Hosea 8:8

Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) Vessel wherein is no pleasure—i.e., worthless (comp. Jeremiah 48:38; Psalm 31:13; 2Timothy 2:20); a vessel devoted to vilest uses, or smashed up as worthless.

Benson Commentary

Hosea 8:8. Israel is swallowed up — Under this image the Hebrew language, the Greek, and our own, describe any sudden destruction, so complete as to leave no visible vestige of the thing remaining. The prophet speaks of what was future, as though it were already present; and signifies that the Israelites would be as certainly carried captives into Assyria, as if they were already gone thither into captivity. Now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel, &c. — In a short time they shall be despised, as a vessel or utensil that is broken, or become useless. For they are gone up to Assyria — Namely, of their own accord, as the original expression, המה עלו, seems to imply. So do also the versions of the LXX. and the Vulgate; the former read, αυτοι ανεβησαν εις Ασσυριους, ipsi ascenderunt ad Assur; they themselves have gone up to Assyria. This is not meant of their going into captivity. The captivity, though near at hand, was yet to come; but this going up was past. It was a voluntary going up, and a crime; a going up both for alliance, and also for idolatrous commerce. The captivity was to be the punishment. A wild ass alone by himself — The meaning is, that Ephraim was such; that is, as Archbishop Newcome interprets it, Ephraim was like the solitary wild ass, he was as untamed to the yoke, and traversed the desert as earnestly in pursuit of idols, as the wild ass in quest of his mates. “Though wild asses,” says Pocock, “be often found in the deserts in whole herds, yet it is usual for some one of them to break away, and separate himself from his company, and run alone at random by himself; and one so doing is here spoken of.” Ephraim hath hired lovers — He alludes to the flagitiousness of adulteresses hiring men to have commerce with them, to which he compares Israel’s procuring foreign allies with great expense, and relying on them, and not on God, for succour and protection. And the reference may be, not only 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. It must be observed, “every forbidden alliance with idolaters was a part of the spiritual incontinence of the nation.” — Horsley.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:5-10 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Israel is swallowed up - Not only shall all which they have, be swallowed up by the enemy, but themselves also; and this, not at any distant time, but "now." "Now," at a time all but present, "they shall be among the Gentiles, as a vessel wherein is no pleasure," or, quite strictly, "Now they have become, among the Gentiles." He speaks of what should certainly be, as though it already were. "A vessel wherein is no pleasure," is what Paul calls "a vessel to dishonor" 2 Timothy 2:20, as opposed to "vessels to honor" or honorable uses. It is then some vessel put to vile uses, such as people turn away from with disgust. Such has been the history of the ten tribes ever since: "swallowed up," not destroyed; "among" the nations, yet not of them; despised and mingled among them, yet not united with them; having an existence, yet among that large whole, "the nations," in whom their national existence has been at once preserved and lost; everywhere had in dishonor; the Pagan and the Muslim have alike despised, outraged, insulted them; avenging upon them, unconsciously, the dishonor which they did to God. The Jews were treated by the Romans of old as offensive to the smell, and are so by the Muslims of North Africa still. "Never," says a writer of the fifth century , "has Israel been put to any honorable office, so as, after losing the marks of freedom and power, at least to have the rank of honorable servitude; but, like a vessel made for dishonorable offices, so they have been filled with revolting contumelies." "The most despised of those in servitude" was the title given by the Roman historian to the Jews, while yet in their own land.

Wealth, otherwise so coveted, for the most part has not exempted them from dishonor, but exposed them to outrage. individuals have risen to eminence in philosophy, medicine, finance; but the race has not gained through the credit of its members; rather, these have, for the most part, risen to reputation for intellect, amid the wreck of their own faith. When Hosea wrote this, two centuries had passed, since the fame of Solomon's wisdom (which still is venerated in the East) spread far and wide; Israel was hated and envied by its neighbors, not despised; no token of contempt yet attached to them; yet Hosea foretold that it should shortly be; and, for two thousand years, it has, in the main, been the characteristic of their nation.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. vessel wherein is no pleasure—(Ps 41:12; Jer 22:28; 48:38).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In the former verse the prophet foretells the lost labour of such pains and seed as Ephraim bestowed; now he addeth somewhat more dreadful, the harvest is ruin and destruction to the seedsman, he is swallowed up; and this is the effect of the whirlwind, Hosea 8:7: ordinarily whirlwinds scatter the fruit, but here is one swallows up both labour and labourer.

Swallowed up, very soon and irreparably, as a man that is swallowed alive by a mighty, overgrown shark.

Now; ere long, within three or four years at most, as I noted on Hosea 7:11.

Shall they be among the Gentiles; carried out of their own country by Shalmaneser, and dispersed at the pleasure of the conqueror into Chalah, Habor, &c.

As a vessel wherein is no pleasure; as worthless and useless, cast out of doors; or if of any use, yet in basest and most contemptible: so shall these captives be among the nations whom they must serve; or Israel, impoverished by chargeable confederates, is now looked upon with contempt by them all, and cast off.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Israel is swallowed up,.... Not only their substance, but their persons also, the whole nation of them, their whole estate, civil and ecclesiastic: it notes the utter destruction of them by the Assyrians, so that nothing of them and theirs remained; just as anyone is swallowed up and devoured by a breast of prey; the present is put for the future, because of the certainty of it:

now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure; when Shalmaneser took Samaria, and with it swallowed up the whole kingdom of Israel, he carried captive the inhabitants of it, and placed them among the nations, in "Halah, Habor, by the river Gozan", and in the cities of the Medes, 2 Kings 17:6; where they lived poor, mean, and abject, and were treated with the utmost neglect and contempt; no more regarded than a broken useless vessel, or than a vessel of dishonour, that is made and used for the ease of nature, for which no more regard is had than for that service: thus idolaters, who dishonour God by their idolatries, shall, sooner or later, be brought to disgrace and dishonour themselves.

Geneva Study Bible

Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. is swallowed up] i. e. is as good as swallowed up. Foreigners have already begun to absorb the precious morsel (cf. Hosea 7:8-9); complete destruction is only a question of time.

now shall they be …] Rather, now are they become among the nations, &c. Comp. Jeremiah 22:28; Jeremiah 48:38. ‘The coarse pottery of this country’, says Dr Thomson, ‘is so cheap that even poor people throw it aside in contempt, or dash it to pieces on the slightest occasion’ (The Land and the Book, p. 36). ‘Nations’ (as Hosea 8:10).

8–14. The judgment is already begun; Israel has drawn it upon himself, by dallying with Assyria, by religious abuses, and by a vain confidence in fortified cities.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - Israel is swallowed up. Not only shall the productions of their land be swallowed up, but the persons of the Israelites shall be consumed; nor is the event far off in the distant future, though the Hebrew commentators translate the past as prophetic future; already has the process beam. Such is the extension of the punishment. Now shall they be (rather, are then become) among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure. The prosperity, population, property, and even nationality, are swallowed up - engulfed as in some abyss, so as to be undiscoverable to the present time; while their reputation has suffered so sorely that they are despised as a worthless household vessel - a vessel unto dishonor, never of much worth, but now cast away as entirely unfit for use. Hosea 8:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

With this thought the still further threatening of judgment in the next strophe is introduced. Hosea 8:8. "Israel is swallowed up; now are they among the nations like a vessel, with which there is no satisfaction." The advance in the threat of punishment lies less in the extension of the thought, that not only the fruit of the field, but the whole nation, will be swallowed up by foes, than in the perfect נבלע, which indicates that the time of the ripening of the evil seeds has already begun (Jerome, Simson). עתּה היוּ, now already have they become among the nations like a despised vessel, which men cast away as useless (cf. Jeremiah 22:28; Jeremiah 48:38). This lot have they prepared for themselves.