How do oven, unturned bread and dove images describe Ephraim?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Hidden iniquity and royal wickedness accompany unrecognized decline and appeals abroad.

Chapter breakdown

When the Lord would heal Israel, Ephraim's iniquity and Samaria's wickedness are exposed: falsehood, a thief entering and a robber outside. Their own devices surround them and have been done before his face. Wickedness makes the king glad and lies please princes; the edition relates this to idol worship undertaken to please Jeroboam and other kings.

All are adulterers, like a baker's heated oven; the city rests briefly after mixing leaven until all is leavened. On the king's day the princes grow mad with wine and he extends a hand to scorners. Hearts are applied like an oven as snares are laid; night sleep and morning flame complete the image. Heated like an oven, they devour their judges; all their kings fall, and none calls on God. Ephraim mixes among nations like bread baked under ashes without turning. Strangers consume his strength unnoticed; gray hairs spread without recognition. Israel's pride will be humbled, but they have neither returned to nor sought God.

Ephraim is a decoyed dove without a heart, calling Egypt and going to Assyria. God will spread a net and bring them down like birds, striking as their congregation has heard. They depart and transgress despite redemption, speaking lies against him. They howl in beds and think of wheat and wine rather than cry from their hearts. Although chastised and strengthened, they imagine evil. They return to be without a yoke and become like a deceitful bow; princes will fall by the sword for their tongues' rage and be derided in Egypt. Specific palace coups, hot stones, a burnt-and-raw cake and private diplomatic panic are not narrated.

The story inside

The edition relates royal pleasure to Jeroboam’s idol worship. Bread is baked under ashes and left unturned. The people howl for wheat and wine rather than cry from their hearts.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The edition relates royal pleasure to Jeroboam’s idol worship.
2
Bread is baked under ashes and left unturned.
3
The people howl for wheat and wine rather than cry from their hearts.

Test your recall

Which two foreign powers does Ephraim approach?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 99625–99634
7:1. When I would have healed Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria, for they have committed falsehood, and the thief is come in to steal, the robber is without. 7:2. And lest they may say in their hearts, that I remember all their wickedness: their own devices now have beset them about, they have been done before my face. 7:3. They have made the king glad with their wickedness: and the princes with their lies.
Lines 99636–99638
Made the king glad, etc.... To please Jeroboam, and their other kings they have given themselves up to the wicked worship of idols, which are mere falsehood and lies.
Lines 99640–99653
7:4. They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker: the city rested a little from the mingling of the leaven, till the whole was leavened. 7:5. The day of our king, the princes began to be mad with wine: he stretched out his hand with scorners. 7:6. Because they have applied their heart like an oven, when he laid snares for them: he slept all the night baking them, in the morning he himself was heated as a flaming fire. 7:7. They were all heated like an oven, and have devoured their judges: all their kings have fallen: there is none amongst them that calleth unto me.
Lines 99655–99663
7:8. Ephraim himself is mixed among the nations: Ephraim is become as bread baked under the ashes, that is not turned. 7:9. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knew it not: yea, grey hairs also are spread about upon him, and he is ignorant of it. 7:10. And the pride of Israel shall be humbled before his face: and they have not returned to the Lord their God, nor have they sought him in all these.
Lines 99665–99674
7:11. And Ephraim is become as a dove that is decoyed, not having a heart: they called upon Egypt, they went to the Assyrians. 7:12. And when they shall go, I will spread my net upon them: I will bring them down as the fowl of the air, I will strike them as their congregation hath heard. 7:13. Woe to them, for they have departed from me: they shall be wasted because they have transgressed against me: and I redeemed them: and they have spoken lies against me.
Lines 99676–99685
7:14. And they have not cried to me with their heart, but they howled in their beds: they have thought upon wheat and wine, they are departed from me. 7:15. And I have chastised them, and strengthened their arms: and they have imagined evil against me. 7:16. They returned, that they might be without yoke: they became like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword, for the rage of their tongue. This is their derision in the land of Egypt.