Hosea 14:9

An epilogue or conclusion to the prophecy, unspecializing it, as it were, and extracting the general moral lesson which underlies it all. The tone and language of it remind us of the Book of Proverbs (Proverbs 11:5; Proverbs 15:19). The term -the righteous" occurs nowhere else in Hosea.

Who is wise, &c. Rather, Whoso is wise, let him understand these things (i.e. the foregoing prophecies). One great mark of -wisdom" in the Old Testament sense was a rational acquiescence in the equity of the providential government.

for the ways of the Lord, &c. The -ways of Jehovah" are those marked out by Him as Governor of the world for the righteous and for the wicked respectively. These -ways" are -straight" or -right" (synonymous with -righteous", as Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalms 119:37), alike when they spread themselves out in an unbroken level for the pious, and when they oppose themselves in rocky stumbling-blocks to the ungodly. Comp. Proverbs 11:5; Proverbs 15:19; Isaiah 26:7.