Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 8:9
For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.
9. gone up ] Used, like , of going inland (‘up the country’).
a wild ass alone by himself ] Rather, a wild ass taking his own way by himself. The point of comparison is obstinacy. The wild ass is a gregarious animal, but individuals in the herd will sometimes go and roam moodily and obstinately by themselves. See Tristram, Nat. Hist. of Bible, pp. 41 43, and Davidson’s full note on Job 35:5-8. Ishmael is compared to the wild ass in Gen 16:12, and now it appears that Israel is no better than Ishmael. In spite of warnings, he will have his way, though intercourse with Assyria is his ruin.
Ephraim hath hired lovers ] Rather, loves. The allusion is to the gifts by which Israel sought to gain the Assyrian or Egyptian alliance (Hos 12:2). The Sept. evidently had a different, though probably not a more correct text.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For they are gone up to Assyria – The ground of this their captivity is that wherein they placed their hope of safety. They shall be presently swallowed up; for they went to Asshur. The holy land being then honored by the spectral presence of God, all nations are said to go up to it. Now, since Israel forgetting God, their strength and their glory, went to the Assyrian for help, he is said to go up there, where he went as a suppliant.
A wild donkey alone by himself – As the ox which knoweth its owner, and the donkey its Masters crib, represents each believer, of Jew or Gentile; Israel, who would not know Him, is called the wild ass. The pere, or wild ass of the East , is heady, unruly, undisciplinable , obstinate, running with swiftness far outstripping the swiftest horse , whither his lust, hunger, thirst, draw him without rule or direction, hardly to be turned aside from his intended course. Although often found in bands, one often breaks away by himself, exposing itself for a prey to lions, from where it is said, the wild donkey is the lions prey in the wilderness (Ecclus. 13:19). Wild as the Arab was, a wild ass colt by himself , is to him a proverb for one , singular, obstinate, pertinacious in his purpose. Such is man by nature Job 11:12; such, it was foretold to Abraham, Ishmael would be Gen 16:12; such Israel again became; stuborn, heady, selfwilled, refusing to be ruled by Gods law and His counsel, in which he might find safety, and, of his own mind, running to the Assyrian, there to perish.
Ephraim hath hired lovers or loves – The plural, in itself, shows that they were sinful loves, since God had said, a man shall cleave unto his wife and they twain shall be one flesh. These sinful loves or lovers she was not tempted by, but she herself invited them (see Eze 16:33-34). It is a special and unwonted sin, when woman, forsaking the modesty which God gives her as a defense, becomes the temptress. Like such a bad woman, luring others to love her, they, forsaking God, to whom, as by covenant of marriage, they ought to have cleaved, and on Him alone to have depended, sought to make friends of the Assyrian, to help them in their rebellions against Him, and so put themselves to that charge (as sinners usually do) in the service of sin, which in Gods service they need not to have been at.
And yet that which God pictures under colors so offensive, what was it in human eyes? The hire was presents of gold to powerful nations, whose aid, humanly speaking, Israel needed. But wherever it abandoned its trust in God, it adopted their idols. Whoever has recourse to human means, without consulting God, or consulting whether He will, or will not bless them, is guilty of unfaithfulness which often leads to many others. He becomes accustomed to the tone of mind of those whose protection he seeks, comes insensibly to approve even their errors, loses purity of heart and conscience, sacrifices his light and talents to the service of the powers, under whose shadow he wishes to live under repose.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hos 8:9
A wild ass alone by himself.
The Scripture figure of the wild ass
What a figure of the untamed soul which refuses the easy yoke of the blessed Redeemer. Mans untamed spirit spurns the adorable Lords love. You cannot conceive a truer picture of the altogether untractable than this. The wild ass will go its own way. But this is according to nature. What we are Called to contemplate is the fallen being man, described as a wild ass alone by itself. Ephraim and the Ten Tribes are compared to the wild ass for many reasons.
1. They refused Christs easy yoke; their hearts were untamed; they were stubborn in their rejection of Gods inviting grace; they were full of obdurate folly; they were headstrong and unruly, not consenting to any restraints; they chose their own course, running up and down after sin, mad upon their idols, as the wild ass traverses the desert only to gratify its own low nature.
2. The wild ass is excessively swift; and although numbers of them commonly herd together, yet it is usual for some one of them to break away and separate himself from his company, and run alone or at random by himself. It is when he thus breaks away that he is such an easy prey to the lion. Ephraim, in seeking to be all for himself, became the more sure prey of the devourer; and whenever the sinner breaks away by himself, thinking thereby to be masterless and free, he is in a fair way of being left to his own devices and given up by God.
3. The wild ass is the lions prey in the wilderness, and the soul faithless to Christ, seeking its own things, is as a wild ass alone by himself, or for himself, for his own gratification, his own pleasure, and the end of these things is death. (Alfred Clayton Thiselton.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. They are gone up to Assyria] For succour.
A wild ass alone by himself] Like that animal, jealous of its liberty, and suffering no rival. If we may credit Pliny and others, one male wild ass will keep a whole flock of females to himself, suffer no other to approach them, and even bite off the genitals of the colts, lest in process of time they should become his rivals. “Mares singuli faeminarum gregibus imperitant; timent libidinis aemulos, et ideo gravidas custodiunt, morsuque natos mares castrant.” – Hist. Nat., lib. viii., c. 30. The Israelites, with all this selfishness and love of liberty, took no step that did not necessarily lead to their thraldom and destruction.
Ephraim hath hired lovers.] Hath subsidized the neighbouring heathen states.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The prophet gives now an account why Israel was so impoverished, and why they should be so severely punished, why so punished of God, and why so slighted by man.
They are gone up to Assyria; either gone, i.e. have sent ambassadors with rich presents to purchase assistance from Assyria, or gone with their tribute to procure the continuance of the Assyrian confederacy and aids. This confidence and trust in Assyria was accompanied with a casting off their dependence on and subjection to God: this their sin was very great, and their punishment shall, as their sin, be very great. Others refer this going up to their going into captivity into Assyria, and it surely may be a prediction of what shall be (if it be not a narrative of what is) done.
Assyria was at that time a mighty nation, whose kings were very great, and yet more proud than great, as appears in Sennacheribs deportment toward God and man. This kingdom had now grown on through Pul, Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser, and Sennacheribs reigns, was a terror to enemies, and the vain confidence of this foolish and sinful people, for which they are particularly threatened and severely punished.
A wild ass: this is differently applied by interpreters; some refer it to the king of Assyria, who is fierce, swift, and haughty as the wild ass, and all for himself; thus the French interpret it: so it suits well; Israel, thou wilt be disappointed in thy expectation from Asshur, a wild ass, who seeks himself only. Others refer
wild ass to Israel, who, wild, untamed, and burning in lust, (as is reported of the wild ass,) rangeth far and wide for lovers, seeks every where for aids and succours.
Alone by himself; solitary, or in a wilderness, where is no path or track: this will well suit them in their captivity, when they shall be left as in a wilderness, and may, as perhaps many did, flee into more remote and desolate places, and ramble into uninhabited places, and there take rooting, and give being to nations which are now known to us, though we know not whence they descended. Or,
alone by himself, in a posture fit to become a prey to the lion of Assyria; so it is reported the lions make a prey of the wild asses in the wilderness; so will Assyria make Israel a prey.
Ephraim hath hired lovers; hath dearly bought the friendship of Assyria in Pul and Shalmanesers time, and more dearly bought friendship of Egypt in the time of So, or Sabacon, or Sevechus; for beside all the treasure they laid out on this, they parted with their God for it, and set him against Israel.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. gone . . . to Assyriareferringto Menahem’s application for Pul’s aid in establishing him on thethrone (compare Hos 5:13;Hos 7:11). Menahem’s name is readin the inscriptions in the southwest palace of Nimrod, as a tributaryto the Assyrian king in his eighth year. The dynasty of Pul, orPhalluka, was supplanted at Nineveh by that of Tiglath-pileser, about768 (or 760) B.C.Semiramis seems to have been Pul’s wife, and to have withdrawn toBabylon in 768; and her son, Nabonassar, succeeding after a period ofconfusion, originated “the era of Nabonassar,” 747 B.C.[G. V. SMITH]. Usuallyforeigners coming to Israel’s land were said to “go up“;here it is the reverse, to intimate Israel’s sunken state, andAssyria’s superiority.
wild assa figure ofIsrael’s headstrong perversity in following her own bent (Jer2:24).
alone byhimselfcharacteristic of Israel in all ages: “lo, thepeople shall dwell alone” (Nu23:9; compare Job39:5-8).
hired loversreversingthe ordinary way, namely, that lovers should hire her (Eze 16:33;Eze 16:34).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For they are gone up to Assyria,…. Or, “though they should go up to Assyria” g; to the king of Assyria, to gain his friendship, and enter into alliance with him; as, when Pal king of Assyria came against them, Menahem king of Israel went forth to meet him, and gave him a thousand talents of silver to be his confederate, and strengthen his kingdom, 2Ki 15:19; yet this hindered not but that Israel was at length swallowed up by that people, and scattered by them among the nations; for this is not to be understood of their going captive into the land of Assyria, as the Targum interprets it:
a wild ass alone by himself; which may be applied either to the king of Assyria, and be considered as a description of him, to whom Israel went for help and friendship; who, though he took their present, and made them fair promises, yet was perfidious, unsociable, and inhuman, studied only his own advantage, and not their good: or to the Israelites that went to him, who were as sottish and stupid as the ass, and as headstrong and unruly as that, and, like it, lustful, and impetuous in their lusts; running to and fro for the satisfying of them, and taking no advice, nor suffering themselves to be controlled, and, being alone, became an easy prey to the Assyrian lion: or yet they should be as “a wild ass alone by itself” h; notwithstanding all the methods they took to obtain the friendship and alliance of the king of Assyria, yet they should be carried captive by him, and dwell in the captivity like a wild ass in the wilderness; and so it is to be understood here, agreeably to Job 24:5; otherwise, as Bochart i has proved from various writers, these creatures go in flocks:
Ephraim hath hired lovers; by giving presents to the kings of Assyria and Egypt, to be their allies and confederates, patrons and defenders,
2Ki 15:19; who are represented as their gallants, with whom Ephraim or the ten tribes committed adultery, departing from God their Husband, and liege Lord and King, and from his true worship; see
Eze 16:26. R. Elias Levita k observes, that some interpret the words, “Ephraim made a covenant with lovers”.
g “quamvis, etiamsi ascenderint”; so Schmidt observes it may be rendered, though he chooses to render it by “quando”, “when they should go up”, &c. h “erunt onager, qui solitarius sibi est”, Schmidt. i Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 3. c. 16. col. 870. k Tishbi, p. 267.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“For they went up to Asshur; wild ass goes alone by itself; Ephraim sued for loves. Hos 8:10. Yea, though they sue among the nations, now will I gather them, and they will begin to diminish on account of the burden of the king of the princes.” Going to Assyria is defined still further in the third clause as suing for loves, i.e., for the favour and help of the Assyrians. The folly of this suing is shown in the clause, “wild ass goes by itself alone,” the meaning and object of which have been quite mistaken by those who supply a simil . For neither by connecting it with the preceding words thus, “Israel went to Asshur, like a stubborn ass going by itself” (Ewald), nor by attaching to it those which follow, “like a wild ass going alone, Ephraim sued for loves,” do we get any suitable point of comparison. The thought is rather this: whilst even a wild ass, that stupid animal, keeps by itself to maintain its independence, Ephraim tries to form unnatural alliances with the nations of the world, that is to say, alliances that are quite incompatible with its vocation. Hithnah , from tanah , probably a denom. of ‘ethnah (see at Hos 2:14), to give the reward of prostitution, here in the sense of bargaining for amours, or endeavouring to secure them by presents. The kal yithnu has the same meaning in Hos 8:10. The word , to which different renderings have been given, can only have a threatening or punitive sense here; and the suffix cannot refer to , but only to the subject contained in yithnu , viz., the Ephraimites. The Lord will bring them together, sc. among the nations, i.e., bring them all thither. is used in a similar sense in Hos 9:6. The more precise definition is added in the next clause, in the difficult expression , in which may be taken most safely in the sense of “beginning,” as in Jdg 20:31; 2Ch 29:17, and Eze 9:6, in all of which this form occurs, and as an adject. verb., connected with like the adjective in 1Sa 3:2: “They begin to be, or become, less (i.e., fewer), on account of the burden of the king of princes,” i.e., under the oppression which they will suffer from the king of Assyria, not by war taxes or deportation, but when carried away into exile. = is a term applied to the great Assyrian king, who boasted, according to Isa 10:8, that his princes were all kings.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Here again the Prophet derides all the labour the people had undertaken to exempt themselves from punishment. For though hypocrites dare not openly and avowedly to fight against God, yet they seek vain subterfuges, by which they may elude him. So the Israelites ceased not to weary themselves to escape the judgment of God; and this folly, or rather madness, the Prophet exposes to scorn. They have gone up to Assyria, he says, as a wild ass alone; Ephraim had hired lovers In the first clause he indirectly reprobates the brutish wildness of the people, as though he said, “They are like the wild animals of the wood, which can by no means be tamed.” And Jeremiah uses this very same similitude, when he complains of the people as being led away by their own indomitable lust, being like the wild ass, who, snuffing the wind, betakes himself, in his usual manner, to a precipitant course, (Jer 2:24.) Probably he touches also, in an indirect way, on the unbelief of the people in having despised the protection of God; for the people ought not to have thus hastened to Assyria, as if they were destitute of every help, because they knew that they were protected by the hand of God. And the Prophet here reproves them for regarding as nothing that help which the Lord had promised, and which he was really prepared to afford, had not the Israelites betaken themselves elsewhere. Hence he says, Ephraim, as a wild ass, has gone up to Assyria; he perceived not that he would be secure and safe, provided he sheltered himself under the shadow of the hand of his God; but as if God could do nothing, he retook himself to the Assyrians: this was ingratitude. And then he again takes up the similitude which we have before noticed, that the people of Israel had shamefully and wickedly departed from the marriage-covenant which God had made with them: for God, we know, was to the Israelites in the place of a husband, and had pledged his faith to them; but when they transferred themselves to another, they were like unchaste women, who prostitute themselves to adulterers, and desert their own husbands. Hence the Prophet again reproves the Israelites for having violated their faith pledged to God, and for being like adulterous women. He indeed goes farther, and says, that they hired adulterers for wages. Unchaste women are usually enticed by the charms of gain; for when adulterers wish to corrupt a woman, they offer gifts, they offer money. He says that this practice was inverted; and the same thing is expressed by the Prophet Ezekiel; who, after having stated that women are usually corrupted by having some gain or some advantage proposed to them, adds,
‘
But thou wastest thine own property, and settest not thyself to hire, but on the contrary thou hirest wantons,’ (Eze 16:31.)
So the Prophet speaks here, though more briefly, Ephraim, he says, has hired lovers
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Hos. 8:9. Assy-] to gain friendship and alliance. Wild ass] A comparison which shows their folly, not as a paramour burning in lust, but heady, obstinate, and undisciplined; outstripping the swiftest horse in pursuit of lust, hunger, and thirst. Whilst even a wild ass, that stupid animal, keeps by itself, to maintain its independence, Ephraim tries to form unnatural alliances with the nations of the world, that is to say, alliances that are quite incompatible with its vocation [Keil].
Hos. 8:10. Hired] by presents. Gather] them among the nations. Now] They shall not go as suppliants, but captives; the nations will oppress and not help them (Eze. 16:37). Sorrow] (not, as margin, begin). A little] The greater judgment, the deportation, suspended. Burden] Tribute imposed on Israel (2Ki. 15:19-20).
HOMILETICS
THE FOLLY OF WORLDLY ALLIANCE.Hos. 8:9-10
A fourth sin is laid to the charge of Israel in seeking aid from Assyrians. This sin is reproved by two similitudesa wild ass loving its freedom, and a harlot suing for paramours. It is folly to seek help in civil defection and religious apostasy.
I. The alliance is unnatural.
1. It is against the habits of nature. The wild ass, taken in its love for solitude, or its headstrong perversity in pursuing its lust, reproves this conduct. Israel was a holy people, separated from others for a special purpose, and intended to be the people of God. Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Gods people should never mix up with worldly men. Their name and their nature should separate them from sin. They stand upon a moral elevation; to trust to worldly alliance and hire foreign aid is to sacrifice their principles and degrade their nature; to acknowledge the superiority of the world, and sink themselves below their true position. The sympathies and aspirations of the new man are with God and not the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
2. It reserves the customs of men. Ephraim hath hired lovers. The ordinary way is for lovers to hire her (Eze. 16:33-34). When Churches are deserted, and professors are forsaken by God, they often go further wrong than others, more bent on wickedness than ordinary transgressors. What folly to purchase the aid of an enemy! what value is that affection which can only be enlisted by gold and hire? The world should be taught to admire the Church as a wise and understanding people; but when they despise their own dignity, they pay dearly for the alliance of the nations. The contrary is in thee from other women, in thy whoredoms, whereas more followeth thee to commit whoredoms; and in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, therefore thou art contrary.
II. The alliance is unfaithful. As a man should cleave to his wife, so Israel should cling to God. But how loathing and immodest to forsake God, to whom we are bound by marriage covenant, and tempt and hire other lovers! Such was the baseness of Judah, and such the unfaithfulness of many now. When God likens the idolatry of his ancient people to adultery and harlotry, the Christian Church of the present age should take the warning and remain faithful to God.
III. The alliance is destructive. Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them. The sin of Israel brought its own punishment. They sought to secure themselves by hired kings, sent presents to them and made leagues with them against Gods will: but their policy deceived them. God would gather those very nations, not to help, but to destroy Israel. When nations rely on hired levies, and Churches have recourse to ungodly powers, to save from anticipated judgments, God in just retribution makes these very powers the instruments of his purpose. Providing for their own glory and safety makes them easier prey to their enemies. There is no security but in God himself. I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hos. 8:9. A wild ass typical of the sinner.
1. In its disregard for its owner. Neither regardeth be the crying of the driver (Job. 39:8).
2. In its obstinate course. It is most unruly and stubborn, intense in its thirst and swift in its pursuit. Self-will, frowardness, and intractableness the complaints against Israel. Men now throw off Gods yoke, seek to be free and uncontrolled, to pursue their folly without restraint. The heart of man is fully set in them to do evil.
3. In its constant danger. The wild ass is the lions prey in the wilderness (Sir. 13:19). Men who rush from God are exposed to danger from themselves and others in time and in eternity. Apart from grace, man after his hard and impenitent heart treasures up wrath against the day of wrath (Rom. 2:5).
Hos. 8:10. Sin and sorrow. Now will I gather them, &c.
1. The beginning of sin is the beginning of sorrow. Men do not believe this. It may be contrary to their experience and observation, but the fact is declared in Gods word, and written in our moral nature and constitution. Now they shall sorrow a little.
2. The end of sin will be the greatest sorrow. Israel sorrowed a little under the bondage and heavy taxes of Assyria, but their future punishment was the greater calamity. Now sorrow is a little, a drop before the storm, hereafter it will be a tempest. God suspends the greatest judgments to prove his compassion for men, give time for repentance, and opportunity to return to him. Here only we have the beginning of sorrows; what then will be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 8
Hos. 8:9. Love
Our passions are seducers; but of all,
The strongest love. He first approaches us
In childish play, wantoning in our walks;
If heedlessly we wander after him,
As he will pick out all the dancing way,
Were lost, and hardly to return again. [Southey.]
Hos. 8:10-11. Sin increased. Sin is like a stone which is cast into water, and multiplies itself by infinite circles [Basil]. All sin and wickedness in mans spirit hath the central force and energy of hell in it, and is perpetually pressing down towards it as towards its own place. The devilish nature is always within the central attractions of hell, and its own weight instigates and accelerates its motion thither [John Smith].
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(9) Gone up to Assyria.The word thus translated is elsewhere used for going up to the sanctuary of the Lord. (See Note on Hos. 7:11.) Wild ass is the image of untamed waywardness (Job. 39:5, sea.) it is described by Wetzstein as inhabiting the steppes, a creature of dirty yellow colour, with long ears and no horns, and a head resembling a gazelles. Its pace is so swift that no huntsman can overtake it. It is seldom seen alone, but in herds of several hundreds. From Jer. 2:24 we infer that the animal wanders alone after the object of its lust. Israel, like a solitary wild ass, seeks strange loves, courts strange alliances. On the last clause, see Eze. 16:32-34. Ephraim pays abnormally for her own shame.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Hos 8:9-10. For they are gone up to Assyria These verses are connected with that preceding, and are thus translated by Houbigant: Because they go to the Assyrian, though the Assyrian is nothing more than a wild ass, [one who has no regard for any thing but himself,] Hos 8:10. Ephraim sends love-presents: Because they have sent these, I will immediately gather them among the nations; and truly they shall be refreshed a little from the burden of the king and the princes. This is spoken ironically, and refers to the heavy tributes which were imposed upon the people for the support of the wars, and to the alliances which Israel was then forming.
Ephraim hath hired lovers The prophesy alludes not exclusively to the bargain with Pul, but to the general profusion of the government in forming foreign alliances; in which the latter kings both of Israel and Judah were equally culpable; as appears by the history of the collateral reigns of Ahaz and Pekah. Lovers: every forbidden alliance with idolaters was a part of the spiritual incontinence of the nation. The Hebrew word hithnu, rendered hired, might be more literally rendered gifted, or endowed. But to preserve any thing of the spirit of the original, it is necessary to use a word here capable of being applied to military bounties in the next verse. In the next verse God says, that whatever bounties the Israelites might offer, in order to raise armies of foreign auxiliaries; he would embody those armies; he would press the men, paid by their money, into his own service against them.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Here is a very striking passage in these words of the Lord, and is as suited to all ages as to the age of Israel. The Lord saith, that the great things he wrote to Israel were counted by them strange things. And Reader! what more strange to thousands, who call themselves Christians, than the pure doctrine of Christ’s blood and righteousness, as the only possible means of salvation, and yet what so great and so glorious? Who, untaught of God the Holy Ghost, can enter into a right apprehension of that blessed doctrine; God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them? 2Co 5:19 . We shall indeed know these things to be the great things of God, if so be the Holy Ghost condescends to be our teacher. But without his gracious instruction, the mystery of godliness will be to us as strange things, and men will now, as much as in the days of Christ’s flesh, call the most blessed truths hard sayings, and go back from Jesus, who never in heart walked with Jesus. Joh 6:60-66 , etc.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Hos 8:9 For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.
Ver. 9. For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself ] This was that that most moved the Lord to denounce and determine hard and heavy things against Israel, they had suspicious thoughts of God, as if he either could not or would not do for them, and help them out, as the Assyrian (though an enemy) would. This prank of theirs God uttereth here with as great indignation and dislike as old Jacob did his son Reuben’s incest, when he said, “He went up to my couch.” The Lord is as jealous of his glory as any man can be of his wife; neither will he give it to another, Isa 42:8 ; he admits not of any co-rival in heaven or earth, as Potiphar’s wife was his own peculiar. Now God is no way more glorified by us than when we put our trust in his love and faithfulness, and expect from him safety here, and salvation hereafter. For in so doing, we set him up for our king, Jdg 9:15 , and put the royal crown upon his head, Son 3:11 . As in doing otherwise we turn his glory into shame, “loving vanity, seeking after leasing,” Psa 4:2 . Hence that angry expostulation, Jer 2:36 , “Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way?” How dost thou think to mend thyself by running to the creature, as if there were no God in Israel? “thou also shall be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria: yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head” (after the manner of mourners, 2Sa 13:19 ), “for the Lord hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them.”
A wild ass alone by himself
Ephraim hath hired lovers
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
gone up. Compare Hos 5:13; Hos 7:11.
a = [as] a. wild ass. Compare Isa 1:3.
hired lovers = paid the love-fee. Comparing idolatry to whoredom. Compare Eze 16:33, Eze 16:34; and see 2Ch 28:20, 2Ch 28:21.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
they: Hos 5:13, Hos 7:11, 2Ki 15:19, Eze 23:5-9
a wild: Job 39:5-8, Jer 2:24
hath: Hos 2:5-7, Hos 2:10, Hos 12:1, Isa 30:6, Eze 16:33, Eze 16:34
lovers: Heb. loves
Reciprocal: 2Ki 18:11 – the king Job 24:5 – wild asses Hos 14:3 – Asshur
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hos 8:9. Are pone up is present tense in form, but it is a prediction of the captivity of the 10-tribe kingdom by the Assyrian Empire. Ephraim hath hired lovers. Idolatry is likened to adultery in the Bible, and the practice of that abomination by the people of God is compared to the unfaithfulness of a wife in her marriage relationship. An ordinary lewd woman practices adultery for the money she receives for it, but Israel was worse than such a woman. She is compared to an unfaithful wife who pays men to come in to her; and she pays them with money that her faithful husband had given her. (See Ezekiel 16; 17, 3131.)
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
8:9 For they are gone up to Assyria, a {g} wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.
(g) They never cease, but run to and fro to seek help.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Ephraim (Israel) had made treaties with Assyria to help protect her from her enemies (cf. Hos 7:11), but the Assyrians would turn and devour Israel. Wild donkeys were notorious for their willfulness and being difficult to control (cf. Jer 2:24), and so was Israel. Ephraim was also like a harlot but even worse in that she paid others to love her rather than receiving pay from them (cf. Hos 2:5; Jer 2:23-25). Yahweh had promised to care for the nation because He loved her.