For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah. I, I will tear and go away; I will carry off, and there shall be none to deliver.
Hosea has just described two kingdoms that felt their sickness and ran to Assyria for a cure. Now the LORD names the real cause of the wound. The lion tearing them is God Himself. No ally, no army and no treaty can pull them out of those jaws.
The verse names two halves of one nation. The prophets had a reason for using these two names.
When the tribes divided, Ephraim took the leading place. Shechem and Samaria were in their territory, which added to this. That is why the prophets always call the ten tribes "Ephraim." In the same way they call the two tribes "Judah." Hosea 5:3, 5, 13, 14.
They had gone to a foreign king for healing. But the wound came from God, and no foreign king could undo it.
Chastening did not lead them to God, but to the Assyrian: could he heal or cure? It was bad enough to be unfaithful to God. It was worse that they exposed their contempt for Him and their unbelief by turning to a stranger... It is a sad thing when the children of God behave badly among themselves. It is an awful thing when they feel no shame in seeking help from the world that hates them... In fact it was God who was inflicting it: no wonder it was incurable. "For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah." So we see that Ephraim and Judah are now joined together, in sin and in punishment alike. First slow decay, then fierce violence.
Slow decay comes first. The lion follows when that quiet warning is ignored.
The picture does not end with the tearing. The lion carries the prey away and leaves.
Although God had rebuked them, they would not return to Him. Afterwards they would seek Him and not find Him. He would have withdrawn Himself from them... God would be to them like a lion that tears its prey. Then He would go and return to His place, until they acknowledged their offence. In their affliction they would seek Him earnestly.
One writer sees more here than the invasions of Hosea's own day. He ties God's withdrawal to the rejection of Christ.
The last verse of this chapter has a wider meaning than the past judgment which came upon the house of Israel. The Lord of glory came to earth and visited His people. He came with the message and offer of the kingdom to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. After they had rejected Him and handed Him over to the Gentiles to be crucified, He returned to His place. There He is now at the right hand of God, waiting for the day when the remnant of Israel will repent and seek His face.
One writer puts the case directly to the Jewish people. He points at their long scattering.
Are you not, instead, mere moneychangers among the Gentiles? A people without a country, without a king or even a prince? Worst of all, though you are no longer fanatics for a false religion, you are without the true one. This is the undeniable sentence of your own holy prophet.
The tearing is not the end of God's purpose. One writer sees here God's settled way of working.
God often reminded them of what they had lost by their own foolishness. He wanted them to think about their ways and return to Himself, the source of all true blessing. And how many, like the prodigal son, have been brought back that way!... He wounds so that He may heal. He breaks so that He may bind up the broken-hearted. "He has torn us, that He may heal us."
- Wound. Ephraim stands for the ten tribes and Judah for the two; both were hurt, and both looked to Assyria for a cure.
- Hand. The wound was incurable because God Himself was inflicting it — no human ally can undo what God has begun.
- Warning. Slow decay came first, then the lion. Ignored sin ends in fierce violence.
- Withdrawal. Being left is worse than being torn. He returns to His place, and they seek Him without finding Him — as Christ, rejected, went back to the right hand of God and waits there.
- Healing. The tearing has a goal. He wounds to heal, and the torn people will one day say, "He has torn us, that He may heal us."
I will go away, I will return to my place, till they acknowledge their trespass, and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early.
God speaks here as one who walks away on purpose. He leaves with a condition attached. That raises two questions: where has He gone, and what will bring His people back?
God had already struck both kingdoms, Israel and Judah, and they ran to Assyria for help instead of to Him. One writer notes what that exposed:
Chastening did not lead them to God, but to the Assyrian: could he heal or cure? It was bad enough to be treacherous to God. It was worse that they had to put their ungodliness and unbelief on display by turning to the stranger. It is a distress when the children of God behave badly among themselves. But it is an awful thing when there is no shame in seeking the resources of the world that hates them… In fact it was God who was inflicting the wound: no wonder it was incurable.
To "return again to my place" is God leaving His people to themselves. Yet the same verse also says they will seek Him. The break is not final:
We have not only the solemn warning of the Lord, but also the plain statement that He was going away from them to leave them to themselves. This was not as if He had finished with them altogether, though they had finished with Him for the time. For He says that in their distress they will earnestly seek Him.
One writer sees here a change in how God governs the world:
God has now no earthly throne and no earthly dwelling place. He has withdrawn from the active government of the earth… In keeping with this, the later Old Testament books call Him "the God of heaven." His title, "Lord of the earth," so familiar in Joshua's day, will not appear again until the last great crisis arrives (Joshua 3:11; Revelation 11:4). The heart of God felt the necessity for this change very keenly.
Commentators see the verse reaching beyond Assyria's invasions:
The last verse of this chapter has a wider meaning than the past judgment which came upon the house of Israel. The Lord of glory came to earth and visited His people… He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. After they had rejected Him and handed Him over to the Gentiles to be crucified, He returned to His place. There He is now at the right hand of God, waiting for that day when the remnant of Israel will repent and seek His face (Acts 3:19-20). That will be in their coming great affliction, in the time of Jacob's trouble.
Another writer hears the same words in Jesus' farewell to Jerusalem:
This was fulfilled exactly, after the Lord had spoken the solemn words: "See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"
The delay has a limit, and more than Israel's future hangs on it. One writer points to Peter preaching to the same nation after the resurrection:
The Jews had rejected and crucified Christ, and He had risen and ascended into heaven. Even so, Peter here, by the Holy Spirit, still proclaims to them the mercy they had scorned until then. He presses on them the repentance which Hosea, our Lord, and indeed all the Scriptures tie to their restoration and to the beginning of universal blessing.
The distress that brings them to seek Him is the harvest of their own choices:
Reaping the fruit of their ways would bring them to seek Him, the One they had left. No one could charge God with injustice in dealing with them like this, for they had clearly deserved it. Indeed, the very fact that He gives them a chance to repent witnesses to His grace toward Israel.
The same pattern touches anyone who has drifted from God. Time passes between turning back and full restoration, and that time has a purpose:
The passage looks for a period of time between the turning of their souls to the Lord and the reviving and raising up that will come from Him. This time lets the soul go through searching of heart, and it tests whether that turning is real. But if the soul keeps up its attitude of true sorrow and self-judgment, restoration is as certain as forgiveness. And we may be sure that God will not keep anyone waiting longer than the needed lessons require.
- Wound. God struck, and they ran to Assyria instead of to Him. No help from the world can heal a wound God Himself has made.
- Withdrawal. "I will return again to my place" means God leaves His people to themselves. He steps back from the active government of the earth, and He feels the cost of it.
- Waiting. The rejected Messiah went back to His place and sits at God's right hand — the "until" of this verse still runs.
- Waking. Affliction is what wakes them and draws out the confession. The very chance to repent is grace, not just justice.
- Welcome. Restoration is as sure as forgiveness, though it may take time. The delay tests and teaches, and God will not stretch it a day longer than needed.