Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Hosea 8:9 - 8:9
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
gone ... to Assyria - referring to Menahem’s application for Pul’s aid in establishing him on the throne (compare Hos 5:13; Hos 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at Nineveh by that of Tiglath-pileser, about 768 (or 760) b.c. Semiramis seems to have been Pul’s wife, and to have withdrawn to Babylon in 768; and her son, Nabonassar, succeeding after a period of confusion, originated “the era of Nabonassar,” 747 b.c. [G. V. Smith]. Usually foreigners coming to Israel’s land were said to “go up”; here it is the reverse, to intimate Israel’s sunken state, and Assyria’s superiority.
wild ass - a figure of Israel’s headstrong perversity in following her own bent (Jer 2:24).
alone by himself - characteristic of Israel in all ages: “lo, the people shall dwell alone” (Num 23:9; compare Job 39:5-8).
hired lovers - reversing the ordinary way, namely, that lovers should hire her (Eze 16:33, Eze 16:34).