Bible Synapse
Would Ephraim return to Egypt or not?
Hard question · Psalms, wisdom and the prophets · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
God will not accept Ephraim’s sacrifices but will punish their sins: “they shall return to Egypt”.
They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; but the Lord accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.
“They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.”
They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
God called his son out of Egypt; now “He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king”.
When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images. I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them. He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return.
The objection
Hosea twice says that Ephraim, the northern kingdom of Israel, “shall return to Egypt”. A few chapters later he says “He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king”. The prophet seems to contradict himself.
The answer
Hosea uses ‘Egypt’ in two ways, and each passage shows which it means. In 8:13 and 9:3, going back to Egypt is a picture of going back into slavery. God had redeemed Israel from Egypt, and Moses had warned that if they turned away, “the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again” and they would be sold as slaves (Deuteronomy 28:68). Hosea 9:3 shows how the figure works. “Ephraim shall return to Egypt” is matched in the same verse by “they shall eat unclean things in Assyria”, and Assyria was the real land of exile (2 Kings 17:6). Keil and Delitzsch read Egypt here as a type of the land of bondage.
In 11:5 Egypt is the actual country. It looks back to 11:1, where God “called my son out of Egypt”, and it is set against Assyria in the same sentence. Israel’s kings had been looking to Egypt for help against Assyria; Hosea likens Ephraim to a dove that calls to Egypt and goes to Assyria (7:11), and King Hoshea sent to the king of Egypt for help (2 Kings 17:4). The prophet’s answer is that Egypt would not be their refuge or their home; Assyria would be their master. So both are true. The nation would not literally go back to Egypt, but it would go into a slavery like Egypt’s, under Assyria. Some refugees may have fled to Egypt (9:6), but the people as a whole went to Assyria.
Other answers Christians give
A question: ‘Will they not return?’
Some translators read the Hebrew lo (‘not’) in 11:5 as introducing a question, as the Berean Standard Bible does: ‘Will they not return to the land of Egypt and be ruled by Assyria’. On this reading the verse agrees in form with 8:13 and 9:3. Keil and Delitzsch reject it, arguing that the emphatic ‘he’ (Assyria) shows a contrast.
The Septuagint
The Greek Septuagint takes the same Hebrew letters as lo, ‘to him’, and joins them to the end of verse 4, so that verse 5 begins ‘Ephraim dwelt in Egypt’. Most modern translations keep the Hebrew division of the verses.
Still open
Translators still differ on Hosea 11:5: some read a plain statement (KJV, WEB), others a question (BSB). On every reading the threat is the same: exile and bondage under Assyria.
From the classic commentators
The supposed contradiction is removed as soon as we observe that in Hosea 8:13 ; Hosea 9:3 , Hosea 9:6 , Egypt is a type of the land of bondage; whereas here the typical interpretation is precluded partly by the contrast to Asshur, and still more by the correspondence in which the words stand to Hosea 11:1 .Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, on Hosea 11