Matthew Henry on Hosea 8:8–end
It was the honour and happiness of Israel that they had but one God to trust to and he all-sufficient in every strait, and but one God to serve, and he well worthy of all their devotions. But it was their sin, and folly, and shame, that they knew not when they were well off, that they forsook their own mercies for lying vanities; for,
I. They multiplied their alliances (Hos 8:9): They have hired lovers, or (as the margin reads it) they have hired loves. They were at great expense to purchase the friendship of the nations about them, that otherwise had no value nor affection at all for them, nor cared for having any thing to do with them but only upon the Shechemites' principles - Shall not t…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Hosea 8:10
will I gather them--namely, the nations (Assyria, &c.) against Israel, instead of their assisting her as she had wished (Eze 16:37).
a little--rather, "in a little" [HENDERSON]. English Version gives good sense: They shall sorrow "a little" at the imposition of the tribute; God suspended yet the great judgment, namely, their deportation by Assyria.
the burden of the king of princes--the tribute imposed on Israel (under Menahem) by the Assyrian king Pul, (Kg2 15:19-22), who had many "princes" under his sway (Isa 10:8).
Adam Clarke on Hosea 8:10
For the burden of the king of princes - The exactions of the Assyrian king, and the princes of the provinces.
John Gill on Hosea 8:10
Yea, though they have hired among the nations,.... That is, lovers, as before; got into confederacies and alliances with the nations about them, thinking thereby to strengthen their hands, and secure themselves and their kingdom; particular regard may be had to the Egyptians, as distinct from the Assyrians, whom they privately engaged on their side to shake off the Assyrian yoke, or their obligation to send yearly presents to the Assyrian king:
now will I gather them; either the Assyrians against them, to invade their land, besiege their city, and take and carry them captive; or the Israelites in a body into the city of Samaria, and there be cooped up, and taken and destroyed, or carried ca…
