Hosea 8:9

For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers. FOR THEY ARE GONE UP TO ASSYRIA - referring to Menahem's application for Pul's aid in establishing him, on the throne (cf. Hosea 5:13; Hosea 7:11). Menuhem's name is read, on the inscriptions in the southwest palace of Nimroud, as a tributary to the Assyrian king in his eighth year. The dynasty of Pul, or Phallukha, was supplanted at Nineveh by that of Tiglath-pileser, about 768 (or 760) B.C. Semiramis seems to have been Pul's wife, and to have withdrawn to Babylon in 768; and her son, Nabonassar, succeeding after a period of confusion, originated 'the era of Nabonassar,' 747 BC (George Vance Smith.) Usually foreigners coming to Israel's land were said to "go up," Israel being...

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, (Jerem...

5-10 They promised themselves plenty, peace, and victory, by worshipping idols, but their expectations came to nothing. What they sow has no stalk, no blade, or, if it have, the bud shall yield no fruit, there was nothing in them. The works of darkness are unfruitful; nay, the end of those things is death. The hopes of sinners will deceive them, and their gains will be snares. In times of danger, especially in the day of judgment, all carnal devices will fail. They take a course by themselves, and like a wild ass by himself, they will be the easier and surer prey for the lion. Man is in nothing more like the wild ass's colt, than in seeking for that succour and that satisfaction in the creature, which are to be had in God only. Though men may sorrow a little, yet if it is not after a godly sort, they will be brought to sorrow everlastingly....

Verse Hosea 8:9. _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....

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 Master’s 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 asid...

EXPOSITION This chapter deals with the punishment of apostasy. Once more the sins of the northern kingdom are enumerated and its approaching fall predicted. There is a close connection between the verses in the first section of the chapter. That connection is as follows: The first verse begins with an exclamation containing Jehovah's command to the prophet to act as his herald, putting the trumpet to his mouth and sounding the alarm about coming calamity. In the second clause of the same verse the nature of the calamity is announced. In the third and last clause of it the cause of the calamity is declared. The second verse represents Israel in their extremity crying to God for deliverance; the cry is very earnest, and proceeds from every member of the community, backed also with the assertion of their acquaintance with Jehovah. In the third verse Jehovah rejects their cry and refuses to...

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, 2 Kings 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, stud

CHAPTER 8:1-9:9 The Apostasy is Followed by Judgment _ 1. The judgment announced (Hosea 8:1) _ 2. The apostasy which resulted in judgment (Hosea 8:8) 3. Warning against self-security (Hosea 9:1) Hosea 8:1. The prophet is commanded to sound the alarm of the impending judgment. The message is that the enemy will come swift as an eagle upon the house of the Lord, which here does not mean the temple (which was in connection with Judah), but Israel as the chosen people was the house, the dwelling-place of the Lord. All their spurious profession, their false claim, “My God, we know Thee, we, Israel”, will go for nothing, because

ISRAEL'S UNSANCTIFIED NATIONAL LIFE. Man-made kings, like man-made gods (the calf of Samaria), are impotent; Israel sows the wind and shall reap the whirlwind; the sources of the national life are withered, and the nation ceases to count (Hosea 8:4). Resort to foreign aid only further diminishes its vital forces (Hosea 8:8). Multiplication of altars only multiplies sin; the rites of an unholy cultus can but hasten the Divine punishment (Hosea 8:11). Probably Hosea 8:14 is an addition, and there may be glosses besides. HOSEA 8:4. Hosea is the first prophet to denounc

GONE UP. Compare Hosea 5:13; Hosea 7:11. A. [as] a. wild ass. Compare Isaiah 1:3. HIRED LOVERS. paid the love-fee. Comparing idolatry to whoredom. Compare Ezekiel 16:33; Ezekiel 16:34. and see 2 Chronicles 28:20; 2 Chronicles 28:21....