Hosea 5:15

I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early. I WILL GO AND RETURN TO MY PLACE - i:e., withdraw my favour. The image to which God compares himself () is that of a lion going and returning to his covert, after having taken his prey. TILL THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR OFFENCE. The Hebrew includes the idea, also, 'until they suffer the penalty of their guilt.' Probably 'accepting the punishment of their guilt,' "whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty," is included in the idea (cf. ), as the English version translates. (Compare ;...

The word שחר, _shicker, _signifies the morning: hence the verb means, “to seek early,” or, “to rise early,” as men do when they apply themselves diligently to anything: but in many places of Scripture it is taken simply in the sense of seeking; and this simple meaning seems most suitable to this place, _They will seek me in their tribulation _God here declares, that after having been dreadfully fierce against both the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, he would for a time rest quietly and wait from heaven what they would do. He then adds, “They will at length return to a sane mind: when they shall perceive the finishing part, they will then, having lost their perverseness, acknowledge their sins and be truly humbled.” This is the meaning. The mode of speaking seems apparently strange, when God says, that he will go away; for he neither so hides himself in heaven, that he neglects human affair...

8-15 The destruction of impenitent sinners is not mere talk, to frighten them, it is a sentence which will not be recalled. And it is a mercy that we have timely warning given us, that we may flee from the wrath to come. Compliance with the commandments of men, who thwart the commandments of God, ripens a people for ruin. The judgments of God are sometimes to a sinful people as a moth, and as rottenness, or as a worm; as these consume the clothes and the wood, so shall the judgments of God consume them. Silently, they shall think themselves safe and thriving, but when they look into their state, shall find themselves wasting and decaying. Slowly, for the Lord gives them space to repent. Many a nation; as well as many a person, dies of a consumption. Gradually, God comes upon sinners with lesser judgments, to prevent greater, if they will be wise, and take warning. When Israel and Judah...

Verse Hosea 5:15. _I WILL GO_ AND _RETURN TO MY PLACE_] I will abandon them till they acknowledge their offenses. This had the wished-for effect, as we shall see in the following chapter; for they repented and turned to God, and he had mercy upon them. These two verses are considered as instances of the _true sublime_....

I WILL GO AND RETURN TO MY PLACE - As the wild beast, when he has taken his prey, returns to his covert, so God, when He had fulfilled His will, would, for the time, withdraw all tokens of his presence. God, who is wholly everywhere, is said to dwell “there,” relatively to us, where he manifests Himself, as of old, in the tabernacle, the temple, Zion, Jerusalem. He is said to “go and return,” when He withdraws all tokens of His presence, His help, care, and providence. This is worse than any affliction on God’s part , “a state like theirs who, in the lowest part of hell, are “delivered into chains of darkness,” shut out from His presence, and so from all hope of comfort; and this must needs be their condition, so long as He shall be absent from them; and so perpetually, except there be a way for obtaining again His favorable presence.” TILL THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR OFFENCE - o: “He who “ha...

EXPOSITION HOSEA 5:1 HEAR YE THIS, O PRIESTS; AND HEARKEN, YE HOUSE OF ISRAEL; AND GIVE YE EAR, O HOUSE OF THE KING. The persons here addressed comprise all the estates of the realm—priests, people, and princes. The house of Israel is the northern kingdom; and the house of the king is the members of the king's family, of his court and of his government. Thus the rulers and the ruled, the spiritual teachers and the taught, are comprehended in this address. Neither priestly office, nor popular power, nor princely dignity was to be exempted. But, though all are summoned to give audience, the heads of the people, the men of light and leading, are first arraigned. FOR JUDGMENT IS TOWARD YOU, as the clause is correctly rendered; not, "it devolves on you to maintain judgment," as some understand it. It had, indeed, been the province o

I WILL GO [AND] RETURN TO MY PLACE,.... Leave the countries of Israel and of Judah, where he had used to grant his gracious and spiritual presence unto his people, and watched over them, and cared for them, and bestowed many favours on them, and go up to heaven, the place of his more glorious presence, as the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi, interpret it; and there, as it were, shut himself up, particularly with respect to these people, as if he had no more thought of them, or concern for them: this is to be understood in a sense becoming and agreeable to the omnipresence of God: TILL THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR OFFENCE, AND SEEK MY FACE; till the Israelites acknowledge their idolatry, and the Jews their disbelief and rejection of the Messiah, and all other sins; till they ingenuously confess themselves to be guilty, or know and acknowledge they have sinned, as the Targum; and then humbly seek th...

CHAPTER 5:1-6:3 The Message to the Priests, the People, and the Royal House Judgment, Affliction and the Future Return _ 1. The message of rebuke (Hosea 5:1) _ 2. The judgment announced (Hosea 5:8) 3. The future return and the blessing (Hosea 6:1) Hosea 5:1. The first verse shows who is addressed: the priests, the house of Israel and the house of the King. Judgment was in store for them, for Mizpah and Tabor, the places of hallowed memory, had been turned by their idolatrous worship into a snare. An old and interesting tradition among the Jews states that at Mizpah the apostates waited for those Israelites who

HOSEA 5:15 TO HOSEA 6:3. ISRAEL'S CONFESSION AND PENITENCE. Yahweh, speaking in His own person, declares that He will return to His place (_i.e._ to heaven; _cf._ Micah 1:3), there to await Israel's penitence (Hosea 5:15). When trouble comes they will eagerly seek Him. Then follows (Hosea 6:1) a light-hearted confession of sin by the people, coupled with expressions of assurance that their God will forgive and help them. Many scholars regard this section as an addition by a later hand, intended to mitigate the unrelieved gloom of what precedes. But nothing in the style or lan

TILL THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR OFFENCE. Reference to Pentateuch (Leviticus 26:40). National repentance is the condition of Israel's restoration. SEEK MY FACE. Reference to Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 4:29). App-92. SEEK ME EARLY. This expression, though not found in the Pentateuch, occurs in Job 7:21; Job 8:5; Job 24:5.Psalms 63:1; Psalms 78:34.