What Does Hosea 9:5 Mean in the King James?
What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?
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 “solemn day” is an appointed meeting, so the verse asks what remains when its feast arrives and you cannot enter its celebration.
THE MEANING
The question speaks to you now: what do you do when a day set apart for meeting with God arrives, but taking part in its feast feels out of reach? The verse leaves the question open, letting the distance between the appointed day and your ability to join its celebration be felt.
THE ROOT
מוֹעֵד
mo'ed
GROWS FROM
יעד
y-ʿ-d
To appoint or designate; to set a time or place for meeting.
“solemn day” in this verse is mo'ed. Mo’ed holds a date and a meeting together: this is time appointed for encounter, not merely a solemn square on a calendar. The question sharpens when the appointed meeting arrives but joining its celebration feels impossible.
ALSO GROWS
ya'ad: To appoint or designate.
יָעַד
The appointed day carries the sense of a meeting set in advance, so the question concerns whether you can enter the encounter when it arrives.
'edah: Assembly or congregation.
עֵדָה
This related branch links appointed meeting to a gathered people, bringing the feast’s communal dimension into view.
חַג
chag
GROWS FROM
חגג
ḥ-g-g
To celebrate a feast or make a pilgrimage for a festival.
The feast is an enacted celebration, not only a date named on the calendar. Beside mo’ed, it gives the verse both an appointed meeting and the act of joining its celebration.
ALSO GROWS
chagag: To celebrate a feast or keep a festival.
חָגַג
The verb makes the feast something people actively enter and celebrate, giving weight to the question of what they can do when it comes.
chagigah: A festival offering or feast sacrifice.
חֲגִיגָה
This branch connects the celebration to shared worship, so the verse’s question reaches beyond the date to participation.
THE PATTERN
An appointed feast is a shared act of worship whose meaning is felt in whether people can take part.
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.THE THREAD
When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.The Hebrew behind “kept holyday” comes from the same feast-root, חגג, as Hosea’s “feast.” The psalm shows the shared celebration Hosea’s question makes you feel: a multitude going to God’s house, now remembered with longing.
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