to overflow (specifically with oil.) · verb, hithpael imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
people
בָּעַמִּ֖יםba.'a.Mim
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
Ephraim
אֶפְרַ֛יִם'ef.Ra.yim
H669
Ephrajim · proper noun, a man's name
cake
עֻגָ֖ה'u.Gah
H5692
an ash-cake (as round) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
turned
הֲפוּכָֽהha.fu.Khah
H2015
to turn about or over · verb, qal passive participle, feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 106:35 But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.
Ezra 9:12 Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for…
Nehemiah 13:23-25 In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab:
Ezra 9:1 Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated…
Malachi 2:11 Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD…
1 Kings 18:21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then foll…
Hosea 5:7 They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions.
Hosea 5:13 When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Hosea 7:8–end
Having seen how vicious and corrupt the court was, we now come to enquire how it is with the country, and we find that to be no better; and no marvel if the distemper that has so seized the head affect the whole body, so that there is no soundness in it; the iniquity of Ephraim is discovered, as well as the sin of Samaria, of the people as well as the princes, of which here are divers instances.
I. They were not peculiar and entire for God, as they should have been, Hos 7:8. 1. They did not distinguish themselves from the heathen, as God had distinguished them: Ephraim, he has mingled himself among the people, has associated with them, and conformed himself to them, and has in a manner confo…
mixed . . . among the people--by leagues with idolaters, and the adoption of their idolatrous practices (Hos 7:9, Hos 7:11; Psa 106:35).
Ephraim . . . cake not turned--a cake burnt on one side and unbaked on the other, and so uneatable; an image of the worthlessness of Ephraim. The Easterners bake their bread on the ground, covering it with embers (Kg1 19:6), and turning it every ten minutes, to bake it thoroughly without burning it.
Adam Clarke on Hosea 7:8
A cake not turned - In the East having heated the hearth, they sweep one corner, put the cake upon it, and cover it with embers; in a short time they turn it, cover it again, and continue this several times, till they find it sufficiently baked. All travelers into Asiatic countries have noted this.
John Gill on Hosea 7:8
Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people,.... Either locally, by dwelling among them, as some of them at least might do among the Syrians; or carnally, by intermarrying with them, contrary to the command of God; or civilly, by entering into alliances and confederacies with them, as Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel did with Rezin king of Syria, Isaiah 7:2; or by seeking to them for help, calling to Egypt, and going to Assyria, as in Hosea 7:11; so Aben Ezra; or morally, by learning their manners, and conforming to their customs, especially in religious things: though some understand this as a punishment threatened them for their above sins, that they should be carried captive i…
The Church Fathers
The kingdom of the ten tribes has become like any other nation because they went away from the Lord. And he [Ephraim] is like a bread beneath the ashes that is not turned, that is, he does not repent.
"Ephraim mingled himself with the people. Ephraim is become as bread baked under the ashes, that is not turned." LXX: "Ephraim was mingled with his own people: Ephraim is become as ashes, which is not returned." The kingdom of ten tribes has been made, like all nations, because they have departed from the Lord: and like ashes of bread, which does not return, that is, does not do penance. But when Ephraim ought to teach the people so as to lead them to another way of thinking and draw them to himself as an example, he mixes with the people and becomes like them, according to what was said above: "He will be like the people, so will the priest." Whether Ephraim mixes with the people and nations, so that all heretics differ in nothing from the error of the Gentiles. And he who was once a leader in the Church becomes a worthless heap of ashes, completely filthy with ashes on every side and surrounded by the fire of sins, so that he does not return to the Lord, but remains in the beginning of error.
Ephraim is a cake under the ashes not turned. For a cake under the ashes, that hath ashes upon it, lays the cleaner side flat to the ground, and has the upper side the fouler, in proportion as it carries the ashes upon it. And so with the mind that harbours earthly thoughts, what else does it carry upon itself but a load of ashes? But if it will be 'turned,' the clean surface, which it had kept downwards, it brings back to the top, when it has shaken off the ashes that it had upon it. If therefore we shake off from the mind the ashes of earthly thoughts, as it were we 'turn the cake under the ashes,' that that bent of our mind may henceforth go to the rear, which the ashes of grovelling thought before overlaid, and the clean face come to the top, that our right bent of mind may not henceforth be surcharged with the weight of earthly desire. Which we can never do, except we be bedewed with the grace of the Holy Spirit, in that when Almighty God 'sendeth out the waters, they will overturn the earth.'
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Dough — (batsek, meaning “swelling,” i.e., in fermentation). The dough the Israelites had prepared for baking was carried away by them out of Egypt in their kneading-troughs (Ex. 12:34, 39). In the process…
Company · EVIL — EVIL
Cooking · Ephraim, a — Ephraim, a
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Hosea 7:8
8. Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned. [42]
8. Ephraim inter populos ipse miscuitse: Ephraim fuit panis subciniricius, qui versus non est.
God now complains, that Ephraim, whom he had chosen to be a peculiar possession to himself, differed nothing from other nations. The children of Abraham, we know, had been adopted by God for this end, that they might not be like the heathens: for the calling of God brings holiness with it. And we ought to remember that memorable sentence, which often occurs, Be ye holy, for I am holy.' The Israelites then ought to have been mindful of their calling, and to resolve to worship God purely, and not to po…
In the next strophe (Hos 7:8-16) the prophecy passes from the internal corruption of the kingdom of the ten tribes to its worthless foreign policy, and the injurious attitude which it had assumed towards the heathen nations, and unfolds the disastrous consequences of such connections. Hos 7:8. "Ephraim, it mixes itself among the nations; Ephraim has become a cake not turned. Hos 7:9. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not; grey hair is also sprinkled upon him, and he knoweth it not." יתבּולל, from בּלל, to mix or commingle, is not a future in the sense of "it will be dispersed among the Gentiles;" for, according to the context, the reference is not to the punishment of t…
Israel ignored the Lord in their international politics as well as in their domestic policies. Like silly, witless doves, they had flown in a frenzy between Assyria and Egypt, the major powers of their day, vainly trying to make treaties and alliances that would save their land.
7:8 The people of Israel mingle with godless foreigners: By relying upon foreign nations rather than God for security, the Israelites were no longer a pure, holy nation, set apart for the Lord. • Flatbread must be turned over at the proper time to ensure that it is baked on both sides rather than burned on one side and raw on the other. Israel was a half-baked cake and was therefore worthless.
Rashi on Hosea 7:8
mingles He will mingle in exile with the nations.
as a cake which was not turned over Jonathan renders: as a cake which, before being turned over, was consumed. עֻגָה is a cake which they bake on the coals.
