Hosea 6:1

CHAPTER VI

The prophet earnestly exhorts to repentance, 1-3.

God is then introduced as very tenderly and pathetically

remonstrating against the backslidings of Ephraim and Judah,

4-11.

NOTES ON CHAP. VI

Verse Hosea 6:1. Come, and let us return unto the Lord] When God had purposed to abandon them, and they found that he had returned to his place - to his temple, where alone he could be successfully sought; they, feeling their weakness, and the fickleness, weariness, and unfaithfulness of their idols and allies, now resolve to "return to the Lord;" and, referring to what he said, Hosea 5:14: "I will tear and go away;" they say, he "hath torn, but he will heal us;" their allies had torn, but they gave them no healing. While, therefore, they acknowledge the justice of God in their punishment, they depend on his well-known mercy and compassion for restoration to life and health.