Hosea 14:1-8

1 Israel, return to the LORD your God. You have stumbled because of your sins.

2 Return to the LORD, and say these things to him: "Forgive all our sins, and kindly receive us. Then we'll praise you with our lips.

3 Assyria cannot save us. We won't ride on horses anymore. We will never again say that the things our hands have made are our gods. You love orphans."

4 [The LORD says,] "I will cure them of their unfaithfulness. I will love them freely. I will no longer be angry with them.

5 I will be like dew to the people of Israel. They will blossom like flowers. They will be firmly rooted like cedars from Lebanon.

6 They will be like growing branches. They will be beautiful like olive trees. They will be fragrant like cedars from Lebanon.

7 They will live again in God's shadow. They will grow like grain. They will blossom like grapevines. They will be as famous as the wines from Lebanon.

8 "The people of Ephraim will have nothing more to do with idols. I will answer them and take care of them. I am like a growing pine tree. Their fruit comes from me."

Hosea 14:1-8 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.