Hosea 11 Study Notes

11:1-4 In these verses the Lord alternates between “I did this” and “but Israel did that.”

11:1 Alan Richardson notes that Hs 11 comes close to saying that God is love, just as the NT says (1Jn 4:7-8). I loved him speaks of Yahweh drawing Israel into his affectionate heart and of his faithfulness to his covenant with the patriarchs in redeeming Israel and choosing them for a covenant relationship (Dt 7:7-8). As a loving Father (Ex 4:22; Mal 2:10) God had brought (where “brought” is a strong use of the word “call”; cp. Ex 2:7; Is 41:4; Am 5:8) Israel to himself and to a destiny. But now he grieved as a father abandoned by his son (Hs 6:4). Like 6:2, 11:1 is understood in the NT to have messianic significance in that Jesus, God’s Son like Israel, was also brought out of Egypt in the context of hatred (Mt 2:15; cp. Ex 4:22). Jesus came as Israel’s representative to fulfill the righteousness that the people lacked (Mt 3:15). Whereas Israel was freed from Egypt but became slaves to sin, Jesus followed through in righteousness so that he could die as their substitutionary atoning sacrifice.

11:2-3 The Hebrew expression translated even as occurs also in 4:7 and 10:1, speaking of Israel’s sin increasing as God’s blessing increased. The Hebrew of 11:2 begins literally “They called to them; thus they went from them.” The first “they” may refer to God’s prophets, but this seems doubtful since the prophets have not previously been introduced in the current context. The LXX reading may be original, and it seems to make sense: “As I called to them, so they went from my presence.” The second line of v. 3 may be Hosea’s parenthetic comment: “He took them in his arms.” Israel’s not knowing their own God, not recognizing him at work in their lives, and not praising his faithfulness but instead attributing the effects of his grace to other causes, is a major theme in Hosea, where the Hebrew verb yada‘ (“know”) occurs sixteen times. Reference to God healing Israel is also found in 5:13; 6:1; 7:1; 14:4.

11:5-7 In these verses the Lord announces the penalty for Israel’s ingratitude. Israel would be delivered to Assyria, who would oppress them as Egypt had done (7:16; 10:6). Returning to Egypt is mentioned in 8:13; 9:3,6, so the first line here should probably be understood as a rhetorical question, “Will he not return?”

11:8-11 The Lord refused to annihilate Israel but promised a new exodus for a believing remnant. Thomas McComiskey declared, “The drastic change of emotion” between vv. 5-7 and vv. 8-11 “is one of the most significant aspects of Hosea’s prophetic message . . . We see the grace of God here as we have not yet seen it in the whole prophecy.”

11:8-9 I have had a change of heart is literally “my heart has turned upon me” (Ex 14:5). Unlike man’s, God’s anger and compassion may not be manipulated but are subject only to his infinite wisdom, his holy intentions, and his perfect will. The point of God’s manner of speaking here is that nothing stands in the way of the deserved abandonment and destruction of Israel but God’s gracious compassion. Rather than a change of heart, what may be in view here is a broken heart, as the verb is used in Lm 1:20.

11:10 Whereas the Lord is like a lion as Israel’s fierce predator in 5:14 and 13:7, here the comparison is a positive one as the divine lion is Israel’s champion restoring them to the land. The trembling signifies submissive excitement at hearing the Lord’s voice (Jb 37:1-4).

11:11 The phrase this is the Lord’s declaration concludes the promise of restoration in vv. 8-11 and echoes its use in a similar blessing passage in 2:16,21.

11:12 The section ends by declaring that both Ephraim or Israel and Judah were grieving the Lord. The last two lines of this verse are difficult. The Hebrew term for God is not the usual Elohim but El, which can refer to God but also to the Canaanite god of that name. The term for wanders is rare but suggests rebellion (Gn 27:40; Jr 2:31). Holy ones elsewhere refers to godly people or to angels (Ps 16:3; 89:5; Dn 7:18; 8:13), but it could refer in this context to Canaanite deities or cult prostitutes.