Hosea 10:6

It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6) Translate, Even that (i.e., the calf) shall be carried (in triumphant state) to Assyria, an offering to King Jareb. (See Hosea 5:13, Excursus.)

Benson Commentary

Hosea 10:6-8. It — The golden calf; shall be carried into Assyria — It was the custom of the eastern people, and also of the Romans, to carry away the gods of the conquered countries. For a present to King Jareb — See note on Hosea 5:13. The king of Assyria is meant, whose dependant and tributary the king of Israel now was. Ephraim shall receive shame — They shall be ashamed to find that the idol in which they trusted could not defend them or itself from being disgraced and taken away. Bishop Horsley’s version here is, Ephraim shall be overtaken in sound sleep, namely, in a dream of security, when nothing will be less in his thoughts than danger; and Israel shall be disgraced by his own politics; that is, the politics of the treaties of alliance, mentioned Hosea 10:4. An impolitic alliance with the king of Egypt was the immediate occasion of Shalmaneser’s rupture with Hoshea, which ended in the captivity of the ten tribes. As for Samaria, her king is cut off — Or, more literally, according to the Hebrew, Samaria is cut off, (or destroyed,) with her king; or, by a small alteration of the pointing, Her king is as the foam upon the water — Namely, as a bubble, which no sooner swells than it bursts: as if he had said, Many of her kings have rapidly passed away by assassination: and Hoshea shall soon be cut off by the king of Assyria. The high places also — The temples and altars dedicated to idolatrous worship, and usually placed on hills and mountains; of Aven — Or, Beth-aven; the sin of Israel — That is, the temples and altars, in and by which Israel has so greatly sinned, shall be destroyed, shall be entirely demolished; so that the thorn and the thistle shall come upon their altars — That is, their altar shall become such heaps of ruins, and the places around them be made so desolate, that thorns and thistles shall overrun and cover them. And they shall say to the mountains, Cover us — These words express the confusion and despair to which the Israelites should be reduced by the destruction of their country. Our Lord has made use of the same words, to denote the extremity of the Jews in the last siege of Jerusalem; and St. John, in the Revelation, to set forth the terror of the wicked in the day of judgment. They express also the great consternation of the wicked when any of God’s singular judgments overtake them, whose guilt prompts them to endeavour to hide themselves, and they even run into the darkest caves and holes of rocks to secure themselves.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:1-8 A vine is only valuable for its fruit; but Israel now brought no fruit to perfection. Their hearts were divided. God is the Sovereign of the heart; he will have all, or none. Were the stream of the heart wholly after God, it would run strongly, and bear down all before it. Their pretences to covenant with God were false. Even the proceeding of justice was as poisonous hemlock. Alas, how empty a vine is the visible church even at this day! But all earthly prosperity is but a collection of bubbles, soon destroyed like foam upon the water. Sinners will in vain seek shelter from that Judge, whom they now despise as a Saviour.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

It shall be also carried - (that is, "Itself also shall be carried"). Not Israel only shall be carried into captivity, but its god also. The victory over a nation was accounted of old a victory over its gods, as indeed it showed their impotence. Hence, the excuse made by the captains of Benhadad, that the gods of "Israel were gods of the hills, and not gods of the valleys" 1 Kings 20:23, 1 Kings 20:28, and God's vindication of His own Almightiness, which was thus denied. Hence, also the boast of Sennacherib by Rabshakeh, "have any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand? Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?" (2 Kings 18:33-35, add, 2 Kings 19:10-13; Numbers 21:29).

When God then, for the sin of His people, gave them into the hand of their enemies, He vindicated His own glory, first by avenging any insult offered to His worship, as in the capture of the ark by the Philistines, or Belshazzar's insolent and drunken abuse of the vessels of the temple; or by vindicating His servants, as in the case of Daniel and the three children, or by chastening pride, as in Nebuchadnezzar, and explaining and pointing His chastisement through His servant Daniel, or by prophecy, as of Cyrus by Isaiah and Daniel. To His own people, His chastisements were the vindication of His glory which they had dishonored, and the close of the long strife between the true prophets and the false. The captivity of the calf ended its worship, and was its final disgrace. The destruction of the temple and the captivity of its vessels and of God's people ended, not the worship, but the idolatries of Judah, and extended among their captors, and their captors' captors, the Medes and Persians, the knowledge of the One true God.

Unto Assyria, for a present to king Jareb - (or to a hostile or strifeful king. See the note above at Hosea 5:13.) Perhaps the name "Jareb" designates the Assyrian by that which was a characteristic of their empire, love of "strife." The history of their kings, as given by themselves in the newly-found inscriptions, is one warfare. To that same king, to whom they sent for aid in their weakness, from whom they hoped for help, and whom God named as what He knew and willed him to be to them, "hostile, strifeful," and "an avenger," should the object of their idolatry be carried in triumph. They had trusted in the calf and in the Assyrians. The Assyrian, to whom they looked as the protector of their liberties, was to carry away their other trust, their god .

Ephraim shall receive shame - This shall be all his gain; this his purchase; this he had obtained for himself by his pride and willfulness and idolatry and ambition and wars: this is the end of all, as it is of all pursuits apart from God; this he "shall receive" from the Giver of all good, "shame." "And Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel." Ephraim's special "counsel" was that which Jeroboam "took" with the most worldly-wise of his people, a counsel which admirably served their immediate end, the establishment of a kingdom, separate from that of Judah. It was acutely devised; it seemed to answer its end for 230 years, so that Israel, until the latter part of the reign of Pekah, was strong, Judah, in comparison, weak. But it was "the sin wherewith he made Israel to sin," and for which God scattered him among the pagan. His wisdom became his destruction and his shame. The policy which was to establish his family and his kingdom, destroyed his own family in the next generation, and ultimately, his people, not by its failure, but by its success.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. It … also—The calf, so far from saving its worshippers from deportation, itself shall be carried off; hence "Israel shall be ashamed" of it.

Jareb—(See on [1128]Ho 5:13). "A present to the king (whom they looked to as) their defender," or else avenger, whose wrath they wished to appease, namely, Shalmaneser. The minor states applied this title to the Great King, as the avenging Protector.

his own counsel—the calves, which Jeroboam set up as a stroke of policy to detach Israel from Judah. Their severance from Judah and Jehovah proved now to be not politic, but fatal to them.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

It; the golden calf made by Jeroboam the First, 1 Kings 12:28.

Shall be carried; though it hath feet, it cannot go, it must be borne; as Isaiah derides the idols of Babylon, Isaiah 46:2,7 Jer 10:5; and it is carried in triumph. For a present; according to the custom of conquering generals, the rich and rare things of the conquered people were reserved for gifts to their kings; and here is a rarity indeed, a captive god, and it is rich, for it is made of gold.

King Jareb: see Hosea 5:13.

Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed: the great confusion of this people is here foretold, and the certainty of it by the ingemination of the phrase: the Assyrians shall upbraid them with their brutish folly, to think that a god which could not keep itself from becoming a prey to insolent soldiers; and when thus taunted, Israel shall have nothing to answer, but must be silent with shame.

Of his own counsel; which is expressly mentioned 1 Kings 12:28; it was against the counsel of God; and as they began, so they persisted in it by the same counsel.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

It shall also be carried unto Assyria for a present to King Jareb,.... Or, "he himself" (z); not the people of Samaria, or of Bethaven, or of the calf, but the calf itself; which, being all of gold, was sent a present to the king of Assyria, here called Jareb; either Assyria, or the king of it; See Gill on Hosea 5:13; this was done either by the people of Israel themselves, to appease the king of Assyria; or rather by the Assyrian army, who reserved the plunder of this as a proper present to their king and conqueror, to whom not only nations, but the gods of nations, were subject:

Ephraim shall receive shame; for worshipping such an idol, when they shall see it broke to pieces, and the gold of it made a present to the Assyrian king, and that it could not save them, nor itself:

and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel; of giving in to such idolatry, contrary to the counsel, mind, and will of God; or of the counsel which they and Jeroboam took to set up the calves at Dan and Bethel, and thereby to keep the people from going up to Jerusalem, 1 Kings 12:28; as well as of their counsel and covenant with the king of Egypt against the king of Assyria, 2 Kings 17:4.

(z) "etiam ipsemet", Pagninus, Montanus; "etiam ipse", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "etiam ille", Cocceius; "etiam ille ipse", Schmidt.

Geneva Study Bible

It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. It shall be also] Rather, This also (viz. the steer) shall be.

for a present to king Jareb] Just as the kings of Judah repeatedly gave up the gold and silver in the temple to foreign foes. ‘King Jareb’ should rather be the fighting king (i.e. the king of Assyria, see on Hosea 5:13).

shall be ashamed of his own counsel] i.e., shall find out what a mistake it was to set up a helpless idol as the protector of the nation.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - It shall he also carried unto Assyria for a present to King Jareb. Here we have an explanation and confirmation of what has just been said in the preceding verse. The calf, the glorious and magnificent national god, as Israel considered it, is brought to Assyria, and there offered as a present to the Assyrian king. The word gam is emphatic; that is, "it also," "itself also," or "it also with men and other spoils" - the golden idol of Beth-aven. Kimchi's explanation of gam is as follows: "Genesis, extension or generalization of the term, refers to the glory he bad mentioned. He says, 'Lo, in its place the glory shall depart from it as soon as they shall break it. Also, the stump of the calf, namely, the gold thereon, after its form is broken, they shall take away as a present to King Jareb.'" The sign of the accusative with suffix אוחו, which here stands before a passive verb, may be taken either

(1) absolutely, "as to it also," "it shall be brought ;" or

(2) as an instance of anacoluthon; or

(3), according to Gesenius, the passive may be regarded as an impersonal active, and thus it may take the object of the action in the accusative. The word yubhal is from yabhal, primarily used of flowing in a strong and violent stream, and so the root of מַבּול, the flood; then it signifies "to go," "to be brought or carried." The minchah here spoken of cannot well mean tribute, but is rather a gift of homage to the Assyrian conqueror, whom the prophet m vision sees already wasting the land of Israel and carrying away all its treasures and precious things. Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel. The feminine form, בָשְׁנָה - of which נּשֶׁן, the masculine, by analogy, is not in use - is wrongly explained by the Hebrew expositors as having a pleonastic nun. The construction usually preferred is

(1) that given above.

(2) Others render it, "Shame shall seize Ephraim;" but tiffs constructs a feminine noun with a masculine verb, contrary to grammar.

(3) Hitzig translates," He (the Assyrian king) shall take away or carry off the shame of Ephraim; that is, the calf-idol." He remarks that the construct feminine does not always in the speech of North Israel end in ־ת, and cites several passages in proof. The counsel of which Israel would be ashamed is understood

(1) of the consultation held before making a covenant or treaty with the King of Assyria;

(2) it is generally and more correctly understood of Jeroboam taking counsel with his tribesmen of Ephraim about setting up the calf idols. Jareb is a proper name, or rather an appellation. The King of Assyria, or the great king, was looked up to by the smaller Asiatic states for protection, and consequently styled their Jareb, avenger or defender, just as σώτηρ. savior, was a title applied to or assumed by certain kings for a similar reason, as Ptolemy Soter and others. The object of Israel's idolatry is carried off as a present to propitiate or appease the wrath of the Assyrian patron and protector - probably Shalmaneser in the present instance - or taken as a trophy to grace the triumph of the conqueror. So far from defending the calf-people, as Israel had become, their calf-god could not defend itself; instead of preserving its worshippers from deportation, it was doomed itself to deportation. Ephraim, the premier tribe. received shame, and Israel, the remaining tribes that had followed its lead and adopted its evil counsel, shared the shame; all of them together were thoroughly put to shame because of their mistaken and wicked policy. The counsel of Jeroboam - for to it, in our opinion, is the reference - appeared an able stroke of policy; but this policy, by which he hoped to detach Israel from Judah, was not only frustrated, but proved positively ruinous, so far were the means from effecting the end, or the end from justifying the wisdom of the means. Hosea 10:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The thoughts of Hosea 10:2, Hosea 10:3 are carried out still further in Hosea 10:4-7. Hosea 10:4. "They have spoken words, sworn falsely, made treaties: thus right springs up like darnel in the furrows of the field. Hosea 10:5. For the calves of Beth-aven the inhabitants of Samaria were afraid: yea, its people mourn over it, and its sacred ministers will tremble at it, at its glory, because it has strayed from them. Hosea 10:6. Men will also carry it to Asshur, as a present for king Jareb: shame will seize upon Ephraim, and Israel will be put to shame for its counsel." The dissimulation of heart (Hosea 10:3) manifested itself in their speaking words which were nothing but words, i.e., in vain talk (cf. Isaiah 58:13), in false swearing, and in the making of treaties. אלות, by virtue of the parallelism, is an infin. abs. for אלה, formed like כּרת, analogous to שׁתות (Isaiah 22:13; see Ewald, 240, b). כּרת בּרית, in connection with false swearing, must signify the making of a covenant without any truthfulness in it, i.e., the conclusion of treaties with foreign nations - for example, with Assyria - which they were inclined to observe only so long as they could promise themselves advantages from them. In consequence of this, right has become like a bitter plant growing luxuriantly (ראשׁ equals רושׁ; see at Deuteronomy 29:17). Mishpât does not mean judgment here, or the punitive judgment of God (Chald. and many others), for this could hardly be compared with propriety to weeds running over everything, but right in its degeneracy into wrong, or right that men have turned into bitter fruit or poison (Amos 6:12). This spreads about in the kingdom, as weeds spread luxuriantly in the furrows of the field (שׂדי a poetical form for שׂדה, like Deuteronomy 32:13; Psalm 8:8). Therefore the judgment cannot be delayed, and is already approaching in so threatening a manner, that the inhabitants of Samaria tremble for the golden calves. The plural ‛eglōth is used with indefinite generality, and gives no warrant, therefore, for the inference that there were several golden calves set up in Bethel. Moreover, this would be at variance with the fact, that in the sentences which follow we find "the (one) calf" spoken of. The feminine form ‛eglōth, which only occurs here, is also probably connected with the abstract use of the plural, inasmuch as the feminine is the proper form for abstracts. Bēth-'âven for Bēth-'ēl, as in Hosea 4:15. Shâkhēn is construed with the plural, as an adjective used in a collective sense. כּי (Hosea 4:5) is emphatic, and the suffixes attached to עמּו and כּמריו do not refer to Samaria, but to the idol, i.e., the calf, since the prophet distinctly calls Israel, which ought to have been the nation of Jehovah, the nation of its calf-idol, which mourned with its priests (kemârı̄m, the priests appointed in connection with the worship of the calves: see at 2 Kings 23:5) for the carrying away of the calf to Assyria. גּיל does not mean to exult or rejoice here, nor to tremble (applied to the leaping of the heart from fear, as it does from joy), but has the same meaning as חיל in Psalm 96:9. עליו is still further defined by על־כּבודו, "for its glory," i.e., not for the temple-treasure at Bethel (Hitzig), nor the one glorious image of the calf, as the symbol of the state-god (Ewald, Umbreit), but the calf, to which the people attributed the glory of the true God. The perfect, gâlâh, is used prophetically of that which was as good as complete and certain (for the fut. exact., cf. Ewald, 343, a). The golden calf, the glory of the nation, will have to wander into exile. This cannot even save itself; it will be taken to Assyria, to king Jareb (see at Hosea 5:13), as minchâh, a present of tribute (see 2 Samuel 8:2, 2 Samuel 8:6; 1 Kings 5:1). For the construing of the passive with את, see Ges. 143, 1, a. Then will Ephraim ( equals Israel) be seized by reproach and shame. Boshnâh, a word only met with here; it is formed from the masculine bōshen, which is not used at all (see Ewald, 163, 164).