Notes (NET Translation)
6:1 Come on! Let’s return to the LORD. He himself has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us! He has injured us, but he will bandage our wounds!
Verses 1-3 comprise a distinct section of hope between sections of doom. It is a song by Hosea calling out what the people should do (i.e., return to Yahweh). This call to repent “immediately after Yahweh’s declaration that he would retire to his place and await a positive response from the people cannot be accidental.”1 The subsequent section indicates the people’s response falls short. Yet the restoration spoken of is available to future generations who repent.
The first reversal is that God will heal what he has torn to pieces, an allusion to the lion metaphor of 5:14. The second reversal is that God will bandage the injuries of Israel, a reversal of 5:12, in which Yahweh is like gangrene in their wounds. We should observe that these promises not only reverse the former punishments but reverse the sequence as well.2
The hope in v. 1b is based on the covenant promises that Yahweh will never utterly reject his people.
6:2 He will restore us in a very short time; he will heal us in a little while, so that we may live in his presence.
The Hebrew speaks of “after two days” (“after a short time” in the NET) and “on the third day” (“in a little while” in the NET).
The first two lines of the triplet in vv 2–3aα form a chiasm (bring to life:two days::third day:resurrect). As chiasms occur almost exclusively in synonymous parallelisms, there can be little doubt that “two days” and “third day” constitute a poetic numerical figure of the n:n+1 sort. The poetic figure should not be taken literalistically (in two or three days, all would be well) or to mean “soon” (even in a relative sense). Its intent is more likely that after “a set time” Yahweh would again visit his people in mercy; thus he would not, in effect, forget them (cf. 3:4, 5).3
The first two verbs (חיה, piel, and קום, hiphil) here in chiastic parallel, clearly denote coming back to life from the dead, a theme already expressed in 2:2, and analogous (as in 2:1–3) to Ezek 37:6, 10, 12–14. The attempts of Wolff and others to eliminate the concept of resurrection from the verse are unsuccessful.4
The resurrection spoken of is a metaphor for the restoration of Israel, the people of God.
Both Luke 24:7 and 1 Cor 15:4 share the wording of the Greek of v. 2b (“on the third day we will be resurrected and will live in his presence”) when making references to Jesus’s resurrection. The links from the New Testament are typological in nature (the works of God proceed according to identifiable patterns). Hosea 6:2 is not a direct prediction of Jesus’s resurrection.
6:3 So let us search for him! Let us seek to know the LORD! He will come to our rescue as certainly as the appearance of the dawn, as certainly as the winter rain comes, as certainly as the spring rain that waters the land.
A second invitation is made — seek to know Yahweh. The dawn is obviously a daily event while rains are a yearly event. “Winter rain” translates the general term for rain (gešem) while “spring rain” (malqôš) refers specifically to the second of the two major periods of rainfall in Israel (Deut 11:14; Jer 5:24).
6:4 What am I going to do with you, O Ephraim? What am I going to do with you, O Judah? For your faithfulness is as fleeting as the morning mist; it disappears as quickly as dawn’s dew.
The call to repentance in vv. 1-3 goes unheeded. The repeat rhetorical questions of v. 4 reflect the hopelessness of the situation. The basic problem is Israel’s disloyalty to the covenant.
6:5 Therefore, I will certainly cut you into pieces at the hands of the prophets; I will certainly kill you in fulfillment of my oracles of judgment, for my judgment will come forth like the light of the dawn.
The phrase, “I will certainly cut you into pieces at the hands of the prophets,” probably refers to the prophets proclaiming divine judgment. The “prophets” refers to many prophets, not just Hosea, possibly going as far back as Moses. One thinks especially of Hosea’s contemporaries Amos, Micah, and Isaiah. The final clause of the verse means God’s judgment is certain.
6:6 For I delight in faithfulness, not simply in sacrifice; I delight in acknowledging God, not simply in whole burnt offerings.
Yahweh does not desire cultic observance which seeks to manipulate rather than respond properly to him, and ḥesed [faithfulness] and the knowledge of God emphasize the importance of relationship with him. Sacrifices offered with the right inner attitude remain important, and will do so until Christ’s death makes them unnecessary.5
It needs to be emphasized that, since the sacrifices mentioned here were intended to please Yahweh, the verse has nothing to do with Israelite involvement in Baal worship. There was no doubt about condemning that. The worship mentioned in 4:15 is Yahweh worship, because they swear “by the life of Yahweh.” The worship in 5:6 is sacrifice for purposes of seeking Yahweh. In both instances Hosea declares such worship void and useless; cf. 3:4. These sayings could be directed to the situation at that time, and not be intended to give a blanket appraisal of Israel’s worshiping of Yahweh. Hos 6:6 gives the reason for 5:6. They will not find Yahweh when they come with flocks and herds, because he desires mercy, not sacrifice.6
Cf. 1 Sam 15:22-23; Matt 9:13; 12:7.
Bibliography
Andersen, Francis I., and David Noel Freedman. Hosea: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. The Anchor Yale Bible 24. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2008.
Dearman, J. Andrew. The Book of Hosea. New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010.
Garrett, Duane A. Hosea, Joel. The New American Commentary 19A. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1997.
Routledge, Robin. Hosea: An Introduction and Commentary. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 24. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2020.
Stuart, Douglas. Hosea-Jonah. Word Biblical Commentary 31. Dallas: Word Books, 1987.
Biblical Scholarship 