Hosea 1:11

Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together Thus the schism of north and south shall be healed (comp. Isaiah 11:13; Ezekiel 37:22) a schism to which by implication Hosea denies the Divine sanction, on the ground (we may suppose) that Jehovah being one, His people must also be one. See on Hosea 3:4, and comp. Hosea 3:3; Hosea 8:4; Hosea 13:10-11. In the last passage, however, Jehovah is represented as in a certain sense sanctioning the usurping dynasties of Israel (-in His anger"), and in the idealizing description which follows (chap. 14) Judah seems to find no place

appoint themselves one head The -one head" is doubtless the Davidic king (Hosea 3:5).

come up out of the land The recruited people, too numerous for -the land to bear them", shall seek to enlarge their territory (comp. Amos 9:12; Isaiah 11:14; Micah 2:12-13). The -land" spoken of can only be Palestine, since there is nothing in the context to suggest that either the land of captivity (as Kimchi, following the Targum) or the earth in general is intended. -Come up" should rather be go up, i.e. march to battle, as Nahum 2:2; Joel 1:6, and often.

for great shall be the day of Jezreel The result of the warlike enterprise of Judah and Israel is not expressly mentioned, but the addition of these words permits no doubt of its success. Hosea means by the phrase, not the day on which Jehu's guilty dynasty shall be cut short; for the name Jezreel has now been freed from all gloomy associations, and become a title of the regenerate people of Israel. Besides, in phrases like -the day of Jezreel", the name is always either that of a person, or of a place, or a city personified.