Hosea 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,

עמים, 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 God's 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 prophet's 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, 2 Kings 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 ægris 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.