What Does Hosea 9:14 Mean in the King James?
Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The word translated “miscarrying” belongs to the same Hebrew root as “bereaved,” so this is a plea spoken in the language of loss.
THE MEANING
The line speaks with terrible bluntness: it asks the LORD for a womb that miscarries and breasts that dry up. Repeated “give” makes provision sound like deprivation, turning the language of nurture toward loss. The violence remains exposed in the words themselves.
THE ROOT
מַשְׁכִּיל
mashkil
GROWS FROM
שׁכל
sh-k-l
To bereave, miscarry, or lose a child.
The word for “miscarrying” belongs to the same family as words for being bereaved of children. The image carries the weight of loss, not merely the absence of pregnancy.
ALSO GROWS
shikkel: To bereave or make childless.
שִׁכֵּל
It shows the family’s focus on the loss of children that gives the verse its severity.
shekol: Bereavement or childlessness.
שְׁכוֹל
This noun makes explicit the grief carried inside the word translated “miscarrying.”
רֶחֶם
rechem
GROWS FROM
רחם
r-ch-m
Womb; the related verb carries the sense of tender compassion.
The consonants of “womb” also appear in the Hebrew compassion vocabulary. Here, that sound-link sharpens the line: the place associated with bearing life is pictured as the site of loss.
ALSO GROWS
rachamim: Compassion or tender mercy.
רַחֲמִים
It brings the compassion resonance of the same consonants into view beside the verse’s stark image.
rachum: Compassionate or tender.
רַחוּם
This related word deepens the contrast between tenderness and the requested devastation.
תֵּן
ten
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
The plea opens and closes with the same command to give, framing a request for deprivation in the language of provision. The repetition makes that reversal impossible to miss.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
The verb’s ordinary sense of giving makes the force of this particular request more stark.
mattan: A gift.
מַתָּן
The gift-word echoes the repeated “give,” even as the requested outcome is loss.
THE PATTERN
Scripture gives raw grief language in which birth itself becomes an image of loss.
Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.THE THREAD
And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me.“Bereaved” uses the same Hebrew root, שׁכל (sh-k-l), as “miscarrying” in Hosea. Jacob’s cry makes the root’s grief explicit: the word carries the experience of losing children.
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