When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
God speaks here as a father, remembering the first days of the nation He rescued from Egypt — and the rest of the chapter shows how that child repaid Him. Centuries later Matthew applies this same line to Jesus, which raises one question: how can a line about the exodus be a prophecy about Christ?
The verse opens with God's feeling toward a nation still in its infancy. The picture is of a parent with a small child.
Think of the tender, loving care in these touching words, so full of a parent's affection: "When Israel was a child, I loved him … and I was the one who taught Ephraim to walk — He took them in His arms" (Hosea 11:1, 3). A mother holds her child in her arms as the object of her protecting love and care. She holds its arms when she teaches it to walk. God dealt with His earthly people in the same way.
Commentators tie this line to the exodus itself.
The allusion is clear to the past history of Israel, when they were the object of Jehovah's love and delivering power and special government.
The title "my son" was not new with Hosea. God had used it of the nation when He first sent Moses to Pharaoh.
Moses was to say to Pharaoh, "Thus says the Lord, Israel is My son, even My firstborn." Ex. 4:22. God called him out of Egypt, which is applied also to the Lord Jesus. Hosea 11:1; Matt. 2:15.
But the two sonships are not the same. One writer draws the difference as the nation loses its place.
God was setting aside the people He had called out of Egypt — the nation He was pleased to call "My son, even My firstborn" (Exodus 4:22)… Into this gap steps One who, like the nation before Him, is called out of Egypt… There is this similarity, but there is also an essential difference. Israel became Jehovah's son by His calling the Nation to that place. Son is not what Christ became but what He is in His eternal Being.
Read on its own, the verse looks backward, not forward. It sounds like a complaint, not a prediction.
The prophecy to be fulfilled is Hosea 11:1: "Out of Egypt I called my son." But at first glance this does not look like a prophecy at all, and surely not a prophecy of Christ. Anyone reading it would say it was only a rebuke of Israel as a nation. They had repaid the love God showed in redeeming them long ago by turning away from Him to worship Baal.
The same writer insists Matthew is doing more than borrowing a convenient phrase.
And yet applying the first verse to the Lord is more than an application… The wording of the quotation is far too exact for that. The Lord went down into Egypt for the very purpose of fulfilling what Hosea said.
One answer is that Jesus, carried into Egypt and called out again, begins Israel's story over.
He went down into Egypt to escape Herod's cruel plan to take His life. There He becomes the true Branch. In His own Person He starts the history of Israel over again — morally, that is… The prophecy of Hosea, "out of Egypt I called my son", is not the only word that applies to this true beginning of Israel in grace, as the beloved of God and according to God's purposes. The people had failed completely, and without this God would have had to cut them off.
Another writer says the prophet joins the two together.
God inspired the prophet to blend, as it were, Israel of old and Christ called out of Egypt. Before God, Christ was the true Israel. Israel's history started again in that blessed Person — the One for Whose sake God had led the ancient people out at their beginning.
Because Christ takes up the story, Israel's own future is not lost. He holds it.
Israel had failed completely. It even failed to listen to this glorious Person when He came. Israel comes to fulfil its destiny only in and through Christ, who comes of Israel… In Him, the "Son born" to them, Israel as a nation is yet to revive. His glory carries their blessing with it. He begins their history again for God, cleansed of its failure and its shame. From this comes the necessary application of passages like the one in Hosea, "Out of Egypt I called my son."
- Loved — God loved Israel as a child nation, carrying it and teaching it to walk.
- Called — that love called Israel out of Egypt and gave the nation the title "My son, even My firstborn."
- Failed — the son called out of Egypt turned to Baal, so the chapter is as much rebuke as memory.
- Replaced — Jesus went down into Egypt and came out at God's call, taking the failed son's place and starting Israel's history again in His own Person.
- Restored — Israel's blessing is not lost. It is held for them in Christ, whose glory carries their blessing with it.
As they called them, so they went from them they sacrificed unto the Baals, and burned incense to graven images.
In this chapter God recalls how He loved Israel as a child and called His son out of Egypt. This verse is the nation's answer to that love. Two questions sit inside it. Who was doing the calling? And why does kindness so often meet retreat?
Older translations read the verse as "As they called them, so they went from them." So who are "they"? One writer names the callers: the prophets God kept sending.
The first seven verses of Hosea 11 draw attention to the love and care He had given them, yet the people were set on backsliding from Him. God sent the prophets to call them to repentance, but even so: "As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to carved images" (Hosea 11:2).
The ESV turns it into a rising pattern: the more God called, the further they ran. The movement is the same. Every call back produced more distance.
Taken on its own, this verse is an accusation. God had taken a slave people and made them family. This is what they gave Him back.
Anyone looking at it would say it was simply a rebuke of Israel as a nation. They repaid with apostasy and Baal-worship the love God had shown in redeeming them long ago. He had them taken out of the misery of their bondage, and called them to adoption as His own family among the families of the earth. But how had they repaid it? "As they [the prophets] called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to carved images."
Verse 1 speaks of a son called out of Egypt. Verse 2 records how that son answered. One writer sets Israel's record beside the Son of God, who carried the same title and did not fail.
But while the Son of God, the true Israel, was perfect and holy in all His ways, Israel was unfaithful. Here the record of Jehovah's faithfulness and mercy is opened up. He sent them prophets who called them, but they turned away from Him and gave themselves over to the Baals and the idol-gods. How loving He had been to them! He led them, took them into His arms and healed them.
Another writer sees this chapter placing Christ between Israel's past and Israel's future.
Meanwhile the Lord Jesus comes in between the two, living the history over again in His own person, and becoming the basis for the future restoration of Israel.
God led them, carried them, and healed them. Their reaction shows how badly a heart set on going away can misread even kindness.
So, despite all His goodness in every form they needed, they saw Him as one of those who lay the yoke on the Jews — however He fed them.
Burning incense to carved images did not, in their own minds, mean abandoning Jehovah. God will not accept that mixture. The same instinct shows up outside Israel too.
It did not matter that they pretended to honour Jehovah alongside their false gods. In fact such a partnership made things worse in His sight. Their zeal for His feasts might look serious. But their tampering with idols only increased their guilt and His anger. And there is no doubt: they often showed themselves more zealous for the false gods than for the true God. Christians do the same now. When they take up bad doctrine, the error absorbs them, and they seem to lose the very truth they once professed.
Verse 2 is not the last word of the chapter. The God who records the running away still holds on to His love.
After all this (Hosea 11), God still remembers His early love for Jacob. He reminds them of all His loving kindness, His goodness, His care for them. They would not return to their former condition in Egypt; Assyria would be the place of their captivity. But however great the sin of Israel, the heart of their God cannot forsake His people: He will not destroy them; He is God, and not man.
- Called — God kept sending prophets to call Israel back to Himself. The calling never stopped.
- Refused — The more He called, the further they went. Distance from God was not an accident of circumstance but a settled direction of the will.
- Replaced — They turned to Baal worship and incense to carved images. Many kept God's name alongside the idols, and that mixture made the guilt worse, not lighter.
- Reversed — Israel repaid redeeming love with apostasy. Christ, the true Son called out of Egypt, walked the same history in perfect faithfulness.
- Retained — Even after all this, God will not forsake His people, because He is God and not man. Love answers the running away, not abandonment.
And I it was that taught Ephraim to walk, -- He took them upon his arms, -- but they knew not that I healed them.
God speaks here as a parent remembering a child's first steps. The child is Ephraim, God's people Israel. The verse holds two things together: God's most personal care, and a people who never realised what He was doing for them.
One writer starts from an everyday family scene to show what those arms mean:
A mother holds her child in her arms as the object of her protecting love and care. She holds its arms when she teaches it to walk. God dealt with His people on earth in the same way. He carried them the way you carry a baby. His everlasting arms held them up as He taught them to walk in His ways, leaning on Him completely and trusting Him without wavering. But how unsteady and uncertain their steps were! They stumbled all the way — at Marah, in the wilderness of Sin, at Rephidim. Still those mighty arms held them up, with a patience that never ran out.
God gave this care to a people already turning their backs on Him. One writer sets them beside Christ, the true Israel:
But while the Son of God, the true Israel, was perfect and holy in all His ways, Israel was unfaithful. Here the record of Jehovah's faithfulness and mercy unfolds. He sent them prophets who called them. But they turned away from Him and gave themselves over to the Baals and the idol-gods. How loving He had been to them! He led them, took them into His arms and healed them. He drew them with cords of love… It is a beautiful picture of His great gentleness with them.
God withheld nothing. Israel read His kindness as something else. One writer names what they saw instead:
Despite all His goodness, shown in every fitting form, He was in their eyes like those who put the yoke on them, however well He fed them.
God keeps going back over the record — the calling, the arms, the healing. One writer takes that as a mark of real affection, and a mirror for us:
See how God remembers and points back to every kind of contact between Himself and Israel! He recalls the moments of grace on His part, and faith even on Jacob's part. This is true affection. Now Israel drifted on, completely unfeeling and forgetful… But how wonderful this is! And how we forget the proofs of most loving grace we have had from God, and go on with idle minds! We ought to be with Him in the present. Then memory is, so to speak, not needed. But God has dealt with us, and His heart calls it to mind when we grow cold and forget, because He loves.
Christ met the same refusal when He stood among that people Himself:
But who can tell the sorrows of Emmanuel among that people? They mocked His tender words and refused all His gracious appeals. What words can describe the feelings that filled His soul? He had to cry out to the rebellious city: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!" (Luke 13:34).
- Taught. God held Israel's arms like a parent teaching a toddler. He taught them to walk in His ways, depending on Him.
- Carried. Their steps were unsteady from the start, and they stumbled at stop after stop in the desert. The arms that held them never let go, and His patience never ran out.
- Healed. He led them, took them into His arms and healed them. It is a picture of great gentleness, shown to a people who had already turned to idols.
- Unnoticed. For all His goodness, they saw Him as one who laid a yoke on them, not as the God who healed them.
- Remembered. God recalls old kindnesses because He loves. We forget the proofs of grace He has given us. That same love later grieved over Jerusalem.
I drew them with bands of a man, with cords of love; and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I gently caused them to eat.
God looks back here on how He led Israel: not by force, but by ties fitted to a human heart. What kind of power is that, and what happens when people mistake such kindness for harshness?
The pictures come from farm life: a yoke-strap lifted off the jaws so the animal can eat, and food held out to its mouth. One writer sets these alongside the leading, carrying and healing that come before them.
How loving He had been to them! He led them, took them into His arms and healed them. He drew them with cords of love. He was towards them "as those that would raise the yoke-strap over their jaws, and I reached out to them to eat" (verse 4). It is a beautiful picture of His great gentleness with them.
The ESV reads "cords of kindness." Older translations render the same phrase "cords of a man," and the writers below build on that wording. God does not come to us through creatures that would terrify us.
"A MAN." Not an angel or fiery seraph. We would be afraid of these, and they could not help us in our need. But He has drawn us with "the cords of a man," with "the bands of love."
One writer ties this human word to the name the Lord kept using of Himself, and to the friendship it brings.
The title He constantly used of Himself was "the Son of Man." With the cords of a Man He draws us — with the cords of love! He is "a friend who sticks closer than a brother," a Friend tested in hard times. He walked in paths such as ours, and His heart is with us in the same path still.
The verse that speaks of a lifted yoke also exposes how Israel saw their God. What He did and what they believed about Him were opposites.
So, despite all His goodness in every fitting form, in their eyes He was like those who put the yoke on the Jews, however He might feed them.
The cords did their work: they brought a nation into a land of plenty. What followed was Israel's failure, not God's — and it is not His last word on them.
It is true that the Lord "drew them with cords of a man," and "with bands of love," into a land flowing with milk and honey. But they turned from the Lord and went after strange gods. Yet in the days to come God will again bring Israel into the wilderness. There He will "speak to her heart," and from there open to her "a door of hope."
A cord leads, but it also holds. One writer finds the same lesson in the cords that held the boards of Israel's tent of worship.
Each board tells of an individual believer... the top was held fast by cords. We read of the cords of a man, with bands of love (Hosea 11:4). So I think the cords tell of love: and once again we find that love makes everything strong and firm. So in this beautiful picture we see that each believer is to "stand fast in the Lord."
Hosea 11 sets these memories inside a chapter that also announces captivity. The reminder of past kindness is not nostalgia; it carries a promise.
After all this (Hosea 11) God still remembers His early love for Jacob; He reminds them of all His lovingkindness, His goodness, His care for them... But however great the sin of Israel, the heart of their God cannot forsake His people. He will not destroy them; He is God, and not man. In the end He will place the people, trembling now and submissive, once more in their dwellings.
- Cords — God moves His people by ties fitted to human hearts, not by force. The picture is gentleness: a lifted yoke and food held out.
- A Man — the cords are human ones. An angel would frighten us. The One who draws us took the title Son of Man and walked our path as a Friend.
- Blindness — Israel took the hand that lifted the yoke for the hand that laid it on. They read His goodness as harshness.
- Holding — the same cords that lead also hold. Love is what makes a believer stand firm.
- Return — the love that once drew them into a good land pledges that God will speak to their heart again. His heart cannot forsake His people, for He is God and not man.
He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king; for they refused to return [to me];
Hosea 11 looks back on the God who chose Israel and brought them out of slavery in Egypt. Verse 5 is the turn: that love now meets a people who would not come back to Him. Three questions follow: why Egypt is named, why Assyria becomes king, and what it means that a whole nation "refused to return."
Assyria took the ten tribes captive, not Egypt. So the denial in this verse points at something Israel was hoping for. One writer reads it as a door shut on an escape plan:
As a whole the tribes were carried into Assyria. Hosea says here, "They shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me." What this implies is that in their rebellion against God some would have liked Egypt as a refuge from the Assyrian destroyer... Israel had no reason to love the iron furnace they had come out of. It was their house of slavery until God delivered them through Moses. But man is always perverse. Even Egypt displeases God, and Egypt will be judged after Israel. Yet to their blind unbelief it looks like a good shield from the sword of the Assyrian when it comes — and it will come. What we run from against God's will becomes our worst punishment.
Elsewhere Hosea says Israel "shall return to Egypt." The two statements fit together once you see what returning to Egypt means:
Some have supposed that part of the ten tribes fled to Egypt at that time. We do not think that the words in Hosea 8:13, "they shall return to Egypt," should be read that way. "Return into the land of Egypt" does not have to mean fleeing there. It can mean seeking help there, as Isaiah 31:1 says: "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help."
Israel had courted Assyria for protection instead of trusting the Lord. The sentence in this verse fits the sin:
Hosea 7:11 says, "Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria." The prophet has the ten tribes in view, and he tells of their coming captivity... Israel relied on Assyria instead of the Lord, so the Lord allowed him to be a captive to the nation he had relied on.
The verse names the cause: they would not come back to God. Jeremiah describes the same refusal in almost the same words, and the warning reaches us too:
Move on to the eighth chapter of Jeremiah, where the Lord asks, "Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return" (Jeremiah 8:5). If I do not listen to His word and return, I will end up in this dreadful condition of perpetual backsliding.
The same pull works today. One writer names the instinct behind it:
The Lord warns His people against the tendency to seek help in Egypt. It is no longer only taking counsel without God; it is leaning on the flesh. It is the tendency of all of us not to turn to God unless we are forced to. The prodigal son ate the pods fed to pigs before he thought of his father's house... Egypt stands for the natural strength of the world, Babylon for the world's corruption. Israel seeks support in the natural strength of man. That does not irritate pride or expose what we are. You cannot lean on God without having your pride broken down and learning that you are nothing.
The sentence is real. A people who thought slavery could never touch them again would serve foreign masters. Yet a grieving God speaks it:
Their punishment is threatened to the very last degree: outside the land, slaves of the nations — something they assumed could never happen... Still, we have a fresh outburst of sorrow on God's part. He grieved, though He had to strike, and He would not wipe out the people He had chosen.
- Refusal. The cause of the whole sentence is plain: they would not come back to God.
- Substitute. Turning from God leaves no empty space. It sends you looking for an Egypt — some worldly strength to lean on instead of Him.
- Sentence. The help they courted became the power over them: they relied on Assyria, and the Lord let Assyria be their king.
- Shut door. God closed the escape route they preferred. What we run from against His will becomes our worst punishment.
- Sorrow. A grieving God announces the judgment, and He will not wipe out the people He chose.
and the sword shall turn about in his cities, and shall consume his bars, and devour [them], because of their own counsels.
Hosea 11 remembers God's love for Israel — His kindness, His goodness, His care. Then the sword arrives, and verse 6 blames it not on Assyria's ambition but on Israel's own plans.
Verse 5 says Assyria will be their king "because they have refused to return." Verse 6 shows what that refusal produced. Israel had a plan for escaping Assyria, and the plan itself destroyed them. Kelly points to Egypt, the shelter Israel kept eyeing.
The meaning implied is that in rebellion against God some would have liked Egypt as a refuge from the Assyrian invader… It was not that Israel had reason to love the iron furnace they had come out of — their house of slavery until God rescued them through Moses; but man is always perverse. Even Egypt displeases God and is due for judgment after Israel. Still, to their blind unbelief it looks like a shield they want against the sword of Assyria when it comes — and come it surely will. What we run from against God's will becomes our worst punishment.
The "counsels" were not vague attitudes. Rossier ties them to a real piece of foreign policy under Hoshea, Israel's king.
"But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year." In fact, the prophet mentions this two-faced, suspicious conduct of the king: "Ephraim feeds on the wind and pursues the east wind all day long; they multiply falsehood and violence; they make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried to Egypt." So Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, discovered Hoshea's plot and "shut him up and bound him in prison."
Assyria appears twice: first as the power Israel leaned on, then as the power that carried them off.
It is similar in Hosea 8:9, "For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild donkey wandering alone" — only here it seems to be one of the reasons for the captivity. Israel relied on Assyria instead of Jehovah. So Jehovah let him become a captive of the nation he had relied on.
Verse 6 leaves nothing standing: the sword rages, consumes, devours. Gaebelein reads the judgment as complete — and then points to what comes next in the chapter.
But the Lord declares that they shall not return to Egypt, but Assyria is to be their king, because they refused to return. The sword of judgment would do its work completely (verses 6–7). Then follows a most wonderful outburst of deepest sorrow over the stubborn nation.
The sword of verse 6 is not the last word of the chapter. Darby traces the whole movement: love remembered, captivity, then home again.
After all this (Hosea 11), God still remembers His early love for Jacob; He reminds them of all His lovingkindness, His goodness, His care for them. They should not return to their former condition in Egypt; Assyria should be the place of their captivity. But however great the sin of Israel, the heart of their God cannot forsake His people. He will not destroy them. He is God, and not man. In the end He will place the people, trembling now and submissive, back in their homes.
- Counsel. The sword comes from a source inside Israel. Their own plans, not just Assyria's armies, bring the blade to their gates.
- Refusal. Those plans grew out of one root sin: they would not return to God, so they went looking for a shield somewhere else.
- Egypt. The shield they wanted was Egypt, the land of slavery God had rescued them from. What we run from against God's will becomes our worst punishment.
- Assyria. The nation they leaned on became the nation that carried them off. Their chosen ally became their king.
- Mercy. God carries the sentence out to the full, and still His heart will not let Ephraim go. He strikes, grieves, and promises to settle them in their homes again.
Yea, my people are bent upon backsliding from me though they call them to the Most High, none at all exalteth [him].
Hosea 11 has just described God carrying Ephraim — that is, Israel — in His arms and drawing him with cords of love. Verse 7 shows how Israel answered that love, and what God says to a people set on leaving Him.
Translations differ at the end of this verse. The ESV has "he shall not raise them up at all"; others read "none at all exalts Him."
The Hebrew word behind "turning away" carries a stronger sense than the English suggests. The same word links this verse to Jeremiah and to Hosea's final chapter.
meshubah, "a turning away, apostasy." Jeremiah 2:19; Jeremiah 3:6-12, 22; Jeremiah 5:6; Jeremiah 8:5; Jeremiah 14:7; Hosea 11:7; Hosea 14:4.
The verse describes a direction, not a single slip. One writer traces where that direction leads when it is not judged.
Nor is this all, because unjudged sin leads to worse evil. Go on to Jeremiah 8, where the Lord asks, "Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return" (Jeremiah 8:5). If I do not listen to His word and return, I will get into this dreadful condition of perpetual backsliding. We may well take to heart the warning of Hebrews 3:12-13. "Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God … that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."
God did not leave them to drift in silence. What He had already done for them makes their refusal starker.
He sent them prophets who called them, but they turned away from Him and gave themselves over to the Baals and the idol-gods. How loving He had been to them! He led them, took them into His arms and healed them. He drew them with cords of love … It is a beautiful picture of His great gentleness with them … The Lord declares that they will not return to Egypt. Assyria is to be their king, because they refused to return. The sword of judgment would do its work completely (verses 6-7).
Israel hoped to slip away from Assyria into Egypt. The place they ran to for safety was the last place that could give it.
The meaning implied is that, in rebellion against God, some would have liked Egypt as a refuge from the Assyrian destroyer … Israel had no reason to love the iron furnace they had come out of. Egypt was their house of slavery until God delivered them through Moses. But man is always perverse. Egypt displeased God, and He was about to judge it after Israel. Even so, to their blind unbelief it looked like a fine shield from the sword of the Assyrian — and that sword will surely come. What we run from in opposition to God's will becomes our severest scourge.
The problem is not that God's call is hard to understand. It is that His call cuts across what a person wants.
It is the truth that grates on the reluctant will of man. This is the source of all unbelief … Why then does man not love it? Because he has departed from God and refuses to return in God's way. He fools himself with the comfortable idea that he would like to serve God someday, if not now. But he likes nothing except his own will. Yet anyone who serves God must serve Him according to His will, which alone is holy and good.
Verse 7 is not the last word. Even here, they are still "My people." The next verse shows God refusing to give Ephraim up — and His own feel the same toward those who wander.
Speaking through Hosea, the Lord says, "How can I give you up, O Ephraim? … My heart recoils within Me; My compassion grows warm and tender." (Chapter 11:8.) No! The Lord never forgets His people, however badly they may have sinned … If He does not forget backsliders, His people will not forget them either. If He yearns over them and pleads with them, they will do the same — when His own affections are active in their hearts.
The same word appears again in Hosea's last chapter. There God promises to heal it Himself.
"I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for My anger has turned from them" (Hosea 14:4). What could be more blessed than this? … It is love's victory over the lack of it.
- Bent — the word behind "turning away" means apostasy: a settled direction, not one slip.
- Hardened — sin left unjudged grows into "perpetual backsliding": people hold fast to deceit and refuse to return.
- Refused — God carried them in His arms and sent prophets to call them. They refused to return, and Assyria came.
- Enslaved — leaving God frees no one. The refuge chosen against His will becomes the severest scourge.
- Healed — the apostasy no one could cure is the very thing God promises to heal, loving them freely.