Hosea 8

The original text was written in Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 14 verses.

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind:

it hath no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.[13]

• "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind." This is considered a proverb which states that actions have consequences and especially that people may face negative consequences for their actions.[14] "Reap the whirlwind" has been used as the title for several works of fiction.

For they are gone up to Assyria,

a wild ass alone by himself:

Ephraim hath hired lovers.[15]

• "To Assyria": referring to the request of Menahem for help from Pul, the king of Assyria, to put him on the throne (cf. Hosea 5:13; 7:11). Menahem's name is read in the inscriptions in the southwest palace of Nimrod, as a tributary to the Assyrian king in his eighth year. The dynasty of Pul, or Phalluka, was supplanted at Nineveh by that of Tiglath-pileser, about 768 (or 760) BC. Semiramis seems to have been Pul's wife, and to have withdrawn to Babylon in 768; and her son, Nabonassar, succeeding after a period of confusion, originated "the era of Nabonassar," 747 BC [G. V. Smith]. Usually foreigners coming to the land of Israel were said to "go up"; here it is the reverse, to intimate Israel's sunken state, and Assyria's superiority.[3]
• "Wild ass": "of the East" or "pere," 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 lion's prey in the wilderness" (Eccles. 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 Genesis 16:12; such Israel again became; "stubborn, heady, selfwilled, refusing to be ruled by God's law and His counsel, in which he might find safety, and, of his own mind, running to the Assyrian," there to perish.[16] This is a figure of Israel's headstrong perversity in following her own bent (Jeremiah 2:24).[3]
• "Hired lovers": or "sued for lovers", the statement stands independent and in a measure detached, the meaning being that even a wild ass, stupid and stubborn as that animal is, keeps by itself to secure its independence. The conduct of Israel, however, appears to disadvantage in contrast with that of a stupid wild ass; it is more stupid and senseless; their folly is seen by the comparison: it maintained its independence by going alone, Ephraim lost independence by soliciting help from heathen allies.[17]

Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin,

altars shall be unto him to sin.[18]

• "Many altars to sin": The altars were built not with an intention to commit sin, but to offer sacrifice for sin (make atonement for it). However, they are directed to idols, not the God of Israel, so the people sinned in making these and also caused sin for other people who followed their example. This refers to the action of king Jeroboam of Israel, who erected altars in Dan and Bethel, and caused the people to build the altars in all high places, and tops of mountains, where they sacrificed to idols, against the commandment of God, who required sacrifice only at one place, and on one altar (Deuteronomy 12:5).[19]

• Related Bible parts: Hosea 6, Hosea 7

• Collins, John J. (2014). Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures. Fortress Press. ISBN 9781451469233.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Day, John (2007). "27. Hosea". In Barton, John; Muddiman, John (eds.). The Oxford Bible Commentary (first (paperback) ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 571–578. ISBN 978-0199277186. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
• Fitzmyer, Joseph A. (2008). A Guide to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 9780802862419.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Hayes, Christine (2015). Introduction to the Bible. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300188271.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Ulrich, Eugene, ed. (2010). The Biblical Qumran Scrolls: Transcriptions and Textual Variants. Brill.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Würthwein, Ernst (1995). The Text of the Old Testament. Translated by Rhodes, Erroll F. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-0788-7. Retrieved January 26, 2019.