Hosea 14:1-7

Repentance to Bring Blessing

1 Return, Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall!

2 Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.^[a]

3 Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount warhorses. We will never again say ‘Our gods’ to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.”

4 “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.

5 I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots;

6 his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.

7 People will dwell again in his shade; they will flourish like the grain, they will blossom like the vine— Israel’s fame will be like the wine of Lebanon.

Hosea 14:1-7 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO HOSEA 14

This chapter concludes the book, with gracious promises to repenting sinners, to returning backsliders. It begins with an exhortation to Israel to return to the Lord, seeing he was their God, and they had fallen by sin from prosperity into adversity, temporal and spiritual, Ho 14:1; and they are directed what to say to the Lord, upon their return to him, both by way of petition, and of promise and of resolution how to behave for the future, encouraged by his grace and mercy, Ho 14:2,3; and they are told what the Lord, by way of answer, would say to them, Ho 14:4; and what he would be to them; and what blessings of grace he would bestow on them; and in what flourishing and fruitful circumstances they should be, Ho 14:5-8; and the chapter ends with a character of such that attend to and understand those things; and with a recommendation of the ways of the Lord, which are differently regarded by men, Ho 14:9.

Cross References

• 1. S Isaiah 19:22; S Jeremiah 3:12
• 2. S Hosea 4:8
• 3. S Hosea 5:5; S Hosea 9:7
• 4. S Exodus 34:9
• 5. Psalms 51:16-17; Micah 7:18-19
• 6. Hebrews 13:15
• 7. S Hosea 5:13
• 8. Psalms 33:17; S Isaiah 31:1; Micah 5:10
• 9. Hosea 8:6
• 10. ver 28; Hosea 13:2
• 11. Psalms 10:14; Psalms 68:5; Jeremiah 49:11
• 12. S Isaiah 30:26; S Hosea 6:1
• 13. S Jeremiah 2:19
• 14. S Isaiah 55:1; Jeremiah 31:20; Zephaniah 3:17
• 15. S Job 13:16
• 16. S Genesis 27:28; S Isaiah 18:4
• 17. S Song of Songs 2:1
• 18. Isaiah 35:2
• 19. Job 29:19
• 20. Psalms 52:8; S Jeremiah 11:16
• 21. S Psalms 92:12; S Song of Songs 4:11
• 22. Psalms 91:1-4
• 23. S Genesis 40:10
• 24. S Hosea 2:22
• 25. S Ezekiel 17:23

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "offer our lips as sacrifices of bulls"