Hosea 5:15

5:8-15 The destruction of impenitent sinners is not mere talk, to frighten them, it is a sentence which will not be recalled. And it is a mercy that we have timely warning given us, that we may flee from the wrath to come. Compliance with the commandments of men, who thwart the commandments of God, ripens a people for ruin. The judgments of God are sometimes to a sinful people as a moth, and as rottenness, or as a worm; as these consume the clothes and the wood, so shall the judgments of God consume them. Silently, they shall think themselves safe and thriving, but when they look into their state, shall find themselves wasting and decaying. Slowly, for the Lord gives them space to repent. Many a nation; as well as many a person, dies of a consumption. Gradually, God comes upon sinners with lesser judgments, to prevent greater, if they will be wise, and take warning. When Israel and Judah found themselves in danger, they sought the protection of the Assyrians, but this only helped to make their wound the worse. They would be forced to apply to God. He will bring them home to himself, by afflictions. When men begin to complain more of their sins than of their afflictions, then there begins to be some hope of them; and when under the conviction of sin, and the corrections of the rod, we must seek the knowledge of God.

(15) Tenderness blends with judgment, and insulted love bleeds and hopes. The image of the lion is dropped. Jehovah speaks of “His own place”—Heaven. He will cause all manifestations of His regard for them to cease till “they suffer punishment, and seek my face,” and, like the prodigal in the flush of a new morning, will arise and go unto the Father.

15. return to my place—that is, withdraw My favor. till they acknowledge their offence—The Hebrew is, "till they suffer the penalty of their guilt." Probably "accepting the punishment of their guilt" (compare Zec 11:5) is included in the idea, as English Version translates. Compare Le 26:40, 41; Jer 29:12, 13; Eze 6:9; 20:43; 36:31. seek my face—that is, seek My favor (Pr 29:26, Margin). in … affliction … seek me early—that is, diligently; rising up before dawn to seek Me (Ps 119:147; compare Ps 78:34).

Hosea 5:15 . I will go and return to my place — I will withdraw myself from them, and give them up to exile and punishment, till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face: that is, till they confess their sins, and, by a sincere humiliation, and in fervent prayer, implore my favour. The Chaldee paraphrase expresses the sense thus: “I will take away my majestic presence, or shechinah, from among them, and will return into heaven.” Thus Ezekiel describes the destruction of the temple and kingdom, by God’s removing his glory from the sanctuary and city: see Ezekiel 10:4 ; Ezekiel 11:23 . In their affliction they will seek me early — That is, without delay, and earnestly; or, with great diligence and assiduity. Observe, reader, when we are under the corrections of the divine rod, our business is to seek God’s face, that is, an acquaintance with him, a token of his being at peace with us, and a manifestation of his favour. And it may reasonably be expected that affliction will bring those to God who had gone astray, and kept at a distance from him. For this reason God turns away from us, that he may turn us to himself, and then may return to us. Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. The first three verses of the next chapter should have been joined to this. So the LXX. thought, connecting the last verse of this with the first of the next, by the participle λεγοντες , saying.

I will go and return to my place: after the manner of man God speaks, he will do that which shall be like a man’s going away from such as refuse though they need his help, he retires; God will withdraw his saving help. Till they acknowledge their offence; till they confess and humble themselves for their sins. And seek my face; me their God, my mercy, and my law; their Sovereign as well as Saviour. In their affliction they will seek me early; in deep distresses they will, at least some will, seek me diligently, as indeed they did at the end of Judah’s seventy years’ captivity.

15 . return to my place ] See Micah 1:3 , from which it is clear that Jehovah’s ‘place’ is the heavenly temple ( Isaiah 6:1 ). Now that Jehovah has for a time deserted his guilty people, he will return to his seat on high, and watch ( Isaiah 18:4 ) the doings of men. He has full confidence that Israel on his side will return and repent. acknowledge their offence ] Rather, feel their guilt (as the word means in Leviticus 4:4-5 ; Zechariah 11:5 ). Hosea 5:15

I will go and return to My place - As the wild beast, when he has taken his prey, returns to his covert, so God, when He had fulfilled His will, would, for the time, withdraw all tokens of his presence. God, who is wholly everywhere, is said to dwell "there," relatively to us, where he manifests Himself, as of old, in the tabernacle, the temple, Zion, Jerusalem. He is said to "go and return," when He withdraws all tokens of His presence, His help, care, and providence. This is worse than any affliction on God's part , "a state like theirs who, in the lowest part of hell, are "delivered into chains of darkness," shut out from His presence, and so from all hope of comfort; and this must needs be their condition, so long as He shall be absent from them; and so perpetually, except there be a way for obtaining again His favorable presence." Till they acknowledge their offence - o: "He who "hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live," withdraws Himself from them, not to cast them off altogether, but that they might know and acknowledge their folly and wickedness, and, seeing there is no comfort out of Him, prefer His presence to those vain things." which they had preferred to Him To say, that God would hide His Face from them, "until they should acknowledge their offence," holds out in itself a gleam of hope, that hereafter they would turn to Him, and would find Him.

And seek My Face - The first step in repentance is confession of sin; the second, turning to God. For to own sin without turning to God is the despair of Judas. In their affliction they shall seek Me early - God does not only leave them hopes, that He would show forth his presence, when they sought him, but He promises that they shah seek Him, i. e. He would give them His grace whereby alone they could seek Him, and that grace should be effectual. Of itself affliction drives to despair and more obdurate rebellion and final impenitence. Through the grace of God, "evil brings forth good; fear, love; chastisement, repentance." "They shall seek Me early," originally, "in the morning," i. e., with all diligence and earnestness, as a man riseth early to do what he is very much set upon. So these shall "shake off the sleep of sin and the torpor of listlessness, when the light of repentance shall shine upon them." This was fulfilled in the two tribes, toward the end of the seventy years, when many doubtless, together with Daniel, "set their face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes" Daniel 9:2-3; and again in, those "who waited for redemption in Jerusalem" Luke 2:25, Luke 2:38, when our Lord came; and it will be fulfillment in all at the end of the world. "The first flash of thought on the power and goodness of the true Deliverer, is like the morning streaks of a new day.

No help is to be expected from Assyria, because the Lord will punish His people. Hosea 5:14 . "For I am like a lion to Ephraim, and like the young lion to the house of Judah: I, I tear in pieces, and go; I carry away, and there is no deliverer. Hosea 5:15 . "I go, return to my place, till they repent and shall seek my face. In their affliction they will seek me early." For the figure of the lion, which seizes its prey, and tears it in pieces without deliverance, see Hosea 13:7 and Isaiah 5:29 . אשּׂא denotes the carrying away of booty, as in 1 Samuel 17:34 . For the fact itself, compare Deuteronomy 32:39 . The first clause of Hosea 5:15 is still to be interpreted from the figure of the lion. As the lion withdraws into its cave, so will the Lord withdraw into His own place, viz., heaven, and deprive the Israelites of His gracious, helpful presence, until they repent, i.e., not only feel themselves guilty, but feel the guilt by bearing the punishment. Suffering punishment awakens the need of mercy, and impels them to seek the face of the Lord. The expression, "in the distress to them," recals בּצּר לך in Deuteronomy 4:30 . Shichēr is to be taken as a denom. of shachar, the morning dawn ( Hosea 6:3 ), in the sense of early, i.e., zealously, urgently, as the play upon the word כּשׁחר in Hosea 6:3 unmistakeably shows. For the fact itself, compare Hosea 2:9 and Deuteronomy 4:29-30 .