Hosea 6:3

Then shall we know, &c. But as this construction is resumptive of Hosea 6:1, we had better translate, Yea, let us know, let us be zealous to know, Jehovah, i.e., to know him as our master, protector, and friend. Why so? Because the want of this knowledge was the cause of Israel's misery. It was however a hasty resolution, from which a full and free confession of sin was fatally absent (contrast penitent Israel's words in Hosea 14:2). Hence the complaint of the omniscient Holy One which follows in Hosea 6:4.

his going forth viz. from his -place" in heaven (Hosea 5:15.)

is prepared as the morning Or, -is certain as the grey of morning" (which heralds the glories of sunrise). The speakers, then, are -a people that walk in darkness" (Isaiah 9:1).

as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth Rather, as the heavy rain, as the latter rain which watereth the earth. Comp. Psalms 62:6. The Israelites count upon the return of God's favour with the same confidence with which, at the autumnal and vernal equinoxes, a farmer counts upon the former and latter rain. Their confidence is excessive; they presume on God's forgiveness without complying with His conditions.