Hosea 6

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1Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.2After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.3Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.4O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.5Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.6For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.7But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.8Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.9And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.10I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.11Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.

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Notes for this chapter

Historical Background

Hosea Chapter 6 Study Notes

The opening verses of this chapter arrive like a breath of fresh air after the stern warnings of chapter five. Israel and Judah have been told that God would withdraw from them until they acknowledged their guilt and sought His face. Now, in verses one through three, we hear what sounds like the beginnings of a call to repentance. “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us.”

These words are remarkable for their theological confidence. The people recognize that it was God Himself who brought the affliction, and yet this recognition becomes the very foundation of their hope. If He tore, He can bind up. If He struck, He can restore.

Matthew Henry notes the beauty of returning to the very One who chastised, because correction from a loving God is never the end of the story. Verse two carries one of the most profound prophetic undertones in the entire Old Testament. The phrase “after two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up” has long been understood in Christian interpretation as a messianic foreshadowing of the resurrection of Christ. The apostolic community and the early church fathers saw here a pattern that found its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus rising on the third day.

Whether Hosea's immediate audience heard it primarily as a national restoration or as something deeper, the Holy Spirit embedded within these words a significance that would only be fully visible from the other side of Calvary. The promise of verse three, that God's going forth is as certain as the morning and as refreshing as the latter and former rain, speaks to the agricultural reality of ancient Canaan where the early rains of autumn prepared the soil and the latter rains of spring ensured the harvest. God's faithfulness in redemption is as dependable as the seasons He ordained.

Core Teaching

The mood shifts sharply at verse four, and God Himself speaks with a tone of deep sorrow and frustration. “O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee?” This is not the anger of a tyrant but the lament of a grieving parent or a wounded husband, which fits perfectly within Hosea's larger marriage metaphor.

The goodness of the people is compared to a morning cloud and early dew, both of which promise much in the cool of the dawn but vanish entirely before the heat of midday. Adam Clarke points out that this is not a superficial criticism of outward behavior alone but a diagnosis of something far deeper, namely the absence of genuine, persevering love for God. The people were not without religion. They brought their sacrifices and kept their festivals.

But their devotion had no roots, and rootless devotion withers quickly. This is one of the most searching diagnostic statements in all of prophetic literature, because it describes a spiritual condition that is easy to fall into and very difficult to honestly diagnose in oneself.

Commentary Insights

Verse five gives God's response to this transient goodness, and it is arresting. He says He has hewed the people by the prophets and slain them by the words of His mouth. The prophetic word here is not merely informative but operative, carrying genuine moral force. Barnes' Notes observes that this language echoes the two-edged sword imagery found elsewhere in Scripture, suggesting that God's word through the prophets was meant to cut through the spiritual numbness of the nation.

The phrase “thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth” indicates that God's standards were not hidden or arbitrary. The divine plumb line was as visible and clear as sunlight, which made Israel's failure all the more culpable. Verse six then delivers what is perhaps the most quoted line of the entire chapter: “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” Jesus cited this very verse twice in the Gospel of Matthew, once when defending His association with tax collectors and sinners, and once when defending His disciples for plucking grain on the Sabbath.

The word translated “mercy” is the Hebrew hesed, that magnificent covenant word that means loyal, steadfast, self-giving love. God was not abolishing the sacrificial system. He was insisting that without hesed and genuine knowledge of Him dwelling in the heart, the external rituals were an empty performance and even an offense.

Reflection & Application

The remainder of the chapter catalogues the specific treachery of the nation, and it is deeply sobering. Verse seven notes that “like men” they have transgressed the covenant, a phrase that may carry a deliberate echo of Adam in the garden. Just as humanity's first representative broke covenant in Eden, so Israel was repeating the pattern at a national level. Gilead, mentioned in verse eight, was a region east of the Jordan known in earlier history for its healing balm, yet here it is described as a city polluted with blood and iniquity.

The irony is painful. The place that should have been associated with healing had become a center of violence. Verse nine delivers one of the most disturbing images in the entire book, where the priests are compared to bands of robbers lying in ambush. They commit murder along the road, they engage in lewdness, and they do it all with deliberate intent.

The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown commentary notes that the priests, who were meant to be the spiritual guardians of the nation, had become predators of the very people entrusted to their care.

Go deeper — references Classic commentaries on this chapter

Matthew Henry's Commentary Matthew Henry (1662–1714) Adam Clarke's Commentary Adam Clarke (1760–1832) Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871) Barnes' Notes on the Bible Albert Barnes (1798–1870) EGW Writings Ellen G. White Blue Letter Bible Study tools and lexicon

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