Charles Spurgeon

Afterward, the people of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king.

“THE whole verse runs thus: "Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days." A brief word may suffice upon the prophecy.”

So let us know—let us press on to know the LORD. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the rain, like the…

“I MUST first remove the moldy piece from the text, and that is the word, "if," which has no sort of business here whatever.”

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes.

“VERY simple is the way of salvation—very plain is the road home. The chapter begins with it—"Come, and let us return unto the Lord." By going away from the Lord we have lost our privileges, have become wounded and have lost ourselves.”

Though I wrote for them the great things of My law, they regarded them as something strange.

“This is God’s complaint against Ephraim. It is no mean proof of his goodness, that he stoops to rebuke his erring creatures; it is a great argument of his gracious disposition, that he bows his head to notice terrestrial affairs.”

Their hearts are devious; now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will break down their altars and demolish their sacred pillars.

“THIS passage may be taken as referring to the people of Israel as a nation, and it is not less applicable to the church of God.”

Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of loving devotion; break up your unplowed ground.

“HOSEA uses a great many figures taken from farming. He describe the seeking of the Lord in the former part of this verse as plowing, and sowing, and breaking up fallow ground.”

I will not execute the full fury of My anger; I will not turn back to destroy Ephraim.

“THE Lord, speaking of Himself as, "God, and not man," mentions as the special point in which He is above and beyond man, that He has greater Grace, greater long-suffering, and greater willingness to forgive—"I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God…”

I spoke through the prophets and multiplied their visions; I gave parables through the prophets.

“WHEN THE LORD would win his people Israel from their iniquities, he did not leave a stone unturned, but gave them precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little.”

You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against Me—against your helper.

“IT would be a very important subject for our meditation if we kept to the text and thought upon its great Truth of God—that the ruin of man is altogether of himself and the salvation of man is altogether of God.”

I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from Death. Where, O Death, are your plagues? Where, O Sheol, is your sting?

“This verse stands in the midst of a long line of threats. Like a rock of mercy, it rises in the midst of a sea of wrath. Hence many critics have felt bound to see in it a continuation of threat.”

Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity. Bring your confessions and return to the LORD.

“We are in the last chapter of the book of the Prophet Hosea. Throughout the book there has been thunder— sometimes a low rumbling, as of a distant tempest—sometimes peal on peal, as of a storm immediately overhead.”

Assyria will not save us, nor will we ride on horses. We will never again say, ‘Our gods!’ to the work of our own hands.

“THE Lord God of Israel, the one only living and true God, has this for a special mark of His Character, that in Him the fatherless finds mercy. "A Father of the fatherless, and a Judge of the widows, is God in His holy habitation."”

I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for My anger has turned away from them.

“THIS SENTENCE IS A BODY of divinity in miniature. He who understands its meaning is a theologian, and he who can dive into its fullness is a true Master in divinity.”

O Ephraim, what have I to do anymore with idols? It is I who answer and watch over him. I am like a flourishing cypress; your fruit comes from Me.

“THE text has a double significance. It may indicate the fruit upon which we feed, or the fruit which we are enabled to produce. If it shall mean the first, there is mach of comfort in it.”

O Ephraim, what have I to do anymore with idols? It is I who answer and watch over him. I am like a flourishing cypress; your fruit comes from Me.

“THIS passage is in very vivid contrast to what Ephraim had previously said, as it is recorded in the early part of Ho-sea's prophecy.”