Hosea 11:8
in Hosea 11How could I give you up, O Ephraim? How could I surrender you, O Israel? How could I make you like Admah? How could I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within Me; My compassion is stirred!
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I cast thee off, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboiim? my heart is turned within me, my compassions are kindled together.
KJV
How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.
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This verse in Hosea 11
Commentary
9 notes on this verseHow shall I give thee up - See the notes on Hos 6:4, where we have similar words from similar feeling. Mine heart is turned within me - Justice demands thy punishment; Mercy pleads for thy life. As thou changest, Justice resolves to destroy, or Mercy to save. My heart is oppressed, and I am weary with repenting - with so frequently changing my purpose. All this, though spoken after the manner of men, shows how merciful, compassionate, and loath to punish the God of heaven is.
This site's exposition
How shall I give thee up, Ephraim
on Hosea 11:8-9
How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? is the emotional summit of the book, the Lord naming Admah and Zeboim, the two lesser cities destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah (Deut 29:23), as the fate Ephraim deserves and then recoiling from pronouncing it, mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger does not cancel the judgment already announced in the chapters around it but restrains it from becoming annihilation, for I am God, and not man grounding the restraint in the difference between divine and human anger, the Holy One who will not simply cast off what he has loved.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city."
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
Give thee up - To utter destruction. Admah and Zeboim were two of the four cities which were destroyed with fire from heaven. My repentings - Not that God is ever fluctuating or unresolved; but these are expressions after the manner of men, to shew what severity Israel had deserved, and yet how divine grace would be glorified in sparing them.
His bowels yearned towards them, and his soul was grieved for their sin and misery, Judg. x. Since I spoke against him my bowels are troubled for him. When God was to give up his Son to be a sacrifice for sin, and a Saviour for sinners, he did not say, How shall I give him up?
How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel?....
Not that there are any such struggles in God as there are in us, or that he is ever fluctuating or unresolved; no, he is in one mind, and knows it; but they are expressions after the manner of men, designed to show what severity the sin of Israel had deserved, and yet how divine grace would be glorified in sparing them notwithstanding.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
So the phrase is used of a new turn given to the feeling (Ps 105:25). repentings--God speaks according to human modes of thought (Nu 23:19). God's seeming change is in accordance with His secret everlasting purpose of love to His people, to magnify His grace after their desperate rebellion.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? - o: “God is infinitely just and infinitely merciful. The two attributes are so united in Him, yea, so one in Him who is always one, and in whose counsels “there is no variableness, nor shadow of turning,” that the one doth not ever thwart the proceeding of the other. Yet, in order to shew that our ills are from our own ill-deserts, not from any pleasure of His in inflicting ill, and that what mercy He sheweth, is from His own goodness, not from any in us, God is represented in this empassioned expression as in doubt, and (so to say) divided between justice and mercy, the one pleading against the other. At the last, God so determines, that both should have their share in the issue, and that Israel should be both justly punished and mercifully spared and relieved.” God pronounces on the evil deserts of Israel, even while He mitigates His sentence. The depth of the sinner’s guilt reflects the more vividly the depth of God’s mercy. In saying, “how shall I make thee as Admah?” how “shall I set thee as Zeboim?” He says, in fact, that they were, for their sins, worthy to be utterly destroyed, with no trace, no memorial, save that eternal desolation like the five “cities of the plain,” of which were Sodom and Gomorrah, which God “hath set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” Jud 1:7. Such was their desert. […]
The words behind it
16 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֵ֞יךְ | ʾeikh | how? | H349 → | |
| אֶתֶּנְךָ֣ | ʾetenkha | will I give up you | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| אֶפְרַ֗יִם | ʾefrayim | O Ephraim | H669 → | 180 times |
| אֲמַגֶּנְךָ֙ | ʾamagenkha | will I deliver up? you | H4042 → | |
| יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל | yisrael | O Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
| אֵ֚יךְ | ʾeikh | how? | H349 → | |
| אֶתֶּנְךָ֣ | ʾetenkha | will I make you | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| כְאַדְמָ֔ה | kheadmah | like Admah | H126 → | |
| אֲשִֽׂימְךָ֖ | ʾasimekha | will I make? you | H7760 → | 584 times |
| כִּצְבֹאיִ֑ם | kitzvoyim | like Zeboiim | H6636 → | |
| נֶהְפַּ֤ךְ | nehpakh | it has been changed | H2015 → | |
| עָלַי֙ | ʾalai | on me | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| לִבִּ֔י | libi | heart my | H3820 → | 595 times |
| יַ֖חַד | yachad | together | H3162 → | 141 times |
| נִכְמְר֥וּ | nikhmeru | they have grown warm | H3648 → | |
| נִחוּמָֽי׃ | nichumai | compassions my | H5150 → |
אֵ֞יךְhow?
ʾeikhH349 →
אֶתֶּנְךָ֣will I give up you
ʾetenkhaH5414 →2011 times
אֶפְרַ֗יִםO Ephraim
ʾefrayimH669 →180 times
אֲמַגֶּנְךָ֙will I deliver up? you
ʾamagenkhaH4042 →
יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לO Israel
yisraelH3478 →2507 times
אֵ֚יךְhow?
ʾeikhH349 →
אֶתֶּנְךָ֣will I make you
ʾetenkhaH5414 →2011 times
כְאַדְמָ֔הlike Admah
kheadmahH126 →
אֲשִֽׂימְךָ֖will I make? you
ʾasimekhaH7760 →584 times
כִּצְבֹאיִ֑םlike Zeboiim
kitzvoyimH6636 →
נֶהְפַּ֤ךְit has been changed
nehpakhH2015 →
עָלַי֙on me
ʾalaiH5921 →5755 times
לִבִּ֔יheart my
libiH3820 →595 times
יַ֖חַדtogether
yachadH3162 →141 times
נִכְמְר֥וּthey have grown warm
nikhmeruH3648 →
נִחוּמָֽי׃compassions my
nichumaiH5150 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Matthew 23:37O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you…
it leads to
- Luke 13:34–35
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you…
- Psalms 91:4
He will cover you with His feathers; under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and rampart.
- Ruth 2:12
May the LORD repay your work, and may you receive a rich reward from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have taken refuge.”
- Deuteronomy 32:11–12
As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them and carried them on His pinions.
- Psalms 17:8
Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings
- Luke 13:34–35
Through
Deuteronomy 32:36For the LORD will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, slave or free.
it leads to
- Psalms 135:14
For the LORD will vindicate His people and will have compassion on His servants.
- Psalms 135:14
Through
Jeremiah 31:20Is not Ephraim a precious son to Me, a delightful child? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore My heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him,” declares…
it leads to
- Isaiah 55:7
Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely…
- Isaiah 55:7
Through
Hosea 6:4What 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.
it leads to
- Hosea 13:3
Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes, like chaff blown from a threshing floor, like smoke through an open window.
- Hosea 13:3
Where this verse is studied
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About Hosea
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Hosea 11:8-9; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.