Hosea 9:8 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Prophet. — Many hold that here (as in the previous verse) this word is used in a bad sense (false prophet), and standing contrasted with “the watchman of Ephraim” (or true prophet, Hosea himself, Jeremiah 6:17; Ezekiel 3:17). They would render: — “The watchman of Ephraim is with my God.” But the verse is capable of an altogether different, and, on the whole, more satisfactory interpretation: Ephraim is a lier-in-wait, in conflict with my God. As for the prophet, the fowler’s snare is in all his ways. (Comp. Matthew 23:34-35.) There is persecution in the house of his God. The objection to this rendering lies in this use of the Hebrew ‘im (“in conflict with”). But the word might be read ‘am, “people” (comp. LXX. on 2 Samuel 1:2): “Ephraim, the people of my God, is a lier-in-wait” — a thought full of pathos, and in harmony with the main idea of this prophecy.