Christian Standard Bible
Hosea 8:9
9For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey going off on its own. Ephraim has paid for love.
Hosea 8:9 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.
- New International Version (NIV)For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has sold herself to lovers.
- English Standard Version (ESV)For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild donkey wandering alone; Ephraim has hired lovers.
- New King James Version (NKJV)For they have gone up to Assyria, Like a wild donkey alone by itself; Ephraim has hired lovers.
Context of Hosea 8:9
7Indeed, they sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if they did, foreigners would swallow it up. 8Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like discarded pottery. For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey going off on its own. Ephraim has paid for love. 10Even though they hire lovers among the nations, I will now round them up, and they will begin to decrease in number under the burden of the king and leaders. 11When Ephraim multiplied his altars for sin, they became his altars for sinning.
Read all of Hosea 8Hosea 8:9 word by word
כִּֽי־הֵ֙מָּה֙ עָל֣וּ אַשּׁ֔וּר פֶּ֖רֶא בּוֹדֵ֣ד ל֑וֹ אֶפְרַ֖יִם הִתְנ֥וּ אֲהָבִֽיםRead the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Hosea 8:9
- Hosea 5:13When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, Ephraim went to Assyria and sent a delegation to the great king. But he cannot cure you or heal your wound.
- Hosea 7:11So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove; they call to Egypt, and they go to Assyria.
- 2 Kings 15:19King Pul of Assyria invaded the land, so Menahem gave Pul seventy-five thousand pounds of silver so that Pul would support him to strengthen his grasp on the kingdom.
- Ezekiel 23:5“Oholah acted like a prostitute even though she was mine. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians: warriors
- Job 39:5Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from its harness?
- Jeremiah 2:24a wild donkey at home in the wilderness. She sniffs the wind in the heat of her desire. Who can control her passion? All who look for her will not become weary; they will find her in her mating season.
- Hosea 2:5Yes, their mother is promiscuous; she conceived them and acted shamefully. For she thought, “I will follow my lovers, the men who give me my food and water, my wool and flax, my oil and drink.”
- Hosea 12:1Ephraim chases the wind and pursues the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and violence. He makes a covenant with Assyria, and olive oil is carried to Egypt.
- Isaiah 30:6A pronouncement concerning the animals of the Negev: Through a land of trouble and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people who will not help them.
- Ezekiel 16:33Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from all around for your sexual favors.
Commentaries on Hosea 8:9
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 9They are gone up to Assyria - For succor. A wild ass alone by himself - Like that animal, jealous of its liberty, and suffering no rival. If we may credit Pliny and others, one male wild ass will keep a whole flock of females to himself, suffer no other to approach them, and even bite off the genitals of the colts, lest in process of time they should become his rivals. "Mares singuli faeminarum gregibus imperitant; timent libidinis aemulos, et ideo…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 9For they are gone up to Assyria - The ground of this their captivity is that wherein they placed their hope of safety. They shall be presently swallowed up; “for” they went to Asshur. The holy land being then honored by the spectral presence of God, all nations are said to “go up” to it. Now, since Israel forgetting God, their strength and their glory, went to the Assyrian for help, he is said to “go up” there, where he went as a suppliant. A wild donkey…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 5-10Verses 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…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 9like a wild donkey: Hosea compared Israel's worship of the Canaanite fertility gods to an animal eager to mate (see Jeremiah 2:23–24).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 99. gone ... to Assyria--referring to Menahem's application for Pul's aid in establishing him on the throne (compare Ho 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) B.C. Semiramis seems to have been Pul's wife, and to have withdrawn to Babylon in 768…Read the comment
Topics related to Hosea 8:9
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Hosea 8
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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