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From: Hosea 11:1-4, 8e-9

When Israel was a child

[1] When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
[2] The more l called them,
the more they went from me;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals,
and burning incense to idols.

[3] Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them up in my arms;
but they did not know that I healed them.
[4] I led them with cords of compassion,
with the bands of love,
and I became to them as one
who eases the yoke on their jaws,
and I bent down to them and fed them.

[8e] My heart recoils within me,
my compassion grows warm and tender.

[9] I will not execute my fierce anger,
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and not man,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come to destroy.

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Commentary:

11:1-11. The second part of the book of Hosea ends with this very touching pas-
sage summing up, once again, the relationship between God and his people: the
Lord is faithful, whereas Israel is not; but the Lord, true to his nature (v. 9), pro-
claims that he will bless Israel once more. The Christian reader will immediately
notice in v. 1 a line that is applied to Jesus in the New Testament (Mt 2:15).

What is new about this poem is the fact that whereas previously God’s faithful-
ness was described as being like that of a husband, here God is depicted as a
father: “God’s love for Israel is compared to a father’s love for his son (Hos 11:11).
His love for his people is stronger than a mother’s for her children. God loves his
people more than a bridegroom his beloved (Is 62:4-5); his love will he victorious
over even the worst infidelities and will extend to his most precious gift: ‘God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son’ (Jn 3:16)” (Catechism of the Catholic
Church, 219).

With the exception of v. 10, the oracle is placed on the lips of the Lord, to under-
score God’s relationship with his people. From the very first (v. 1), the Lord loved
Israel as his own son, and from the first Israel rebelled (v. 2); the Lord reared him
(v. 3), showing every sign of attention (v. 4: literally “cords of man” as distinct
from the reins used for animals), but Israel is bent on forsaking his Lord (v. 7).
Then, in a burst of anger, the Lord decides to chastise his people; they shall
become slaves once more (vv. 5-6). But this anger does not last long, because,
“even when the Lord is exasperated by the infidelity of his people and thinks of
finishing with it, it is still his tenderness and generous love for those who are his
own which overcomes his anger” (Bl. John Paul II, Dives in misericordia, 4).

This oracle shows the full extent of God’s paternal affection. In the opening chap-
ters God’s love for Israel was compared with the distraught, impassioned love of
a husband for his unfaithful wife; here it is depicted as a father’s love for his son:
he cannot not love him, even if the son proves ungrateful. The very thought of a-
bandoning Israel breaks God’s heart (cf. v. 8). What the prophet is doing here is
telling us something about God’s “psychology”: God’s love for his people, and
ultimately for every human being, exceeds human loves — parental and spousal
(these, in fact, are only partial reflections of divine love): “God is pure spirit in
which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective
‘perfections’ of a man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of
God: those of a mother and those of a father and husband” (Catechism of the
Catholic Church, 370).

This oracle of salvation is rounded off by the final verses. God forgives Israel; it
is only right that he should: he is God (v. 9). The wonderful thing about this pas-
sage is that God’s forgiveness comes before Israel’s conversion: his initial love,
and the later reconciliation, are initiatives of God. Conversion (vv. 11-12) stems
from God’s prior love.

St Matthew’s Gospel (2:15) sees the prophecy in Hosea 11:1 being fulfilled in
the flight into Egypt and subsequent return: according to the evangelist, Jesus,
in his life, embodies the history of his people, and in him God fulfils his ancient
promises to renew the people of Israel.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.