Sefer Hoshea, Chapter 9. "Rejoice not, O Israel, to exultation like the nations, for you have gone astray from your God; you have loved a harlot’s hire upon every threshing floor of grain." Rejoice not, O Israel - you, the people of Israel, cannot rejoice and exult like the rest of the nations. The difference between simchah (joy) and gilah (exultation), the Malbim explains - an explanation he offers in numerous places - is that simchah is always continuous, constant joy. Gilah, on the other hand, is something newly aroused, when something novel occurs at this moment, such as good news, a found treasure, or something similar; then one's heart fills with exultation (gil). Constant, everyday joy, however, is called simchah. Thus he says: you, the people of Israel, cannot rejoice (simchah) nor exult (gilah) like the other nations. What is the reason? Because the other nations are subject to the celestial order (ma'arechet): "Which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples" - Hashem allotted the celestial bodies, the stars, to the nations. When the celestial arrangement is favorable, when the constellations are aligned for good, they experience joy. But you are not constituted in this manner. You are not influenced by the stars; you are not under their dominion. Rather, the Jewish people are, as it were, betrothed to Hashem: "For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of Hosts is His name." We receive divine abundance (shefa) solely from your Maker and Husband, from the Holy One, blessed be He, not from the celestial systems.
And if we go and worship the stars, what are we actually doing? We resemble a woman who commits adultery against her husband. As we have already seen earlier in Hoshea's words, a woman who is unfaithful to her husband is a symbol for the Jewish people who abandon the Holy One, blessed be He - who is "your Maker and Husband" - and go expecting to receive bounty from the nations, from the stars, from the natural forces of nature other than Hashem. Therefore he says: "Rejoice not, O Israel, to exultation like the nations" - the nations can exult when they receive abundance from the stars. But for us, such a thing is impossible, "for you have gone astray from your God." If we seek to draw bounty from the stars, this is spiritual harlotry away from Hashem. "You have loved a harlot’s hire" - you resemble a harlot who loves her hire, circulating among the threshing floors to commit adultery there and collect payment from the threshing-floor owners. So too, you wander from nation to nation to find your sustenance and satisfaction there, rather than turning to the Holy One, blessed be He, like that woman seeking a harlot's hire upon every threshing floor of grain.
"Threshing floor and winepress shall not feed them, and new wine shall fail her." The threshing floor and winepress they had in their land - which is the metaphor for the sustenance that the husband stipulated for his wife, referring to what the Holy One, blessed be He, obligated Himself to provide to the Congregation of Israel - "shall not feed them" (lo yir'em). Lo yir'em means they will not find pasture in it, they will not find their livelihood in it - as in "Hashem is my shepherd, I shall not want" (Hashem ro'i lo echsar) - they will not find their sustenance from the threshing floor and winepress in their land. The Radak explains: since they do not acknowledge that "I am the One Who gave them the grain, the wine, and the oil," and instead they worship idols, therefore threshing floor and winepress shall not feed them. "And new wine shall fail her" (vechichesh bah) - new wine will no longer be found there either. Yechachesh is from the language of falsehood (sheker), meaning it will prove false, no wine will be there. As the next verse immediately states: "They shall not dwell in the land of Hashem; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and in Assyria they shall eat unclean food." Why do I say that the threshing floor and winepress will not feed them and the new wine will fail her? Because prophecy here announces to them that they will be exiled from the Land, the Land will be left desolate, and consequently Ephraim will return to Egypt to settle there - "and Ephraim shall return to Egypt" - and in Assyria, to where they will be exiled, "they shall eat unclean food," eating their bread defiled among the nations. Either this means they will eat ritually impure bread, or that they will eat in a place of impurity, for the Sages decreed ritual impurity upon the land of the nations, and the land of the nations is a place of defilement. The Malbim explains: wine is blessed through the merit of those dwelling in the Land; and now the wine will fail in the Land - "shall fail her" - why? Because they will not dwell in the land of Hashem. Furthermore, wine is blessed for an additional reason: due to the wine libations (nesachim) that were offered on the altar, as the Sages teach: "Offer libations before Me so that your wine may be blessed." This too will cease, as the following verse says:
"They shall not pour wine to Hashem, neither shall their offerings be pleasing to Him; they shall be to them as the bread of mourners, all who eat thereof shall be defiled; for their bread shall be for their souls, it shall not come into the house of Hashem." The Malbim explains: not only will they not bring libations - which are always considered secondary to the sacrificial meat itself - but he tells you, "neither shall their offerings be pleasing to Him." Even the meat sacrifices they offer will not be pleasing to Hashem; Hashem will not accept their offerings and sacrifices. Sacrifices were called "the bread of Hashem," for "the fire offerings of Hashem, the bread of their God, they offer," and they were holy. They are called, as it were, the bread of Hashem; but here, by contrast, he says the bread will not be called the bread of Hashem, it will not be pleasing to Hashem. What will it be called instead? "The bread of mourners" (lechem onim). What is lechem onim? Like the bread eaten by people in acute mourning (aninut), mourners grieving for their dead who eat the meal of consolation (se'udat havra'ah) from others. So too, these peace-offerings (shelamim) that they eat will not be offerings of joy; rather, they will resemble a meal of consolation, a meal eaten when one is mourning over his deceased. And just as the law regarding mourners' bread is that it becomes defiled through the onen (the acute mourner) - because the onen touches it, and the onen is ritually impure from dealing with the corpse, an onen being someone whose deceased relative lies unburied before him - so too with the bread of their sacrifices: "all who eat thereof shall be defiled," the bread will defile those who consume it. Since this bread is like the bread of aninut, like bread touched by an onen, just as bread touched by an onen defiles, so here too "all who eat thereof shall be defiled."
Rashi offers another explanation of lechem onim: not in the sense of aninut (mourning), but from the root of strength and power (on). Lechem onim means bread acquired through robbery, taken by force and power. However, all other commentators explain lechem onim in the sense of acute mourning (aninut), and the continuation of the verse proves this: "all who eat thereof shall be defiled" - you see it speaks of ritual defilement, which is associated with mourning. The verse continues: "for their bread shall be for their souls" (ki lachmam lenafsham). The bread they eat is for their own dead soul. We spoke of the bread of mourning, which is eaten when someone dies. Who died here? The prophet tells you: "their bread shall be for their souls" - it is mourners' bread over the death of their own soul. Their soul has died within their body, and they eat this sacrificial bread as a meal of consolation over their own spiritual death. Therefore, "it shall not come into the house of Hashem," for it is considered defiled bread.
"What will you do on the day of appointed festival, and on the day of the feast of Hashem?" Here there are two approaches to explaining the verse: the Radak, following Rashi's line, and the Malbim. The Radak explains: "What will you do on the day of appointed festival (yom mo'ed)?" - this is not speaking of a Yom Tov (festival day). Yom mo'ed means the day appointed for destruction, as in "He has called an assembly (mo'ed) against me to crush my young men," or "they have made a noise in the house of Hashem as on a day of festival." Thus, on that day when the Holy One, blessed be He, called the nations to assemble and enter the Beit HaMikdash to destroy it, what will you do then? This continues what he said previously: "They shall not pour wine to Hashem, neither shall their offerings be pleasing to Him." He is saying: You think you find favor in Hashem's eyes? Hashem will destroy the Beit HaMikdash, and what will you do then "on the day of the feast of Hashem"?
The Malbim explains that our verse is a direct continuation of what we saw at the beginning of the chapter: "Rejoice not, O Israel, to exultation like the nations." Only the nations have reason to rejoice, but we have no cause to rejoice under celestial governance, for we are subject to Hashem's direct rule. He continues: How can you expect to rejoice on an appointed day (yom mo'ed)? The nations rejoiced on their appointed festival days. What is the difference between yom mo'ed and yom chag (feast day)? The Malbim explains that a chag is a time when the festival peace-offerings (shalmei chagigah) were brought; that is called a chag. A mo'ed, on the other hand, is any appointed time for assembly; it includes festive occasions held, for instance, at the time of harvest. We see that in those times, when they harvested, they would make a festival day (yom tov). We find an example of this when King David came to ask of Nabal the Carmelite when Nabal celebrated his sheep-shearing harvest, and David sent to him saying, "We have come on a festive day (yom tov)." We see another example at the occasion where Amnon was killed by Avshalom: it is recounted there that King David was invited to come at harvest time, which was a time of joy; David did not go himself, but sent Amnon, and at that occasion Avshalom killed Amnon. In any case, we see that in their days it was customary to celebrate a festive day at harvest time. Regarding this he says: If you wish to rejoice on an appointed day (yom mo'ed), when the nations rejoice at the wheat and barley harvest and at the time of ingathering, I say to you: How will you rejoice over this? For we saw that "threshing floor and winepress shall not feed them" - they will find no sustenance from the threshing floor and winepress. Therefore: "Rejoice not... like the nations" - you have no ability to hold a harvest celebration as the nations do. Likewise, "What will you do on the day of the feast (chag) of Hashem?" On the festival of Hashem, sacrifices were offered and wine libations were poured. Since sacrifices and libations have ceased, with what will you celebrate the festival of Hashem? It turns out, then, that these words continue what we saw earlier: "Rejoice not... like the nations" - you have no reason to rejoice like the nations.
"For, lo, they are gone away from destruction; Egypt shall gather them up, Mof shall bury them; the desirable places for their silver, nettles shall possess them; thorns shall be in their tents." The Radak explains: "For, lo, they are gone away from destruction (mishod)" - they fled to Egypt from the severity of the famine. This explains what he asked them earlier: "What will you do on the day of appointed festival?" - what will you do, where will you flee for help? He says: behold, on account of the famine they fled to Egypt. Mishod, says the Radak, refers to famine, as in destruction and ruin (shod vashever). Thus, from destruction, "Egypt shall gather them up, Mof shall bury them." "Mof" means that there in Egypt, following this famine, they were gathered into Egypt, and then "Mof shall bury them." Mof is equivalent to Nof (Memphis), the Radak explains, as in the prophetic references to "Nof and Tahpanhes" and others; this is Mof. Do not be surprised that a mem interchanges with a nun, or a nun with a mem, for we find this elsewhere in Tanach, such as Chimham (Kimham) and Chimhan (Kimhan), which are interchangeable names. So too here, Mof is like Nof, a city in Egypt. There, those who flee from the sword and famine will die: "Mof shall bury them." "The desirable places for their silver" (machmad lechaspo) refers to their precious houses, their silver treasures that they had in the Land of Israel. "Nettles shall possess them" (kimosh yirashem) - what will grow and sprout there? Weeds and nettles (kimosh). That is, in the place where you abandoned your home, the home will become desolate, the houses will be ruined, and thorns will grow in them; he is speaking here of the exile. "Thorns shall be in their tents" - cho'ach is also a type of thorn. Targum Yonatan renders it as wild creatures, various animals, cats and weasels, meaning wild beasts will inhabit the abandoned houses.
The Malbim, on the other hand, interprets "they are gone away from destruction" (halchu mishod) differently from the Radak. Rather than famine and ruin, the Malbim explains that mishod is related to shad (breast). Let us explain: We saw that the prophet said, "and Ephraim shall return to Egypt." When Ephraim returned to Egypt, he was certain he was returning to his native homeland. After all, our national origin was in Egypt, since Yaakov descended to Egypt, we were there for 210 years, and only afterward went up to the Land of Israel. The nation was initially born in Egypt. Therefore, when Ephraim returns to Egypt, he has a sensation of returning to his mother, returning to nurse from her breasts. This is the meaning of "For, lo, they are gone away from destruction (mishod)" - what does it mean that they went mishod to Egypt? Where? Shod, the Malbim explains, is like shad (breast). It means they went to nurse from her breasts, returning to the prior state they were in before. He cites a parallel verse: "and you shall suck the breast (shod) of kings," where shod also means breast, referring to the bounty you would receive from kings. Here too, they imagined that they were returning to their mother's breasts, to the chamber of her who conceived them. The prophet tells them: Know that this is a false illusion. In truth, the real mother is the Land of Israel! There they nursed milk and honey; that is the land that conceived them. Now that they have been exiled from their Land, they have severed themselves from their mother's breasts. The true source of bounty is the Holy Land, the Land of Israel. Therefore, the prophet says to them: Not only are you not returning to a mother who will nurture and nurse you, but quite the contrary, you are going to your gravesite! As he says: "They are gone away from breasts (mishod); Egypt shall gather them up, Mof shall bury them." You are going to a place that will be your grave, not a place where you will find life. Egypt gathers them only so that Mof may bury them, and they will not inherit their estate and wealth. That is why it says: "The desirable places for their silver, nettles shall possess them" - the place where they expect to bring their silver and gold, which they covet, will be overtaken by nettles and thorns, dwelling in their tents, which will lie desolate.
"The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel shall know it; the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of your iniquity, and the great animosity." "The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come" - the days of visitation (pekudah) are the time when God visits their iniquity upon them, says the Radak, and the days of recompense (shillum) are when He repays them according to the evil deeds they committed. "Israel shall know it; the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad." There are two interpretations as to whom these prophetic words refer. According to the Radak, this refers to the false prophets. The people will now say about the false prophets: it has now become clear to us that the prophet was a fool and the man of the spirit was mad. Those false prophets who misled us, who told us "Peace, peace, when there is no peace" - about them they will now say how foolish and insane they were to mislead us into following them. "For the multitude of your iniquity" - this befell you because of your abundant iniquity: since you inclined after the false prophets and abandoned the true prophets, therefore the days of visitation and recompense have arrived, because you followed the foolish prophet and the madman of the spirit. Consequently, this caused "the great animosity" (verabbah mastemah) - through this, the wrath and hatred of the Holy One, blessed be He, was aroused against the House of Israel, because they turned away from the true prophets and followed the smooth, pleasing words of the false prophets.
The Malbim takes another approach to explaining this verse. The Malbim says: until now, they did not know Hashem and did not believe the prophets, who continually warned them that straying from the path would bring punishment and calamity. Only now, when the days of visitation arrive and Hashem visits their sins, and the days of recompense arrive when the prophets' words materialize - everything they prophesied all along is now fulfilled, and Hashem repays them measure for measure - will the people of Israel know how true the prophets' words were. Until now, they declared: "the prophet is a fool." Note carefully: according to the Malbim, "the fool of a prophet" refers to the true prophet! Until now, they considered the prophet who spoke the truth to be a fool. We regarded him as "a madman of the spirit" - this man is insane, he does not know what he is talking about. We did not believe his rebukes. And therefore, now "great is the animosity." The days of visitation and recompense come precisely because we had no faith in the words of the prophets; had we believed their words, we would have changed our ways. But we treated them as madmen and fools, and as a result, we never took their warnings seriously.
The Malbim explains, based on the nuances of the Holy Tongue, the difference between "the days of visitation" (yemei ha-pekudah) and "the days of recompense" (yemei ha-shillum). The Malbim says: recompense follows visitation. At first, Hashem visits (poked) their iniquity - meaning He counts and tallies it - and afterward He pays them their recompense (shillum). These are the days of visitation and the days of recompense. Similarly: "Shall I not visit for these things?... Shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" "Shall I not visit" is the visitation (pekidah), and "shall My soul be avenged" is the recompense (shillum). Thus, the days of visitation and the days of recompense refer to two distinct stages.
"The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad." The Malbim notes that we find several different terms for a prophet: navi (prophet), ro'eh (seer), chozeh (visionary), tzofeh (watchman), and ish ha-ruach (man of the spirit). The Malbim asks: What is the difference between all these terms? He explains: From the standpoint of the divine spirit (ruach Hashem) clothing itself within the person, through which he attains prophetic insights, he is called ish ha-ruach (a man of the spirit) - the spirit of Hashem rests upon him. The Malbim notes that the people would mock this, saying: This is not the spirit of God. It is a spirit, all right, but you know what kind? He is mentally ill, afflicted with spirits! He has hallucinations; that is all he has. They did not believe he was truly a man of the spirit, as it is written, "who follow their own spirit." And how do people describe someone who follows his own delusions, imagining all kinds of prophecies that Hashem speaks with him? A madman (meshuga). Therefore, what did they do? The prophet, the ish ha-ruach - who, as we said, receives divine inspiration from Hashem - they labeled a madman. Why? Because they viewed his behavior as madness and wild frenzy stemming from that supposed "spirit" he received, claiming it was not the spirit of Hashem, but a spirit of distortion. He has another title: navi (prophet). Navi is related to niv sefatayim, the fruit/utterance of the lips, because he delivers words of rebuke to the people; therefore he is called a navi. To this, they respond by calling him a fool (evil). What is an evil? The Malbim mentions in numerous places - and we learned this extensively in Mishlei - that evil comes from the root of ulai (perhaps); evil implies someone who is in doubt. The meaning is: You call yourself a navi, and a prophet is someone who speaks words of moral instruction and clear knowledge (da'at), yet they say to him: You are the antithesis of knowledge! Nothing you say can be known with clarity; everything you utter is mere conjecture, uncertain and unverified. Therefore you are an evil (a fool) - not a prophet who speaks words of knowledge, but a fool who utters things about which he is uncertain and doubtful.
The Malbim explains further: There is a distinction between a ro'eh (seer), a chozeh (visionary), and a tzofeh (watchman). A ro'eh is one who observes with physical eyes in order to guide and rectify the people in interpersonal matters (bein adam lachavero). That is a ro'eh: he must watch what is happening among the people and straighten their conduct. A chozeh, the Malbim explains, is one who sees with the eyes of his heart. He perceives spiritual matters, unlike a ro'eh who sees with physical eyes. A chozeh sees visionary matters - as in "I envision in my mind's eye," or "I saw a vision (chizayon)" - a vision always denotes something spiritual. Thus, a chozeh perceives matters of Godliness with his spiritual vision and the eyes of his heart; he is called a chozeh. Then there is a tzofeh (watchman). A tzofeh is one who looks into the future, knowing what to anticipate. He gazes ahead and foresees the future, discerning what calamity is destined to strike, as it is written: "I have made you a watchman (tzofeh) unto the house of Israel." Therefore, says the Malbim, understand that in the people's hostility (mastemah) toward the watchman, there is also hostility toward God Who appointed him. It is not merely that we are annoyed: "Why do you constantly harass us with your doom? You say things will be bad, the Beit HaMikdash will be destroyed, there will be exile!" We are angry, and so there is animosity. But that hostility is not directed only at you; it is also directed at the One Who sent you. If you tell us things that grate on our ears, we are also resentful toward the One Who sent you - toward the Holy One, blessed be He. Thus, there is animosity toward Hashem as well: "and great is the animosity." Furthermore, their hatred toward the prophet was even greater because the prophet rebuked them. When a prophet speaks unpleasant truths, it makes people want to harm him. As we have seen in countless examples, such as throughout Sefer Yirmeyahu and elsewhere, where people sought to persecute the prophet, and as we saw with Zechariah, who was murdered in the Beit HaMikdash, as will be mentioned shortly.
"Ephraim is a watchman with my God; a prophet is a fowler's snare on all his ways, and animosity in the house of his God." The Radak explains: "Ephraim is a watchman (tzofeh Ephraim)" means that Ephraim appointed for himself a watchman alongside his god - meaning he set up false prophets. The false prophet delivers prophecies in the name of his god, as it were, in the name of his idol. Hoshea characterizes this prophet as "a fowler's snare" (pach yakush). A fowler's snare is a trap that captures birds; so too, this prophet ensnares the people with his false prophecies. For all the prophecies of the false prophets were soothing reassurances. While the true prophet sounded genuine alarms of danger, the false prophets always sounded the all-clear. The result was that his activity functioned as a snare - a fatal trap - because the reality was dire, yet instead of reckoning with the gravity of the impending disaster, the people remained complacent. Thus, they exacerbated their own peril, oblivious to what awaited them. It was truly an ensnaring trap, and Ephraim was trapped by their prophet. "Animosity in the house of his god": What is "the house of his god"? The Radak explains this refers to the temple of the golden calves, which were their gods; thus, animosity was aroused there. The false prophet who prophesied falsely there caused animosity between Israel and Hashem. Another explanation offered by the Radak: "Animosity in the house of his God" refers to the Beit HaMikdash. They committed this ruinous sin in the Beit HaMikdash, as Targum Yonatan explains. The Sages expound this verse as referring to the prophet Zechariah, who was murdered in the Beit HaMikdash. In practice, however, the Radak finds this somewhat difficult, because Zechariah was murdered by the people of Judah in the Beit HaMikdash, whereas here the text is addressing the people of Ephraim, and Ephraim was not the location of the Beit HaMikdash.
The Malbim explains the verse differently: "Ephraim is a watchman with my God; a prophet is a fowler's snare on all his ways, and animosity in the house of his God." The Malbim explains that the prophet is telling them: Great is your animosity toward the watchman of Ephraim who is with my God! What does this mean? According to the Malbim, the verse is not speaking of a false prophet at all. According to the Malbim, it refers to the true prophet! Here he says: the watchman is the true prophet, who foretold impending calamities for them. When you hated Hashem and hated His prophets, you prepared and laid for him "a fowler's snare on all his ways." Hashem placed a watchman for you, sent you a prophet to help you escape disasters, and instead, "a fowler's snare on all his ways" - you laid snares to trip him up! You sought to kill him, as it is written: "They have dug a pit to catch me, and hidden snares for my feet." As we saw with Yirmeyahu, who said: "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting." How many times was he cast into the prison courtyard, how many times did they seek to put him to death! We see that the reality was that the prophets were persecuted. So he says: Look, the Holy One, blessed be He, placed a watchman for you, Ephraim; He gave you a prophet to serve as a watchman and warn you of the troubles destined to come upon you, and instead you laid a fowler's snare on all his ways to trip him up! Furthermore: "and animosity in the house of his God." Even in the House of God, animosity was found against him - meaning you aroused wrath against the prophet, for behold, you murdered Zechariah right inside the Beit HaMikdash! See how you aroused hostility even in the House of God.
"They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Givah; He will remember their iniquity, He will visit their sins." "They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Givah": In addition to this, says the Malbim, they went deep to conceal counsel from Hashem, based on the verse: "Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from Hashem, and their works are in the dark." The Malbim explains: beyond what they displayed openly, they corrupted themselves in immorality (zenut). Regarding this he reminds them: "They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Givah." Just like the incident of the Concubine of Givah (Pilegesh b'Givah), they acted like the people of Sodom, who were...
...evil toward Hashem and evil toward their fellow man. Through this, the prophet informs them that Hashem will remember their iniquity and punish them for these sins: "He will remember their iniquity, He will visit their sins." One should know that besides the Malbim's explanation that "as in the days of Givah" refers to the Concubine of Givah, Rashi explains that it refers to Givat Shaul, where the people demanded a king and rebelled against the words of the prophet. According to Rashi, "as in the days of Givah" means just as occurred then at Givat Shaul, when you went to demand a king and rejected both the prophet and Hashem.