When Ephraim saw his sickness, And Judah his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria, And sent to king Jareb: But he is not able to heal you, Neither will he cure you of your wound.
Before leaving this, we should not overlook the point, that it was not only useless, but wrong, for God's people to seek relief from any other source except their God. In that light, it could not possibly make any difference who "king Jareb" was.  In fact, Dummelow thought that "king Jareb" was an expression Hosea coined to show the absurdity of their going to such a source.[31]