Israel will be Taken Captive to
Assyria
"They shall not dwell in the LORD's land, But Ephraim shall return to Egypt, And shall eat unclean things in Assyria." Hosea 9:3
COMMENTARY - HOSEA 9:3
3. return to Egypt--(See on Hosea 8:13). As in Hosea 11:5 it is
said, "He shall not return into . . . Egypt." FAIRBAIRN thinks it is not the
exact country that is meant, but the bondage state with which, from past
experience, Egypt was identified in their minds. Assyria was to be a second
Egypt to them. De 28:68, though threatening a return to Egypt, speaks (De 28:36)
of their being brought to a nation which neither they nor their fathers had
known, showing that it is not the literal Egypt, but a second Egypt-like bondage
that is threatened.
eat unclean things in Assyria--reduced by necessity to eat meats pronounced
unclean by the Mosaic law (Eze 4:13). See 2Ki 17:6. JFB
View Section - Hosea 8-9