How shall I give thee over, Ephraim? [how] shall I deliver thee up, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? [how] shall I set thee as Zeboim? My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.
Hosea 11 has just sentenced Israel to exile, and then the sentence breaks off. God turns to the people He is punishing, and His four questions are the sound of a heart that cannot let them go.
In this verse Ephraim and Israel are two names for the same people. Up to this point the chapter has been nothing but threat, and one writer sets out what that threat meant:
Their punishment is threatened to the last extreme: out of the land, slaves of the nations around them, which they assumed could never happen... Still, we have a new burst of sorrow on God's part. He grieved even though He had to strike, and He would not completely destroy the people He had chosen.
Admah and Zeboiim are the least familiar names in the verse. A Bible dictionary explains the first one:
One of the cities in the plains of Jordan destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah... The LORD, speaking of His fierce anger against Ephraim, said, "How can I make you like Admah?"
Israel had sunk to the level of towns God had already wiped out. Even so, the answer to the question is no:
Were they not just as bad as the doomed cities of the plain? Yet He would spare them in sovereign mercy. He is not like a man who comes back to finish the job, or who enters the city to make sure it is done completely.
The closing lines of the verse are not cool regret from a distance. God speaks like a man who cannot bring himself to end a relationship:
In Hosea we hear the heart of God pleading. God comes down to man's level and pleads face to face, like a man, with a people He loves... a people He loved and could not give up. His compassion grows warm and tender. He yearns over that people... He does not stand at a distance, high above them, passing judgment on them. Instead He comes down, through the prophet, to their true condition. He comes down to their unfaithfulness to Him, and He begs them to return.
One writer hears the same voice in the Gospels, when Jesus wept over Jerusalem. He then turns it into a question about how we warn others:
The One who wept over Jerusalem is the same majestic Person who said in Hosea's day, "How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? My heart recoils within Me." If judgment must come, it was still painful to the divine heart to be forced to carry it out. Judgment is "His strange work" (Isa. 28:11)... As faithful witnesses for God, it is our duty to warn an evil world of the judgment that is coming. Woe to us if we fail to sound the warning! But how do we do it? Do we do it in a harsh spirit of condemnation, or with trembling lips and hearts full of compassion?
One writer applies these words to believers who have drifted away. What God feels toward them sets the standard for what we should feel:
But first, remember this: the Lord never gives His people up, whatever their state or condition... No! The Lord never forgets His people, however badly they may have sinned. The story of Peter, on the sad night he denied his Lord, announces this truth like a trumpet... If He does not forget those who have drifted away, they will not forget them either. If He yearns over them and pleads with them, they will do the same, as long as His own affections are alive in their hearts.
God's refusal to give Ephraim up is not just a feeling. It ends in a promise for the nation:
But however great the sin of Israel, the heart of their God cannot abandon 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 own homes.
- Deserved — Ephraim had sunk to the level of Admah and Zeboiim. God had already destroyed those towns alongside Sodom, and Israel had earned the same end.
- Withheld — Judgment falls, but it does not destroy them completely. God does not come back to finish the job as a man would. He spares them in sovereign mercy.
- Grieved — He is not detached from the discipline He sends. He grieves even as He strikes, and judgment is His strange work.
- Pleading — He does not pass sentence from a distance. He comes down to their real condition and begs them to return.
- Restored — His refusal to give them up ends where the chapter ends. He puts a trembling, submissive people back in their own homes.
I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God, and not man, -- the Holy One in the midst of thee and I will not come in anger.
God has just spoken of the judgment Israel had earned, and then, mid-sentence, He holds the blow back. The reason is not that Israel deserved better, but that the One judging is not a man — so what does His holiness do when He stands among a guilty people?
The verse before names Admah and Zeboim, two towns wiped out with Sodom. Commentators do not soften the comparison. They call the sparing sovereign mercy, not a lighter verdict.
Were they not really as bad as the doomed cities of the plain? Yet He would spare in sovereign mercy. He is not like a man who comes back to finish the work, or who enters the city to do it thoroughly. For He is God and not man, the Holy One in the midst of Ephraim.
(Kelly follows an older rendering, "I will not enter into the city," where the ESV reads "I will not come in wrath.")
Man, having struck once, comes back to finish. God does not. Writers trace the difference to God's own nature. His heart for this people outlasts their sin.
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.
People wonder how God can change His mind at all. One writer separates what God never changes from a threatened judgment He may not carry out.
God is not a man, so He does not change His mind about His eternal and unchangeable purposes and His unconditional promises; He never takes those back. But in His grace He may repent of a threatened judgment — that is, not carry it out. He did this with Nineveh. We must remember that the Spirit of God stoops to speak in our human way, because we are weak.
We might expect holiness to be the reason God withdraws. Here it goes with His staying "in your midst." One writer sees this as God's settled way of working: He comes near as the Holy One to bless.
The blessing cannot fail; for God reveals Himself as the redeemer, and comes into the midst of His people, as the Holy One, to bless them. So we read again, as in Isaiah 12:6: "Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel." (Compare Ezekiel 39:7; Hosea 11:9; and Isaiah 29:22–24.)
One writer treats "the Holy One" as more than a description of God. He links the phrase in Hosea to the way the New Testament speaks of Jesus.
In Hosea 11:9 we read of "the Holy One in your midst." In 1 John 2:20 we read that we "have been anointed by the Holy One." Mary was told, "the child to be born will be called holy — the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). In 1 John 5:20 we read of "him who is true," and "This is the true God." In His Person the Lord Jesus Christ is holiness and truth embodied. More than that, He has the moral glory of being The Holy One and The True One. These words are really divine titles of Christ and not just divine attributes. No created being can claim this essential moral glory.
If the Holy One stays, the ground around Him cannot stay as it was. One writer applies the phrase to Josiah, a king who spent years clearing idols and filth out of the land.
In Hosea 11:9, God spoke of Himself as "the Holy One in your midst." ... In Josiah's day the land was full of detestable things. There were the idols themselves, and also the filthy practices that always go with idolatry. It apparently took eight years of energetic action to clear all this away. Josiah glossed over no evil he could prevent. But he could not look into the hearts of the people. There, sadly, the evils were in many cases still loved.
This sparing is not just a delay. One writer links it to the promises God makes later in the book.
This same God gave them a king in His anger and took him away in His wrath (Hosea 13:11). Now He says, "I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death" (Hosea 13:14). And again, "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for My anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily, and cast forth his roots like Lebanon."
- Guilty — Israel had earned what fell on Admah and Zeboim; the sparing never pretends otherwise.
- Not man — a man returns to finish what he started; God does not, because His purpose never changes.
- Holy One — the title marks what no creature can claim, and the New Testament writers attach it to Christ.
- In your midst — His holiness does not keep Him away. He comes near to bless, and His nearness leaves no room for evil.
- Result — the withheld anger opens into healing, free love, and a people placed back in their homes.
They shall walk after Jehovah; he shall roar like a lion; when he shall roar, then the children shall hasten from the west
This promise follows God's decision not to destroy Ephraim. His reason is Himself: He is God and not man. What comes next is not a threat but a summons. The Lord roars, the earth shakes with terror, and His scattered children come home.
This promise grows out of God's affection for His people. One writer knows of only one thing in Scripture like it:
How deeply touching are the movements and appeals of divine affections — God's affections — in this book! I know of nothing quite like it in Scripture, unless it is the Lord weeping over Jerusalem.
Whose roar is this? One writer hears the same sound in Revelation:
Revelation 10:3 — He "called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring." Along with the angel's act we have His voice of majesty and power. It causes intense terror throughout the whole earth (Hosea 11:10; Joel 3:16). It is the voice of Christ. "Behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice" (Ps. 68:33). Here we have the roar of the Lion of the tribe of Judah. That heavenly and magnificent scene in Revelation 5 names Him this way alongside the Lamb. But there we watch the action of the Lamb; here that of the Lion.
The verse fixes a moment for Israel's obedience — they follow when He roars. That timing is what makes the promise a prophecy of His appearing rather than a general call to be faithful:
How He loves His people! Though He has punished them, He does not forsake them. He will not be angry forever. He is a covenant-keeping God: "for I am God and not a man" (verse 9)... And so this chapter of the Lord's mercy ends by promising their future restoration and blessing. They will follow the Lord. That will be when He roars like a lion. That is the day when He appears again as "the Lion of the tribe of Judah."
Why does God not wipe Ephraim out? Not because their sin was small. One writer answers from what God is:
Were they not really as bad as the cities of the plain that God destroyed? Yet He would spare in sovereign mercy. He is not like a man who comes back to finish the work, or who enters the city to destroy it thoroughly. For He is God and not man, the Holy One in the middle of Ephraim. Here He gives assurance of two things: that He will step in, and that they will submit and answer His summons. They come from the west, the south, and the north-east; the Assyrians stand for the north as surely as for the east.
Why do they come back from Egypt and Assyria? One writer traces the road they travelled:
In Hosea 10:6 God foretells Israel's glory being carried away to Assyria. God brought Israel out of Egypt. Some went back there. Then the king of Assyria ruled the nation — or what remained of it — and led them captive to Assyria (Hosea 11:5). It was with deep sorrow that God punished His people, and He would not destroy them. His judgments would bring them to "come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria." Then He would "return them to their homes" in their own land (Hosea 11:8–11).
- Heart — The promise rests on God's affections for a failing people. One writer finds nothing like it in Scripture, except the Lord weeping over Jerusalem.
- Spare — He is God and not man. So He does not come back to finish the destruction. Sovereign mercy holds His hand.
- Roar — Then that mercy speaks. The lion's voice is the voice of Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and it fills the whole earth with terror. Elsewhere He acts as the Lamb; here as the Lion.
- Follow — Israel answers the voice. They walk after the Lord when He roars — on the day He appears again, not before.
- Home — His summons reaches west, south and north-east. Those who fled to Egypt, and those Assyria carried off, come trembling back, and He returns them to their own homes.
they shall hasten as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will cause them to dwell in their houses, saith Jehovah.
This chapter ends with a homecoming, not a threat: Israel comes back from Egypt and Assyria, and God settles them in their own homes again. Why those two lands, why do they come trembling, and when does it happen?
The gathering promised here rests on something in God, not on any change in Israel. One commentator links their homecoming to God's refusal to destroy them:
Were they not really as bad as the doomed cities of the plain? Yet He would spare them in sovereign mercy. He would not come back like a man to finish the work, or enter the city to destroy it completely. He is God and not man, the Holy One in the midst of Ephraim. Here He promises not only that He will step in, but that they will submit and answer His call — from the west, south, and north-east. The Assyrians stand for the north as clearly as for the east.
The two countries named are not random. Assyria held most of the exiles, and Egypt was the escape some of them wanted:
Egypt is not, strictly speaking, the place where most of them lie hidden, though any who are there will surely be called out. As a whole the tribes were carried into Assyria… The meaning implied is that in rebellion against God some would have liked Egypt as a refuge from the Assyrian who came to plunder them… But man is always perverse. Egypt itself displeases God, and God will judge it after Israel. Even so, to their blind unbelief it looks like a fine shield against the sword of the Assyrian when he comes, and he surely will come. What we run from against God's will becomes our sharpest scourge.
The dove appears earlier in Hosea too. The nation Israel leaned on became the nation that took them captive:
In Hosea 7:11 it is written, "Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria." The ten tribes are before the prophet, and he tells of their coming captivity: "Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria" (Hosea 9:3). 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 the LORD, so the LORD let him be a captive to the nation he had relied on.
The trembling of the birds answers the roar of the previous line. One writer reads that roar as the appearing of Christ Himself:
And though He has punished them, He does not forsake them. He will not be angry forever… "They will follow the LORD." That will be "when like a lion He roars." That is the day when He appears again as "the Lion of the tribe of Judah." Then, in that day, like a bird from Egypt they will hasten back and like a dove from Assyria. "I will return them to their homes, declares the LORD." Here is another prophecy of their restoration to their own, God-given homeland.
Translations differ on the verb. Some read "come trembling," others "hasten." Both picture birds flying home at His call.
The trembling and the settled home belong to one sequence. God's judgment comes first:
God punished His people with deep sorrow, and He would not destroy them. After His judgments had brought them to "come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria," He would "return them to their homes" in their own land.
The people who finally get a settled home are described by their new bearing, not their old boasting:
But however great Israel's sin, the heart of their God cannot forsake His people. He will not destroy them; He is God, and not man; and finally He will place the people, now trembling and submissive, once more in their dwellings.
The same regathering from the north runs through several prophets:
Assyria is the land of the north from which Israel will be gathered (Isa. 27:12-13; Hosea 11:11; Zech. 10:10; Jer. 16:15; Jer. 23:8).
The mention of Egypt looks back to where the nation's story began:
The coming out from Egypt is also mentioned as a renewal of their history, as though they were beginning afresh under the hand and grace of God.
- Roar — the promise begins with God's voice: when the Lion roars, the scattered people move. The homecoming starts on His side, not theirs.
- Reach — the roar carries to Egypt and Assyria. They answer His call from west, south, and north-east.
- Reversal — Israel leaned on Assyria, and Assyria carried them off. What we run from against God's will becomes our sharpest scourge.
- Return — they come back as trembling birds, not proud riders. Judgment has done its work, and they submit.
- Rest — the last word is home. A second exodus ends where the first was meant to end: a people settled under the hand and grace of God.