Hosea 6

Come, let us go back to the LORD. He is the one who tore us apart, and he is the one who will heal us. He struck us down, and he will bandage our wounds.

1Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

NoteThe tearing is the picture of a wild animal mauling prey; in the previous chapter God says he will be like a lion to Ephraim and Judah, carrying them off with no one to rescue them. The same speaker who tears is the one expected to bind up the wound.

2After two days he will bring us back to life. On the third day he will raise us up, so that we can live in his presence.

2After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

Note"After two days... on the third day" is a Hebrew poetic pattern that counts a number and then the next number up. It means "very soon, and certainly" rather than marking an exact date on a calendar. Similar step-counting appears elsewhere in the prophets ("for three transgressions, and for four").

3So let us know him. Let us keep pressing on to know the LORD. He will surely appear, as certain as the sunrise each morning. He will come to us like rain, like the late and early rains that soak the ground.

3Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

NoteFarming in this land depended on two separate rainy seasons: the early rain in October and November, which softened ground baked hard by summer so it could be plowed and sown, and the late rain in March and April, which filled out the grain just before harvest. Miss either one and the year's food is gone. The King James order, "the latter and former rain," lists them in the reverse of the growing season.

4What am I going to do with you, Ephraim? What am I going to do with you, Judah? Your loyal love is like a cloud in the morning, like the early dew that dries up and is gone.

4O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.

NoteEphraim was the largest tribe of the northern kingdom, and its name is used throughout Hosea to mean that whole northern kingdom. Judah is the separate southern kingdom, with its capital at Jerusalem. The two had been one nation under David and Solomon and split apart afterwards. "Loyal love" translates the Hebrew word hesed: the steady, dependable faithfulness owed between two parties bound to each other, loyalty as much as warm feeling. The King James renders it "goodness" here and "mercy" in verse 6, but it is the same word both times.

5That is why I have cut them down through the prophets. I have killed them with the words of my mouth. Your judgments go out like light.

5Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.

NoteThe Hebrew reads "your judgments", addressed to the people. The Greek and Syriac copies read "my judgments", and most modern translations follow them.

6What I wanted was loyal love, not sacrifices. I wanted people to know God, more than I wanted animals burned on the altar.

6For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

NoteHebrew often states a strong preference as a flat either/or: "not this, but that" can carry the sense "that far more than this." The second half of the verse, with its "more than," shows how the first half is meant. A burnt offering was an animal burned up entirely on the altar, with no portion kept back to be eaten by the worshipers or the priests, unlike most other sacrifices.

7But they broke the covenant, just as Adam did. Right there they were unfaithful to me.

7But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.

NoteThe Hebrew word here, adam, can be read three ways, and translators have to pick one: as the name Adam, as the ordinary word for "human beings" in general (the King James takes it this way: "like men"), or as the place-name Adam, a town by the Jordan mentioned in Joshua 3:16 (which would fit the "right there" of the next line. The ambiguity is in the original.) A covenant was a formal binding agreement, drawn up like a treaty, with named obligations on both sides and stated consequences for breaking it.

8Gilead is a city full of people who do evil. It is stained all over with bloody footprints.

8Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.

NoteGilead was the Israelite territory east of the Jordan river, and a town of that name stood in it. The phrase behind "stained with bloody footprints" pictures tracks or heel-prints left in blood, as though violence had been walked all through the place.

9Like a gang of robbers lying in wait for a traveler, so a band of priests kills people on the road to Shechem. They act together, and what they do is shameful.

9And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.

NoteShechem was a major town in the hill country with an old sanctuary, and one of the designated cities of refuge, a place people traveled to, including worshipers on the road. Priests ambushing travelers on that particular road is the accusation. The Hebrew here is difficult: the same consonants that spell "Shechem" can also be read as "shoulder" or, as the King James took it, as an expression meaning "with one accord, by agreement."

10In the house of Israel I have seen something horrible. Ephraim is unfaithful to me there, like a woman selling herself, and Israel has made itself filthy.

10I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.

NoteThroughout Hosea, Israel's turning to other gods is described as a married woman selling herself to other men, the nation is pictured as God's wife, and its worship elsewhere as sexual betrayal. "The house of Israel" means the people of Israel as a family or nation, not a building.

11And for you too, Judah, a harvest has been set, for the time when I bring my people back and restore what they lost.

11Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.

NoteHarvest is a double-edged image in the prophets: it can mean gathering in a crop, or reaping the consequences of what was sown. Which is meant here is left open. "Restore the fortunes" (King James "returned the captivity") is a fixed Hebrew phrase. It can mean bringing exiles home, but it is also used more broadly for reversing someone's circumstances and giving back what they lost.