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.
Parallel translations
- WEB Give them — Yahweh what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
- KJV Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou 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.
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 which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’
- 1 Cor 7:26I think that it is good therefore, because of the distress that is on us, that it is good for a man to be as he is.
- Luke 21:23Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land, and wrath to this people.
- Hos 9:16Ephraim is struck. Their root has dried up. They will bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, yet I will kill the beloved ones of their womb.”
- Matt 24:19But woe to those who are with child and to nursing mothers in those days!
- Hos 9:11As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird. There will be no birth, no one with child, and no conception.
- Mark 13:17But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babies in those days!
- Hos 9:13I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place; but Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.
- Job 21:10Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry.
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.