הושע, פרק ט׳, פסוק י״ד

Faced with a devastating future for his people, the prophet turns to God with an unusual and heartbreaking prayer. Instead of asking for complete forgiveness, he pleads to exchange a severe, impending punishment for one that is either more merciful or more fitting for their actions. He asks God to either bring the disaster early or fundamentally change its nature.

The primary approach among commentators is that the prophet asks for the nation's children to die before birth or in infancy. A harsh decree has already been sealed for the grown children of the nation to be killed by enemy swords. Knowing this terrifying reality, the prophet begs God to spare the parents from the agonizing, prolonged grief of losing an adult child in war. He reasons that mourning a miscarriage or an infant, while deeply tragic, is a lighter burden for parents to bear than witnessing their grown sons fall in battle.

Offering a different perspective, [מלבי״ם] explains that the prophet is actually pleading with God to spare the nation from the punishment of exile. He asks for a consequence that directly matches their actions. Since the people sinned through adultery and immorality, a fitting consequence would be the loss of their ability to have children. This would prevent them from raising illegitimate offspring born from unfaithfulness, a fate the prophet views as far better than being banished from their homeland.

The prophet then details exactly how this tragic loss of life or fertility should occur. He asks for wombs that cause miscarriage, ensuring that the unborn die before or immediately upon entering the world [רד״ק, מצודת ציון, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. He further asks that the mothers suffer from completely dry breasts, lacking any moisture, much like dried fruit [אבן עזרא, מצודת ציון, מלבי״ם]. The primary approach among commentators is that if a child does manage to survive birth, the mother will be unable to nurse, and the infant will pass away from a lack of milk. However, [מצודת דוד] suggests that this dryness represents absolute infertility. Because a woman's body only produces milk following pregnancy, the lack of it indicates that the women will simply not conceive at all.