Hos 14:4-7 | Clarke | STEP | Verse 4 I will heal their backsliding - Here is the answer of God to these prayers and resolutions. See its parts: - 1. Ye have backslidden and fallen, and are grievously and mortally wounded by that fall; but I, who am the Author of life, and who redeem from death, will heal all these wounds and spiritual diseases. 2. I will love them freely - נדבה nedabah, after a liberal, princely manner. I will love them so as to do them incessant good. It shall not be a love of affection merely, but shall be a beneficial love. A love that not only feels delight in itself, but fills them with delight who are its objects, by making them unutterably and supremely happy. 3. For mine anger is turned away from him - Because he has turned back to me. Thus God and man become friends.

Hosea 14:4-7

Verse 4

I will heal their backsliding - Here is the answer of God to these prayers and resolutions. See its parts: -

1. Ye have backslidden and fallen, and are grievously and mortally wounded by that fall; but I, who am the Author of life, and who redeem from death, will heal all these wounds and spiritual diseases.

2. I will love them freely - נדבה nedabah, after a liberal, princely manner. I will love them so as to do them incessant good. It shall not be a love of affection merely, but shall be a beneficial love. A love that not only feels delight in itself, but fills them with delight who are its objects, by making them unutterably and supremely happy.

3. For mine anger is turned away from him - Because he has turned back to me. Thus God and man become friends. Verse 5

I will be as the dew unto Israel - On these metaphors I gladly avail myself of the elegant and just observations of Bp. Lowth. "These verses (Hos 14:5-7) contain gracious promises of God's favor and blessings upon Israel's conversion. In the fifth verse, it is described by that refreshment which copious dews give to the grass in summer. If we consider the nature of the climate, and the necessity of dews in so hot a country, not only to refresh, but likewise to preserve life; if we consider also the beauty of the oriental lilies, the fragrance of the cedars which grow upon Lebanon, the beauteous appearance which the spreading olive trees afforded, the exhilarating coolness caused by the shade of such trees, and the aromatic smell exhaled by the cedars; we shall then partly understand the force of the metaphors here employed by the prophet; but their full energy no one can conceive, till he feels both the want, and enjoys the advantage, of the particulars referred to in that climate where the prophet wrote." - Lowth's twelfth and nineteenth prelection; and Dodd on the place.

What a glorious prophecy! What a wonderful prophet! How sublime, how energetic, how just! The great master prophet, Isaiah, alone could have done this better. And these promises are not for Israel merely after the flesh; they are for all the people of God. We have a lot and portion in the matter; God also places his love upon us. Here the reader must feel some such sentiment as the shepherd in Virgil, when enraptured with the elegy which his associate had composed on their departed friend. The phraseology and metaphors are strikingly similar; and therefore I shall produce it.

Tale tuum carmen nobis, divine poeta,

Quale sopor fesses in gramine, quale per aestum

Dulcis aquae saliente sitim restinguere rivo.

Nec calamis solum aequiparas, sed voce magistrum.

Fortunate puer! tu nunc eris alter ab illo.

Nos tamen haec quocunque modo tibi nostra vicissim

Dicemus, Daphninque tuum tollemus ad astra:

Daphnin ad astra feremus: amavit nos quoque Daphnis.

Virgil. Ecl. v., ver. 45. "O heavenly poet, such thy verse appears,

So sweet, so charming to my ravish'd ears,

As to the weary swain with cares oppress'd,

Beneath the sylvan shade, refreshing rest;

As to the feverish traveler, when first

He finds a crystal stream to quench his thirst.

In singing, as in piping, you excel;

And scarce your master could perform so well.

O fortunate young man! at least your lays

Are next to his, and claim the second praise.

Such as they are, my rural songs I join

To raise your Daphnis to the powers divine;

For Daphnis was my friend, as well as thine." Verse 7

They that dwell under his shadow shall return - The Targum is curious: "They shall be gathered together from the midst of their captivity; they shall dwell under the shadow of his Christ, and the dead shall revive."

They shall revive as the corn - The justness and beauty of this metaphor is not generally perceived. After the corn has been a short time above the earth, in a single spike, the blades begin to separate, and the stalk to spring out of the center. The side leaves turn back to make way for the protruding stalk; and fall bending down to the earth, assuming a withered appearance, though still attached to the plant. To look at the corn in this state, no one, unacquainted with the circumstance, could entertain any sanguine hope of a copious harvest. In a short time other leaves spring out; the former freshen, and begin to stand erect; and the whole seems to revive from a vegetative death. This is the circumstance to which the prophet refers "they shall revive as the corn." Of this a prudent and profitable use may be made.

1. When a soul is first "drawn by the cords of love," Hos 11:4, every thing seems to it promising, comfortable, and delightful, like the corn in its first state.

2. But when the Spirit of judgment brings to the light of conscience the hidden things of iniquity, and repentance is deepened into contrition, the broken and the contrite heart groans, and thinks that all is lost; deep distress takes place, and discouragement succeeds discouragement. This answers to the corn in its second state.

3. By and by the pardon comes, and God's love is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost; every hope is revived and realized, the full corn in the ear becomes manifest; and this answers to the corn in its third state. "They shall revive as the corn." Glory be to God for his unspeakable gift!