King James Version
Hosea 14
9 verses with commentary
A Plea to Return to the Lord
O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
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KJV Study Commentary
O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Opening plea: return to God. Cause: fallen by iniquity. The Hebrew shub (return) means repent, turn back. Acknowledging that iniquity caused the fall is crucial first step. True repentance recognizes sin as cause of problems, not circumstances or others. Lamentations 5:16 confesses: Woe unto us, that we have sinned. On...
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XIV.
(1) **Thy.**—Tenderness and inextinguishable love are suggested by the use of the pronoun. “Repentance (say the Rabbis) presses right up to the Eternal Throne.”
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
19. The union effected at the restoration from Babylon embraced but comparatively few of Israel; a future complete fulfilment must therefore be looked for.
**stick of Joseph ... in the hand of Ephraim--**Ephraim, of the descendants of Joseph, had exercised the rule among the ten tribes: that rule, symbolized by the "stick," was now to be withdrawn from him, and to be made one with the other, Jud...
Read full commentary →Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips. receive: or, give good
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KJV Study Commentary
Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips. Instructions for repentance: take words (prayer/confession), ask God to remove iniquity and receive graciously, offer praise (calves of lips) instead of animal sacrifices. Hebrews 13:15 applies this: sacrifice of praise, fruit of our lips giving than...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(2) **Say unto him.—**This putting of words into the lips of penitents and others is found in Psalm 66:3; Isaiah 48:20; Jeremiah 31:7. In the latter part of the verse render, *Accept of good, and we will render as calves* (or sacrificial offering) *our lips*—*i.e.,* the words of true repentance which we take with us shall be our offerings in place of calves. (Comp. Psalm 51:17.)
Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.
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KJV Study Commentary
Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. Comprehensive renunciation: no trusting Assyria (foreign alliances), no trusting horses (military power), no trusting handmade idols. Positive declaration: in thee fatherless finds mercy. This demonstrates true repentance - turnin...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3) The three crying sins of Israel are here recounted: (1) Expected salvation from Assyria; (2) dependence on the world-power of Egypt, famed for war-horses and chariots; (3) ascription of Divine names and homage to wrought images of the Divine glory. God’s paternal love to the orphan, peculiarly applicable to Israel now, cast on a cold and fatherless world.
God's Promise of Healing
I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>I will heal their backsliding</strong> (אֶרְפָּא מְשׁוּבָתָם)—The verb רָפָא (rapha, heal) treats Israel's apostasy (מְשׁוּבָה, meshuvah—turning away) as a disease requiring divine cure. Only God can heal chronic unfaithfulness; Israel cannot self-reform. <strong>I will love them freely</strong> (אֹהֲבֵם נְדָבָה)—נְדָבָה (nedavah) means voluntary, spontaneous, uncoerced—a freewill offering...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(4) **Heal . . . Love.**—If the foregoing be the offering of penitent lips, then the majestic reply of Jehovah is full of superlative grace.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**22. one nation--**(Is 11:13; Jr 3:18; Ho 1:11).
**one king--**not Zerubbabel, who was not a king either in fact or name, and who ruled over but a few Jews, and that only for a few years; whereas the King here reigns for ever. Messiah is meant (Eze 34:23, 24). The union of Judah and Israel under King Messiah symbolizes the union of Jews and Gentiles under Him, partly now, perfectly hereafter (E...
Read full commentary →I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. grow: or, blossom cast: Heb. strike
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KJV Study Commentary
I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. God promises to be like dew - gentle, refreshing, life-giving moisture. Result: Israel grows like lily (beauty, rapid growth) and sends roots like Lebanon cedars (depth, stability). This reverses earlier judgment imagery (becoming like morning dew that vanishes, 13:3). Now God is dew bringing life. On...
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(5, 6) **As the Dew.**—For this imagery see Psalm 130:3. Properly it is “a copious mist, shedding small invisible rain, that comes in rich abundance every night in the hot weather, when west or north-west winds blow, and which brings intense refreshment to all organised life” (Neil’s *Palestine Explored,* p. 136). The lily, which carpets the fields of Palestine (Matthew 6:29), has slender roots, w...
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23. (Eze 36:25).
**out of ... their dwelling-places--**(Eze 36:28, 33). I will remove them from the scene of their idolatries to dwell in their own land, and to serve idols no more.
His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. spread: Heb. go
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KJV Study Commentary
His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. Continuing growth imagery: spreading branches (expansive influence), beauty like olive (fruitfulness, oil for anointing/light), fragrance like Lebanon cedars (pleasing, attractive). This describes comprehensive restoration - extent, beauty, appeal. Christ produces this in believers: spreading gospel inf...
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**24. David--**Messiah (See on Eze 34:23, 24).
They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. grow: or, blossom scent: or, memorial
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KJV Study Commentary
They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Those dwelling under God's shadow (protection) will revive - like grain sprouting, vine growing, wine fermenting. Shadow represents protective presence. Revival means renewed life after death-like state. Agricultural imagery promises comprehensive r...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) It would be more in accordance with the Hebrew idiom to render, *The dwellers under its shadow shall once more cause the corn to grow.* The word translated “scent” (margin, “memorial”) should be *renown.* The form of these promises is derived from the external signs of national prosperity. (Comp. Hosea 12:10.) But corn and wine are throughout the Scriptures the great symbols of spiritual refre...
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**25. for ever--**(Is 60:21; Joe 3:20; Am 9:15).
Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.
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KJV Study Commentary
Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found. Ephraim's confession: finished with idols. God responds: I have heard and observed you. God's self-description: green fir tree (evergreen, always fruitful). Declaration: from me is thy fruit. This teaches source of fruitfulness - not self-effort but ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(8) It would be better to adopt the slightly different reading indicated by the rendering of the LXX., and translate, *As for Ephraim, what has he to do with, &c.* Here again, as in Hosea 13:15, the Hebrew for “thy fruit” contains a play on the name Ephraim. *I* (says Jehovah) *am to thee an evergreen tree of life and protection, and from me is thy fruit found.*
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**26. covenant of peace--**better than the old legal covenant, because an unchangeable covenant of grace (Eze 34:25; Is 55:3; Jr 32:40).
**I will place them--**set them in an established position; no longer unsettled as heretofore.
**my sanctuary--**the temple of God; spiritual in the heart of all true followers of Messiah (2Co 6:16); and, in some literal sense, in the restored Israel (Eze 40:...
Read full commentary →Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Who is wise, and he shall understand these things?</strong> (מִי חָכָם וְיָבֵן אֵלֶּה)—Wisdom literature conclusion (cf. Psalm 107:43). <strong>Prudent</strong> (נָבוֹן, navon) means discerning, insightful. True wisdom grasps God's covenant purposes revealed in Hosea's marriage, Israel's adultery, and promised restoration. <strong>The ways of the LORD are right</strong> (יַשְׁרִים דַּרְכֵי...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(9) **Who is wise.**—Hosea hands his words over to all students of the ways of God. The exhortation to wisdom is expressed in the form of a question. “Wisdom” and “wise men” take in the later Hebrew literature the place of “prophecy” and “prophets.” Wisdom interprets both the word and its fulfilment. Christ’s own teaching goes beyond wisdom and prudence (Matthew 11:28; comp. 1Corinthians 1:20): it...
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**27. My tabernacle ... with them--**as foretold (Ge 9:27); Joh 1:14, "The Word ... dwelt among us" (literally, "tabernacled"); first, in humiliation; hereafter, in manifested glory (Re 21:3).