Hosea 1:7

But, or And, or Yet. I; the Lord, who threateneth Israel, proud, flourishing, secure, and sinful Israel: he promiseth mercy to poor, oppressed, and impoverished Judah. Will have mercy on the house of Judah; prolonging that kingdom one hundred and thirty-two years after Israel ceased to be a kingdom; preserving them from the combined powers of the king of Syria and the king of Israel, who combine to destroy them; raising them up to greatness and glory in the reign of Hezekiah, in whose days the house of Judah was saved by a miracle: beside all these, Judah's captivity was for seventy years, Israel's for ever; Judah returned to their own land, Israel never did. By this, as the prophet would abate the pride of Israel, so possibly he would secretly direct the best among Israel whither to go to find mercy. Judah; including Benjamin, and such of the Levites as adhered constant to God's law and worship, and as many of the other tribes as renounced the calves, Baal, and all idolatrous worship, and worship God alone as he required, all these, in this case, are included in Judah, and so we find many such returning with Judah. And will save them; preserve, that violence do not swallow them up, nor length of captivity wear them out; and this preserved remnant shall return and be planted in their own land, and there kept in safety. This promise does seem to point out such temporal salvation, but as a type of a far better and more glorious salvation. By the Lord their God; either by Messiah, who is the Lord and their God, or by God himself, as their God, whom they did not, as Israel, forsake utterly. This passage bids us look to that extraordinary miraculous deliverance of Hezekiah and Jerusalem: see Isaiah 37:36 2 Kings 18:13 2 Chronicles 32:1. Will not save them by bow, & c.: here God removeth all force and might, whether their own or their allies, all that might eclipse the glory of God in this salvation. Now this was very fully performed in Hezekiah's time, when Sennacherib's army was cut off in one night by an angel, Isaiah 37:35,36: and in Cyrus's time and Darius's the captive Jews saw it was not by power nor by might, but the Lord saved them; so should it be here, as Psalms 44:5,6 Isa 43:7,15 Zec 4:6.