Bible Strands
Hosea 9:10
I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the firstfruits of the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to Shame; so they became as detestable as the thing they loved.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks through Hosea to Israel, tracing their ancestral journey from the wilderness to their present idolatry. This declaration immediately follows a warning that God will remember their guilt and punish their sins as He did in the days of Gibeah.
The words — The Hebrew כַּ/עֲנָבִ֣ים (ka./'a.na.Vim) translates literally as "like grapes," and בְּ/רֵ֣אשִׁיתָ֔/הּ (be./Re.shi.Ta/h) means "at its beginning." These terms establish the metaphor of God encountering Israel as ripe firstfruit produce in the wilderness.
The thread — The text states that Israel went to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to Shame, becoming as detestable as the thing they loved. This historical apostasy parallels the sexual immorality and idolatry at Shittim recorded in Numbers 25:1, the "altars of shame" in Jeremiah 11:13, and the unrepentant prostitution condemned in Hosea 4:14.
Why it lands — The passage first reports that idolatry produces moral defilement rather than divine favor. It requires the reader to acknowledge that pursuing shameful objects inevitably reduces the worshiper to the same corrupt state as the object itself.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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 Baal–peor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 11:13 Your gods are indeed as numerous as your cities, O Judah; the altars of shame you have set up—the altars to burn incense to Baal—are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.’
- Numbers 25:1 While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab,
- Hosea 4:14 I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go off with prostitutes and offer sacrifices with shrine prostitutes. So a people without understanding will come to ruin.
- Psalms 106:28 They yoked themselves to Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.
- Jeremiah 2:2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.
- Ezekiel 20:8 But they rebelled against Me and refused to listen. None of them cast away the abominations before their eyes, and they did not forsake the idols of Egypt. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the land of Egypt.
- Hosea 2:15 There I will give back her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
- Exodus 19:4 ‘You have seen for yourselves what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.
- Numbers 13:23 When they came to the Valley of Eshcol, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes, which they carried on a pole between two men. They also took some pomegranates and figs.
- Numbers 15:39 These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the commandments of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by following your own heart and your own eyes.