Verse 11

Fertility Imagery: Plowing, Sowing, and Reaping Ephraim was a well-trained heifer who loved to thresh grain; I myself put a fine yoke on her neck. I will harness Ephraim. Let Judah plow! Let Jacob break up the unplowed ground for himself!

Referenced Verses

  • Hos 4:16 : 16 Israel has rebelled like a stubborn heifer! Soon the LORD will put them out to pasture like a lamb in a broad field!
  • Deut 25:4 : 4 You must not muzzle your ox when it is treading grain.
  • Jer 50:11 : 11 “People of Babylonia, you plundered my people. That made you happy and glad. You frolic about like calves in a pasture. Your joyous sounds are like the neighs of a stallion.
  • Hos 2:5 : 5 For their mother has committed adultery; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said,“I will seek out my lovers; they are the ones who give me my bread and my water, my wool, my flax, my olive oil, and my wine.
  • Hos 3:1 : 1 An Illustration of God’s Love for Idolatrous Israel The LORD said to me,“Go, show love to your wife again, even though she loves another man and continually commits adultery. Likewise, the LORD loves the Israelites although they turn to other gods and love to offer raisin cakes to idols.”
  • 2 Chr 28:5-8 : 5 The LORD his God handed him over to the king of Syria. The Syrians defeated him and deported many captives to Damascus. He was also handed over to the king of Israel, who thoroughly defeated him. 6 In one day Pekah son of Remaliah killed 120,000 warriors in Judah, because they had abandoned the LORD God of their ancestors. 7 Zikri, an Ephraimite warrior, killed the king’s son Maaseiah, Azrikam, the supervisor of the palace, and Elkanah, the king’s second-in-command. 8 The Israelites seized from their brothers 200,000 wives, sons, and daughters. They also carried off a huge amount of plunder and took it back to Samaria.
  • Isa 28:24 : 24 Does a farmer just keep on plowing at planting time? Does he keep breaking up and harrowing his ground?
  • Hos 9:1 : 1 Fertility Cult Festivals Have Intoxicated Israel O Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly like the nations, for you are unfaithful to your God. You love to receive a prostitute’s wages on all the floors where you thresh your grain.
  • Hos 11:4 : 4 I led them with leather cords, with leather ropes; I lifted the yoke from their neck, and gently fed them.
  • Rom 16:18 : 18 For these are the kind who do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By their smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of the naive.