Bible Strands
Hosea 9:3
They will not remain in the land of the LORD; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet Hosea addresses the northern kingdom of Israel during a period of covenant judgment and agricultural collapse. He declares that their rebellion has permanently severed their right to dwell in the territory Yahweh designated for them.
The words — The Hebrew יֵשְׁב֖וּ (ye.shvu) translates literally as "they will remain," while אֶפְרַ֙יִם ('Ephrayim) names the northern tribe. These terms anchor the declaration of forced exile and a symbolic return to former bondage.
The thread — The pattern of defiled food and banishment appears in Ezekiel 4:13 and Hosea 8:13, while Leviticus 25:23 defines the land as Yahweh's permanent possession. These references trace a consistent biblical theme where covenant breach results in loss of territory and ritual uncleanness.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that disobedience forfeits both land and worship, replacing divine provision with defilement. It requires the reader to confront the concrete consequences of rejecting Yahweh's covenant boundaries.
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
They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 4:13 Then the LORD said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their defiled bread among the nations to which I will banish them.”
- Hosea 8:13 Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they eat the meat, the LORD does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt.
- Leviticus 25:23 The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me.
- Jeremiah 2:7 I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but you came and defiled My land and made My inheritance detestable.
- Hosea 7:11 So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove—calling out to Egypt, then turning to Assyria.
- Deuteronomy 4:26 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.
- Deuteronomy 28:63 Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and multiply, so also it will please Him to annihilate you and destroy you. And you will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.
- Joshua 23:15 But just as every good thing the LORD your God promised you has come to pass, likewise the LORD will bring upon you the calamity He has threatened, until He has destroyed you from this good land He has given you.
- 1 Kings 9:7 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.
- 2 Kings 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.