God to give them barren wombs and dry breasts.
Overview
Hosea, contemplating the coming horror, prays a difficult prayer that childlessness might spare them the agony of seeing children slaughtered. It is an expression of anguish rather than mere cursing, recognizing that barrenness would be mercy compared to such loss. The verse conveys the dreadful weight of judgment and the prophet's tortured compassion for a doomed people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Luke 23:29For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.
- 1 Cor 7:26I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be.
- Luke 21:23But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.
- Hos 9:16Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.
- Matt 24:19And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
- Hos 9:11As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.
- Mark 13:17But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
- Hos 9:13Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.
- Job 21:10Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 9:14 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.