Hosea 14

Chap. XIV. Ver. 1—9. Exhortations to repentance, and promises of mercy.—‘By the terrible denunciation of vengeance which concludes the preceding chapter, the Prophet is led to exhort this people to repentance, furnishing them with a beautiful form of prayer, very suitable to the occasion. Upon this, God, ever ready to pardon the penitent, is introduced, making sure promises of blessings, in allusion to those copious dews which refresh the green herbs, and which frequently denote, not only temporal salvation, but also the rich and refreshing comforts of the gospel. Their reformation from idolatry is foretold, and their consequent prosperity, under the emblem of a green flourishing fir tree; but then these promises are confined to the godly, and the wicked declared to have no share in them; as might well be expected under the administration of the righteous Governor of the universe,’’—Dr. J.

Notes on the verses

Chap. XIV. Ver. 2. Calves of our lips.—The critics remark that this passage, as it now stands in Hebrew, is not grammatical; that omitting one letter, (mem,) would make it correct, and at the same time agree with the LXX. Arabic, and the Apostolic quotation, (Hebrews 13:15), “the fruit of our lips.” So Newcome and Boothroyd. |: Ver. 5. As the dew—That is, refresh and water, that they may grow, comfort, and make fruitful all who return to him. Ver. 7. The scent—Or, fragrance. See margin. _ Ver. 8. With idols.—Not the whole body of Ephraim, but converted Ephraim. Those who in verses 1 and 2 were sensible of, and confessed sin, and begged for pardon.—I am like.—Boothroyd, ‘I will make him like.” So Newcome and Horsley.; Ver. 9. Who is wise? &c.—These words are the prophet’s own conclusion. Time be accomplished. His principal subject, as Bishop Horsley observes, is that which forms the principal subject of all the prophets—* the [restoration] of the Jewish nation in general, their disobedient refractory spirit, the heavy judgments that awaited them, their final conversion to God, and to a condition of the greatest national prosperity, and of high pre-eminence among the nations of the earth, under the immediate protection of the Messiah, in the latter ages.