Hosea 8:8

8 Israel is swallowed up: now is he become among the nations like an unclean vessel.

Hosea 8:8 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 8:8

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.

Hosea 8:8 In-Context

6 For itself also is the invention of Israel: a workman made it, and it is no god: for the calf of Samaria shall be turned to spiders’ webs.
7 For they shall sow wind, and reap a whirlwind, there is no standing stalk in it, the bud shall yield no meal; and if it should yield, strangers shall eat it.
8 Israel is swallowed up: now is he become among the nations like an unclean vessel.
9 For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath given gifts to his lovers.
10 But even though they shall have hired the nations, now will I gather them together: and they shall rest a while from the burden of the king, and the princes.
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