Hosea 11:1-11

Hosea 11:1-1 Kings : . The Divine Father’ s Love for Israel.— In Israel’ s youth Yahweh loved him, and called him from Egypt to be His son, but he proved disloyal, sacrificing to the Baalim ( Hosea 11:1 f.). Yet it was Yahweh who guided and protected him as a father, and healed him in sickness ( Hosea 11:3). The figure now changes (but see notes). Yahweh has treated Israel as a humane master who gently leads and eases the yoke for the tired team of oxen ( Hosea 11:4). The ungrateful son must return to Egypt— be exiled; his cities shall be given up to the sword, because of incurable idolatry ( Hosea 11:6 f.). Here the prophet movingly expresses Yahweh’ s love for His people: “ How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?” How devote Israel, loved from youth, to destruction? And yet must not the annihilating judgment take its course? Does not Yahweh’ s holiness inexorably demand it? ( Hosea 11:8 f.). But there shall be a return from exile ( Hosea 11:10 f., post-exilic).

Hosea 11:1 . Render “ called (him) to be my son” or (reading lô b‘ nî) “ called to him, my Son: LXX “ called his sons” (“ and since Egypt I have been calling his sons,” Marti). Israel’ s sonship dates from the Exodus ( cf. Exodus 4:22).

Hosea 11:2 a. Read (LXX), “ But the more I have called to them, so much the more have they departed from me.”

Hosea 11:2 b. Render “ sacrifice,” “ burn” (present tenses).

Hosea 11:3 b. Marti and Nowack read, “ But they knew not that I carried them, that I healed them from sickness.” Yahweh is the good physician ( cf. Exodus 15:26).

Hosea 11:4 a. man: perhaps “ kindness” ( hesed) should be read (parallel to love).

Hosea 11:4 b. The text is uncertain (the yoke is not placed on the jaws, but on the neck). Read ( cf. LXX), “ And then I became to him as a man-smiter; I turned against him (‘â lâ w) and overcame him” (so Marti).

Hosea 11:5 . Omit “ not” ( lô transferred to end of Hosea 11:4). As places of exile Assyria and Egypt are employed indifferently in Hosea.

Hosea 11:6 . Text corrupt. Read probably, “ And the sword shall consume in his cities, and devour in his fastnesses.”

Hosea 11:7 . Very corrupt. No satisfactory emendation has been proposed.

Hosea 11:8 . Admah and Zeboim play the same rô le in Hosea as Sodom and Gomorrah in Amos and Isaiah ( cf. Amos 4:11, Isaiah 1:7-2 Samuel :). According to tradition they belonged to the five cities of the plain ( cf. Genesis 10:19; Genesis 14:2; Genesis 14:8, Deuteronomy 29:23).

Hosea 11:9 . Render, “ Shall I not execute?” “ Shall I not return?” etc.— and I . . . city: ( mg. is impossible) read probably, “ and shall I not extirpate” (Heb. w e lô ‘ abhâ’ç r) ? [If construed absolutely (I will not execute, etc.), the verse is a promise of mercy. But this hardly suits the clause about God’ s holiness; holiness demands severe purgation.]

Hosea 11:10 depicts the return from exile; it is doubtless a post-exilio gloss.— make them to dwell in: read, “ bring them back to.”