Albert Barnes Commentary Hosea 7:8

"Ephraim, he mixeth himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned." — Hosea 7:8 (ASV)

Ephraim, he has mixed himself among the people – that is, with the pagans; he “mixed” or “mingled” himself among or with them, so as to corrupt himself, as it is said, they were mingled among the pagan and learned their works (Psalms 106:35). God had forbidden all intermarriage with the pagans (Exodus 34:12–16), so that His people would not corrupt themselves: they thought themselves wiser than He, intermarried, and were corrupted. Such are the ways of those who put themselves among occasions of sin.

Ephraim is – (literally, “has become”) a cake (literally, “on the coals”) not turned. The prophet continues the image. “Ephraim” had been “mingled,” steeped, kneaded up into one, as it were, “with the pagans,” their ways, their idolatries, their vices. God would amend them, and they, withholding themselves from His discipline, and not yielding themselves wholly to it, were merely spoiled. The sort of cake, to which Ephraim is here likened, “uggah” (literally, “circular”), was a thin pancake, to which a scorching heat was applied on one side; sometimes by means of hot charcoal heaped upon it; sometimes, (it is thought,) the fire was within the earthen jar, around which the thin dough was fitted. If it remained long “unturned,” it was burned on the one side, while it continued unbaked, doughy, steaming, on the other; the fire spoiling, not penetrating it through. Such were the people; such are too many so-called Christians. They united in themselves hypocrisy and ungodliness, outward performance and inward lukewarmness; the one overdone, but without any wholesome effect on the other.

The one was scorched and black; the other, steamed, damp, and lukewarm; the whole worthless, spoiled irremediably, fit only to be cast away. The fire of God’s judgment, with which the people should have been amended, made only an outward impression upon them, and did not reach within or bring about any thorough change, so that they were the more hopelessly spoiled through the means which God used for their amendment.