Oseas 7:11

Filipino Cebuano Bible

11 Ug ang Ephraim sama sa usa ka salampati nga buangbuang, walay salabutan: sila nagatawag panabang sa Egipto, apan nangadto sila sa Asiria.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

a silly: Hosea 11:11

without: Hosea 4:11, Proverbs 6:32, Proverbs 15:32, *marg. Proverbs 17:16

they call: Hosea 5:13, Hosea 8:8, Hosea 8:9, Hosea 9:3, Hosea 12:1, Hosea 14:3, 2 Kings 15:19, 2 Kings 17:3, 2 Kings 17:4, Isaiah 30:1-6, Isaiah 31:1-3, Jeremiah 2:18, Jeremiah 2:36, Ezekiel 23:4-8

Reciprocal: Job 5:2 - one Job 12:24 - He taketh Isaiah 30:4 - his princes Isaiah 57:9 - thou wentest to the king Jeremiah 5:21 - understanding Lamentations 5:6 - to the Egyptians Ezekiel 29:16 - the confidence

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Ephraim also is like a silly dove, without heart,.... Or understanding; which comes and picks up the corns of grain, which lie scattered about, and does not know that the net is spread for it; and when its young are taken away, it is unconcerned, and continues its nest in the same place still; and, when frightened, flees not to its dove house, where it would be safe, but flies about here and there, and so becomes a prey to others. Thus Ephraim, going to Egypt and Assyria for help, were ensnared by them, not having sense enough to perceive that this would be their ruin; and though they had heretofore suffered by them, yet still they continued to make their addresses to them; and instead of keeping close to the Lord, and to his worship and the place of it, and asking counsel and help of him they ran about and sought for it here and there:

they call to Egypt; that is, for help; as Hoshea king of Israel, when he sent messengers to So or Sabacon king of Egypt, for protection and assistance, 2 Kings 17:4. Such a foolish part, like the silly doves, did they act; since the Egyptians had been their implacable enemies, and their fathers had been in cruel bondage under them:

they go to Assyria; send gifts and presents, and pay tribute to the kings thereof, to make them easy; as Menahem did to Pul, and Hoshea to Shalmaneser, 2 Kings 15:19. Some understand this last clause, not of their sin in going to the Assyrian for help; but of their punishment in going or being carried captive thither; and so the Targum seems to interpret it,

"they go captive, or are carried captive, into Assyria.''

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ephraim is - (become) like a silly dove “There is nothing more simple than a dove,” says the Eastern proverb. Simplicity is good or bad, not in itself, but according to some other qualities of the soul, good or evil, with which it is united, to which it opens the mind, and which lead it to good or mislead it to evil. The word describes one, easily persuaded, open, and so, one who takes God’s word simply, obeys His will, without refinement or subtlety or explaining it away; in which way it is said, “The Lord preserveth the simple;” or, on the other hand, one who lets himself easily be led to evil, as the pagan said of youth, that they were “like wax to be bent to evil” Psalms 116:6. In this way, it is said, “How long, ye simple one, will ye love simplicity?” Proverbs 1:22. Our Lord uses this likeness of the dove, for good, “be wise as serpents, simple, or harmless as doves” Matthew 10:16. Hosea speaks of simplicity without wisdom, for he adds, “a silly dove without understanding,” (literally, “without a heart,”) whereby they should love God’s will, and so should understand it. Ephraim “became,” he says, like a silly dove. Neglecting God’s calls, unmoved by calamity or sufferings, and not “seeking” to God “for all this” which He has done to recall them, they grew in folly. Man is ever “growing in wisdom” or in folly, in grace or in gracelessness. This new stage of folly lay in their flying to Assyria, to help them, in fact, against God; as it follows,

They call to Egypt - Instead of “calling to” God who could and would help, they “called to Egypt” who could not, and “went to Assyria” who would not. So God complains by Isaiah, “To Me, thou hast not called, O Jacob” Isaiah 43:22. This was their folly; they called not to God, who had delivered them out of Egypt, but, alternately, to their two powerful neighbors, of whom Egypt was a delusive promiser, not failing only, but piercing, those who leant on it; Assyria was a powerful oppressor. Yet what else is almost the whole history of Christian states? The “balance of power,” which has been the pride of the later policy of Europe, which has been idolized as a god, to which statesmen have looked, as a deliverance out of all their troubles; as if it were a sort of divine providence, regulating the affairs of human beings, and dispensing with the interference of God; what is it but the self-same wisdom, which balanced Egypt against Assyria?

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Hosea 7:11. Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart — A bird that has little understanding; that is easily snared and taken; that is careless about its own young, and seems to live without any kind of thought. It has been made, by those who, like itself, are without heart, the symbol of conjugal affection. Nothing worse could have been chosen, for the dove and its mate are continually quarrelling.

They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria. — They strive to make these their allies and friends; but in this they showed that they were without heart, had not a sound understanding; for these were rival nations, and Israel could not attach itself to the one without incurring the jealousy and displeasure of the other. Thus, like the silly dove, they were constantly falling into snares; sometimes of the Egyptians, at others of the Assyrians. By the former they were betrayed; by the latter, ruined.