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Good News Translation

Hosea 7:11

Israel flits around like a silly pigeon; first her people call on Egypt for help, and then they run to Assyria!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Blindness;   Confidence;   False Confidence;   Thompson Chain Reference - Childishness;   Simple, the;   Wisdom-Folly;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Assyria;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Doves;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Treaty;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Dove;   Heart;   Hosea;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Covenant;   Hosea;   Net;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Hosea, Book of;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Dove;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Dove (turtle);   Israel;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Dove;   Heart;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Dove;   Hosea;   Hoshea;   Treaty;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Oholah;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove;they call to Egypt, and they go to Assyria.
Hebrew Names Version
"Efrayim is like an easily deceived dove, without understanding. They call to Mitzrayim. They go to Ashshur.
King James Version
Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
English Standard Version
Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.
New American Standard Bible
So Ephraim has become like a gullible dove, without sense; They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
New Century Version
Israel has become like a pigeon— easy to fool and stupid. First they call to Egypt for help. Then they run to Assyria.
Amplified Bible
Ephraim also is like a silly dove, without heart or good sense; They call to Egypt [for help], they go to Assyria.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Ephraim also is like a doue deceiued, without heart: they call to Egypt: they go to Asshur.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
So Ephraim has become like a silly dove, without sense; They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
Legacy Standard Bible
So Ephraim has become like a silly dove, without a heart of wisdom;They call to Egypt; they go to Assyria.
Berean Standard Bible
So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove-calling out to Egypt, then turning to Assyria.
Contemporary English Version
The Lord said: Israel is a senseless bird, fluttering back and forth between Egypt and Assyria.
Complete Jewish Bible
Efrayim behaves like a silly, foolish dove — going to Egypt, then to Ashur for help.
Darby Translation
And Ephraim is become like a silly dove without understanding: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
Easy-to-Read Version
So Ephraim has become like a silly dove without understanding. The people called to Egypt for help. They went to Assyria for help.
George Lamsa Translation
Ephraim also is like a young dove without understanding; they have come to Egypt, they are gone to Assyria.
Lexham English Bible
Ephraim was like a dove, silly, without sense; they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
Literal Translation
Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart; they call to Egypt; they go to Assyria.
American Standard Version
And Ephraim is like a silly dove, without understanding: they call unto Egypt, they go to Assyria.
Bible in Basic English
And Ephraim is like a foolish dove, without wisdom; they send out their cry to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And Ephraim is become like a silly dove, without understanding; they call unto Egypt, they go to Assyria.
King James Version (1611)
Ephraim also is like a silly doue, without heart: they call to Egypt; they goe to Assyria.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Ephraim is like a doue that is begyled and hath no heart: nowe call they vpon the Egyptians, now go they to the Assyrians.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And Ephraim was as a silly dove, not having a heart: he called to Egypt, and they went to the Assyrians.
English Revised Version
And Ephraim is like a silly dove, without understanding: they call unto Egypt, they go to Assyria.
World English Bible
"Ephraim is like an easily deceived dove, without understanding. They call to Egypt. They go to Assyria.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Effraym was maad as a culuer disseyued, not hauynge herte. Thei clepiden Egipt to help, thei yeden to Assiriens.
Update Bible Version
And Ephraim is like a silly dove, without understanding: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
Webster's Bible Translation
Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
New English Translation
Ephraim has been like a dove, easily deceived and lacking discernment. They called to Egypt for help; they turned to Assyria for protection.
New King James Version
"Ephraim also is like a silly dove, without sense-- They call to Egypt, They go to Assyria.
New Living Translation
"The people of Israel have become like silly, witless doves, first calling to Egypt, then flying to Assyria for help.
New Life Bible
Ephraim is like a foolish dove that is not able to think. They call to Egypt. They go to Assyria.
New Revised Standard
Ephraim has become like a dove, silly and without sense; they call upon Egypt, they go to Assyria.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
So then, Ephraim, hath become, like a simple dove, having no understanding, on Egypt, have they called, to Assyria, have they gone,
Douay-Rheims Bible
And Ephraim is become as a dove that is decoyed, not having a heart: they called upon Egypt, they went to the Assyrians.
Revised Standard Version
E'phraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.
Young's Literal Translation
And Ephraim is as a simple dove without heart, Egypt they called on -- [to] Asshur they have gone.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Ephraim is like a doue, that is begyled, and hath no herte. Now call they vpon the Egipcians, now go they to the Assirians:
THE MESSAGE
"Ephraim is bird-brained, mindless, clueless, First chirping after Egypt, then fluttering after Assyria. I'll throw my net over them. I'll clip their wings. I'll teach them to mind me! Doom! They've run away from home. Now they're really in trouble! They've defied me. And I'm supposed to help them while they feed me a line of lies? Instead of crying out to me in heartfelt prayer, they whoop it up in bed with their whores, Gash themselves bloody in their sex-and-religion orgies, but turn their backs on me. I'm the one who gave them good minds and healthy bodies, and how am I repaid? With evil scheming! They turn, but not to me— turn here, then there, like a weather vane. Their rulers will be cut down, murdered— just deserts for their mocking blasphemies. And the final sentence? Ridicule in the court of world opinion."

Contextual Overview

8 The Lord says, "The people of Israel are like a half-baked loaf of bread. They rely on the nations around them 9 and do not realize that this reliance on foreigners has robbed them of their strength. Their days are numbered, but they don't even know it. 10 The arrogance of the people of Israel cries out against them. In spite of everything that has happened, they have not returned to me, the Lord their God. 11 Israel flits around like a silly pigeon; first her people call on Egypt for help, and then they run to Assyria! 12 But I will spread out a net and catch them like birds as they go by. I will punish them for the evil they have done. 13 "They are doomed! They have left me and rebelled against me. They will be destroyed. I wanted to save them, but their worship of me was false. 14 They have not prayed to me sincerely, but instead they throw themselves down and wail as the heathen do. When they pray for grain and wine, they gash themselves like pagans. What rebels they are! 15 Even though I was the one who brought them up and made them strong, they plotted against me. 16 They keep on turning away from me to a god that is powerless. They are as unreliable as a crooked bow. Because their leaders talk arrogantly, they will die a violent death, and the Egyptians will laugh."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

a silly: Hosea 11:11

without: Hosea 4:11, Proverbs 6:32, Proverbs 15:32, *marg. Proverbs 17:16

they call: Hosea 5:13, Hosea 8:8, Hosea 8:9, Hosea 9:3, Hosea 12:1, Hosea 14:3, 2 Kings 15:19, 2 Kings 17:3, 2 Kings 17:4, Isaiah 30:1-6, Isaiah 31:1-3, Jeremiah 2:18, Jeremiah 2:36, Ezekiel 23:4-8

Reciprocal: Job 5:2 - one Job 12:24 - He taketh Isaiah 30:4 - his princes Isaiah 57:9 - thou wentest to the king Jeremiah 5:21 - understanding Lamentations 5:6 - to the Egyptians Ezekiel 29:16 - the confidence

Cross-References

Genesis 6:17
I am going to send a flood on the earth to destroy every living being. Everything on the earth will die,
Genesis 7:5
And Noah did everything that the Lord commanded.
Genesis 7:6
Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came on the earth.
Genesis 7:8
A male and a female of every kind of animal and bird, whether ritually clean or unclean,
Genesis 7:11
When Noah was six hundred years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month all the outlets of the vast body of water beneath the earth burst open, all the floodgates of the sky were opened,
Genesis 7:23
The Lord destroyed all living beings on the earth—human beings, animals, and birds. The only ones left were Noah and those who were with him in the boat.
Genesis 7:24
The water did not start going down for a hundred and fifty days.
2 Kings 7:2
The personal attendant of the king said to Elisha, "That can't happen—not even if the Lord himself were to send grain at once!" "You will see it happen, but you won't get to eat any of the food," Elisha replied.
2 Kings 7:19
to which the officer had answered, "That can't happen—not even if the Lord himself were to send grain at once!" And Elisha had replied, "You will see it happen, but you won't get to eat any of the food."
Job 28:4
Far from where anyone lives Or human feet ever travel, They dig the shafts of mines. There they work in loneliness, Clinging to ropes in the pits.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Ephraim also is like a silly dove, without heart,.... Or understanding; which comes and picks up the corns of grain, which lie scattered about, and does not know that the net is spread for it; and when its young are taken away, it is unconcerned, and continues its nest in the same place still; and, when frightened, flees not to its dove house, where it would be safe, but flies about here and there, and so becomes a prey to others. Thus Ephraim, going to Egypt and Assyria for help, were ensnared by them, not having sense enough to perceive that this would be their ruin; and though they had heretofore suffered by them, yet still they continued to make their addresses to them; and instead of keeping close to the Lord, and to his worship and the place of it, and asking counsel and help of him they ran about and sought for it here and there:

they call to Egypt; that is, for help; as Hoshea king of Israel, when he sent messengers to So or Sabacon king of Egypt, for protection and assistance, 2 Kings 17:4. Such a foolish part, like the silly doves, did they act; since the Egyptians had been their implacable enemies, and their fathers had been in cruel bondage under them:

they go to Assyria; send gifts and presents, and pay tribute to the kings thereof, to make them easy; as Menahem did to Pul, and Hoshea to Shalmaneser, 2 Kings 15:19. Some understand this last clause, not of their sin in going to the Assyrian for help; but of their punishment in going or being carried captive thither; and so the Targum seems to interpret it,

"they go captive, or are carried captive, into Assyria.''

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ephraim is - (become) like a silly dove “There is nothing more simple than a dove,” says the Eastern proverb. Simplicity is good or bad, not in itself, but according to some other qualities of the soul, good or evil, with which it is united, to which it opens the mind, and which lead it to good or mislead it to evil. The word describes one, easily persuaded, open, and so, one who takes God’s word simply, obeys His will, without refinement or subtlety or explaining it away; in which way it is said, “The Lord preserveth the simple;” or, on the other hand, one who lets himself easily be led to evil, as the pagan said of youth, that they were “like wax to be bent to evil” Psalms 116:6. In this way, it is said, “How long, ye simple one, will ye love simplicity?” Proverbs 1:22. Our Lord uses this likeness of the dove, for good, “be wise as serpents, simple, or harmless as doves” Matthew 10:16. Hosea speaks of simplicity without wisdom, for he adds, “a silly dove without understanding,” (literally, “without a heart,”) whereby they should love God’s will, and so should understand it. Ephraim “became,” he says, like a silly dove. Neglecting God’s calls, unmoved by calamity or sufferings, and not “seeking” to God “for all this” which He has done to recall them, they grew in folly. Man is ever “growing in wisdom” or in folly, in grace or in gracelessness. This new stage of folly lay in their flying to Assyria, to help them, in fact, against God; as it follows,

They call to Egypt - Instead of “calling to” God who could and would help, they “called to Egypt” who could not, and “went to Assyria” who would not. So God complains by Isaiah, “To Me, thou hast not called, O Jacob” Isaiah 43:22. This was their folly; they called not to God, who had delivered them out of Egypt, but, alternately, to their two powerful neighbors, of whom Egypt was a delusive promiser, not failing only, but piercing, those who leant on it; Assyria was a powerful oppressor. Yet what else is almost the whole history of Christian states? The “balance of power,” which has been the pride of the later policy of Europe, which has been idolized as a god, to which statesmen have looked, as a deliverance out of all their troubles; as if it were a sort of divine providence, regulating the affairs of human beings, and dispensing with the interference of God; what is it but the self-same wisdom, which balanced Egypt against Assyria?

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Hosea 7:11. Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart — A bird that has little understanding; that is easily snared and taken; that is careless about its own young, and seems to live without any kind of thought. It has been made, by those who, like itself, are without heart, the symbol of conjugal affection. Nothing worse could have been chosen, for the dove and its mate are continually quarrelling.

They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria. — They strive to make these their allies and friends; but in this they showed that they were without heart, had not a sound understanding; for these were rival nations, and Israel could not attach itself to the one without incurring the jealousy and displeasure of the other. Thus, like the silly dove, they were constantly falling into snares; sometimes of the Egyptians, at others of the Assyrians. By the former they were betrayed; by the latter, ruined.


 
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