Hosea 7:8 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Among the people; Ephraim is a cake, &c.— Among the heathen, &c. This similitude of Ephraim to a cake, is accommodated to the Hebrew word בלל balal, rendered mixed, and which properly signifies the ingredients wherewith cakes are made, that they may be baked covered over with ashes and embers. Ephraim is said to mix himself with the heathen, partly because he worshipped their gods, and partly because he called in their aid, and made covenants with them. We have in the Observations an account from Rauwolf, of the manner in which the cakes here spoken of were made, and which is the best comment on these words of the prophet. Speaking of his entertainment in the tent of a Curter, on the other side the Euphrates, he says, "The woman was not idle, but brought us milk and eggs to eat, so that we wanted for nothing: she made also some dough for cakes, which were about a finger thick, and about the bigness of a trencher; as is usual to do in the wildernesses, and sometimes, in towns also. She laid them on hot stones; and kept turning them, and at length she threw the ashes and embers over them, and so baked them thoroughly. They were very good to eat, and very savoury." When Ephraim is said to be a cake not turned, it must mean "baked on one side;" that is to say, serving God by halves, and halting between his service and the worship of idols. See Observations, p. 135.