Hosea 11 Study Notes

11:8-9 I have had a change of heart is literally “my heart has turned upon me” (Ex 14:5). Unlike man’s, God’s anger and compassion may not be manipulated but are subject only to his infinite wisdom, his holy intentions, and his perfect will. The point of God’s manner of speaking here is that nothing stands in the way of the deserved abandonment and destruction of Israel but God’s gracious compassion. Rather than a change of heart, what may be in view here is a broken heart, as the verb is used in Lm 1:20.

11:10 Whereas the Lord is like a lion as Israel’s fierce predator in 5:14 and 13:7, here the comparison is a positive one as the divine lion is Israel’s champion restoring them to the land. The trembling signifies submissive excitement at hearing the Lord’s voice (Jb 37:1-4).

11:11 The phrase this is the Lord’s declaration concludes the promise of restoration in vv. 8-11 and echoes its use in a similar blessing passage in 2:16,21.

11:12 The section ends by declaring that both Ephraim or Israel and Judah were grieving the Lord. The last two lines of this verse are difficult. The Hebrew term for God is not the usual Elohim but El, which can refer to God but also to the Canaanite god of that name. The term for wanders is rare but suggests rebellion (Gn 27:40; Jr 2:31). Holy ones elsewhere refers to godly people or to angels (Ps 16:3; 89:5; Dn 7:18; 8:13), but it could refer in this context to Canaanite deities or cult prostitutes.