What Does Hosea 9:17 Mean in the King James?
My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
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 verse makes loss of a settled place the visible outcome of refusing to hear and respond.
THE MEANING
This verse names a hard, living pattern: God casts away those who refuse to hear and respond, and they become wanderers among the nations. The rupture shows up as a loss of rootedness and direction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that refusal to hear leaves belonging untouched; here, refusal ends in rejection and wandering.
THE ROOT
שָׁמְעוּ
shāmeʿû
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, receive and respond.
“hearken” in this verse is shāmeʿû. The verse says they did not merely miss a sound: they did not receive and respond. Once that hearing is refused, “wanderers” describes the resulting loss of direction.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear; listen.
שְׁמַע
This familiar call to hear shows the root’s place at the opening of a relationship with God.
shemuʿah: A report or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch keeps hearing connected to what is received, rather than sound alone.
וַיִּמְאָסֵם
wayyimʾāsem
GROWS FROM
מאס
Reject, refuse, despise.
“cast away” in this verse is wayyimʾāsem. The verb names rejection, not simply a change of location. The following image gives that severing a visible form: wandering among the nations.
ALSO GROWS
māʾas: To reject or despise.
מָאַס
This verb is the root’s basic act of refusal, the force behind “cast them away.”
māʾūs: Rejected, despised.
מָאוּס
This form describes the condition produced by rejection, echoing the verse’s stark consequence.
נֹדְדִים
nōdədîm
GROWS FROM
נדד
Move to and fro, wander, flee.
The root pictures repeated movement, including flight, so “wanderers” carries more force than travel. The verse’s final image is a life without a settled place among the nations.
ALSO GROWS
nadad: To wander or flee.
נָדַד
The verb gives the movement beneath “wanderers,” a departure from settledness.
nōdēd: One who wanders.
נֹדֵד
This related form names the person marked by that unsettled movement.
THE PATTERN
Refusing God’s voice turns a people away from settled belonging and toward scattering and lost rest.
And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.THE THREAD
But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.Both verses use שׁמע (shamaʿ, “hear and respond”): Hosea names refusal as the reason for being cast away, and Zechariah shows it through a turned shoulder and stopped ears. The image makes the rupture concrete: wandering follows when the voice is refused.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us