Hosea 14

Israel, come back to the LORD your God. You fell down because of your own sin.

1O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.

NoteHosea spoke to the northern kingdom, called Israel here and Ephraim later in the chapter, after its leading tribe. It had split from Judah in the south and was, in Hosea's lifetime, about to be destroyed by Assyria. "Fell" is the everyday word for tripping over something and going down; the same verb closes the chapter in verse 9.

2Bring words with you and turn back to the LORD. Say to him, "Take away all our sin and receive us kindly, and we will offer you the words of our lips.

2Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.

Note"Bring words with you" is pointed: words, not animals to sacrifice. What is asked for is something said out loud. The closing phrase is literally "we will pay the bulls of our lips", spoken words offered in place of the bulls that would otherwise have been killed at the altar. Ancient Greek translators read one Hebrew letter differently and got "the fruit of our lips," which is why many modern versions have that instead.

3Assyria will not save us. We will not ride on war horses. We will never again say "You are our gods" to something our own hands made. In you the child with no father finds mercy."

3Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.

NoteAssyria was the empire to the northeast and the dominant military power of the day; Israel's kings swung between paying it tribute and courting its protection. Horses meant cavalry and chariot teams, imported mainly through Egypt, so "riding on horses" stands for trusting armed force and foreign alliances rather than farm transport. A fatherless child had no one to press his claim in a dispute over land or debt; Israelite law names orphans, widows and resident foreigners over and over as the people with no protector.

4I will heal them of their turning away from me. I will love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.

4I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.

Note"Turning away," "come back" in verse 1, and God's anger "turned away" are all built on one Hebrew verb, shuv, which runs through the whole chapter like a refrain. English cannot keep the repetition.

5I will be like the dew to Israel. He will bloom like a lily and send down roots like the trees of Lebanon.

5I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

NoteIn that climate virtually no rain falls between spring and autumn, and the heavy night dew is what keeps plants alive through the dry months, so dew means steady, unfailing life-support, not something slight. Lebanon is the mountain range north of Israel, famous throughout the ancient world for its enormous cedar forests; it was the standard comparison for anything tall, deep-rooted and magnificent.

6His young branches will spread out. He will look as fine as an olive tree, and smell as sweet as the forests of Lebanon.

6His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.

NoteAn olive tree was among the most valuable things a family could own: it stays green year-round, takes decades to mature, and yields for centuries. The smell of Lebanon is the resin scent of its cedar forests.

7Those who live in his shade will come back. They will come to life again like grain and bloom like a grapevine. He will be known far off, like the wine of Lebanon.

7They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.

NoteShade is a standard Hebrew image for shelter and protection, of the kind a great tree or a king provides. Wine from the Lebanon hills was traded far afield and had a reputation for quality, so the comparison is to something known well beyond its own region.

8Ephraim will say, "What do I have to do with idols anymore?" I am the one who answers him and watches over him. I am like a green evergreen tree. Your fruit comes from me.

8Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.

NoteTranslators disagree about who is speaking in each line here, and the Hebrew genuinely allows more than one arrangement (the opening question could be Ephraim's or God's own ("What have I to do any more with idols?"). The tree is an evergreen; the Hebrew word probably means a cypress or juniper, and the point is that it stays green when everything around it is bare. The image is deliberately mixed, since a tree of that kind bears no edible fruit) the fruit has to come from somewhere else.

9Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who has good sense? Let him know them. The ways of the LORD are right. Those who do right walk in them, but those who rebel trip and fall in them.

9Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.

NoteThis closing verse steps outside the prophecy and speaks to whoever is reading it, in the manner of Israel's wisdom writings such as Proverbs. "Trip and fall" is the same verb used of Israel's fall in verse 1: the road itself is sound, and the difference lies in who is walking it.