Hoseachapter 14
9 verses · BSBHosea book hub →
Speaks with:Job 34×2Joel 2×1Hosea 6×1Hosea 12×1Hebrews 13×1Psalms 51×1
Summary
Chapter summary
The book closes with the shortest road home and the most beautiful. 'O Israel, return unto Jehovah thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words', and the words are given: take away all iniquity, Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses, we will call no more the work of our hands our gods, 'for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.' God's answer is pure grace: 'I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely… I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall blossom as the lily.' Ephraim renounces idols at last; the final verse asks who is wise enough to understand these things.
Context
Prophecy · Hosea — Hosea overview
- A. 1–3 Take words with you and return to the LORD
- B. 4–8 I will heal their backsliding and be as the dew to Israel
- C. 9 Who is wise? The ways of the LORD are right
The outline
A.Take words with you and return to the LORDvv. 1 to 3
Read vv. 1 to 3 →B.I will heal their backsliding and be as the dew to Israelvv. 4 to 8
Read vv. 4 to 8 →C.Who is wise? The ways of the LORD are rightv. 9
Read v. 9 →
The world behind this chapter
Hosea 14The history
Take with you words is a striking instruction in a culture where you never approached a superior empty-handed. A petitioner brought a gift; a worshipper brought an animal. Here the prophet writes out the sentences to bring instead, and then says: we will offer the bulls of our lips.
The two things renounced are the two things Israel had actually trusted. Assyria was the great-power alliance, and horses meant Egypt, which was the region's supplier of cavalry and chariot teams. Giving up both meant giving up every military option a small state had.
The promises are a catalogue of the country's best plant life, and each carries its own point. Dew is the moisture that keeps growth going through the rainless summer. The lily blooms fast and beautifully but has no root, so the cedars of Lebanon are added for depth. The olive tree keeps its leaves through drought and lives for centuries. The vine is the crop that means settled peace, and the cypress is evergreen.
The closing line steps outside the sermon and addresses the reader directly: whoever is wise, let him understand these things. That kind of ending belongs to Israel's wisdom writing, and it signals that the book is meant to be studied, not just heard once.
What it meant to them
For a nation whose worship had been a transaction with a rain god, the promise that God would be the dew and that Israel's fruit would come from him settles the argument the whole book has been having. The harvest was never something you bought.
The words put in their mouths matter as much as the promise. Say to him: take away all iniquity, receive us graciously, in you the fatherless finds mercy. Israel is told to come home admitting it is an orphan — which is the one thing a nation that had been so proud of its ancestry would never have said on its own.
Sources cited
- Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: The Minor Prophets
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Hosea 14. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.