| Geneva Study Bible Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a {p} miscarrying womb and dry breasts. (p) The Prophet seeing the great plagues of God toward Ephraim, prays to God to make them barren, rather than that this great slaughter should come upon their children. Wesley's Notes 9:14 Give then - It is an abrupt but pathetic speech of one that shews his trouble for a sinking, undone nation. A miscarrying womb - It is less misery to have none, than to have all our children murdered. King James Translators' Notes miscarrying: Heb. that casteth the fruit Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 14. what wilt thou give?-As if overwhelmed by feeling, he deliberates with God what is most desirable. give . a miscarrying womb-Of two evils he chooses the least. So great will be the calamity, that barrenness will be a blessing, though usually counted a great misfortune (Job 3:3; Jer 20:14; Lu 23:29). Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 9:11-17. God departs from a people, or from a person, when he withdraws his goodness and mercy from them; and when the Lord is departed, what can the creature do? Even though, for the present, good things seem to remain, yet the blessing is gone if God is gone. Even the children should perish with the parents. The Divine wrath dries up the root, and withers the fruit of all comforts; and the scattered Jews daily warn us to beware, lest we neglect or abuse the gospel. Yet every smiting is not a drying up of the root. It may be that God intends only to smite so that the sap may be turned to the root, that there may be more of root graces, more humility, patience, faith, and self-denial. It is very just that God should bring judgments on those who slight his offered mercy. | 
