Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 7:8
Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.
8 16. The outward evidences of Israel’s decay
8. he hath mixed himself among the people ] Rather, he mixeth himself among the peoples. How? By courting the favour now of Egypt, now of Assyria ( Hos 7:11).
a cake not turned ] Burnt to a coal at the bottom, raw dough at the top: an apt emblem of a character full of inconsistencies (Bishop Horsley). The explanation is plausible, as long as we look at the figure by itself. But the context, which refers only to Israel’s political decline, favours another view. ‘A brand snatched from the burning’ is a figure of a country, rescued only just in time from destruction. Hosea’s ‘cake not turned’ may equally well be an emblem of a country half ruined by calamities, and not rescued. The calamities of Israel, alas! are of his own making; by mingling with ‘the peoples’ he sought for warmth, but found a destroying conflagration (cf. Isa 47:14). The ‘cake’ is the round flat cake of bread which was baked on hot stones (1Ki 19:6) or on hot ashes, and required frequent turning, to prevent its being burned.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people – i. e., with the pagan; he mixed or mingled himself among or with them, so as to corrupt himself, as it is said, they were mingled among the pagan and learned their works Psa 106:35. God had forbidden all intermarriage with the pagan Exo 34:12-16, lest His people should corrupt themselves: they thought themselves wiser than He, intermarried, and were corrupted. Such are the ways of those who put themselves amid occasions of sin.
Ephraim is – (literally, is become) a cake (literally, on the coals) not turned The prophet continues the image . Ephraim had been mingled, steeped, kneaded up into one, as it were, with the pagan, their ways, their idolatries, their vices. God would amend them, and they, withholding themselves from His discipline, and not yielding themselves wholly to it, were but spoiled. The sort of cake, to which Ephraim is here likened, uggah literally, circular, was a thin pancake, to which a scorching heat was applied on one side; sometimes by means of hot charcoal heaped upon it; sometimes, (it is thought,) the fire was within the earthen jar, around which the thin dough was fitted. If it remained long unturned, it was burned on the one side; while it continued unbaked, doughy, recking, on the other; the fire spoiling, not penetrating it through. Such were the people; such are too many so-called Christians; they united in themselves hypocrisy and ungodliness, outward performance and inward lukewarmness; the one overdone, but without any wholesome effect on the other. The one was scorched and black; the other, steamed, damp, and lukewarm; the whole worthless, spoiled irremediably, fit only to be cast away. The fire of Gods judgment, with which the people should have been amended, made but an outward impression upon them, and reached not within, nor to any thorough change, so that they were the more hopelessly spoiled through the means which God used for their amendment.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hos 7:8
Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.
Moral declension
Much real pain is caused, to a rightly constituted mind, by the failure of fondly cherished anticipations. To trace the causes of moral declensions is a most important exercise. As these are discovered, we are put on our guard.
I. The conduct of ephraim.
1. The persons with whom he associated. Described as the people, that is, the idolatrous remnants of the nations originally possessing the land. The separation of Israel from other nations was a type of the separation into which God has ever called His believing people from persons of sinful and worldly principles and character. Scripture injunctions, in relation to this, are far from being regarded by professed Christians as they should.
2. The character of Ephraims association with these parties. Mixed himself among them. Friendly and intimate association. It is such intercourse the Christian ought to avoid. We are not required to abstain from all intercourse, but from such intimacy as would bring us into evil influence. In unrestrained intercourse with the world, a Christian is often led to go farther than consistency sanctions. A Christian too much mixes himself with the world–
(1) When his chosen associates and most intimate friends are selected from the world.
(2) When he allows himself to participate in the dishonourable principles or pursuits of worldly men.
(3) When he is found frequently mingling in the pleasures of the world.
3. The voluntary and spontaneous nature of this association. Ephraim was not forced into, but he mixed himself among them. To a certain extent, the Christian not only may but must mingle with the world. That is a very different thing from courting the society of men of the world.
II. The character of ephraim, as the result of his conduct, A cake not turned. The figure intimates–
1. The undecided character of his religion.
2. The worthlessness of such religion.
(1) As the ground of personal safety.
(2) As a source of personal enjoyment, and as the means of support and consolation under trial.
(3) As a means of security against danger and temptation.
(4) In exerting a beneficial influence on the minds of worldly men.
III. The personal instruction which the consideration of such a character may supply.
1. How important that worldly minded men and undecided persons should correctly understand their real position.
2. How needful that they who have any regard to their spiritual interests should exercise great circumspection as to the characters and habits of those with whom they familiarly associate.
3. How desirable that Christians, by a more decided and elevated tone of spirituality in feeling and conduct, should make the line of separation between the Church and the world more apparent. This is required in view of your own spiritual well-being, and in order to the graciousness of your influence on others. (H. Bromley.)
The sin of Ephraim
I. Ephraims unhappy mixture. He hath joined himself with the nations in their idolatrous and profane conversation. There was a threefold mixture. A local mixture, of place and company. A civil mixture, of affinity and alliance. A moral mixture, in regard of manners, religion, and conversation. For Gods people to comply with those who are wicked and ungodly in their practices, and to conform themselves to their customs and manners, is a thing very grievous and insufferable. The conformity of Gods people to the world is contrary to their election, and Gods special designation of their persons to eternal life. It is also opposed to their redemption. We are redeemed for another purpose than this. We are called out of the world, and God has thereby distinguished us from other men who are in the world. Our sanctification too is an argument against conformity to the world. It engages us to self-mortification and to spiritual quickening.
II. Ephraims indifferent temper. A cake not turned. Take the figure as an amplification of their sin. They were only baked on one side, that is, they were of an imperfect and indifferent temper in religion. This may be an expression of hypocrisy and false-heartedness in religion; of neutrality and indifferency in religion; of deficiency and imperfection in religion. Cakes not turned are mere notion and speculation in religion, which proceed not to practice and operation: purposes and resolution without practice; the practice of some things, but omission of others; extravagance and the following of two extremes. Take the figure as an amplification of their punishment. As a hungry man catches the cake from the hearth before it is baked, so the enemies of Ephraim were hurrying to devour her. There was no respite for repentance and turning to God. No opportunity for escape. (T. Herren, D. D.)
Half-baked
A strange text, but there are so many strange people in the world that odd words are sometimes needed to reach them. All can understand about a cake. One that was only half-baked you would say was a deceit. There are people like such a cake. They look beautiful and good when in church, but when you come to try them, they are anything but pleasant. They are cakes not turned. Jesus was once speaking of this kind of thing, and took cups and saucers for His text. He said, Do not wash the outside only, and make believe about the inside. Do the same with your characters. If you pretend to be good, then be good, inside and out, in your heart and thoughts as well as in your appearance. That is what this cake is meant to teach. Be thorough; do not try to appear what you are not. The best way to seem good is by being good. What is the good of seeming good if your thoughts are bad? God can see when you are only aa a cake not turned. No one ever yet lost by obeying God. Be thorough, honest, and God-fearing in and out; do not have a religion like a weathercock that shifts with the wind, or one that can be broken with an if or a but. God sees you altogether. A great sculptor in Greece, long ago, made a statue that was to be set on a high column, yet he was as particular about the hair on the top of the statues head as about all the rest. Why take so much pains about that? some one said. Nobody will ever see it. No, replied the sculptor, but God will see it. Then be true in heart if you would be true in life. (J. Reid Howat.)
One-sidedness in religion
The figures of Scripture are less ornate than homely and expressive. Even a child knows what will happen if the cake be not turned. It will be ruined on both sides, and be wholly unfit for use. Such a cake denotes a type of character at once distempered and untempered, a character that lacks unity, that is spoiled by defect and damaged by excess, an inconsistent whole.
I. The grounds of this impeachment.
1. Ephraim has mixed himself among the people; he has missed the practical design, of religion, which is entire separation unto God. Many persons seek to combine in themselves contradictory qualities. They would be spiritual on one side and carnal on the other. They have a side that is religiously baked, and a side that is carnally crude. They are religiously blistered and carnally sodden.
2. Ephraim was indisposed to look to God, to call upon Him, to count on Him as the unit of power against the enemy. Religion was kept for ceremonies and state occasions; it was not an everyday working religion. They had a notional knowledge of God, but they did not seek after an experimental knowledge of Him. Jehovah was in their notions, He was not in their trust. Had He been in their trust they would have turned round to Him in their trouble. The cake would have been browned on both sides. And how many now have a name to live and are dead! To a certain extent they have the right notion, but it does not determine their practice, nor lead them to seek the confirmation of experience. Hence the cake is done only on one side. Better never to have known the truth at all, than for the truth never to influence the practice and issue in experience.
3. Ephraim was proud (Hos 7:10). Pride is always a one-sided and therefore spiritually false thing. Pride is based on fleshly comparison. No one could be proud who saw himself in the Divine light. If self-complacence creeps into our hearts, it is quite time the cake was turned.
4. Ephraim used temporal things inordinately and licentiously. They were carried into intemperate excesses. There is a possibility of ruining the cake through self-indulgence.
II. The teachings that underlie Ephraims impeachment. These teachings strongly emphasise–
1. The need of a proper balance of character. Zeal is only one side of the cake. Zeal without knowledge, or contrary to knowledge, is a cake unturned. The like applies to fidelity and love, knowing and doing, energy and repose. Faith itself is a cake of two sides; because faith has its waiting as well as its working sides.
2. The need of a proper balance of truth.
3. The general drift of the whole subject suggests to our mind the need of a correspondence between what Christ has done for us, and what He-is doing in us by His Spirit. To be well baked we need the Cross of Christ translated into experience. Paul knew Christs Cross as a means of experimental crucifixion. To him it meant a death experienced within, in which the world became dead to him and he to it. (James Douglas, M. A.)
The crude cake
In the East it is the custom to heat the hearth, then sweep carefully the portion heated, put the cake upon it, and cover it with ashes and embers. In a little time the cake is turned. It is then covered again, and this process is continued several times, until the cake is found to be sufficiently baked. Ephraim has many representatives at this hour.
1. The man who lives for pleasure alone is a cake not turned. One side of his nature is unduly baked, the other is entirely neglected. Pleasure has its uses, but pleasure as a business is a very poor business indeed. There are many such persons, both in the lower and in the higher grades of society. The man who lives for pleasure is dead while he liveth. He is a wretched parasite; he is a reproach to his species. One side of his nature is burnt to a crust by the fires of unholy desire; the other side of his nature is raw dough. Both are worthless.
2. The man who lives for business alone is a cake not turned Business is good. Even though it be honourable, and the methods of its pursuit unobjectionable, the man who lives for this life alone loses this life as well as the life that is to come. The man to whom this world is a god is a wretched idolater. This life is never truly lived except it is used for the good of others and for the glory of God. If a man lives for business alone, one side of his nature is scorched by the friction of the worlds cares, and the other is raw dough.
3. A man who lives for culture alone is a cake not turned. No man can claim the honours of culture, portions of whose nature lie fallow. A true culture sweeps across every faculty. Man has earthward, manward, and Godward relations. If lacking in any of these directions, it is a partial, defective, and unauthoritative culture. Tried by this true standard many claimants for the honour of culture will be found wanting. That is not true culture which fails to cultivate the nobler, the Diviner elements of the soul.
4. A man who is half-hearted in religion is a cake not turned. Ephraim, though proud and haughty as a tribe, had been lacking in moral back bone, in loyalty, in consecration, in the service of God. There are such professors of religion to-day. A half and half man is a failure always and everywhere. To-day Jesus Christ calls for men with one heart, and that heart on fire with His love. We want no unturned cakes. We want men with convictions. It is said Of some men that they are very pious Godward, and very crooked manward. That is a severe criticism when it is true. That is not Christs model man. He is symmetrical: he is baked through and through. Christ alone can make such men. (R. S. MArthur, D. D.)
Modern Ephraism
Hosea was a shew herd and hewer of wood. There is nothing conventional in his style. His similes are quaint and abrupt. They show that their author was possessed of a quiet vein of broad humour. Ephraim is a cake not turned may be said of most men in their relation–
I. To the social circle. Too often we have–
1. Courtesy minus friendship.
2. Appearance of wealth minus money.
3. Claims to family and learning.
The amount of goods in the shop window is generally in inverse ratio to the amount in stock. This comparison may be applied–
II. To men in their relation to commerce. Too often we have–
1. Better goods than any other house.
2. Tradesmen retiring from business. The words from this place being purposely omitted.
3. Sales at a-tremendous sacrifice.
There is ever a-connection between demand and supply. Half-baked customers create Ephraimitish tradesmen. This comparison may be applied–
III. To men in their relation to religion. Too often we have–
1. Profession without practice.
2. Letter without spirit.
Profession is valueless without practice. So also is letter without spirit. So far as we have either without the other, we are as cakes not turned. Christ ruling in our hearts adjusts all human relations. (J. S. Swan.)
The spoiled cake
Hoseas composition epigrammatic and figurative. He compares Ephraim to a silly dove, easily enticed into the net. When frightened, will not stay in the cot where she is safe. To a wild ass alone–foolish, headstrong, wilful An empty vine–fruitless and useless. A child tenderly brought up, who turns pout rebellious. A merchant, deceitful m his balances. A cake not turned, which, for want of turning is burnt on one side, and dough on the other side, but good for nothing on either side. Israel was not completely consecrated to God.
I. God demands the consecration of mans entire being. The cake should have been baked on both sides. Body, soul, time, possessions, should all be devoted to God. He claims it. The claim is based on–
1. What God is in Himself.
2. What He is relatively to us.
3. Our highest interests. The example of the best beings.
II. Some consecrate to God only a portion of their being. Baked on one side only. This indicates–
1. Self-will.
2. Lack of supreme love to God.
3. Aversion to submission.
4. Love of present pleasure.
5. Ignorance of the ease of religious service.
6. Indecision of character.
III. The consecration of only a portion of our being to God will end in destruction. It is destructive of–
1. Complete devotion.
2. Force of character.
3. True usefulness.
4. Thorough enjoyment.
5. Final perseverance.
6. Future glory. (B. D, Johns.)
The unturned cake
The text forms part of the energetic remonstrance addressed by the Spirit of God to Israel at a period of national degeneracy. They embody a reproof; but the homely figure must be deemed most appropriate in the circumstances of the case. What is the exact point of resemblance betwixt Ephraim and the unturned cake? At what stage in the process of baking, or in what circumstances are we to contemplate the cake? Is it when but for a while exposed to the heat of the oven, and therefore when the cake is partly cold and partly hot–exhibiting a vivid representation of that religious lukewarmness and indifferency which is so distasteful to God? Or is the allusion to the cake removed from the oven while yet only partially baked, the lower portions, or the outside, having been converted into bread, while the remainder, or the interior, is still dough, thereby pointing to persons who seek to make a composition betwixt their inclinations and sense of duty, by sometimes yielding to the one, and sometimes striving to fulfil the other? Or is the allusion to the position of the cake, and its state as thence to be inferred–cold upwardly and warm beneath–betokening coldness or disregard to things above, and warmth of affection exclusively to things below? Or is the allusion to a cake left behind in the oven till it is scorched, blackened, and altogether destroyed; representing the condition of those who, being given up and let alone of God, gradually become worse and worse?
I. A rebuke to lukewarmness and indifferency with regard to the things of God and eternity. In the Christian community there are numbers who are neither bread nor dough. They have enough of Christian profession to exclude them from the designation of heathen, not enough of heartfelt godliness to entitle them to the name of disciples indeed. They have the name, but want the reality. The Christians of the unturned cake are very skilful in evading all impressions of sacredness. It is not enough to profess Christianity, we must also feel and live it.
II. A rebuke to those who vainly imagine that it is possible to secure the souls salvation and yet gratify to the uttermost the sinful propensities of the flesh. There are some who occasionally feel, and that profoundly, the claims of Gospel truth and righteousness. But Wait a little. Swiftly passes the morning cloud. The world and the flesh soon resume their ascendency. There are some whose entire life is a uniform and sustained effort to keep up an alliance betwixt the spirit and the flesh; betwixt God and the world; betwixt duty and carnal inclination. They will not follow the Lord fully. God will not tolerate a rival. We must either serve Him altogether or not at all.
III. A rebuke to the coldness and unspirituality of professed believers. A cake cold upwards and warm underneath. Its baking may be so conducted that while the under side is intensely heated, the upper part is as cold as when first placed over a fire. So many professors. To the heavens they are cold, to the earth only are they warm.
IV. An intimation of the condition and destiny of those who are given up and forsaken of God. Cakes left in the oven to be burnt and destroyed there. (James Cochrane, M. A.)
Religious indecision
I. Who are Ephraimites? Three classes. Real Christians, who are entirely for God. The profligate, who make no pretension to religion. Some stand between both, and seem to partake of each. These are the characters we search for.
II. Expose their conduct and their condition.
1. This indecision is unreasonable.
2. It is dishonourable.
3. It is wretched.
4. It is peculiarly dangerous.
III. Endeavour to bring men to decision. Choose you this day whom ye will serve. (William Jay.)
Half-hearted religion
I. Half-hearted men never attain to loftiness of character.
II. Half-hearted men never accomplish any great work.
III. Half-hearted men fail to secure lifes greatest blessing. (A. Hampden Lee.)
Inconsisteney and incompleteness
The description is applicable–
I. to men whose consciences are thus constituted. Scrupulous in some things, they are frequently overscrupulous, and sometimes unscrupulous. The evil is aggravated when little things are its subjects, and when the weightier matters of the law are omitted, or when others sins and not our own are considered.
II. To those whose zeal is peculiar. Like thorns under a pot, it smokes and crackles to-day and to-morrow is extinct. The religion of those who blaze forth with transcendent glow, for a time, and then disappear, is a cake not turned.
III. To those who carry their religion only to certain places. To the sanctuary, the prayer-meeting, and the communion-table, but not into the family, the store, the bank, the senate. Or they may be outwardly consistent amidst home environments, but abroad, or at fashionable watering-places, they follow the multitude to do evil. (Homiletic Review.)
The unturned cake
Ephraim had been mingled, steeped, kneaded up into a cake, as it were, with the heathen, their ways, their idolatries, their vices. God would amend them, and they withholding themselves from His discipline, and not yielding themselves wholly to it, were spoiled. The fire of Gods judgment, with which the people should have been amended, made but an outward impression upon them, and reached not within, nor to any thorough change, so that they were but the more hopelessly spoiled through the means which God used for their amendment. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)
Unturned cakes
Ephraim is a cake not turned; that is, overdone on one side, and undone on the other. Excellent and apt symbol of much which we now see all about us!
I. Orthodoxy without life. It is the most serious temptation to which Christians are exposed to substitute creed for conduct. If one is sensibly weak in his spirituality, he will try to make up for it by redoubled emphasis laid upon his orthodoxy. It is as though a soldier should plant his flag upon a high position, and then go to sleep under its folds, trusting to his standard to win the battle, instead of to his own viligant and energetic fighting. Creeds are the flags of the Church–very necessary as symbols and summaries of faith, but worthless as a substitute for Christian living. When I see a Christian growing more and more zealous for every punctilio of his creed, while he is growing more and more selfish and worldly in his life, I say he is going forward by the wind, and going backward by the tide; when I see a Christian very unctuous in his prayers and exhortations in the Church, and very bitter and harsh in his conduct in the family, I say he is going forward by the wind and going backward by the tide. There is a constant need that we re-adjust our conduct to our creeds, not that we should believe less, but that we should live more. To avoid inconstancy, some people contract their belief to the size of the life, as a tailor takes in the seams of a coat which is too large, in order to make it fit the wearer. This is a bad method. Most of the heresies and false doctrines which have sprung up in the Church have resulted from the fitting over of theology to conform to a shrunken spirituality.
II. Piety without principle. It is a fearful proof of the deceitfulness of sin, that one may be at the same time very zealous for God and very dishonest towards men, lifting up hands of prayer and exhortation on Sundays and stretching out hands of fraud and peculation on week.days.
III. Morality without religion. It is a saying very hard to be received that morality and holiness are entirely different qualities. Morality is the religion of the natural man; holiness is the religion of the renewed man. The one grows on the stock of Adam; the other grows on the stock of Christ. Morality, even at its highest pitch, is not holiness; for holiness is something of God, wherever found, like the sunbeams which inhere in the sun and are inseparable from it, even while resting on the earth. Honesty, sobriety, purity,–these are the highest qualities of morality; and noble qualities they are. But love to God, communion with God, consecration to God,–these are the attributes of true religion. Let us look to it that our cake is evenly done; that our orthodoxy has life as well as soundness; that our piety has principle, honest and square and straightforward, as well as unction; that our morality has holiness as well as uprightness. (J. A. Garden, D. D.)
Sad aspects of character
I. Wrong companionship. What is a wrong mixing with people? Not intermixture in marriages. Not intercourse in business. Not associating with men for spiritual usefulness. It is doing as the Ten Tribes did, mixing with others for worldly advantage and unholy gratification. It is said that Pythagoras, before he admitted any one to his school, inquired who were his intimates, justly concluding that they who could choose immoral companions would not be much profited by his instructions.
II. Moral worthlessness. Ephraim had become as useless, in a spiritual sense, as a half-baked cake. It no longer fulfilled its Divine mission, maintaining and promoting the worship of the one true and living God. Usefulness is the grand purpose of our being. The man who does not make the world better than he found it, must be accursed.
III. Social despoilment. Strangers devoured his strength. How many souls lose their strength under the influence in which they mingle! Their intellectual power, social sympathies, moral sensibilities get used up, and they become the mere, creatures of circles and circumstances.
IV. Unconscious decay. Moral strength goes so slowly from men that they are often not conscious of its loss until they are reduced to the utmost prostration, Look at these aspects of character, and learn practical wisdom. Form no friendship with sinners. Avoid a worthless life. Allow not the social influences of your sphere to steal away your strength, to eat up your manhood. Do not think that decay cannot be working in you merely because you are unconscious of it. (Homilist.)
The evil of a one-sided character
The Sierra Nevada Mountains condense the cloudy moisture upon their slopes, and leave the plains beyond them arid deserts. So some great passion or ambition absorbs into itself all the force of the soul, and leaves us without any energy or inclination for other and equally important things. This will account for the moral sterility of many of us. Says Cicero to a young man: Hold off from sensuality or soon you will be unable to think of anything else. Vicious thinking seems to rot the tissue of the brain itself. It is so also with less degrading traits of disposition. Thus the passion for money-getting dries out from the soul the more gracious impulse of helpfulness toward others and even the desire for self-culture. Under the spell of greed a man possessed of really brilliant talents becomes content to be a mere grind in the counting-house or factory. Similarly, the passion for repute prevents many from obtaining that celebrity which their natural talents might otherwise readily win for them; their souls are so intent on listening for outer applause that they do not concentrate their attention upon the work that is to win the reward. Scores of literary reputations are thus annually wrecked through over-haste in the making. (J. M. Ludlow, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. A cake not turned.] In the East having heated the hearth, they sweep one corner, put the cake upon it, and cover it with embers; in a short time they turn it, cover it again, and continue this several times, till they find it sufficiently baked. All travellers into Asiatic countries have noted this.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Ephraim; the kingdom of Israel.
Hath mixed himself among the people, by leagues and commerce, by imitation of their manners, and by either entertaining their gods, and sacrificing to them, or at least worshipping idols as the nations about them did, directly contrary to the express law of God, Deu 7:2-4; 12:2,3. This was their sin, and the greater because voluntary: the expression seems to represent it as a thing of their own seeking, they did mix themselves with the heathen, whereas had the heathen sought it, it would in likelihood have been said that the nations mixed themselves with Ephraim; but this is in other words the same with Hos 2:5,7. Or this passage may be (as some conceive) a threat that the Ephraimites should be scattered among the nations, be captives to them, and dispersed amongst them, with whom, to ease their condition a little, they should endeavour to mix by friendship and alliances: if so, this is the punishment of their former sinful confederacies.
Ephraim is a cake not turned: some interpret this of the particoloured temper of Ephraim, by such a proverb as ours, Is neither fish nor flesh; neither Israelite nor heathen, but a mongrel; neither a heathen idolater nor yet a worshipper of God, a hotch-potch of different religions and policies, like them, 1Ki 18:21; Zep 1:5; neither bread nor yet dough, but partly both, as the unturned cake on the coals is: but it better expresseth their danger and sudden ruin, whose hungry enemies will eat them up quickly, as men do who for haste will not stay the full baking of their cake.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. mixed . . . among the peoplebyleagues with idolaters, and the adoption of their idolatrouspractices (Hos 7:9; Hos 7:11;Psa 106:35).
Ephraim . . . cake notturneda cake burnt on one side and unbaked on the other, andso uneatable; an image of the worthlessness of Ephraim. TheEasterners bake their bread on the ground, covering it with embers(1Ki 19:6), and turningit every ten minutes, to bake it thoroughly without burning it.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people,…. Either locally, by dwelling among them, as some of them at least might do among the Syrians; or carnally, by intermarrying with them, contrary to the command of God; or civilly, by entering into alliances and confederacies with them, as Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel did with Rezin king of Syria, Isa 7:2; or by seeking to them for help, calling to Egypt, and going to Assyria, as in Ho 7:11; so Aben Ezra; or morally, by learning their manners, and conforming to their customs, especially in religious things: though some understand this as a punishment threatened them for their above sins, that they should be carried captive into foreign lands, and so be mixed among the people, and which is Jarchi’s sense: but it is rather to be considered as their evil in joining with other nations in their superstition, idolatry, and other impieties; and it is highly offensive to God when his professing people mix themselves with the world, keep company with the men of it, fashion themselves according to them, do as they do, and wilfully go into their conversation, and repeat it, and continue therein, and resolve to do so: for so it may be rendered, “he will mix himself” r; it denotes a voluntary act, repeated and persisted in with obstinacy;
Ephraim is a cake not turned; like a cake that is laid on coats, if it is not turned, the nether part will be burnt, and the upper part unbaked, and so be good for noticing; not fit to be eaten, being nothing indeed, neither bread nor dough; and so may signify, that Ephraim having introduced much of the superstition and idolatry of the Gentiles into religious worship, was nothing in religion, neither fish nor flesh, as is proverbially said of persons and things of which nothing can be made; they worshipped the calves at Dan and Bethel, and Yet swore by the name of the Lord; they halted between two opinions, and were of neither; they were like the hotch potch inhabitants of Samaria in later times, that came in their place, that feared the Lord, and served their own gods: and such professors of religion there are, who are nothing in religion; nothing in principle, they have no scheme of principles; they are neither one thing nor another; they are nothing in experience; if they have a form of godliness, they deny the power of it; they are nothing in practice, all they do is to be seen of men; they are neither hot nor cold, especially not throughout, or on both sides, like a cake unturned; but are lukewarm and indifferent, and therefore very disagreeable to the Lord. Some take this to be expressive of punishment, and not of fault; either of their partial captivity by Tiglathpileser, when only a part of them was carried captive; or of the swift and total destruction of them by their enemies, who would be like hungry and half starved persons, who meeting with a cake on the coals half baked, snatch it up, and eat it, not staying for the turning and baking it on the other side; and thus it should be with them. So the Targum,
“the house of Ephraim is like to a cake baked on coals, which before it is turned is eaten.”
r “miscebit sese”, Zanchius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In the next strophe (Hos 7:8-16) the prophecy passes from the internal corruption of the kingdom of the ten tribes to its worthless foreign policy, and the injurious attitude which it had assumed towards the heathen nations, and unfolds the disastrous consequences of such connections. Hos 7:8. “Ephraim, it mixes itself among the nations; Ephraim has become a cake not turned. Hos 7:9. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not; grey hair is also sprinkled upon him, and he knoweth it not.” , from , to mix or commingle, is not a future in the sense of “it will be dispersed among the Gentiles;” for, according to the context, the reference is not to the punishment of the dispersion of Israel among the nations, but to the state in which Israel then was. The Lord had separated Israel from the nations, that it might be holy to Him (Lev 20:24, Lev 20:26). As Balaam said of it, it was to be a people dwelling alone (Num 23:9). But in opposition to this object of its divine calling, the ten tribes had mingled with the nations, i.e., with the heathen, learned their works, and served their idols (cf. Psa 106:35-36). The mingling with the nations consisted in the adoption of heathen ways, not in the penetration of the heathen into Israelitish possessions (Hitzig), nor merely in the alliances which it formed with heathen nations. For these were simply the consequence of inward apostasy from its God, of that inward mixing with the nature of heathenism which had already taken place. Israel had thereby become a cake not turned. , a cake baked upon hot ashes or red-hot stones, which, if it be not turned, is burned at the bottom, and not baked at all above. The meaning of this figure is explained by Hos 7:9. As the fire will burn an ash-cake when it is left unturned, so have foreigners consumed the strength of Israel, partly by devastating wars, and partly by the heathenish nature which has penetrated into Israel in their train. “Greyness is also sprinkled upon it;” i.e., the body politic, represented as one person, is already covered with traces of hoary old age, and is ripening for destruction. The object to may easily be supplied from the previous clauses, namely, that strangers devour its strength, and it is growing old. The rendering non sapit is precluded by the emphatic , and he knoweth it not, i.e., does not perceive the decay of his strength.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Crimes of the People; Infatuation of Ephraim; Ephraim’s Obstinate Rebellion; Ephraim’s Hypocrisy. | B. C. 750. |
8 Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned. 9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not. 10 And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all this. 11 Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria. 12 When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard. 13 Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me. 14 And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me. 15 Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me. 16 They return, but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
Having seen how vicious and corrupt the court was, we now come to enquire how it is with the country, and we find that to be no better; and no marvel if the distemper that has so seized the head affect the whole body, so that there is no soundness in it; the iniquity of Ephraim is discovered, as well as the sin of Samaria, of the people as well as the princes, of which here are divers instances.
I. They were not peculiar and entire for God, as they should have been, v. 8. 1. They did not distinguish themselves from the heathen, as God had distinguished them: Ephraim, he has mingled himself among the people, has associated with them, and conformed himself to them, and has in a manner confounded himself with them and lost his character among them. God had said, The people shall dwell alone; but they mingled themselves with the heathen and learned their works, Ps. xvi. 35. They went up and down among the heathen, to beg help of one of them against another (so some); whereas, if they had kept close to God, they would not have needed the help of any of them. 2. They were not entirely devoted to God: Ephraim is a cake not turned, and so is burnt on one side and dough on the other side, but good for nothing on either side. As in Ahab’s time, so now, they halted between God and Baal; sometimes they seemed zealous for God, but at other times as hot for Baal. Note, It is sad to think how many, who, after a sort, profess religion, are made up of contraries and inconsistencies, as a cake not turned, a constant self-contradiction, and always in one extreme or the other.
II. They were strangely insensible of the judgments of God, which they were under, and which threatened their ruin, v. 9. Observe, 1. The condition they were in. God was not to them, in his judgments, as a moth and as rottenness; they were silently and slowly drawing towards the ruin of their state partly by the encroachments of foreigners upon them: Strangers have devoured his strength, and eaten him up; they have wasted his wealth and treasure, lessened his numbers, and consumed the fruits of the earth. Some devoured them by open wars (as 2 Kings xiii. 7, when the king of Syria made them like the dust by threshing), others by pretending treaties of peace and amity, in which they extorted abundance of wealth from them, and made them pay dearly for that which did them no good, but which afterwards they paid more dearly for, as 2 Kings xvi. 9. This Ephraim got by mingling with the heathen, and suffering them to mingle with him; they devoured that which he rested upon and supported himself with. Note, Those that make not God their strength (Ps. lii. 7) make that their strength which will soon be devoured by strangers. They were thus reduced partly by their own mal-administrations among themselves: Yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him (are sprinkled upon him, so the word is), that is, the sad symptoms of a decaying declining state, which is waxing old and ready to vanish away, and the effects of trouble and vexation. Cura facit canos–Care turns gray. The almond-tree does not as yet flourish, but it begins to turn colour, which speaks aloud to him that the evil days are coming, and the years of which he shall say, I have no pleasure in them,Ecc 12:1; Ecc 12:5. 2. Their regardlessness of these warnings: He knows it not; he is not aware of the hand of God gone out against him; it is lifted up, but he will not see, Isa. xxvi. 11. He does not know how near his ruin is, and takes no care to prevent it. Note, Stupidity under less judgments is a presage of greater coming.
III. They went on frowardly in their wicked ways, and were not reclaimed by the rebukes they were under (v. 10): The pride of Israel still testifies to his face, as it had done before (ch. v. 5); under humbling providences their hearts were still unhumbled, their lusts unmortified; and it is through the pride of their countenance that they will not seek after God (Ps. x. 4); they do not return to the Lord their God by repentance and reformation, nor do they seek him by faith and prayer for all this; though they suffer for going astray from him, though it can never be well with them till they come back to him, and though they have in vain sought to others for relief, yet they think not of applying to God.
IV. They were infatuated in their counsels, and took very wrong methods when they were in distress (Hos 7:11; Hos 7:12): Ephraim is like a silly dove without heart. To be harmless as a dove, without gall, and not to hurt or injure others, is commendable; but to be sottish as a dove, without heart, that knows not how to defend herself and provide for her own safety, is a shame.
1. The silliness of this dove is, (1.) That she laments not the loss of her young that are taken from her, but will make her nest again in the same place; so they have their people carried away by the enemy, and are not affected with it, but continue their dealings with those that deal barbarously with them. (2.) That she is easily enticed by the bait into the net, and has no heart, no understanding, to discern her danger, as many other fowls do, Prov. i. 17. She hastes to the snare, and knows not that it is for her life (Prov. vii. 23); so they were drawn into leagues with neighbouring nations that were their ruin. (3.) That, when she is frightened, she has not courage to stay in the dove-house, where she is safe, and under the careful protection of her owner, but flutters and hovers, seeking shelter first in one place, then in another, and thereby exposes herself so much the more; so this people, when they were in distress, sought not to God, did not fly like the doves to their windows where they might have been secured from all the birds of prey that struck at them, but threw themselves out of God’s protection, and then called to Egypt to help them, and went in all haste to Assyria, to seek for that aid in vain which they might, by repentance and prayer, have found nearer home, in their God. Note, It is a silly senseless thing for those who have a God in heaven to trust to creatures for the refuge and relief which are to be had in him only; and those that do so are a people of no understanding, they are without heart. Now,
2. See what becomes of this silly dove (v. 12): When they shall go to Egypt and Assyria, I will spread my net upon them. Note, Those that will not abide by the mercy of God must expect to be pursued by the justice of God. Here, (1.) They are ensnared: “I will spread my net upon them, bring them into straits, that they may see their folly and think of returning.” Note, It is common for those that go away from God to find snares where they expected shelters. (2.) They are humbled; they soar upward, proud of their foreign alliances and confiding in them; but I will bring them down, let them fly ever so high, as the fowls of heaven, that are shot flying. Note, God can and will bring those down that exalt themselves as the eagle,Oba 1:3; Oba 1:4. (3.) They are made to smart for their folly: I will chastise them. Note, The disappointments we meet with in the creature, when we put a confidence in it, are a necessary chastisement, or discipline, that we may learn to be wiser another time. (4.) In all this the scripture is fulfilled. It is as their congregation has heard; they have been many a time told by the word of God, read, and preached, and sung, in their religious assemblies, that “vain is the help of man, that in the son of man there is no help; they have heard both from the law and from the prophets what judgments God would bring upon them for their wickedness; and as they have heard now they shall see, they shall feel.” Note, It concerns us to take notice of the word of God which we hear from time to time in the congregation, and to be governed by it, for we must shortly be judged by it; and it will justify God in the condemnation of sinners, and aggravate it to them, that they have had plain public warning given them of it; it is what their congregation has heard many a time, but they would not take warning. “Son, remember thou wast told what would come of it; and now thou seest they were not vain words.” See Zech. i. 6.
V. They revolted from God and rebelled against him, notwithstanding the various methods he took to retain them in their allegiance, v. 13-15. Here observe,
1. How kindly and tenderly God had dealt with them, as a gracious sovereign towards a people dear unto him, and whose prosperity he had much at heart. He had redeemed them (v. 13), brought them, at first, out of the land of Egypt, and, since, delivered them out of many a distress. He had bound and strengthened their arms, v. 15. When their power was weakened, like an arm broken or out of joint, God set it again, and bound it, as a surgeon does a broken bone, to make it knit. God had given Israel victories over the Syrians (2Ki 13:16; 2Ki 13:17), had restored their coast (2Ki 14:25; 2Ki 14:26), had girded them with strength for battle. “Though I have chastened them” (so the margin reads it), “sometimes corrected them for their faults and thereby taught them, at other times strengthened their arms and relieved them, though I have used both fair means and foul to work upon them, it was all to no purpose; they were mercy-proof and judgment-proof.”
2. How impudent their conduct had been towards him notwithstanding, which is described here for the conviction and humiliation of all those who have gone on in any way of wickedness, that they may see how exceedingly sinful their sin is, how heinous, how the God of heaven interprets it, how he resents it. (1.) He had courted them to him, and taken them into covenant with himself; but they fled from him, as if he had been their dangerous enemy who had always approved himself their faithful friend. They wandered from him, as the silly dove from her nest, for those who forsake God will find no rest nor settlement in the creature, but wander endlessly. They fled from God when they forsook the worship of him, and ran away from his service, and withdrew themselves from their allegiance to him. (2.) He had given them his laws, which were all holy, just, and good, by which he designed to keep them in the right way; but they transgressed against him; they sinned with a high hand and a stiff neck, wilfully and presumptuously (so the words signifies); they broke through the fence of the divine law, and therein thwarted the design of the divine love. (3.) He had made known his truths to them, and given them all possible proofs of the sincerity of his good-will to them; and yet they spoke lies against him. They set up false gods in competition with him; they denied his providence and power; thus they belied the Lord, Jer. v. 12. They rejected his messages sent them by his prophets, and said that they should have peace, though they went on in sin, directly against what he said. In their hypocritical professions of religion, shows of devotion, and promises of amendment, they lied to the Lord, which he took as lying against him. (4.) He was their rightful Lord and King, and had always ruled in Jacob with equity, and for the public good; and yet they rebelled against him, v. 14. They not only went off from him, but took up arms against him, would have deposed him if they could and set up another. (5.) He designed well for them, but they imagined mischief against him, v. 15. Sin is a mischievous thin; it is mischief against God, for it is treason against his crown and dignity; not that the sinners can do any thing to hurt their Creator (as one of the ancients observes on these words), but what they can they do; and it is so much the worse when it is not done by surprise, or through inadvertency, but designedly and with contrivance. The Jews have a saying, which Dr. Pocock quotes here, The thoughts of transgression are worse than the transgression. The designing of mischief is doing it, in God’s account. Compassing and imagining the death of the king is treason by our law. Those that imagine an evil thing, though it prove a vain thing (Ps. ii. 1), will be reckoned with for the imagination.
3. How they shall be punished for this (v. 13): Woe unto them! for they have fled from me. Note, Those who flee from God have woes sent after them, and are, without doubt, in a woeful case. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against them; the word of God says, Woe to them! And observe what follows immediately, Destruction unto them! Note, The woes of God’s word have real effects; destruction makes them good. The judgments of his hand shall verify the judgments of his mouth. Those whom he curses, and pronounces woeful, they are cursed, they are woeful indeed.
VI. Their shows of devotion and reformation were but shows, and in them they did but mock God.
1. They pretended devotion, but it was not sincere, v. 14. When the hand of God had gone forth against them they made some sort of application to him. When he slew them, then they sought him. Lord, in trouble have they visited thee. But it was all in hypocrisy. (1.) When they were under personal troubles, and called upon God in secret, they were not sincere in that: They have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds. When they were chastened with pain upon their beds, and the multitude of their bones with strong pains, perhaps ill of the wounds they received in war, they cried, and groaned, and complained in the forms of devotion, and, it may be, they used many good words, proper enough for the circumstances they were in; they cried, God help us, and, Lord, look upon us. But they did not cry with their heart, and therefore God reckons it as no crying to him. Moses is said to cry unto God when he spoke not a word, only his heart prayed with faith and fervency, Exod. xiv. 15. These made a great noise, and said a great deal, and yet did not cry to God, because their hearts were not right with him, not subjected to his will, devoted to his honour, nor employed in his service. To pray is to lift up the soul to God, this is the essence of prayer. If this be not done, words, though ever so well chosen, are but wind; but, if it be, it is an acceptable prayer, though the groanings cannot be uttered. Note, Those do not pray to God at all that do not pray in the spirit. Nay, God is so far from approving their prayer and accepting it that he calls it howling. Some think it intimates the noisiness of their prayers (they cried to God as they used to cry to Baal, when they thought he must be awakened), or the brutish violent passions which they vented in their prayers; they snarled at the stone, and howled under the whip, but regarded not the hand. Or it denotes that their hypocritical prayers were so far from being pleasing to God that they were offensive to him; he was angry at their prayers. The songs of the temple shall be howlings, Amos viii. 3. God will be so far from pitying them that he will justly laugh at their calamity, who have so often laughed at his authority. (2.) When they were under public troubles, and met together to implore God’s favour, in that also they were hypocritical; they assembled themselves, for fashion-sake, because it was usual to call a solemn assembly in times of general mourning, Zeph. ii. 1. But it was only to pray for corn and wine that they came together, which were the things they wanted, and feared being deprived of by the want of rain, the judgment they now laboured under. They did not pray for the favour or grace of God, that God would give them repentance, pardon their sins, and turn away his wrath, but only that he would not take away from them their corn and wine. Note, Carnal hearts, in their prayers to God, covet temporal mercies only, and dread and deprecate no other but temporal judgments, for they have no sense of any other.
2. They pretended reformation, but neither was that sincere, v. 16. Here is, (1.) The sin of Israel: They return, that is, they make as if they would return; they pretend to repent and amend their doings, but they make nothing of it; they do not come home to God nor return to their allegiance, whereas God says (Jer. iv. 1), If thou wilt return, O Israel! return to me; do not only turn towards me, but return to me. This dissimulation of theirs makes them like a deceitful bow, which looks as if it were fit for business, and is bent and drawn accordingly, but, when strength comes to be laid to it, either the bow or the string breaks, and the arrow, instead of flying to the mark, drops at the archer’s foot. Such were their essays towards repentance and reformation. (2.) The sin of the princes of Israel. That which is charged upon them is the rage of their tongue, quarrelling with God and his providence and with all about them when they are crossed. Princes think they may say what they will, and that it is their prerogative to huff and bluster, to curse and rail, and to call names at their pleasure, but let them know there is a God above them that will call them to an account for the rage of their tongues and make their own tongues to fall upon them. (3.) The punishment of Israel and their princes for their sin. As for the princes, they shall fall by the sword either of their enemies or of their own people, some by one and some by the other; and this shall be their derision, this is that for which they shall be derided in the land of Egypt, when they flee to the Egyptians for succour, v. 11. Their sin and punishment shall make them a laughing-stock to all about them. Note, Those that are treacherous and deceitful in their dealings with God, and passionate and outrageous in their conduct towards men, will justly be made a derision to their neighbours, for they make themselves ridiculous.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
God now complains, that Ephraim, whom he had chosen to be a peculiar possession to himself, differed nothing from other nations. The children of Abraham, we know, had been adopted by God for this end, that they might not be like the heathens: for the calling of God brings holiness with it. And we ought to remember that memorable sentence, which often occurs, ‘Be ye holy, for I am holy.’ The Israelites then ought to have been mindful of their calling, and to resolve to worship God purely, and not to pollute themselves with the defilements and filth of the Gentiles. But God says here that Ephraim differed now nothing from the uncircumcised nations. He mingles himself, he says, with the peoples And there is an emphasis to be noticed in the pronoun demonstrative, הוא, eva, Ephraim himself, he says: for surely this was unworthy and by no means to be endured, that Ephraim, on whom God had engraven the mark of his election, was now entangled in the superstitions of the Gentiles. We now then see the drift of the Prophet’s words, He, even Ephraim, mingles himself with the nations If the condition of Israel and of all the nations had been alike and equal, the Prophet would not have thus spoken; but as God had designed Ephraim to be holy to himself; the Prophet here amplifies his sin, when he says that even Ephraim had mingled himself with the nations.
He then adds, Ephraim is like bread baked under the ashes, which is not turned This metaphor most fitly suits the meaning of the Prophet and the circumstances of this passage, provided it be rightly understood. And I think the Prophet simply meant this, that Ephraim was in nothing fixed, but was inconstant and changeable; as, when we in vulgar language notify their changeableness who are not consistent with themselves, and in whom there is no sincerity, we say, Il n’est ne chair ne poisson , (It is neither flesh nor fish.) So also in this place the Prophet says, that Ephraim was like a cake burnt on one side, and was on the other doughy, or a crude and unbaked lump of paste. For Ephraim, we know, boasted themselves to be a people sacred to God; and since circumcision distinguished that people from other nations, there seemed to be some difference; but in the meantime the worship of God was corrupted; all the sacrifices were adulterated, as we have already seen and the whole of their religion was a confused mixture; yea, a chaos composed of Gentile superstitions and of something that resembled true and legitimate worship. When, therefore, the Israelites were thus perfidiously mocking God, they had nothing fixed: hence the Prophet compares them to a cake, which, being placed on the hearth, is not turned; for on one side it must be burnt, while on the other it remains unbaked. (43)
The Prophet here anticipates what the Israelites might object; for hypocrites, we know, never want pretenses. The Israelites might then bring forward this defense, “Thou sayest that we are now entangled in the pollutions of the heathens; but the heathens have no circumcision; among them the God of Israel is despised, there is no altar on which the people can sacrifice to the true God; we, on the contrary, are the children of Abraham, we have the God who stretched forth his hand to deliver us from Egypt, and the priesthood ever abides with us.” As then the Israelites might have introduced these pretenses for their superstitions, the Prophet says, by anticipation, that they were like bread baked under the ashes, which, being thrown on the hearth, is not turned, so that the baking might be equal; for then on the one side it would receive heat, and on the other there would be no proportionate temperature. “Ye are,” he says, “on one side burnt, but on the other crude; so that with you there is nothing but mere perfidiousness.” We now understand what the Prophet means.
But this similitude might also be referred to their punishment; for God had shown before in many places, that the Israelites were so perverse, that they could not be subdued nor brought to a sound mind by any distresses: and he again repeats this complaint. The meaning of the words may then be this, That Ephraim was like a cake, which was not turned on the hearth, because he had been sharply and severely chastised, but without any benefit; being like reprobates, who, though the Lord may bruise them, yet continue obstinate in their hardness. They are then on one side burnt, because they are nearly wasted away under their evils; but on the other side they are wholly unbaked, because the Lord had not softened their perverseness. But what I have adduced in the first place is more suitable to the context.
We now then understand what the Prophet says: in the first clause God accuses Ephraim, because he had made himself profane by receiving the rites and superstitions of heathens, so that there was, as I have said before, a confused mixture. In the second place, he answers the Israelites, in case they pleaded in their favor the name of God, for it was usual for them to make false pretenses. He therefore says, that they were in some things different from the uncircumcised nations, but that this difference was nothing before God, for they were like bread baked under the ashes, which is neither baked nor unbaked on either side; for on one side it is burnt, and on the other it remains unbaked. (44) It now follows —
(43) Bishop Horsley gives the same exposition, — “One thing on one side, another on the other; burnt to a coal on the bottom, raw dough at the top. An apt image of a character that is all inconsistencies. Such were the ten tribes of the Prophet’s day; worshippers of Jehovah in profession, but adopting all the idolatries of the neighboring nations, in addition to their own semi-idolatry of the calves.”
“
Baked on one side and raw on the other, he is neither through hot nor through cold, but partly a Jew and partly a Gentile.” — Geneva Bible.
(44) The account which Pocock, as quoted by Newcome, gives of baking in the East among the country-people is the following: — “The people make a fire in the middle of the room: when the bread is ready for baking they sweep a corner of the hearth, lay the bread there, cover it with hot ashes and embers, and in a quarter of an hour they turn it.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Hos. 7:8. Mixed] by leagues and adoption of idolatrous customs. The Heb. indicates a mixing which disorders and involves confusion. A cake] burned at the bottom and sad at the top,an image of worthlessness. One side scorched and black, the other unbaked and doughy; the whole spoiled and only fit to cast away.
Hos. 7:9. Gray hairs] Symptoms of age and declining strength. Thy gray hairs are thy passing bell [Pusey]. Wisdom is not always found with age (Job. 32:7; Pro. 23:35). Israel indifferent, though ripe for destruction.
HOMILETICS
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH ENDANGERED AND INJURED BY WORLDLY ASSOCIATION.Hos. 7:8-9
From the internal corruption, the prophet passes on to the foreign policy of Israel, and unfolds its disastrous effects. God separated the nation to be his peculiar people; to train them up in virtue; and make them a blessing to the world. But they mixed themselves with other nations in social customs and political leagues. In the application of these words learn
I. That the Christian Church is in danger of unlawful association with the world. Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people. We are not to shut ourselves out from all intercourse and innocent association with the world. Family ties, business and spiritual engagements, bind us to it. But we must not be conformed to this world, in its evil customs and pursuits, its principles and spirit. We have no need to go out of the world literally; but keep ourselves from its evil; separate ourselves from its frivolities, and be Christians entirely.
1. The Christian Church is endangered by outward proximity to the world. The world is near, present with us, and appeals to our senses. It influences more than things spiritual and unseen. Its wondrous forms and fair pretences gradually get hold upon and eventually overcome the careless professor. Demas-like, he forsakes God, having loved this present world. Its pursuits and demands engross our attention. Before we are aware we are brought under its spell; walking according to rules, and governed by the prince of this world.
2. The Christian Church is endangered by the inward tendency to love the world. There are snares and dangers within us, from natural cravings and corrupt desires. We are fond of its company and eager for its rewards. Its attractions are strong, because resistance is weak; its trifles realities, because we prefer toys to eternal treasures. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
II. The Christian Church is injured by association with the world. Contact with it wears away seriousness of mind, indisposes for religious duties, neutralizes religious influence, and expels religious sentiment. Professors who needlessly mix up with sinful practices and company are sure to suffer in their character and condition. The text specifies
1. Moral deterioration. Ephraim is a cake not turned. They had been mixed up and steeped with heathen idolatries and vices, and had become worthless. The fire of Divine judgment made only an outward impression upon them, and they were more hopelessly spoiled by their conduct. Burned on one side and dough on the other, perfectly useless. Many Christians now are utterly worthless in their lives and examples. Many societies have lost their prominence and savour; sunk into degradation, and do not answer the end for which they were created. Inward corruption will never overcome outward temptation. If individuals, churches, and nations do not contain power to prevent deterioration and impart life, they will become morally insipid, and fit for nothing but the fate which history and Scripture declare awaits them.
2. Social injury. Strangers have devoured his strength. Foreign powers, Assyria and Egypt, whose aid Israel had invoked, robbed them of money, wasted their treasures, and diminished their numbers. Like Samson, bereft of his strength by sensual pleasure, Israel was stripped of social privilege and power. Sad to think of many socially and individually ruined by unlawful connections and sinful lusts: Intellect and memory, dignity and manhood: the health of the body and the happiness of the soul devoured by strangers to God and his people! Evil communications corrupt good manners.
3. Unnatural decay. Gray hairs are here and there upon him. Loss of inward strength and outward beauty will soon bring age and decay. Men get old before they are young. A general laxity of morals may sap and undermine our commerce. The body politic may be covered with marks of hoary age and ripening for destruction. Christian churches may decay through discord, worldliness, and pride. Families and individuals may fall by sin and die while young. Gray hairs are forerunners and forewarners of death.
4. Religious insensibility. Yet he knoweth it not. To be insensible of disease and decay is the worst symptom of all. Men hide from themselve tokens of death, and it comes upon them unawares. They think that outward forms, orthodox creeds, and the course of time will recover their strength. They are insensible and stupefied in sin, and sleep quietly amid dangers and death. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick: they have beaten me, and I felt it not; when shall I awake? (Pro. 23:35; Isa. 42:25.)
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hos. 7:8. A cake not turned. Soft and pliable under Divine chastisement, hardened and cold in sinhalf-heartedness, half-baked and half-burned, displeasing to Godhypocrisy, hot in forms, dead in spirit, rejected by God. Such were the people; such are too many so-called Christians; they united in themselves hypocrisy and ungodliness, outward performance and inward lukewarmness; the one overdone, but without any wholesome effect on the other. The one was scorched and black; the other, steamed, damp, and lukewarm; the whole worthless, spoiled irremediably, fit only to be cast away. Thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Hos. 7:9. Gray hairs. I. Gray hairs are a sign of decay. God for wise purposes gives distinctive features to human life. Nature teaches us to reverence age in the pages of an old book; in the leafless branches of an old tree; in the silent, deserted halls of an old roofless ruin; still more in one whose head is white with the snows of fourscore or a hundred winters. Gray hairs are associated with
(1) Parental honours,
(2) the ripe wisdom of age, and
(3) the piety of venerable men. II. But in the text they are signs of decay, premonitory symptoms of dissolution: and teach that men live in ignorance and act in disregard of signs that should warn and alarm them.
1. This appears in the history of States. In the kingdom of Israel, in England, illegitimacy, drunkenness, continental morality, Sabbath-breaking, and irreligious customs are signs of national decay; which, but for thousands of good and earnest men, who know it, would bring death upon us.
2. This applies to the false security of sinners.
3. This appears in mens insensibility to the lapse and lessons of time [From Dr. Guthrie].
I. Explain the ignorance here mentioned, or show how it is that many a man is backsliding and declining in grace, and yet knows it not. This is often caused by a want of acquaintance with ones own soul. Some there are who do not want to know any evil thing of themselves. Many see not the gray hairs because they do not look into the glass to see them. There are some who look into the glass to see whether there are gray hairs coming, but they use a false mirror, one which does not truly reflect the image. II. I am to hold up the looking-glass. One of the gray hairs which marks decay is a want of holy grief for daily sin. A second gray hair is the absence of lamentation in the soul when Jesus Christ is dishonoured. A third gray hair in the Christian, a very plain one, and marking that the disease is gone far, is the indulgence of certain minor sins. Covetousness is a very common gray hair upon the heads of professors. With some it is not quite covetousness, but worldliness. Another gray hair is pride. Neglect of prayer another. It is a gray hair when we have no delight in listening to the word. And another is, want of love to God. Want of love to perishing sinners is a sad gray hair to be found, I fear, in some ministers, as well as in the people. Another is the suspension of communion with God. III. Recommend certain remedies for this decay. Inquire whether you be a child of God or not. Next remember what will be the result of decays in grace. I recommend to every believer a daily self-examination. Then with repentance join much supplication and renewed faith and daily watchful activity [Spurgeon].
Hos. 7:10. Pride prevented humility and confession.
2. Return to God, who had afflicted them.
3. Testified against them in their stupidity and rebellion against God. Men complain of their fortune, or fate, or stars, and go on the more obstinately to build up what God destroys, to prop up by human means or human aid what, by Gods providence, is failing; they venture more desperately, in order to recover past losses, until the crash at last becomes hopeless and final [Pusey].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 7
Hos. 7:8. The World and The Church. Companions may be compared to the river Thames, which is a sweet and pretty river enough near its source; but in the great metropolis it has kept company with drains and sewers, under the belief that its current was too powerful and pure to be injured by them. It was meant that the river should purify the sewer, but, instead of that, the sewer has corrupted the river [Union Magazine].
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
ISRAELS INGRATITUDELOVE OF SIN
TEXT: Hos. 7:8-16
8
Ephraim, he mixeth himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned.
9
Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there (sprinkled) upon him, and he knoweth it not.
10
And the price of Israel doth testify to his face: yet they have not returned unto Jehovah their God, nor sought him, for all this.
11
And Ephraim is like a silly dove, without understanding: they call unto Egypt, they go to Assyria.
12
When they shall go, I will spread my net among them; I will bring them down as the birds of the heavens; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard.
13
Woe onto them! for they have wandered from me; destruction unto them! for they have trespassed against me: though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against me.
14
And they have not cried unto me with their heart, but they howl upon their beds: they assemble themselves for grain and new wine; they rebel against me.
15
Though I have taught and strengthened their arms, yet do they devise mischief against me.
16
They return, but not to him that is on high; they are like a deceitful bow; their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
QUERIES
a.
What is the meaning of the figure, Ephraim is a cake not turned?
b.
What is the meaning of the figure, gray hairs . . . sprinkled upon him?
c.
What shall be their derision in the land of Egypt?
PARAPHRASE
Israel has so thoroughly absorbed the ways of the heathen he is like a cake not turnedscorched on one side and undone on the other; he is putrid and useless. This heathenish contamination has sapped Israels intellectual and moral strength and he does not even recognize it! Yes, gray hairs or signs of decadence are everywhere apparent in Israel but the nation is unconscious of them! Jehovah is continually testifying to Israel through the prophets and judgments in nature but in spite of all this Israel has not returned to God. Israel, flitting back and forth from Egypt to Assyria for succor, is unaware of the trap they are about to fall intohe is like a silly dove when flying about in search of food, does not observe the net that is spread for it. The trap they are about to fall into will be My judgment, I will bring upon them the chastisement which has been announced by My prophets. Woe shall be upon them because they have flown away from Me. I would like to redeem them still; but they have lied to themselves and others about Me saying I cannot and will not redeem them. Oh, they cry to Me but their cries are not of faith and not from the heart. They howl upon their beds in unbelieving despair at the distress that has come upon them. They huddle together seeking through idolatry to get the corn and new wine I have withheld because their only desire is to fill their bellies. They have utterly rebelled against Me. I have, many times over, tried to deliver them, but whatever I did Israel continued to scheme and plan to bring dishonor to My name. Oh, they return, but not to God on high. They are constantly changing and turning from one idol to another. They are like a crooked bow; no matter where it is aimed the arrow flies away from the target. Because their princes have lied about God and blasphemed His name they shall die violently. God will have them in derision because they have blasphemously placed their trust in Egypt and not in Him.
SUMMARY
The moral depravity of Israel is exposed by citing various examples of it and picturing the passion with which the people love their sin.
COMMENT
Hos. 7:8-9 . . . EPHRAIM IS A CAKE NOT TURNED . . . GRAY HAIRS ARE HERE AND THERE UPON HIM, AND HE KNOWETH IT NOT . . . In these two verses the prophet shows, by vivid figures of speech, the extent of the moral decadence in Israel. The cake here mentioned is in Hebrew, uggah, literally, circular, was a thin pancake, to which a scorching heat was applied on one side. Israel had been separated from the nations by the Lord (Lev. 20:24-26), to be a people dwelling alone (Num. 23:9), in order that it might be a holy nation to serve Him. But Israel thought itself wiser than the Lord and mingled with the nations through intermarriage (Ahab and Jezebel), through cultural and economic exchanges, through political alliances, and most disastrous of all through adoption of heathen religions of idolatry. A cake not turned is burned to a crisp on one side and uncooked, putrid, on the other sideit is worse than useless, it is nauseating. This is the first figure to describe Israels moral decadence. The second figure of speech used by Hosea pictures Israel as a man whose hair is beginning to show signs of physical decadence by the sprinkling of gray hairs appearing. The phrase, and he knoweth it not is interesting. As G. Campbell Morgan asks, Now I ask you, if any of you were unconscious when gray hairs began to appear! Such behavior is quite unnatural. Men discover gray in their hair and laugh at them, try to pull them out or dye thembut they do not ignore them for they are signs of declining strength. As tragic and stupid as this might be in the physical realm it is even more tragic and stupid in the spiritual and moral realm.
Yet it is continually true that signs of spiritual decadence, which are so patent to others, are undiscovered by ourselves. We go on, and on, and on, the victims of ebbing strength, spiritually and morally becoming degenerate, without recognizing it! We are too often blind to the signs which are self-evident to onlookers. And there is no condition more perilous to our highest well-being than being unaware of spiritual degeneration. Malachi writes of this attitude among the people even after they had suffered the captivities and been restored to the land by God, The refrain of the people in Malachis day is Where in . . . They were spiritually blind to their spiritual decadence. How do men so blind themselves? By setting up false standardsby refusing to admit the validity of Gods standards.
How may we overcome spiritual decay? First, of course, we must recognize it, admit it, confess it. But mere recognition and admission that gray hairs are present will not remove them. Dyeing the gray hairs of sin with a false veneer of respectability will not hide them. We must turn to God in faith and obedienceHe will remove them. He will renew our spiritual life, He will give us new birth (cf. Psa. 103:1-5; Isa. 40:29-31); Joh. 3:1-6; 2Co. 4:16-18; 2Co. 5:17, etc.). God alone is able to remove gray hairs from our spiritual and moral nature by taking away the destructive forces which are producing the moral degeneracy.
Hos. 7:10 . . . THE PRIDE OF ISRAEL DOTH TESTIFY TO HIS FACE . . . How often the pride of Israel, had testified to the face of Israel. One prophet after another declared Israels sin and Gods judgment. One natural calamity after another (locust plagues, earthquakes, droughts, diseases, etc.) testified to the wrath of God upon Israels sin. Yet for all of this they would not turn and seek the forgiveness of God (cf. Hos. 4:6 ff).
Hos. 7:11-12 . . . EPHRAIM IS LIKE A SILLY DOVE . . . I WILL SPREAD MY NET UPON THEM . . . There is an Eastern proverb, according to Pusey, which says, There is nothing more simple than a dove. Jesus used the dove as a symbol of simplicity (Mat. 10:16), in a good sense. Hoseas figure of speech refers to Israel as having a stupid or ignorant simplicitysilly, foolish. Israel is like a silly or dumb creature distressed not knowing where to turn for relief. Israel does not know enough to turn to its God (cf. Isa. 1:3). Israel has turned to its enemies for help! She is so silly that she turns for help to those whose sole purpose is to do her harm! Israel, flitting here and there for succor, is oblivious that she is flying right into the trap God has set for a disobedient people. God has announced before hand that He will chasten Israel by the hand of Assyria (cf. Isa. 10:5 ff). The very nation Israel considers a source of strength will become her trap, (cf. Hos. 11:5).
Hos. 7:13 WOE TO THEM . . . THOUGH I WOULD REDEEM THEM . . . THEY HAVE SPOKEN LIES AGAINST ME . . . How often God would have redeemed them (cf. Isa. 49:16; Hos. 11:1-9)! How often He did redeem them! But they continually wandered (cf. Heb. 3:7-19). They continually lied to themselves and to one another about the nature of Jehovah. They lied to themselves by refusing to believe Jehovah would bless them in spite of their extremities. They refused to trust in the faithfulness of Jehovah toward His people, even in the face of past experience of history. So their turning to idols was living the lie that was in their hearts.
Hos. 7:14-15 . . . THEY HOWL UPON THEIR BEDS . . . THEY REBEL AGAINST ME . . . THEY DEVISE MISCHIEF AGAINST ME . . . Instead of turning to Jehovah who proved Himself true and faithful and willing to save and bless, time after time, they lied to themselves and in the midst of certain distressing periods they cried and howled upon their beds in unbelieving despair. They howled to their dumb idols which could neither speak nor hear (cf. Isa. 41:21-29; Isa. 44:1-22). They rebelled against Jehovah by devising human or pagan ways and means of supplying the corn and wine which God had withheld from them to bring them back to Him. What they were doing, in reality, turned out to be declaring war on Gods ways. The writer of Hebrews (Heb. 3:10) attributes the failures of their ancestors to not knowing the ways of God. These Israelites of Hoseas day refused to recognize that drought, famine, etc. were Gods ways of calling them back to Him. They literally assembled themselves together to devise rebellious ways to fight against the judgments of God. How presumptuous! How useless! God was trying to teach them and strengthen them morally through chastening. This is the end of all righteous disciplinemoral growth. But he who rebels against moral growth through discipline only destroys himself.
Hos. 7:16 . . . THEY ARE LIKE A DECEITFUL BOW . . . Israel was changing and turning constantly but not in the right direction! She was missing the mark. She was not headed toward the goal God had set for her. She turned here and there and everywhere but not to the King of the Universe. Like a crooked bow; no matter where it is aimed the arrow flies away from the target. No matter which way Israel turned she missed the target God had set for her, because she always turned away from Gods word, Because their princes have lied about God and blasphemed His name they shall die violently, God will have them in derision because they have blasphemously placed their trust in Egypt and not in Him. Any person or people who trusts in their own might or wisdom will be defeated, shamed and confused. He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision (cf. Psa. 2:1-11).
QUIZ
1.
How dangerous is moral decadence when we are unaware of it?
2.
How can moral decadence be cured?
3.
Why was Israel like a silly dove?
4.
How did God trap Israel?
5.
How did they devise mischief against God?
6.
How was Israel like a deceitful bow?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(8) Cake not turned.Referring to the destructive effect of foreign influences. Ephraim was consumed by the unhallowed fire of Baal-worship, with all its passion and sensualisma cake burnt on one side to a cinder, and on the other left in a condition utterly unfit for food. So the activity of foreign idolatries and foreign alliances, and the consequent unfaithfulness to Israels God, are the nations ruin.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
ISRAEL, BLIND IN HER FOLLY, RUSHES HEADLONG TO DESTRUCTION, Hos 7:8-16 a.
Hos 7:8-16 a connect very closely with the last clause of Hos 7:7, but these verses differ so much from the preceding in matter and form that they may be treated as a separate section. Instead of turning to Je-hovah the people mingled with the foreign nations, there to learn wisdom and to find help; unaware that by this policy they were courting certain destruction. What a disappointment the chosen nation has proved!
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8. Ephraim As elsewhere, Israel.
Hath mixed himself among the people R.V., following the Hebrew, “peoples,” that is, the surrounding nations. Israel has given up its divinely appointed seclusion and has mingled with the surrounding nations by (1) adopting their customs and (2) appealing to them for help. The two forms of apostasy were closely connected, the first being the inevitable result of the second. The people who had lost their faith in Jehovah, which would prompt reliance upon him in political matters, could not endure (compare Isaiah 7); their apostasy must be followed by doom (Isa 7:9).
A cake not turned The cake alluded to here is round and flat, baked on a hot stone; if not turned it burns on the bottom while the top remains unbaked. A threefold interpretation of the figure is possible. It is either a picture of ruin as a cake not turned is burned on the bottom, so Israel is already half ruined (Hos 7:9 would furnish the explanation); or a picture of folly and inconsistency, like as the modern colloquial “half baked,” “an apt emblem of a character full of inconsistencies” (to this Hos 7:11 would supply a commentary); or, in the third place, a picture of the internal condition of the people “How better describe a half-fed people, a half-cultured society, a half-lived religion, a half-hearted policy, than by a half-baked scone?” Perhaps all three thoughts were in the mind of the prophet.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Ephraim, he mixes himself among the peoples,
Ephraim is a cake not turned.’
The use of ‘Ephraim’ may indicate a time when what was mainly left of Israel was that part which was on the mountain of Ephraim and its surrounds, around Samaria. The complaint here is that they have turned to the nations instead of to YHWH. They have mingled among the peoples, becoming as one of them. The result is that they are like a cake not turned over. This might mean ‘half-baked’ like a piece of dough being heated on a hot stone and only baked on one side, because they are incomplete, having missed out on what is really important. Or it may mean left lying flat instead of being turned over in readiness for consumption, and thus unready and unprepared. It may include the thought that they have not made themselves into a fit state to be available to YHWH.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
In Turning To Foreign Nations For Their Support Instead Of Turning To YHWH, Ephraim Do Not Realise What The Consequences Will Be ( Hos 7:8-10 ).
Hosea now parodies the people’s attempts to find help from foreign nations. This initially had included Aram (Syria), but then moved on to the Philistine nations and Egypt, and at other times to Assyria itself. To them anything was preferable to returning to YHWH. He pictures Ephraim, as a result of having mixed with the nations, as ‘a cake not turned’, that is as not having turned to YHWH, or alternately as being like half-baked bread and therefore inedible, or as being weak because not properly prepared. And he sees them as having handed over its wealth to different foreigners, and as reaching senility (or going mouldy) without realising it.
Analysis.
a
b Strangers have devoured his strength, and he does not know it (Hos 7:9 a).
c Yes, grey hairs are here and there on him (or ‘steal up on him’), and he does not know it (Hos 7:9 b).
b And the pride of Israel testifies to his face (Hos 7:10 a).
a Yet they have not returned to YHWH their God, nor sought him, for all this (Hos 7:10 b).
Note that in ‘a’ Israel have turned to the nations, and in the parallel have not turned to YHWH. In ‘b’ their ‘strength’ has gone and they do not know it, and in the parallel it is only their pride which keeps them going. Centrally in ‘c’ they have become aged and decrepit (or mouldy) without realising it.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Hos 7:8. Among the people; Ephraim is a cake, &c. Among the heathen, &c. This similitude of Ephraim to a cake, is accommodated to the Hebrew word balal, rendered mixed, and which properly signifies the ingredients wherewith cakes are made, that they may be baked covered over with ashes and embers. Ephraim is said to mix himself with the heathen, partly because he worshipped their gods, and partly because he called in their aid, and made covenants with them. We have in the Observations an account from Rauwolf, of the manner in which the cakes here spoken of were made, and which is the best comment on these words of the prophet. Speaking of his entertainment in the tent of a Curter, on the other side the Euphrates, he says, “The woman was not idle, but brought us milk and eggs to eat, so that we wanted for nothing: she made also some dough for cakes, which were about a finger thick, and about the bigness of a trencher; as is usual to do in the wildernesses, and sometimes, in towns also. She laid them on hot stones; and kept turning them, and at length she threw the ashes and embers over them, and so baked them thoroughly. They were very good to eat, and very savoury.” When Ephraim is said to be a cake not turned, it must mean “baked on one side;” that is to say, serving God by halves, and halting between his service and the worship of idols. See Observations, p. 135.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 1159
CAUSES AND SYMPTOMS OF SPIRITUAL DECAY
Hos 7:8-9. Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people: Ephraim is a cake not turned. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, grey hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth it not.
IF the body be oppressed with sickness, we inquire into the symptoms of the disorder, and trace it, if possible, to its proper cause. The same course is proper in reference to the soul, and indeed to the state of nations as well as of individuals. The prophet is representing the declining, and almost desolate, condition of the ten tribes: and, in the words before us, he marks the particular sins which had provoked God to forsake them; and the fearful consequences of their transgressions. The Israelites had, in direct opposition to Gods command, united themselves with the heathen, and incorporated many of their idolatrous rites with the worship of the true God. They were even mad upon their idols, while they were very cold and indifferent in what related to Jehovah. In consequence of this, God gave them up into the hands of their enemies. Pul, king of Assyria, exhausted their treasures by the tribute he imposed [Note: 2Ki 15:19.]: and the king of Syria reduced their armies to a mere shadow, making them even as the dust by threshing [Note: 2Ki 13:7.]. Proofs and evidences of decay were visible in every department of the state, and such as indicated approaching dissolution: yet such was the infatuation of the people, that they were as unconcerned and secure as if they had been in the most safe and flourishing condition.
It is not however our intention to enter any further into the history of the ten tribes. We shall rather draw your attention to our own personal concerns, of which theirs was a type and shadow: and we shall proceed to point out the causes and symptoms of spiritual decay.
I.
The causes
The two things mentioned in the text will be found among the most fruitful sources of declension in the divine life:
1.
An undue connexion with the world
[A certain degree of intercourse with mankind is necessary, in order to a due discharge of our civil and social duties. But if we mix with the world by choice, we shall go contrary to the commands ot God, and suffer loss in our souls. We are enjoined to come out from among them, and be separate [Note: Rom 12:2. Psa 45:10-11.] God even appeals to us respecting the impossibility of maintaining with propriety any intimate communion with them [Note: 2Co 6:14-17.]: and our Lord characterizes his followers as being no more of the world than he himself was [Note: Joh 17:14.]. But some professors of religion connect themselves more closely, and involve themselves more deeply, with the world in business, than they need to do: others associate with them as companions: and others are so blinded by their passions, as to unite themselves with them in marriage. What must we expect to be the result of such conduct? Must it not expose us to many temptations? Are we not, when so circumstanced, likely to drink into the spirit of the world, and to be drawn into a conformity to their ways? Surely the falls and apostasies of many must be traced to this source: and it will be well if this evil do not become fatal to some of us.]
2.
A partial regard to God
[A cake baked upon the coals and not turned, would be burned up on one side, while it was altogether doughy on the other. This fitly represents the state of those who are cold and indifferent in things relating to religion, but excessively ardent in their pursuit of other objects. Yet what is more common than such a stale? Some professors are so intent on their worldly business, and have their hearts so engaged in it, as scarcely to have any zeal left for better things. Some are occupied with this or that favourite study, in comparison of which the Bible, and prayer, and communion with God, have no charms for them. Some are inflamed by politics, and are never happy but when they are declaiming upon the affairs of state. Some are so intent upon the circumstantials of religion, such as Baptism or Church-government, that they seem to think an agreement with them in their opinions on those subjects as essential to salvation as even piety itself. Some again are heated by controversy about certain doctrines, while, alas! they pay but little attention to their duties, especially the duties of humility and love. What wonder if the soul languish, when its eternal interests are thus postponed to matters of inferior importance? If we would adorn our holy profession, we must be penetrated throughout with a fervent regard to God; and all other things must be subordinated to the one thing needful.]
Having traced the causes of spiritual decay, let us notice,
II.
The symptoms
Agreeably to what has been observed in relation to the Israelites, we shall mention three marks, which, in the progressive stages of decay, will shew themselves in a declining soul:
1.
Inward weakness
[The exercises of religion require our utmost efforts: without a fixedness of purpose, an intenseness of thought, an ardour of desire, and a resoluteness of conduct, we cannot get forward in our Christian course. But when we have declined from God, all these are proportionably relaxed. The bow is unstrung, and cannot send the arrow to the mark [Note: Hos 7:16.]. We take up the Bible; but it is a sealed book: we address ourselves to prayer; but our mouths are shut, and we cannot utter a word before God. The duties which once were easy, are become arduous and irksome. The temptations which once had lost all their force, now obstruct our way, and entangle our feet. The cross, which was once an object of holy glorying, and served only to animate us to fresh exertions, now becomes an object of terror; and instead of taking it up with cheerfulness, we study as much as possible to avoid it.
Let us look and see, whether strangers have not devoured our strength, and whether the things which remain in us be not ready to die [Note: Rev 3:2.].]
2.
Outward proofs of that weakness
[Grey hairs are indications of declining strength. They are first thinly interspersed; and afterwards diffused over the whole head. Thus are the symptoms of decline small at first, and scarcely visible, except upon close inspection. They will however appear, when the inward weakness has commenced. There will be a visible alteration in the temper: a proud imperious spirit will be more ready to shew itself: fretfulness and impatience will more easily arise. A change will be found in our dealings with the world. We shall be less open, less generous, less scrupulous about adhering to truth, or practising the tricks of trade. In our families also will a deterioration of our state be manifest. There will be less attention paid to their spiritual interests. The word of God will not be read to them with such practical and interesting remarks: nor will the devotions be conducted with life; but will degenerate into a mere form. In the closet, more especially, the symptoms of our decay will be seen. Prayer will probably be a mere lip-service, and not unfrequently be entirely omitted. The sacred volume will either be glanced over in haste, or lie wholly neglected. In short, there will be no delight in God, no peaceful serenity of mind, no joyful hope of immortality. These things will be exchanged for gloom and melancholy, for sighs and sorrows, for an accusing conscience, and a dread of death.]
3.
Insensibility under that weakness
[Things have proceeded far when this mark appears. But it is the natural effect of sin to blind the eyes, and harden the heart, and sear the conscience [Note: 1Jn 2:11. Heb 3:13. 1Ti 4:2.]. Twice is it said of the Israelites in the text, They knew it not: they had contracted a stupid indifference, bordering on judicial blindness and infatuation. And this is the state to which many professors of religion are reduced. Others see their grey hairs, but they see them not: they have ceased to look into the glass of Gods law, or to examine themselves: they have quieted their minds by some carnal expedient of business, or company, or by comparing themselves with others. Deplorable indeed is their condition! and if they be not soon roused from their lethargy, they will have reason to wish they had never been born, or never seen the light of Gospel truth [Note: 2Pe 2:20-21.].]
Address
1.
Those who are resting in a formal religion
[Religion is a state of holy active exertion in the things pertaining to God. God says to us, My son, give me thy heart [Note: Pro 23:26.]. Without this, our services are of no value. Look to it then, my Brethren, that ye get your hearts quickened by the Spirit of God. You must not be satisfied with seeking: you must strive to enter in at the strait gate [Note: Luk 13:24.]. You must take the kingdom of heaven by violence [Note: Mat 11:12.]. Beg then that you may be renewed by the Spirit in your inward man, and be enabled, so to fight as to conquer, so to run as to win the prize [Note: 1Co 9:24; 1Co 9:26.].]
2.
Those who profess to experience the power of godliness
[Astonishing is the deceitfulness of the human heart. We all see in others defects, of which they themselves are not conscious. And can we suppose that we ourselves also are not blind to our own defects? Yes: and perhaps the very locks which we think our greatest ornaments, are full of grey hairs. Our graces perhaps are rather the resemblance, than the reality, of virtue: our humility may be affectation, our zeal pride, our confidence presumption. Let us be jealous over ourselves with a godly jealousy [Note: 2Co 11:2.]. Let us search and try ourselves [Note: Lam 3:40.]; and beg of God also to search and try us [Note: Psa 139:23.]. Let us be careful that we set out well, and then labour to go on from strength to strength, till we appear before God in Zion [Note: Psa 84:7.].rsqb;
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Hos 7:8 Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.
Ver. 8. Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people ] viz. in confederacies, marriages, manners, superstitions. They were conformed to those nations from whom God had separated them with a wonderful separation, Exo 33:16 , and put them up by themselves from all the world in the promised land, as it were in an island, Isa 20:6 . And this they had done not once, but often, as the conjugation importeth; and that wilfully, without any necessity; yea and that constantly and of custom, or desperate obstinace (Heb. he will mingle himself). so that there was little difference to be discerned between Ephraim, the professed people of God: and profane heathens. Hence that, Amo 9:7 . “Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the Lord.” Hence Saul is called Cush, or an Ethiopian, fox his black and ill conditions, Psal. vii., title, as the Chaldee interpreteth it. Cast we may be upon bad company, but we must not mingle with them. The rivers of Peru, after they have run into the main sea, yea, some write twenty or thirty miles, they keep themselves unmixed with the salt water; so that a very great way within the sea men may take up as fresh water as if they were near the land. At Belgrad, in Hungary, where the Danube and Sava (two great rivers) meet, their waters mingle no more than water and oil (Abbat’s Geog.); not that either float above other: but join unmixed: so that near the middle of the river I have gone in a boat (saith mine author, Sir Henry Blount), and tasted of the Danube as clear and pure as a well; then putting mine hand not an inch farther, I have taken of the Sava as troubled as a street-channel, tasting the gravel in my teeth. Thus they run 60 miles together, and for a day’s journey I have been an eyewitness of it. To come nearer home, the river Dee, in Merionethshire, running through Pemblemere, remains entire, and mingleth not her streams with the water of the lake. Let not Ephraim mix himself among the people, but cry with David, “Gather not my soul with sinners,” Psa 26:9 , and Hos 7:5 , “I have hated the congregration of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked,”
Ephraim is a cake not turned
“ Introrsum turpes, speciosi pelle decora. ”
I know the words are otherwise interpreted by Luther, Mercer, Polanus, and others, with reference to the following words, thus: that Ephraim’s adversaries, even those strangers with whom he hath mixed himself, shall be so greedy to devour him, that they shall not stay till he be baked on both sides, but shall eat him raw. But I like the former better.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Hos 7:8-16
8Ephraim mixes himself with the nations;
Ephraim has become a cake not turned.
9Strangers devour his strength,
Yet he does not know it;
Gray hairs also are sprinkled on him,
Yet he does not know it.
10Though the pride of Israel testifies against him,
Yet they have not returned to the LORD their God,
Nor have they sought Him, for all this.
11So Ephraim has become like a silly dove, without sense;
They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
12When they go, I will spread My net over them;
I will bring them down like the birds of the sky.
I will chastise them in accordance with the proclamation to their assembly.
13Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me!
Destruction is theirs, for they have rebelled against Me!
I would redeem them, but they speak lies against Me.
14And they do not cry to Me from their heart
When they wail on their beds;
For the sake of grain and new wine they assemble themselves,
They turn away from Me.
15Although I trained and strengthened their arms,
Yet they devise evil against Me.
16They turn, but not upward,
They are like a deceitful bow;
Their princes will fall by the sword
Because of the insolence of their tongue.
This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.
Hos 7:8 Ephraim mixes himself with the nations This refers to Israel’s foreign alliances with both Assyria and Egypt (cf. Hos 7:11; Hos 7:16). The term mixes has a sacrificial connotation (BDB 117, KB 134, Hithpolel, e.g., Exo 29:2; Exo 29:40; Lev 2:4; Lev 7:10).
Foreign alliances involved invoking the names of their gods. Israel turned to foreign gods for help instead of YHWH (cf. Hos 7:13-15).
Ephraim has become a cake not turned This is a baking metaphor (cf. Hos 7:4; Hos 7:6-7) to describe a cake that is burned on one side and raw on the other. This seems to apply to the uselessness of these covenant people of God. For a good discussion of ancient baking and ovens see Bible Background Commentary, OT, p. 756 or any Bible dictionary or encyclopedia. I recommend the Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible (5 vols.).
Hos 7:9 This seems to refer to the heavy tribute demanded by Assyria. Again Israel’s ignorance is emphasized (know BDB 393, KB 390, Qal PERFECT, twice, cf. Hos 4:1).
NASB, NRSVGray hairs also are sprinkled on him
NKJVgray hairs are here and there on him
TEVTheir days are numbered
NJBeven his hair is turning grey
This is a metaphor of declining strength and imminent death!
Hos 7:10 the pride of Israel testifies against him This implies that because of Israel’s knowledge of YHWH through Scripture (i.e., Moses) and the prophets, they are more guilty for following after fertility gods and covenant acts of violence.
Israel had come to the place that she thought her military strength made her stable (cf. Hos 5:5), but her idolatry had brought spiritual apostasy and weakness.
they had not returned to the Lord their God YHWH’s heart breaks that His own people do not come to Him (cf. Hos 7:7 d). See Special Topic: REPENTANCE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT .
The two VERBS (#1 return BDB 996, KB 1427, Qal PERFECT and sought BDB 134, KB 152, Qal PERFECT) imply a turning from (repentance) and a seeking after (faith, cf. Mar 1:15; Act 3:16; Act 3:19; Act 20:21).
Hos 7:11 This verse shows the folly of hoping in political alliances instead of YHWH (cf. Hos 7:16; Hos 8:9-10; Hos 8:13; Hos 9:3; Hos 9:6; Hos 11:11; Hos 12:1). The NIV Study Bible has an interesting note, Menahem turned to Assyria (2Ki 15:19-20) and Pekah to Egypt. Hosea alternated in allegiance to both (2Ki 17:4) (p. 1330).
Hos 7:12 When they go, I will spread My net over them This implies YHWH’s control of foreign empires. He, not Assyria nor Egypt, controls Israel’s destiny.
I will chastise them in accordance with the proclamation of their assembly This could refer to
1. Jeroboam I’s declaration which set up the gold calves
2. subsequent kings of Israel who disobeyed Him
3. the council of these kings who agreed to this (foolishness of Israel’s leaders)
The LXX changes assembly to rumor of their coming affliction.
Hos 7:13-15 strayed from Me. . .rebelled against Me. . .speak lies against Me. . .do not cry to Me from their heart. . .turn away from Me. . .devise evil against Me Notice the personal elements (Me used 6 times) of the rebellion against God by His people. The first three VERBS are Qal PERFECTS, which show a settled condition; the last two are IMPERFECTS, which show repeated, ongoing rebellion.
Hos 7:13 redeem This VERB (BDB 804, KB 911, Qal IMPERFECT) means to buy back or to purchase. It has a wide use in the OT:
1. it is similar to the term go’el, but lacks the kinship emphasis;
2. it is used primarily as deliverance from bondage, both physical and spiritual;
3. examples: Exo 13:13; Exo 13:15; Exod. 20:30; Exo 21:8; Psa 34:22; Psa 49:7-8; Psa 49:15; Psa 130:7-8; Isa 1:27; and Isa 29:22.
SPECIAL TOPIC: RANSOM/REDEEM
but they speak lies against Me This may refer to (1) attributing to Ba’al the benefits of YHWH; (2) so mixing Ba’al worship with YHWH that no one could know and find YHWH; (3) falsehoods about God’s character, (e.g., Hos 6:1-3) characterization; or (4) promising prosperity and deliverance.
Hos 7:14 The first line of Hos 7:14 parallels the pain of YHWH as in Hos 7:7. Many of the words and phrases that follow can be understood against the background of Ba’al worship:
1. wail, ritual mourning for the death of Ba’al
2. beds, may refer to the sexual activity at the Ba’al shrines (cf. Isa 57:7)
3. new wine, seen as a gift from the fertility gods (Ba’al and Asherah/Astarte)
4. assemble (grr BDB 657), following the Septuagint (cf. REV, NEB, JB) may be gash (gdd BDB 151), which also refers to cultic acts (cf. 1Ki 18:28; Jer 16:6) of Ba’al worship
See David Allan Hubbard, Hosea (Tyndale OT Commentaries), p. 141.
assemble The Hebrew VERB (BDB 157, KB 184, Kithpolel IMPERFECT) here is uncertain. Several translations see this as assembling for the purpose of evil (cf. ASV, NASB, RSV, and KJV, alternate meaning of BDB 151, to gather in bands). However, another possible translation based on an emendation is the term (BDB 151) gash or attack. This is found in the Septuagint, the Jerusalem Bible, and the New English Bible. It is an expression that is used of Ba’al worship (cf. 1Ki 18:28; Jer 16:6; Jer 41:5; Jer 42:5; Jer 48:37) and is forbidden by the law of Moses (cf. Deu 14:1 and Lev 19:28; Lev 21:5).
Hos 7:15 I trained and strengthened their arms Here is the metaphor of God as (1) a loving parent (cf. Hos 11:1-4) or (2) one who prepared Israel for battle by teaching them to trust in Him (i.e., Holy War).
They are like a deceitful bow This seems to refer to the concept of missing the mark, which is one of the Hebrew expressions for sin. Here the war weapon is undependable.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
people = peoples, or nations.
a cake not turned: i.e. a thin (pan)cake, burnt one side and moist the other, and therefore uneatable.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Hos 7:8-16
ISRAELS INGRATITUDE-LOVE OF SIN
TEXT: Hos 7:8-16
The moral depravity of Israel is exposed by citing various examples of it and picturing the passion with which the people love their sin.
Hos 7:8 Ephraim,H669 heH1931 hath mixed himselfH1101 among the people;H5971 EphraimH669 isH1961 a cakeH5692 notH1097 turned.H2015
Hos 7:9 StrangersH2114 have devouredH398 his strength,H3581 and heH1931 knowethH3045 it not:H3808 yea,H1571 gray hairsH7872 are here and thereH2236 upon him, yet heH1931 knowethH3045 not.H3808
Hos 7:8-9 . . . EPHRAIM IS A CAKE NOT TURNED . . . GRAY HAIRS ARE HERE AND THERE UPON HIM, AND HE KNOWETH IT NOT . . . In these two verses the prophet shows, by vivid figures of speech, the extent of the moral decadence in Israel. The cake here mentioned is in Hebrew, uggah, literally, circular, was a thin pancake, to which a scorching heat was applied on one side. Israel had been separated from the nations by the Lord (Lev 20:24-26), to be a people dwelling alone (Num 23:9), in order that it might be a holy nation to serve Him. But Israel thought itself wiser than the Lord and mingled with the nations through intermarriage (Ahab and Jezebel), through cultural and economic exchanges, through political alliances, and most disastrous of all through adoption of heathen religions of idolatry. A cake not turned is burned to a crisp on one side and uncooked, putrid, on the other side-it is worse than useless, it is nauseating. This is the first figure to describe Israels moral decadence. The second figure of speech used by Hosea pictures Israel as a man whose hair is beginning to show signs of physical decadence by the sprinkling of gray hairs appearing. The phrase, and he knoweth it not is interesting. As G. Campbell Morgan asks, Now I ask you, if any of you were unconscious when gray hairs began to appear! Such behavior is quite unnatural. Men discover gray in their hair and laugh at them, try to pull them out or dye them-but they do not ignore them for they are signs of declining strength. As tragic and stupid as this might be in the physical realm it is even more tragic and stupid in the spiritual and moral realm.
Zerr: Hos 7:8. Mixing with the (heathen) people agrees with the figure that follows, a cake not turned. Such a mixture would bring in some ingredients that would render a cake unsuitable for food. Likewise, a cake not turned would be raw on one side and burnt on the other, hence unfit to eat. The two figures in the verse are unrelated except at the point common to each, namely, both are unfit to be eaten. Hos 7:9. Strangers means people of outside nations who had brought in their heathenish practices. A man cannot see the hairs of gray sprinkled here and there upon his head, neither did these Jews realize the evil that had crept into their national life.
Yet it is continually true that signs of spiritual decadence, which are so patent to others, are undiscovered by ourselves. We go on, and on, and on, the victims of ebbing strength, spiritually and morally becoming degenerate, without recognizing it! We are too often blind to the signs which are self-evident to onlookers. And there is no condition more perilous to our highest well-being than being unaware of spiritual degeneration. Malachi writes of this attitude among the people even after they had suffered the captivities and been restored to the land by God, The refrain of the people in Malachis day is Where in . . . They were spiritually blind to their spiritual decadence. How do men so blind themselves? By setting up false standards-by refusing to admit the validity of Gods standards.
How may we overcome spiritual decay? First, of course, we must recognize it, admit it, confess it. But mere recognition and admission that gray hairs are present will not remove them. Dyeing the gray hairs of sin with a false veneer of respectability will not hide them. We must turn to God in faith and obedience-He will remove them. He will renew our spiritual life, He will give us new birth (cf. Psa 103:1-5; Isa 40:29-31); Joh 3:1-6; 2Co 4:16-18; 2Co 5:17, etc.). God alone is able to remove gray hairs from our spiritual and moral nature by taking away the destructive forces which are producing the moral degeneracy.
Hos 7:10 And the prideH1347 of IsraelH3478 testifiethH6030 to his face:H6440 and they do notH3808 returnH7725 toH413 the LORDH3068 their God,H430 norH3808 seekH1245 him for allH3605 this.H2063
Hos 7:10 . . . THE PRIDE OF ISRAEL DOTH TESTIFY TO HIS FACE . . . How often the pride of Israel, had testified to the face of Israel. One prophet after another declared Israels sin and Gods judgment. One natural calamity after another (locust plagues, earthquakes, droughts, diseases, etc.) testified to the wrath of God upon Israels sin. Yet for all of this they would not turn and seek the forgiveness of God (cf. Hos 4:6 ff).
Zerr: Hos 7:10. Pride of Israel testifieth, etc., is explained at Hos 5:5. The folly of their conduct was made clear by this testimony, yet they were not induced thereby to seek the Lord for help.
Hos 7:11 EphraimH669 also isH1961 like a sillyH6601 doveH3123 withoutH369 heart:H3820 they callH7121 to Egypt,H4714 they goH1980 to Assyria.H804
Hos 7:12 WhenH834 they shall go,H1980 I will spreadH6566 my netH7568 uponH5921 them; I will bring them downH3381 as the fowlsH5775 of the heaven;H8064 I will chastiseH3256 them, as their congregationH5712 hath heard.H8088
Hos 7:11-12 . . . EPHRAIM IS LIKE A SILLY DOVE . . . I WILL SPREAD MY NET UPON THEM . . . There is an Eastern proverb, according to Pusey, which says, There is nothing more simple than a dove. Jesus used the dove as a symbol of simplicity (Mat 10:16), in a good sense. Hoseas figure of speech refers to Israel as having a stupid or ignorant simplicity-silly, foolish. Israel is like a silly or dumb creature distressed not knowing where to turn for relief. Israel does not know enough to turn to its God (cf. Isa 1:3). Israel has turned to its enemies for help! She is so silly that she turns for help to those whose sole purpose is to do her harm! Israel, flitting here and there for succor, is oblivious that she is flying right into the trap God has set for a disobedient people. God has announced before hand that He will chasten Israel by the hand of Assyria (cf. Isa 10:5 ff). The very nation Israel considers a source of strength will become her trap, (cf. Hos 11:5).
Zerr: Hos 7:11. Without heart means without a good mind or judgment. A silly dove would flit about from one place to another without any fixed purpose. The people of Israel looked to such unworthy sources as Egypt and Assyria for help instead of relying wholly upon the Lord who had always done them good. Hos 7:12. Continuing the figure of a bird in flight, the Lord threatens to capture the silly dove with a net. The instrument to be used as a net was to the Assyrians, the very people to whom the bird was seeking to fly. Congregation hath heard refers to the warnings that had been given the nation in such passages as Leviticus 26; Leviticus 14-19; Deu 28:15-68.
Hos 7:13 WoeH188 unto them! forH3588 they have fledH5074 fromH4480 me: destructionH7701 unto them! becauseH3588 they have transgressedH6586 against me: though IH595 have redeemedH6299 them, yet theyH1992 have spokenH1696 liesH3577 againstH5921 me.
Hos 7:13 WOE TO THEM . . . THOUGH I WOULD REDEEM THEM . . . THEY HAVE SPOKEN LIES AGAINST ME . . . How often God would have redeemed them (cf. Isa 49:16; Hos 11:1-9)! How often He did redeem them! But they continually wandered (cf. Heb 3:7-19). They continually lied to themselves and to one another about the nature of Jehovah. They lied to themselves by refusing to believe Jehovah would bless them in spite of their extremities. They refused to trust in the faithfulness of Jehovah toward His people, even in the face of past experience of history. So their turning to idols was living the lie that was in their hearts.
Zerr: Hos 7:13. We note that the woe and destruction were decreed upon the people after or because they had fled from the Lord and transgressed his law. God never causes a good man to become a bad one, but if he chooses the life of sin, then the Lord will treat him as an evil person. Have redeemed them refers to past favors that God had bestowed upon the nation of the Jews, such as the deliverance from Egypt, and the many rescues that are recorded in the book of Judges. But all of these favors had been forgotten and they became guilty of one of the greatest faults, that of ingratitude.
Hos 7:14 And they have notH3808 criedH2199 untoH413 me with their heart,H3820 whenH3588 they howledH3213 uponH5921 their beds:H4904 they assemble themselvesH1481 forH5921 cornH1715 and wine,H8492 and they rebelH5493 against me.
Hos 7:15 Though IH589 have boundH3256 and strengthenedH2388 their arms,H2220 yet do they imagineH2803 mischiefH7451 againstH413 me.
Hos 7:14-15 . . . THEY HOWL UPON THEIR BEDS . . . THEY REBEL AGAINST ME . . . THEY DEVISE MISCHIEF AGAINST ME . . . Instead of turning to Jehovah who proved Himself true and faithful and willing to save and bless, time after time, they lied to themselves and in the midst of certain distressing periods they cried and howled upon their beds in unbelieving despair. They howled to their dumb idols which could neither speak nor hear (cf. Isa 41:21-29; Isa 44:1-22). They rebelled against Jehovah by devising human or pagan ways and means of supplying the corn and wine which God had withheld from them to bring them back to Him. What they were doing, in reality, turned out to be declaring war on Gods ways. The writer of Hebrews (Heb 3:10) attributes the failures of their ancestors to not knowing the ways of God. These Israelites of Hoseas day refused to recognize that drought, famine, etc. were Gods ways of calling them back to Him. They literally assembled themselves together to devise rebellious ways to fight against the judgments of God. How presumptuous! How useless! God was trying to teach them and strengthen them morally through chastening. This is the end of all righteous discipline-moral growth. But he who rebels against moral growth through discipline only destroys himself.
Zerr: Hos 7:14. The people howled upon their beds because they were suffering from the evil effects of their sinful deeds. They did not cry to the Lord with a pure heart, but only out of a selfish desire for their own indulgences. They would clique together to obtain the luxuries of life, at the same time rebelling against divine law. Hos 7:15. The Lord had bestowed upon his people an abundance of good things. He had strengthened them when they were weak, and had defended them when they were unjustly attacked. In turn for these great favors, the people would imagine mischief against the Lord. That word is from CITASHAB and Strong defines it, “To plait or interpenetrate, i. e. (literally) to weave or (generally) to fabricate: figuratively to plot or contrive (usually in a malicious sense) ; to think, regard, value, compute.” Thus the word the Lord had the prophet to write a stronger one than we ordinarily think it to be. It has the meaning of a malicious scheming against the good Lord who had done so much for them since their beginning as a nation.
Hos 7:16 They return,H7725 but notH3808 to the most High:H5920 they areH1961 like a deceitfulH7423 bow:H7198 their princesH8269 shall fallH5307 by the swordH2719 for the rageH4480 H2195 of their tongue:H3956 thisH2097 shall be their derisionH3933 in the landH776 of Egypt.H4714
Hos 7:16 . . . THEY ARE LIKE A DECEITFUL BOW . . . Israel was changing and turning constantly but not in the right direction! She was missing the mark. She was not headed toward the goal God had set for her. She turned here and there and everywhere but not to the King of the Universe. Like a crooked bow; no matter where it is aimed the arrow flies away from the target. No matter which way Israel turned she missed the target God had set for her, because she always turned away from Gods word, Because their princes have lied about God and blasphemed His name they shall die violently, God will have them in derision because they have blasphemously placed their trust in Egypt and not in Him. Any person or people who trusts in their own might or wisdom will be defeated, shamed and confused. He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision (cf. Psa 2:1-11).
Zerr: Hos 7:16. The land of Egypt is used figuratively to indicate the evil character of their plans. Not all bows are deceitful but some are, and such a bow will fail to cast the dart in the direction indicated by is position. The people of Israel professed to be looking or be aiming toward the Lord, but they swerved and became interested in idols and their service with the heathen nations.
Questions
1. How dangerous is moral decadence when we are unaware of it?
2. How can moral decadence be cured?
3. Why was Israel like a silly dove?
4. How did God trap Israel?
5. How did they devise mischief against God?
6. How was Israel like a deceitful bow?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
he hath: Hos 5:7, Hos 5:13, Hos 9:3, Ezr 9:1, Ezr 9:12, Neh 13:23-25, Psa 106:35, Eze 23:4-11, Mal 2:11
a cake: Hos 8:2-4, 1Ki 18:21, Zep 1:5, Mat 6:24, Rev 3:15, Rev 3:16
Reciprocal: 2Ch 30:1 – Ephraim Hos 10:2 – Their heart is divided Jam 1:8 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE UNTURNED CAKE
Ephraim is a cake not turned.
Hos 7:8
Scripture is less a book for the schools than for the home. It is more colloquial than scientific; its terms are less technical than popular; and its figures are less ornate than homely and expressive.
We have an example here. Ephraim is a cake not turned is a voice for the million. The character represented in this figure is legible to all. As the cake not turned is a compound not equable, as it is both underdone and overdone, clammy in part and blistered in part, so it denotes a type of character at once distempered and untempered, a character that lacks unity, that is spoiled by defect and damaged by excess, an inconsistent whole upon which, whichever way you view it, the result is marred.
I. The grounds of this impeachment.Note a few of the more important.
(1) The first we see in the eighth verse taken as a whole: Ephraim has missed the grand practical design of religion, which is entire separation unto God.
There are many unturned cakes to-day from the same causemany persons who seek, like Ephraim, to combine in themselves contradictory qualities.
(2) A second ground for this impeachment is seen in the indisposition of Ephraim to look to God, to call upon Him, to count on Him as the grand unit of power against the enemy. There is a vein of extreme pathos in Jehovahs plaint, Hos 7:7, There is none among them that calleth upon Me; and in Hos 7:11 He adds, They call to Egypt; they go to Assyria. These Ephraimites kept their religion for ceremonies and state occasions; it was not an everyday working religion. It was to them a kind of etiquette; it was not to them a practical stay and support. They had a notional knowledge of God, but they did not seek after an experimental knowledge of Him.
The man to whom God is a notion, even though it be a venerated notion and not a practical resource, is the same, an unturned cake. We are not to be unmanned by trouble; still less are we to make an arm of flesh our trust. No; we are to turn the cake. We are to meet emergency by trust, and danger by faith.
(3) Another ground of Ephraims impeachment was pride. We see this in Hos 7:10 : The pride of Israel testifieth to His face. Now, pride is always a one-sided and, therefore, spiritually false thing. Pride is based on fleshly comparison. No one could be proud who saw himself in the Divine light.
(4) A still further ground of Ephraims impeachment lay in their licentious and inordinate use of temporal things. Heated by wine, they were carried, in various directions, into intemperate excess. There is no harm that you take your dinner with a relish, that you enjoy what God gives. But if in these outward things your souls essential gratification is found, then you are an unturned cake. There is a possibility of ruining the cake through self-indulgence. If Paul stood in awe of such a catastrophe, no less should we. Cultivate delight in the Lord, that sordid appetite may be kept in check with inflexible rein.
II. The teachings that underlie Ephraims impeachment.These teachings strongly emphasise:
(1) The need of a proper balance of character.
(2) Once more, the teachings in question strongly emphasise the need of a proper balance of truth.
(3) In conclusion, the general drift of the whole subject suggests to our mind the need of a correspondence between what Christ has done for us and what He is doing in us by His Spirit. To be well baked we need the Cross of Christ translated into experience.
Illustration
It is the specimen of many. Into one side of him the penetrating leaven, the transforming fire, has not carried the force of grace. As an old Puritan puts it: Their cake is dough: it will never serve for bread at Gods board.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Hos 7:8. Mixing with the (heathen) people agrees with the figure that follows, a cake not turned. Such a mixture would bring in some ingredients that would render a cake unsuitable for food. Likewise, a cake not turned would be raw on one side and burnt on the other, hence unfit to eat. The two figures in the verse are unrelated except at the point common to each, namely, both are unfit to be eaten.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Hos 7:8-10. Ephraim, he hath mixed among the people By his alliances with the heathen, and by imitation of their manners, he is himself become one of them. He has thrown off all the distinctions, and forfeited the privileges of the chosen race. The Hebrew word here rendered people,
, is in the plural, and, when applied to bodies politic, says Bishop Horsley, always signifies the various nations of the earth, the unenlightened nations, in opposition to Gods peculiar people, the Israelites. He therefore renders the word peoples here, though, as he observes, not without some violation of the propriety of the English language, which disowns the word in the plural form. Ephraim is a cake, or, like a cake, not turned Burned on one side, and dough on the other, and so good for nothing on either; always in one extreme or the other. An apt image of a character that is all inconsistency. Such were the ten tribes of the prophets day; worshippers of Jehovah in profession, but adopting all the idolatries of the neighbouring nations, in addition to their own semi- idolatry of the calves. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not His national strength is impaired and decaying, and he acts as if he were insensible of it. The Syrians, in the time of Jehoahaz, reduced them very low, 2Ki 13:7. Afterward they became tributaries to Pul, king of Assyria; and at length were carried captives by Shalmaneser, (chap. 17.,) and yet the afflictions that befell them did not make them sensible of the ill state of their affairs, and that the hand of God was against them. Yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him The symptoms of decay. He declines in strength and power, like a man worn out with age. Rome, in the midst of great calamities, is thus described by Claudian:
Humeris vix sustinet gris Squalentem clypeum; laxata casside, prodit Canitiem.
And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face Or, witnesseth against him. Their insolent and obstinate behaviour, and continuance in sin, notwithstanding the warnings and admonitions they have had, sufficiently show how deserving they are of punishment; and they do not return, &c., nor seek him for all this Notwithstanding such severe denunciations against them, and that they are forewarned of approaching calamities, yet they do not return to God in true repentance, nor make their supplication to him to avert his wrath.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Hos 7:8 to Hos 8:3. Political Decay the Outward Sign of Israels Moral Decay.The attempts to cure national ills and secure safety by foreign aid, instead of by turning to Yahweh, are foredoomed to failure; Yahweh Himself frustrates them and will bring the misguided people to punishment and ruin (Hos 7:8-12). Their doom is sealed, for they have been disloyal to Yahweh; they do not turn to Him with a true heart, but use heathen devices (cut themselves, Hos 7:14 mg., see p. 110) when they appeal to Him. Their shallow hearts are incapable of real and acceptable repentance; therefore their princes shall fall by the sword, and this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt (Hos 7:13-16). The inevitable judgment is devastating war, which their appeals to Him shall not avert (Hos 8:1-3).
Hos 7:8. mixeth himself: i.e. dissipates his national strength and character by intermingling with the Gentiles. Another possible rendering is withereth away among, etc. The cake is the flat, round cake of bread, which was baked on hot stones or ashes (cf. 1Ki 19:6), and which, if not frequently turned, would be burnt. It may be an emblem of a country half ruined by war, or of the peoples fickle and inconstant character and achievement (cf. our half-baked).
Hos 7:9. The signs of national decreptitude are unheeded.
Hos 7:10. Perhaps a gloss; cf. Hos 5:5.
Hos 7:11. The inconstancies of national policy are another mark of weakness (the reference need not be to rival Egyptian and Assyrian parties in Israel). Note the striking and original figure.
Hos 7:12. By seeking foreign alliances they walk into a net.I will chastise . . . heard: read, I will bind them because of their wickedness (cf. LXX).
Hos 7:13 b. Better as an indignant question: And Ishould I redeem them when, etc.
Hos 7:14. upon their beds is difficult (text probably corrupt): On account of their . . . is required.assemble themselves: read as mg. and cf. 1Ki 18:28, Deu 14:1.
Hos 7:15. Omit taught and (cf. LXX).strengthened their arms: cf. 2Ki 14:27.
Hos 7:16 a. Cf. Hos 11:7. Read perhaps, return to the Baal (or Baalim).for . . . tongue: i.e. their insolence towards God (but text doubtful). The rest of Hos 7:16, if genuine, must refer to some unknown incidents.
Hos 8:1 a. Lit. to thy palate the cornet! (God addresses the prophet).an eagle: the Assyrian may be meant.
Hos 8:2. Omit Israel with LXX.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
7:8 Ephraim, he hath {f} mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.
(f) That is, he counterfeited the religion of the Gentiles, yet is but as a cake baked on the one side, and raw on the other, that is, neither thoroughly hot, nor thoroughly cold, but partly a Jew, and partly a Gentile.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Reliance on foreigners 7:8-16
This pericope condemns Israel’s foreign policy.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Ephraim had mixed itself with the pagan nations like unleavened dough mixed with leaven. She had done this by making alliances with neighbor nations as well as by importing heathen customs and pagan gods into Israel.
"Hoshea’s lurching foreign policy is illustrative. In 732 B.C., Hoshea, after killing Pekah, suddenly shifted from alliance with Egypt, Philistia, and Aram-Damascus to alliance with Assyria. A few years later he broke that alliance, and coming virtually full circle, again sought alliance with Egypt. These confused policies are caricatured in the figurative sense of ’mixed up.’" [Note: Stuart, p. 121.]
Ephraim had become like all the other nations rather than distinctive, as Yahweh intended (Exo 19:6). To use another figure, Ephraim was similar to a pancake that the cook had not turned over, all burnt and black on one side and soggy and runny on the other. In other words, she was only half-baked, worthless, not what God intended or what could nourish others. She was crusty toward Yahweh but soft toward other nations.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
A PEOPLE IN DECAY: 2. POLITICALLY
Hos 7:8-10
MORAL decay means political decay. Sins like these are the gangrene of nations. It is part of Hoseas greatness to have traced this, a proof of that versatility which distinguishes him above other prophets. The most spiritual of them all, he is at the same time the most political. We owe him an analysis of repentance to which the New Testament has little to add; but he has also left us a criticism of society and of polities in Israel, unrivalled except by Isaiah. We owe him an intellectual conception of God, which for the first time in Israel exploded idolatry; yet he also is the first to define Israels position in the politics of Western Asia. With the single courage of conscience Amos had said to the people: You are bad, therefore you must perish. But Hoseas is the insight to follow the processes by which sin brings forth death-to trace, for instance, the effects of impurity upon a nations powers of reproduction, as well as upon its intellectual vigor.
So intimate are these two faculties of Hosea that in chapters devoted chiefly to the sins of Israel we have already seen him expose the political disasters that follow. But from the point we have now reached- Hos 7:8 -the proportion of his prophesying is reversed: he gives us less of the sin and more of the social decay and political folly of his age.