For the third time the prophet reverts to the early history of Israel, and points out how Jehovah has proved his parental love, and how ill is the return which Israel has made for this love. Hosea 11:1-7 contain this melancholy historic retrospect and a fresh announcement of the penalty which a righteous father cannot withhold. Then the tone suddenly changes to one of promise (see below). The last verse of chap. 11 would be attached more fitly to chap. 12, of which it forms the first verse in the Hebrew Bible.

1. When Israel was a child] i. e., in the earliest stage of Israel’s national existence, which is here dated, not, as in Hosea 2:3, from the wanderings in the wilderness, but from the sojourn in Egypt. For the figure, see on ‘gray hairs’, Hosea 7:9.

called my son out of Egypt] ‘Called’ him, locally, into the land of Canaan, and morally, to set an example of true religion. Comp. Exodus 4:22, ‘Israel is my son, my firstborn; and I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me.’ The words are quoted in St Matthew (Hosea 2:15), who renders from the Hebrew, in connexion with the sojourn of the child Jesus in Egypt. Like the portraiture of the Servant of Jehovah in the second part of Isaiah, the description of Israel as Jehovah’s Son was held to be at least in part applicable to the one perfect Israelite. The national ideal never realized in the nation was realized in the Christ. The divine purpose so often baffled in the one was completed in the other.

2. As they called them, &c.] Or, The more they called them, &c. (comp. Hosea 4:7). Since Israel disobeyed the first call by Moses, prophets were sent to repeat the call, but their preaching only seemed to increase Israel’s obstinacy (comp. Isaiah 6:9-10; Jeremiah 7:25-26). What, then, was the good of prophecy? It kept up a church within the nation, and it developed ideas which bore fruit in due time.

unto Baalim, &c.] Rather, to the Baalim (see on Hosea 2:13) … to the graven images.

3. I taught Ephraim also to go] Rather, Whereas I taught Ephraim to go. A figure for the special providence watching over Ephraim. Not Judah, but Ephraim, is spoken of, for the kingdom of Israel embraced the fairer part of the territory, and was far stronger than that of Judah.

taking them by their arms] Rather, if we accept the Massoretic reading, ‘he took them up in his arms.’ There are however grave philological objections to this rendering, and we should probably, with most of the versions, correct the reading, and translate, I took them up in my arms. There is a beautiful climax in this part of the figure; not only did Jehovah train Israel to walk, but when he was tired, Jehovah carried him in his arms, comp. Isaiah 63:9; Deuteronomy 1:31, (Deuteronomy 32:11), and comp. a parallel passage in the Rig-Veda (x. 69, 10, Max Müller), ‘Thou barest him as a father bears his son in his lap.’

they knew not] i.e. they recognized not (as Hosea 1:3).

that I healed them] The same figure as in Hosea 5:13, Hosea 6:1, Hosea 7:1. Comp. Exodus 15:26, ‘for I am Jehovah thy healer.’

4. I drew them with cords of a man, &c.] A new image suggested by Hosea 10:11, and descriptive of the fatherly love of God. Not with the violence suited to an unruly heifer, but with the ‘cords of men’ (i. e. such as men can bear), did Jehovah win his people’s obedience. But the expression is strange.

that take off the yoke on their jaws] Rather, that lift up the yoke over their cheeks. Jehovah compares himself to a considerate master, who raises the yoke from the neck and cheeks of the animal, that it may eat its food more conveniently.

and I laid meat unto them] This version however is impossible. As the text stands, we can only render, either (altering one vowel-point), and I bent towards him and gave him food, or, and (dealing) gently with him I gave him food. Not of course to be interpreted literally; the figure beautifully describes the tender indulgence of Jehovah to his people.

5. He shall not return into the land of Egypt] This however is pointless; why should Egypt be mentioned except as the land of bondage? It is also inconsistent with the statements in Hosea 8:13, Hosea 9:3; Hosea 9:6, Hosea 11:11. Some think that lo (here rendered ‘not’, but also, when spelt differently, meaning ‘to him’) belongs properly to the end of the previous verse, though no tenable way of fitting it into the construction there has yet been proposed. Others would render in Hosea 11:5, ‘Shall he not return’? but this does not read naturally. At any rate, the sense required is, ‘He shall return into the land of Egypt.’ See note on Hosea 8:13.

to return] viz. to Jehovah.

6. And the sword, &c.] Rather, And the sword shall whirl about in his cities, and shall make an end of his defences (lit. his bars; comp. Jeremiah 51:30). The sword is personified as the symbol of war, as Ezekiel 14:17.

7. And my people, &c.] This verse gives the ground of the judgment; ‘and’ = ‘for’, ‘in fact.’ The reference to ‘backsliding’ (lit. turning, or turning about) should be taken in connexion with Hosea 14:4.

though they called, &c.] Rather, and if they are called (lit., if they, viz. the prophets, call him) upwards, not one striveth to rise. There is a complete moral apathy. A phraseological point of contact with Hosea 7:16.

8. deliver thee] Not in the sense of ὑπερασπιῶ of the Sept., but in that of Symmachus’ ἐκδώσω. Better, surrender thee.

Admah … Zeboim] Hosea, like the author of Deuteronomy 29:23, derives his knowledge of the overthrow of the ‘cities of the plain’ from a tradition independent of that in Genesis 19. For another instance of such independent knowledge, see Hosea 12:3-5.

my repentings are kindled together] Even this inaccurate rendering cannot quite conceal the fine intuition of the prophet. By partly humanizing God’s nature, he as it were divinizes man’s. Human sympathy is but a rill from the mighty stream of God’s tender mercy. A closer rendering would be, I am wholly overcome with sympathy. The Hebrew idiom however is different—‘my sympathies are wholly overcome.’ Almost the same phrase occurs in Genesis 43:20, ‘his compassions were overcome towards his brother.’ [The word rendered ‘are overcome’ (nik’meru) has the closest affinity with the Assyrian kamâru ‘to throw down’, referred to in the note on Hosea 10:5 in explanation of k’mârîm ‘(idolatrous) priests.’] In Jeremiah 15:6 a different but equally anthropomorphic expression is ascribed to Jehovah—‘I am weary of sympathizing.’

8–11. The prophet cannot believe in a final rejection of Israel (comp. Hosea 13:14). He speaks as if Jehovah had at first contemplated this. Evidently there was a conflict in his own mind between the ideas of justice and love. Justice seemed to demand that all relations between Jehovah and Israel should be broken off; love remonstrated with the assurance of its undecayed healing faculty (Hosea 14:4). Both justice and love were divine; hence it seemed that there must be a conflict even in the mind of Jehovah. Let us not however presume to deduce a ‘doctrine’ from Hosea’s description of his mental mood. His final intuition alone is his legacy to the Church; not the inward struggle out of which he triumphantly emerged.

9. I will not return, &c.] The strict rendering of the words is, ‘I will not again destroy Ephraim’; the sense however, is, I will not bring back Ephraim to nothing. He who moulded Ephraim into a nation will not busy himself with it again to its destruction. Comp. the same Hebrew idiom in Hosea 2:9.

for I am God, and not man] The perfection of the Divine nature does not, to Hosea, exclude the possession of something analogous to human feelings, but one thing it does forbid us to assume, viz. that an emotion of anger should divert Jehovah from the execution of his eternal purpose.

the Holy One in the midst of thee] It is the glory of Israel to have the Holy One specially in her midst. Whatever interferes with His supreme right of property in Israel, He must destroy, but He will not so chastise His chosen people as to extinguish it altogether. All that is left will be holy, as Jehovah is holy—devoted to Jehovah, as Jehovah is devoted to Israel. Of course, though Jehovah’s holiness has a special relation to Israel, this does not exclude a more general relation to the world outside. His manifestation is concentrated, but not confined, within His ‘peculiar people.’

I will not enter into the city] But this is pointless, for why should a visit from Jehovah be deprecated (comp. Exodus 20:24)? Hence many, adopting a different view of one word, render, I will not come in fury. This is, however, not free from objection, and a very slight emendation gives the very appropriate sense, I will not come to exterminate (parallel to ‘to destroy’).

10. They shall walk, &c.] Rather, They shall go after Jehovah, as after a lion that roareth; for he himself shall roar, and sons shall come hurrying from the west (lit. from the sea). ‘The west’ means the same as ‘the islands (or, coast-lands) of the sea’ in the latter part of Isaiah, except that Hosea’s knowledge of the coasts and islands of the western sea would be much vaguer than that of his fellow-prophet, if Isaiah 40-66 is as late a work as many moderns suppose. ‘Go after’ is a phrase for the dependent relation of a worshipper to his God; comp. Hosea 1:2; Jeremiah 7:9; 1 Samuel 7:2; Deuteronomy 1:36. For ‘shall roar’, comp. Joel 3:16; Amos 1:2; Amos 3:8; Jeremiah 25:30. Jehovah is compared to a lion calling the young lions; contrast the figure of the lion in Hosea 5:14, Hosea 13:7.

10, 11. Instead of introducing his description of Israel’s restoration by some phrase like, ‘When I heal Israel’ (Hosea 7:1), the prophet abruptly transports us in medias res. The return of the Israelites of the dispersion is singled out as one of the most characteristic features of the Messianic age (comp. Isaiah 11:11-12; Isaiah 27:13; Jeremiah 3:18; Zechariah 10:10). The lion’s roar takes the place of the ‘great trumpet’ in Isaiah 27:13.

11. tremble as a bird … as a dove] ‘Tremble’ is the literal rendering, but the context shows that a thrill of eagerness doubling the speed of motion is what is meant (comp. Ovid’s ‘pennâ trepidante’). Render therefore, come hurriedly, and continue, as sparrows … as doves. Doves were very early known in both Egypt and Assyria. Elsewhere (Hosea 7:11) Hosea compares the Israelites to doves for their folly. [For the rendering ‘come hurriedly’ comp. the Syriac r’hab which combines the meanings of haste and trembling.]

place them] Rather, cause them to dwell.

12. The Septuagint, and after it the English Version, mistook the blame of the second half of this verse for praise, and hence attached the verse to chap. 11. Properly, however, it belongs to chap. 12, of which it is the first verse in the Hebrew Bible. Jehovah is the speaker. Israel’s sins of treason and deceit are so numerous that his God is as it were surrounded by them, and can see nothing else; nor has Judah shown any more deference to the repeated warnings of the prophet.

but Judah yet ruleth, &c.] Rather, and Judah is yet wayward towards God, and towards the faithful Holy One. ‘Yet’, because Hosea’s earlier prophecies record the long continuance of Judah’s backsliding (Hosea 5:10, Hosea 6:4; Hosea 6:11, Hosea 8:14). The word rendered ‘wayward’ has the root-meaning of roving unrestrained, as when an animal has broken loose. Hence Jeremiah 2:31, ‘Wherefore say my people, We rove at large; we will come no more unto thee.’ ‘The Holy One’ has in the Hebrew the plural termination, as in Proverbs 9:10; it seems formed on the model of Elohim, ‘(the) divinity’, lit. ‘(the) divinities.’ We might express the force of the plural by rendering ‘the All-Holy One’, or (as margin) ‘the Most Holy.’ The Septuagint (partly followed by the Peshito) renders, νῦν ἔγνω αὐτοὺς ὁ θεὸς, καὶ ὁ λαὸς ἅγιος κεκλήσεται θεοῦ. But dubious as our Hebrew text may be, it gives a more suitable sense than that of the Septuagint.