Hosea 9:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

In essence, they have ‘alienated themselves for shame.’ He refers to Baal-peor as ‘shame’ because his appearance was particularly grotesque, making it shameful to gaze upon him. Thus, if we desire to dwell with God and honor Him as the One who called and chose us, emerging from this world as if from a desolate and thorny terrain, cherished like a grosbeak and an early fig tree, we shall firmly maintain our spiritual unity with Him. Conversely, if we stray toward what is improper and offensive to Him, we will no longer differ from the Gentiles; we will become ‘beloved as detestable,’ and justly loathed. As it is said, ‘the righteousness of the righteous man will not save him when he transgresses’ (Ezek. 3:12), and ‘when the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall die’ (Ezek. 33:13). The wise Apostle Paul also admonishes, "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10:12).

It is noteworthy that while He recognized the forefathers, He discovered the people; similarly, there stands a vineyard and a fig tree, under which, as Scripture indicates, those who trust in the Lord find rest.

However, following their liberation from Egypt, they engaged in idolatry with the Midianites, turning to Baal-Peor, the Moabite idol, which we could equate to Prian. Baal-Peor signifies precisely the idol of lust, depicted with skin at its mouth, representing the shameful male member. By embracing Baal-Peor, they distanced themselves from God, surrendering to their shame and committing themselves to that very idol from which they strayed. As it is written, "for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved" (2 Pet. 2:19), and those who worship gluttony treat their belly as a deity (Phil. 3), so those who serve lust make Baal-Peor their god. They became detestable, resembling what they cherished, in accordance with the psalmist's declaration, "Like unto them shall they be that do alike, and all that trust in them" (Ps. 134:19), thus labeling them not only as idolaters but as idols themselves.

The Lord, who during His suffering proclaimed, "I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the nations, there was none with me" (Is. 63:3), and in the psalm cried out, "Save me, O Lord, for my godly ones are weakened" (Ps. 11:1), witnessed the triumph of sin in the world. At a time when the nations were ignorant of God, and Israel cast aside Him whom they had once known, it was among the apostles and their disciples that He first discovered a Christian people contemplating God with their minds, nourished by the sweetest fruits—grapes and figs—which are particularly delightful as they are rare, especially in wilderness conditions or before their typical ripening season.

Yet, those among Israel who falsely claim the name of Christians—so it cannot be attributed to the ancestors—are the ones who turned to the idol Baal-Peor, depicted as having skin on its mouth. Everything pronounced by a heretic is detrimental and detaches from the living Word of God. It is rare to encounter a heretic who genuinely cherishes chastity, not because they do not often proclaim it, but because their actions contradict their words. Thus, they have also forsaken God, their honor reverting to disgrace, becoming abominable to those once favored in their ancestors. Should we accept the interpretation that they became detestable as those who were beloved—though this is absent in the Hebrew text—we can assert that both the Gentiles, who are detestable, and the heretics, once cherished in the eyes of their forebears, have likewise become equally abominable and sinful.