It shall be also carried unto Assyria [for] a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.
Ver. 6. It shall be also carried unto Assyria, &c.] As no small part of the spoil, shall this Deafter be carried captive; being so far unable to save others, that he cannot save himself.
For a present to king Jareb] See Hosea 3:1,3, in signum omnimodae victoriae; so Aeneas (Aeneid. 1),
“ Ilium in Italiam portat, victosque penates, ”
though in another sense; yet they must needs be poor despicable deities that fall into the enemies' hands, see Isaiah 46:2. The ark indeed fell into the Philistines' hands; but the ark was not God's, but only a sign of his presence, which God suffered so to be taken for a punishment to his people, and for a plague to his enemies, whom he "smote in the hinder parts, and so put them to a perpetual reproach," Psalms 78:66 .
Ephraim shall receive shame] Because they hoped and harped upon better things, Job 6:20. O pray, with David, that our hopes be not disappointed; that they make us not ashamed, as Paul speaketh, Romans 5:5; that they prove not as the spider's web, curiously framed, but to catch flies only; or as the child's hope, who catcheth at the shadow on the wall which he thinks he holds fast, or at the butterfly, which if he catch, he hath no such great catch of.
And Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsels] Of their impolitic plots and practices, in dividing themselves from David's house, and setting up unwarranted worships, calling in foreign helps, &c. Their own counsels have cast them down, Job 18:7, because they were acted by false principles, and aimed at their own corrupt ends. They took counsel, but not of God; and covered with a covering, but not of his Spirit, that they might add sin to sin, Isaiah 30:1. They made not the word the man of their counsel, as David did, Psalms 119:24, neither prayed they as he, Psalms 73:24, Guide me, Lord, with thy counsel, and so bring me to glory. In a word, they perished by their own counsels, Hosea 11:6, whereby they provoked God, and so were brought low by their iniquity, Psalms 106:48, and then they were ashamed of their own counsel, they saw themselves befooled by their carnal reason, and by that which they call reason of state, which indeed is treason, unless it be seasoned with justice and religion.