Bible Strands
Hosea 9:11
Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird, with no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks through Hosea to the northern kingdom, delivering a pronouncement of judgment directly after describing their idolatry at Baal-peor and immediately before warning of future child bereavement.
The words — The Hebrew yit‘ôp̄ēp̄ (it will fly away) and kəḇôḏām (their glory) pair with milleḏāh (child bearing), miḇeṭen (womb), and mēhērāyôn (conception) to declare the total cessation of Ephraim’s reproductive capacity.
The thread — This reversal of fertility mirrors the womb-curse in Deuteronomy 28:18, inverts Joseph’s naming of Ephraim in Genesis 41:52, and fulfills the pattern Hosea 4:7 establishes where Israel exchanges its glory for disgrace.
Why it lands — The text states that national prominence and lineage will vanish when covenant faithfulness is abandoned, requiring the reader to acknowledge that divine blessing and curse operate directly on physical and political survival.
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
As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.
Cross-references
- Genesis 41:52 And the second son he named Ephraim, saying, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
- Deuteronomy 28:18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, as well as the produce of your land, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.
- Hosea 4:7 The more they multiplied, the more they sinned against Me; they exchanged their Glory for a thing of disgrace.
- Hosea 9:14 Give them, O LORD—what will You give? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that dry up!
- Hosea 10:5 The people of Samaria will fear for the calf of Beth-aven. Indeed, its people will mourn over it with its idolatrous priests—those who rejoiced in its glory—for it has been taken from them into exile.
- Genesis 48:16 the angel who has redeemed me from all harm—may He bless these boys. And may they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they grow into a multitude upon the earth.”
- Genesis 49:22 Joseph is a fruitful vine—a fruitful vine by a spring, whose branches scale the wall.
- Deuteronomy 28:57 the afterbirth that comes from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within your gates.
- Deuteronomy 33:17 His majesty is like a firstborn bull, and his horns are like those of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even to the ends of the earth. Such are the myriads of Ephraim, and such are the thousands of Manasseh.”
- Job 18:5 Indeed, the lamp of the wicked is extinguished; the flame of his fire does not glow.