properly · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
backsliding
מְשׁ֣וּבָתָ֔םme.Shu.va.Tam
H4878
apostasy · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
love
אֹהֲבֵ֖ם'o.ha.Vem
H157
to have affection for (sexually or otherwise) · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
freely
נְדָבָ֑הne.da.Vah
H5071
properly (abstractly) spontaneity · noun, common feminine singular absolute
anger
אַפִּ֖י'a.Pi
H639
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
away
שָׁ֥בshav
H7725
to turn back (hence · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 57:18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.
Jeremiah 3:22 Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.
Isaiah 12:1 And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst…
Ephesians 2:4-9 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy ove…
Hosea 6:1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
Exodus 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear…
Psalms 78:38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not sti…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Hosea 14:4-7
We have here an answer of peace to the prayers of returning Israel. They seek God's face, and they shall not seek in vain. God will be sure to meet those in a way of mercy who return to him in a way of duty. If we speak to God in good prayers, God will speak to us in good promises, as he answered the angel with good words and comfortable words, Zac 1:13. If we take with us the foregoing words in our coming to God, we may take home with us these following words for our faith to feast upon; and see how these answer those.
I. Do they dread and deprecate God's displeasure, and therefore return to him? He assures them that, upon their submission, his anger is turned away from them. This is laid a…
God's gracious reply to their self-condemning prayer.
backsliding--apostasy: not merely occasional backslidings. God can heal the most desperate sinfulness [CALVIN].
freely--with a gratuitous, unmerited, and abundant love (Eze 16:60-63). So as to the spiritual Israel (Joh 15:16; Rom 3:24; Rom 5:8; Jo1 4:10).
Adam Clarke on Hosea 14:4
I will heal their backsliding - Here is the answer of God to these prayers and resolutions. See its parts: -
1. Ye have backslidden and fallen, and are grievously and mortally wounded by that fall; but I, who am the Author of life, and who redeem from death, will heal all these wounds and spiritual diseases.
2. I will love them freely - נדבה nedabah, after a liberal, princely manner. I will love them so as to do them incessant good. It shall not be a love of affection merely, but shall be a beneficial love. A love that not only feels delight in itself, but fills them with delight who are its objects, by making them unutterably and supremely happy.
3. For mine anger is turned away from him -…
I will heal their backslidings,.... This and what follows is the Lord's answer to the above prayer; and this clause particularly is an answer to that petition, "take away all iniquity", Hosea 14:2; sins are diseases, natural and hereditary, nauseous and loathsome, mortal, and incurable but by the grace of God, and blood of Christ; backslidings are relapses, which are dangerous things; Christ is the only Physician, who heals all the diseases of sin, and these relapses also; he will do it, he has promised it, and never turns away any that apply to him for it; and which he does by a fresh application of his blood, whereby he takes away sin, heals the conscience wounded with it, and restores pea…
The Church Fathers
"I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon. They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow; they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine; their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit." LXX: "I will heal their inhabitants; I will love them openly, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like dew for Israel; he shall blossom like the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon. They shall return, and sit under his shade; they shall drink and be filled with the grain, and they shall flourish like the vine; the memory of Ephraim shall be as wine. What will he have more to do with idols? I have humbled him, and I will strengthen him; I am as a cypress tree, your fruit has come forth from me." Turning to repentance, and like an orphan recognizing the father whom they had abandoned, God responded: "I will heal their contrition," or "their dwelling places" in which they had been wounded, or broken, or in which they had lived so poorly: "I will love them freely;" which the LXX translated as "confessing" or "clearly" and "openly," or "without any doubt." But the Lord loves those who love him, of whom he also says in another place: "I love those who love me" (Prov. 8:17). For I used to be angry with them because of the sins they had committed, but now I will have mercy on them because of my clemency. And I will be to them as dew, so as to extinguish the Babylonian furnace and the furnace of burning heat with my moisture, which I spoke through the patriarch Isaac to my servant Jacob: 'Your dwelling place will be from the dew of heaven.' For just as the Lord becomes for believers light, way, truth, bread, vine, fire, shepherd, lamb, gate, worm, etc. Thus, to those in need of His mercy, and inflamed with the fever of sin, He is turned to us as dew, whom Isaiah says: "For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Mercy Of God, The · Manifested: To returning backsliders — Manifested: To returning backsliders
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Hosea 14:4
4. I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.
4. Sanabo defectiones eorum, diligam eos sponte (vel, liberaliter;) quia aversus est furor meus ab eo.
God here confirms what we have observed respecting his gratuitous reconciliation, nor is the repetition useless; for as men are disposed to entertain vain and false hopes, so nothing is more difficult than to preserve them in dependence on the one God, and to pacify their minds, so that they disturb not nor fret themselves, as experience teaches us all. For when we embrace the promises of free pardon, our flesh ever leads us to distrust, and we become harassed by various fancies.…
"I will heal their apostasy, will love them freely: for my wrath has turned away from it. Hos 14:5. I will be like dew for Israel: it shall blossom like the lily, and strike its roots like Lebanon. Hos 14:6. Its shoots shall go forth, and its splendour shall become like the olive-tree, and its smell like Lebanon. Hos 14:7. They that dwell in its shadow shall give life to corn again; and shall blossom like the vine: whose glory is like the wine of Lebanon. Hos 14:8. Ephraim: What have I further with the idols? I hear, and look upon him: I, like a bursting cypress, in me is thy fruit found." The Lord promises first of all to heal their apostasy, i.e., all the injuries which have been inflicted…
Then I will heal you: Healing by God is the only solution for the disease of sin. The Lord heals all our diseases, both physical and spiritual (Ps 103:3).
Rashi on Hosea 14:4
Assyria shall not save us Say this also before Him, “We no longer seek the aid of man, neither from Assyria nor from Egypt.”
we will not ride on horses This is the aid from Egypt, who would send them horses, as they said to Isaiah (30:16), “No, but on horses will we flee... And on swift steeds will we ride.”
nor will we say any longer to the work of our hands that they are our gods.
for in You alone shall our hope be, You Who grant mercy to the orphans.
