Chapter Eleven

1–4. The love of Jehovah and the ingratitude of Israel. 5–7. The punishment of Israel. 8–11. God’s mercy toward the chosen people.

Hosea 11:1. At dawn the king of Israel shall perish! When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son. The words “in the dawn the king of Israel will perish” in the Hebrew Bible are attributed to the end of the tenth chapter, to which they also belong by sense. The prophet speaks not of the destruction of any particular king, but of royal power in general or the kingdom. This destruction will overtake the kingdom at dawn, that is, at a time, apparently, of incipient prosperity. —The Lord’s love for Israel began even from the days of its youth (Slavonic: “when child Israel”), that is, from the time when Israel first appeared as a people. The Lord’s love for Israel was expressed first and foremost in delivering him from Egypt (according to Hoonacker, from the time of Egypt the Lord began to make appeals to Israel). “Out of Egypt I called My son” (beni), in the LXX τα τέκνα αυτοΰ, his children. All ancient translations and the Gospel of Matthew, which quotes this passage (Matt 2:15), read it in agreement with the Hebrew. Therefore one must suppose that the LXX erroneously translated the Hebrew beni in plural and with a third person suffix. The Gospel of Matthew treats the words of Hosea as a prophecy of the return of the infant Jesus with His Mother from Egypt. The prophet, of course, speaks directly of Israel. But Israel, for the purposes of the economy of salvation, was adopted by God through the Sinai Covenant (Exod 4:22), was a type of the incarnate Messiah—the Son of God—for the salvation of mankind. Therefore, all the most important moments in Israel’s history were directed so that they appeared as indications pointing to the promised Messiah. “Just as Israel’s stay in Egypt was necessary so that Israel, when he was still as if in infancy and was being formed into a chosen people, would be removed from the pernicious influence of Canaanism,—so the Savior’s stay in Egypt was necessary so that Christ, while in childhood and appointed by God for a great mission, would be preserved safe from the murderous violence of Herod. Just as Israel’s stay in Egypt had to continue until the measure of the iniquities of the Amorites, pernicious to him, was filled up (Gen 15:16), when God called His named Son out of Egypt,—so the Savior’s stay in Egypt had to continue until the dangerous Herod died (Matt 2:19), when God “returned from Egypt His True Son” (Brodovich, p. 379).

Hosea 11:2. The more they called them, the more they went from their presence; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols. “When I called them.” The words of verse 2 can be understood concerning the preaching of the prophets, whom the Lord sent to His people; or impersonally (Hoonacker): “however much they were called, they went away.” Some commentators, in agreement with the LXX text, read the verb at the beginning of the verse in singular and understand it of Jehovah (I called them).

Hosea 11:3. I myself taught Ephraim to walk; I took them in My arms, but they did not know that I healed them. The prophet points to the manifestation of the Lord’s love for Israel at the beginning of his history: probably the fact (Exod 15:27-26) is meant when, through God’s action, the waters of Mara became sweet, and Jehovah thus revealed Himself as the healer of His people.

Hosea 11:4. I drew them with human kindness, with bands of love, and I became for them like those who lift the yoke from their jaws, and I gently let food come down for them. “I was to them as one who lifts a yoke from their jaws”: a new image of God’s love; the Lord in relation to Israel is likened to a kind master who removes the yoke from the jaws of oxen to ease their grazing on pasture. The sense of the image is that Jehovah lightened the burden of the law for Israel and gave him the means to fulfill this law. The LXX text (and Slavonic) in verse 3 has many deviations from the original. These deviations are usually explained by the assumption of errors in reading the Hebrew text by Greek translators.

Hosea 11:5. He shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be his king, because they refused to return to Me. “He will not return to Egypt” (lo jaschul); “but Assyria—he will be their king.” Modern commentators (Nowack, Hoonacker) do not read the negation in the verb jaschuv, supposing that lo should be referred to the end of verse 4 (where instead of lo—no, it should be lo—to him). The mention of Egypt, as also in Hos 8:13, is understood in the sense of a general indication of the land of slavery. The prophet’s thought in this case takes on the following sense: Israel rejected the fatherly care of Jehovah (Hos 11:1-4); because of this he will go into slavery and will be subjected to the tyrannical rule of Assyria—The LXX read jaschuv (will return) as jaschav (to dwell, settle), from this comes the Slavonic: “Ephraim dwelt.”

Hosea 11:6. And the sword shall fall upon his cities and shall destroy his gates and devour them because of their schemes. Instead of the words “and a sword will fall (chalah)” in the Slavonic “and the weapon (ησθένησεν) became weak”: The LXX took the Hebrew chalah in the sense of to sicken, become weak. “And will destroy his bars,” in the Slavonic “and was silent into his hand.”

Hosea 11:7. My people are bent on turning away from Me; and though they call to the Most High, He does not raise them up together. The sense of the verse is clear. But the Hebrew text is rendered in our translation freely (“are bent on” from Hebrew “hung”). Modern commentators (Wellhausen, Nowack, Hoonacker) consider the verse text corrupted and, proposing their own emendations, render the sense of the verse differently. In the Greek text the verse has deviations, arising from a different reading of the original.

Hosea 11:8. How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboim? My heart recoils within Me; My compassion grows warm and tender. Hosea 11:9. I will not execute the fierceness of My anger; I will not return to destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not man, the Holy One in the midst of you, and I will not come in wrath. Admah and Zeboim are cities of the valley of Siddim that perished together with Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24; Deut 29:23). Israel deserved the fate of these cities. But by His love for the chosen people, the Lord will have mercy on it. —The end of the verse “I will not come with terror,” ve lo abo beir, is translated and interpreted variously. Some commentators (Brodovich), by the city, understand the community of the Israelite people and give the entire expression the sense that the Lord will not come into the community of Israel to deliver it to destruction, as He once came into Admah and Zeboim. Others (Keil, Nowack) take the word ir (city) in the sense of heat, passion, anger, and see in it an indication of the cessation of God’s anger toward Israel. Hoonacker corrects the Hebrew text of the expression, reading velo obeh aveir, and translates, “and I do not love to destroy.”

Hosea 11:10. They shall go after the Lord; He will roar like a lion; when He roars, His children shall come trembling from the west. Hosea 11:11. They will tremble out of Egypt like birds, and out of the land of Assyria like doves, and I will settle them in their houses, says the Lord. A pronouncement of Israel’s future restoration. At the call of God, the scattered Israel will someday gather from all the lands into which it will be scattered and will settle in the native land, where it will serve the Lord faithfully (“they will follow the Lord”). The terms “west,” “Egypt” and “Assyria” are used in the sense of indicating various directions of the horizon from which the scattered will return. The images of “birds” and “doves,” indicating the speed with which the people will gather to the Lord’s call, are common in the Bible (Isa 60:8; Ps 60:7; cf. Hos 7:11-12). In the Slavonic text, instead of the words they will follow comes the first person “I will walk.”

Hosea 11:12. Ephraim has surrounded me with lies and the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah still holds to God and is faithful with the Holy One. In the LXX, the Vulgate, and in our texts, it is referred to the end of chapter eleven; in the Hebrew it begins the following chapter. Since this verse already contains condemnation, it stands in closer connection precisely with chapter twelve. The prophet condemns Israel for lies and deceit (Slavonic “with iniquity”). The second half of the verse “but Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One,” in the Greek-Slavonic text is understood not with respect to Judah, but with respect to Israel: “now God knows him (Israel), and the people called holy to God.” The Hebrew text presents difficulties for translation and is rendered in our text conjecturally. The words od rad im-el Russian (“still walks with God”) are translated (Ewald, Hitzig) as: Judah is still unconquered in relation to God, and to the faithful holy ones (kedoschim),—or differently (Cornill): “Judah is still stubborn in relation to God and has joined himself with those who deceive” (kedoschim); “Judah is a false witness against God, but faithful to those who deceive” (Hoonacker), that is, to the Egyptians and Assyrians, on whose aid Israel still relies. In any case, the sense given by the Russian text does not fully correspond to Hosea’s view of Judah.