The Meaning of Hosea 7:8 Explained

Hosea 7:8

KJV: Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

YLT: Ephraim! among peoples he mixeth himself, Ephraim hath been a cake unturned.

Darby: Ephraim, he mixeth himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

ASV: Ephraim, he mixeth himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Ephraim,  he hath mixed  himself among the people;  Ephraim  is a cake  not turned. 

What does Hosea 7:8 Mean?

Verse Meaning

Ephraim had mixed itself with the pagan nations like unleavened dough mixed with leaven. She had done this by making alliances with neighbor nations as well as by importing heathen customs and pagan gods into Israel.
"Hoshea"s lurching foreign policy is illustrative. In732 B.C, Hoshea, after killing Pekah, suddenly shifted from alliance with Egypt, Philistia, and Aram-Damascus to alliance with Assyria. A few years later he broke that alliance, and coming virtually full circle, again sought alliance with Egypt. These confused policies are caricatured in the figurative sense of "mixed up."" [1]
Ephraim had become like all the other nations rather than distinctive, as Yahweh intended ( Exodus 19:6). To use another figure, Ephraim was similar to a pancake that the cook had not turned over, all burnt and black on one side and soggy and runny on the other. In other words, she was only half-baked, worthless, not what God intended or what could nourish others. She was crusty toward Yahweh but soft toward other nations.

Context Summary

Hosea 7:1-16 - Iniquity Uncovered
The last clause of the previous chapter belongs to this. God desired to turn aside the captivity of His people and to heal Israel, but His pleading was unavailing because of their inveterate sin. This evil-doing witnessed against them, Hosea 7:2. Their passions did not need incitement, just as an oven retains its heat without the baker's continued attention. The royal birthday was celebrated with drunken orgies, and the national religion had become a confused mixture of Gentile superstition and the old Hebrew faith. In this Israel resembled a cake not turned-crisp on one side, sour and uneatable on the other, Hosea 7:8.
What a searching suggestion comes in Hosea 7:9! Can it be that strangers have been stealing away our strength, without our realizing that deterioration is creeping steadily through our religious life? Silently the frosty air steals the warmth from boiling water; silently the fungus pitches its tent in the autumn woods; silently old age fastens on the stalwart frame. Thus also our spiritual strength declines, unless we watch and pray; and when it ebbs away, we become foolish as the dove which flies straight into the snare, and useless as the deceitful bow which turns aside in the archer's hand, Hosea 7:11; Hosea 7:16. [source]

Chapter Summary: Hosea 7

1  A reproof of manifold sins
11  God's wrath against them for their hypocrisy

What do the individual words in Hosea 7:8 mean?

Ephraim among the peoples he has mixed Ephraim is a cake not unturned
אֶפְרַ֕יִם בָּעַמִּ֖ים ה֣וּא יִתְבּוֹלָ֑ל אֶפְרַ֛יִם הָיָ֥ה עֻגָ֖ה בְּלִ֥י הֲפוּכָֽה

אֶפְרַ֕יִם  Ephraim 
Parse: Proper Noun, masculine singular
Root: אֶפְרַיִם  
Sense: second son of Joseph, blessed by him and given preference over first son, Manasseh.
בָּעַמִּ֖ים  among  the  peoples 
Parse: Preposition-b, Article, Noun, masculine plural
Root: עַם 
Sense: nation, people.
יִתְבּוֹלָ֑ל  has  mixed 
Parse: Verb, Hitpael, Imperfect, third person masculine singular
Root: בָּלַל 
Sense: to mix, mingle, confuse, confound.
אֶפְרַ֛יִם  Ephraim 
Parse: Proper Noun, masculine singular
Root: אֶפְרַיִם  
Sense: second son of Joseph, blessed by him and given preference over first son, Manasseh.
עֻגָ֖ה  a  cake 
Parse: Noun, feminine singular
Root: עֻגָה  
Sense: disc or cake (of bread).
הֲפוּכָֽה  unturned 
Parse: Verb, Qal, QalPassParticiple, feminine singular
Root: הָפַךְ  
Sense: to turn, overthrow, overturn.