The Mystery of Ephraim

Right at the start of the first verse, the message is directed at the “iniquity of Ephraim” and the “wickedness of Samaria.” Ephraim is referred collectively as leader of the northern ten tribes; and elsewhere Ephraim and Manasseh has been established as the United States and the United Kingdom.

And eventually Ephraim will be caught in a snare: “My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in My [not China’s nor Russia’s] snare; and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there,” Ezekiel 12:13.

“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20; “In later days you will understand it fully.”

More on (1) Ephraim / The United States; (2) Ephraim and Manasseh

Hosea 7

¹ “When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered, and the wickedness of Samaria. For they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers despoileth without. — troop of robbers despoileth from outside their borders; by a gang of robbers in the streets, or on the highway: so the Targum says: “in the night they thieve in houses, and in the day they rob on the plain.”

— the wordings of “the iniquity of Ephraim” and “the wickedness of Samaria” are written as if they are like the attraction of the north and south poles; or Siamese twins, or as intimate as hand in glove; that is, the wickedness of Samaria is intrinsically linked with the iniquity of Ephraim!

— when I would have healed Israel; this is hypothetical and prophetic; but the thief came in; as after returning from the Babylonian captivity, when the Lord attempted to remove their corruption, then the wickedness of Samaria was discovered, when Sanballat attempted to corrupt by offering his help in building the Temple in Jerusalem; failing which, he went on to built a rival temple on Mount Gerizim;

— Tobiah, an Ammonite and an ally of Sanballet, a Samaritan, was allowed to infiltrarte and influenced Eliashib the Jewish high priest to pollute God’s Sanctuary in Jerusalem, Nehemiah 13:4; hence not only the Temple was desecrated, but their teachings, too;

— their sabbaths which is Sundays, where the original keepers were the Samaritans, brought from Assyria, had infiltrated modern Israel: “And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof,” II Kings 17:24;

— today more than 98.5 percent of Christians are worshipping the Sun by observing Sunday, worshipping on a pagan sabbath. They have “their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the SUN toward the east; whose Godly judgement is to be stoned to death (Deuteronomy 17:3-5) – ’till they die (for more, see the Samaritans at the end).

² And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own doings have beset them about; they are before My face. — God remember all their wickedness; this is the root of “all their wickedness.” They would not stop to say to themselves that God not only saw, but “remembered their wickedness” and not only this but that he remembered them all.

— they are before my face; so the Targum says, “which are revealed before me;” manifesting “all their wickedness” in God’s sight, but this they did not know, and therefore they went on in their bold and daring manner as they did.

³ They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies. — but what about the kings? kings in the plural, meaning the succession of the kings of Israel from Jeroboam; who were highly delighted with their priests in offering sacrifice to the calves;

— by which they hoped to secure the kingdom of Israel to themselves, and prevent the people going to Jerusalem to worship: it made them glad to the heart to hear them say that God was as well pleased with sacrifices offered at Dan and Bethel;

— modern version of Prince Mike Pompeo freely admitted those lies about the CIA: We lied, We cheated, We stole. Lying, that is, deception both in word and deed towards God and man, theft and highway robbery that are openly committed and have no fear of the vengeance of God.

⁴ They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened. — they are all adulterers; kings, princes, priests and people, both in a spiritual and corporeal sense; they were all idolaters, given to idols;

— the Targum says, “they all desire to lie with their neighbours’ wives;” Jeremiah 5:7. So after passion has once been gratified, it smoulders on for a time, but is afterwards kindled to a greater heat than before when some attractive object comes within its range.

⁵ In the day of our king, the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners. — the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine: that is, the courtiers, the swarms of Washington DC, who attended at court on such a day to compliment their king upon his inauguration, or his birthday to drink to his health in large glasses from big bottles of good wine; making him sick or drunk;

— after becoming drunk, he stretched out his hand with scorners; scoffed at righteous men, denying there was a God, or spoke very indecently and irreverently of him.

⁶ For they have made ready their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait; their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire. — whiles they lie in wait; their king, prince and scorners being heated with wine and their lust enraged, were ready for any chance of adultery, lying in wait for any young interns to appear to debauch them;

— or for rebellion and treason against their king, and even the murder of him, made drunk by them, whom they now despised, and waited for an opportunity to dispatch him.

⁷ They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen; there is none among them that calleth unto Me. — and have devoured their judges; that stood in the way of making impartial judgements, but instead, subject themselves to politics;

— and there is none among these kings or judges that calleth upon biblical principles.

⁸ “Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned. — Ephraim is a cake not turned, like a pancake burned on the lower side, while the upper side is not yet done; the entire cake is then not fit for food; just a pretender, neither a heathen idolater nor a true worshipper of God.

⁹ Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not; yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not. — signs of senility are upon him; yet he knoweth not, being blind to all evidences of the inevitable end.

¹⁰ And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face; and they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek Him for all this. — “If we have to use force, it is because we are America; we are the indispensable nation. We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future, and we see the danger here to all of us.” Madeleine Albright saw US as an ‘indispensable nation.’

— their pride [of Israel] testifieth to his face: “Only the United States [that is, not God’s] had the power to guarantee global security: without our presence or support, multilateral endeavors would fail.” ~ this phase, or with small variation, used by numerous American politicians.

¹¹ “Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart; they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria. — silly dove; birds were captured with nets spread on the ground, in traps and snares; in this powerful metaphor, no creature is less able to defend itself than the dove, which flies from the bird of prey to the net of the fowler;

— and according to the Targum; but will fall by its flying right into the net of the bird-catcher, without suspecting or observing it in its search for food;

¹² When they shall go, I will spread My net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard. — though they fly on high, soar aloft, God will spread my net upon them; as fowlers spread the net, watch the birds, and cast it over them to catch them, so will God do to Ephraim;

— God will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard; what was written in the law, and in the prophets, if they did not observe the laws and statutes of the Lord their God, but neglected and broke them, see Leviticus 26:1,14-39.

¹³ Woe unto them, for they have fled from Me! Destruction unto them, because they have transgressed against Me! Though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against Me. — yet they have spoken lies against me; cast off my law and government, spoke against his being and providence, or pretending repentance for their sins, when they were hypocrites, or setting up idols in opposition to him.

¹⁴ And they have not cried unto Me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds; they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against Me. — when they howled upon their beds; lying sick or wounded there; or, as some, in their idol temples, those beds of falsehood and deceits, where they pretended to worship God in his churches, and to pray to him through them; but such idolatrous prayers were no better than the howlings of wolves at night.

¹⁵ Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they contrive evil against Me. — here we have another instance of God’s goodness and Israel’s ingratitude; devising mischief against him.

¹⁶ They return, but not to the Most High; they are like a deceitful bow. Their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue; this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. — like a deceitful bow; religious observance has the appearance of a bow with the arrow on the string, apparently aimed at some object, but the string being slack, the aim is diverted;

— the word rendered “rage” is used as of the wrath of God elsewhere; but here, of the “wrath” and “foaming” of man against God; thus their tongue was raging like a “sharp sword” against God. They misled the people; taught them to trust in science and security, not in God; persuaded them to believe in themselves, and to disbelieve God; to believe, that the enemy should depart from them and nothing would carry them away as captives.

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The Samaritans, whose heretic teachings were later adopted by the Sadducees and the Boethusians in the NT time. And today, such teaching are clinging to the Churches of God communities like shit stuck to a shovel. They just couldn’t shake it off!

The Samaritans are adversaries to the returning Jews because of (a) difference in defining what time at ben ha’arbayim when the Pascha lamb should be killed: the Jewish definition of ben ha’arbayim “between the two evenings” is “after noon and until nightfall,” whereas the Samaritans is sunset or dusk; (b) when is omer, which translated to English is rendered “wave sheaf” offering to be made: the Jews definition has it on the annual Sabbath after Pascha, whereas the Samaritans has it the day after the weekly Sabbath during the days of unleavened bread;

— (c) after counting seven weeks after the omer, on what day Shavuot is to be kept: the Jews have it on Sivan 6th, whereas the Samaritans always have it on a weekly Sabbath; (d) the three annual feasts are to be kept in Jerusalem, whereas the Samaritans have their feasts on Mount Gerizim, which they consider a sacred mountain; and (e) once in roughly three years, the Samaritan calendar starts one month later than the Jewish calendar.

Here is what Wikipedia says about the Samaritans: “There has been a history of genetic disorders within the group due to the small gene pool,” such as high incidence of austisics and cripples within their community but of course they manage to deflect from mentioning the truth of God’s curses upon those who show hostilities to the rebuilding of the house of God in Jerusalem.

Hosea 8

¹ “Set the trumpet to thy mouth! He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed My covenant, and trespassed against My law. — “Set the trumpet to thy mouth,” as the Targum says, “O prophet, cry with thy throat as with a trumpet, saying;” called upon to blow his trumpet bidding them a warning concerning the approach of judgement.

— or as God bids the prophet Isaiah, “Cry aloud, spare not, llft up thy voice like a trumpet” Isaiah 58:1. As watchman, the prophets were set by God to give warnings of his coming judgements.

² Israel shall cry unto Me, ‘My God, we know Thee!’ — “they shall cry unto me” these transgressors of the covenant and the law, these hypocrites, shall only pray to God in trouble, saying, “my God, we Israel” or Israelites, “know thee” and to this sense is the Targum, “in every time that distress comes upon them, they pray before me, and say, now we know that we have no God besides thee; redeem us, for we are thy people Israel.”

³ Israel hath cast off the thing that is good; the enemy shall pursue him. — in the past, the “enemy shall pursue him” was from the North, the Assyrian; but in the future, the enemy shall come from the South: see A Sword from the South!

— the Targum says, “the house of Israel have erred from my worship, for the sake of which I brought good things upon them; henceforward the enemy shall pursue them.”

⁴ They have set up kings, but not by Me; they have made princes, and I knew it not. Of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off. — they have set up kings, but not by me; not by his authority, order and command; not by asking advice from him, but of themselves: starting with the case of Jeroboam their first king;

— but the United States is a democracy, hence selection of its kings are not from God, but by and from wealthy campaign contributors influencing their electorates in their selection for their kings [read presidents] and princes [read governors, senators, congressmen, etc]; and is not from God.

⁵ “Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off; Mine anger is kindled against them. How long will it be ere they attain to innocency? — the subject in question (verses 2 &3) is still Israel, yet God address Israel as “thy calf, O Samaria”

— hath cast thee off; or is the cause of thy being cast off by the Lord, and of being cast out of thine own land, and carried captive into another; the past tense is used for the future, as is common in prophetic writings;

— according to Samaritan tradition, key parts of the Jewish text were fabricated by Ezra. ‘Samaritan and Islamic scholars, as well as several of the Church Fathers, argue that Ezra falsified the Bible when he rewrote it and that the Torah we have now could not be the same as the one that Moses dictated; (Wiki: Samaritans).^[t]

— God’s anger is kindled against Israel, but for how long? this could be for 190 years, for more, see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years.

⁶ For from Israel was it also: the workman made it, therefore it is not God; but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces. — as stated before, the wickedness of Samaria or “the calf of Samaria” is intrinically linked with the iniquity of Ephraim!

— but the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces; or the calf of Ephraim being the reason it could not be God’s; this surely be broken to pieces by the enemy, from whom it could not save itself.

⁷ For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. It hath no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal. If so it shall yield, the strangers shall swallow it up. — for they (Samaria and Ephraim) have sown the wind; their idolatry sun worship, which spread throughout the world like a whirlwind!

— for their idolatry and continuance in it, the whirlwind of God’s wrath would be raised up against them, thus another “Assyrian army” like a storm of wind would rush in and destroy them; so they that sow, shall reap;

— if so it shall yield, the strangers shall swallow it up; the Targum says, “if they got substance, the nations shall spoil them of it.”

⁸ “Israel is swallowed up; now shall they be among the nations as a vessel wherein is no pleasure. — when Shalmaneser took Ephraim from Samaria, he carried them as captives and placed them among the nations in the cities of the Medes, II Kings 17:6; where they lived poor and abject, and were treated with the utmost neglect and contempt; no better than a vassal state.

⁹ For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself; Ephraim hath hired lovers. — “Ephraim hath hired lovers;” as head of Nato, the United States had incorporated many Central and Eastern European countries as “allies and confederates, patrons and defenders” right up to the Russian bounder into her alliance;

— and is trying to extend this alliance into the Asia-Pacific, but eventually she will be caught in a snare: “My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in my [not China’s nor Russia’s] snare; and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there” Ezekiel 12:13; and shall dwell in captivity like a wild ass.

¹⁰ Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes. — yea, though they have hired; namely, allies; that is, allies among the nations; now will God gather them and will bring those very allies against their kings and princes.

— as the Targum says, “but of the gathering of them together for their destruction.” Or the Ephraimites shall be gathered together to be led away in chains and dispersed among the nations;

¹¹ “Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin. — God had appointed only “one” altar at Jerusalem, any altar in Ephraim, from Dan to Bethel, and in all high places and tops of mountains, are an abomination; they had many high places and erected altars in all of them;

— the Targum says, “seeing the house of Ephraim hath multiplied altars to sin, the altars of their idols shall he to them for a stumbling block.”

¹² I have written to him the great things of My law, but they were counted as a strange thing. — God have written to Ephraim the great things of his Law, literally, God presented to him the goodness of his laws and statutes; his true Sabbaths and true festivals;

— Great things; for their importance, weighty; for their excellency, precious; and for multitude of precepts, counsels, and directions, sufficient; my law had all this in it for their conduct in all righteousness towards God and man;

— the many precepts by which the Israelites might fulfill his will and be blessed; but they were counted as a strange thing; as though they did not concern them, dismissing or condemning them as “ceremonial” laws or as “the ancient Mosaic law.”

— replacing it with a “covenant of grace” so as to get rid of the law, statutes, ordinances; and any thoughts about the Sabbaths.

¹³ They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of Mine offerings, and eat it; but the Lord accepteth them not. Now will He remember their iniquity and visit their sins; they shall return to Egypt. — they have sacrificed the choicest sacrifices, and have eaten flesh: yet Yehovah taketh no delight in them.

— they shall return to Egypt, once more be delivered into captivity of extreme misery, where they suffered for 210 years in bondage; but another one is coming, cut short to 190 years.

¹⁴ For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fortified cities. But I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.” — God himself has allowed only one Temple, and it should be in Jerusalem, but today there are many Latter-days Counterfeit Temples!

— but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof; that is, from “an enemy” that will set fire to their national icons, palaces, castles or towers, particularly New York, Paris, London, Jerusalem, their chief cities;

— and palaces of their king and nobles, and all the fine houses of their great men; as were destroyed by fires in the past by Shalmaneser the king of the Assyria; and 135 years later, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Jeremiah 52:13.

~ by Joel Huan on December 7, 2022.

Posted in Minor Prophets