Hosea 5:15

Hosea 5:15. I will go and return to my place I will withdraw myself from them, and give them up to exile and punishment, till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face: that is, till they confess their sins, and, by a sincere humiliation, and in fervent prayer, implore my favour. The Chaldee paraphrase expresses the sense thus: “I will take away my majestic presence, or shechinah, from among them, and will return into heaven.” Thus Ezekiel describes the destruction of the temple and kingdom, by God’s removing his glory from the sanctuary and city: see Ezekiel 10:4; Ezekiel 11:23. In their affliction they will seek me early That is, without delay, and earnestly; or, with great diligence and assiduity. Observe, reader, when we are under the corrections of the divine rod, our business is to seek God’s face, that is, an acquaintance with him, a token of his being at peace with us, and a manifestation of his favour. And it may reasonably be expected that affliction will bring those to God who had gone astray, and kept at a distance from him. For this reason God turns away from us, that he may turn us to himself, and then may return to us. Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. The first three verses of the next chapter should have been joined to this. So the LXX. thought, connecting the last verse of this with the first of the next, by the participle λεγοντες , saying.