God’s Word Translation
Hosea 12:6
6Return to your God. Be loyal and fair, and always wait with hope for your God.
Hosea 12:6 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.
- New International Version (NIV)But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.
- English Standard Version (ESV)"So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God."
- New King James Version (NKJV)So you, by the help of your God, return; Observe mercy and justice, And wait on your God continually.
Context of Hosea 12:6
4He struggled with the Messenger and won. Jacob cried and pleaded with him. Jacob found him at Bethel, and he talked with him there. 5The Lord is the God of Armies. The Lord is the name by which he is remembered. Return to your God. Be loyal and fair, and always wait with hope for your God. 7⌞The Lord says,⌟ “The merchants use dishonest scales. They love to cheat people. 8The people of Ephraim say, ‘We’re rich. We’ve made a fortune. With all this wealth, no one will find us guilty of any sin.’
Read all of Hosea 12Hosea 12:6 word by word
וְאַתָּ֖ה בֵּאלֹהֶ֣יךָ תָשׁ֑וּב חֶ֤סֶד וּמִשְׁפָּט֙ שְׁמֹ֔ר וְקַוֵּ֥ה אֶל־אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ תָּמִֽיד׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Hosea 12:6
- Hosea 14:1Israel, return to the Lord your God. You have stumbled because of your sins.
- Proverbs 1:23“Turn to me when I warn you. I will generously pour out my spirit for you. I will make my words known to you.
- Isaiah 31:6You people of Israel, return to the one whom you have so violently rebelled against.
- Isaiah 55:6Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.
- Jeremiah 3:14“Come back, you rebellious people,” declares the Lord. “I’m your husband. I will take you, one from every city and two from every family, and bring you to Zion.
- Lamentations 3:39“Why should any living mortal (any person) complain about being punished for sin?
- Joel 2:13Tear your hearts, not your clothes. Return to the Lord your God. He is merciful and compassionate, patient, and always ready to forgive and to change his plans about disaster.
- Zechariah 1:3Tell the people, ‘This is what the Lord of Armies says: Return to me, declares the Lord of Armies, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Armies.’
- Acts 2:38Peter answered them, “All of you must turn to God and change the way you think and act, and each of you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins will be forgiven. Then you will receive the Holy Spirit as a gift.
- Acts 26:20Instead, I spread the message that I first told to the ⌞Jewish⌟ people in Damascus and Jerusalem and throughout the whole country of Judea. I spread the same message to non-Jewish people. Both groups were expected to change the way they thought and acted and to turn to God. I told them to do things that prove they had changed their lives.
- Hosea 4:1Listen to the Lord’s word, you Israelites. The Lord has brought these charges against those who live in the land: “There is no faith, no love, and no knowledge of God in the land.
- Proverbs 21:3Doing what is right and fair is more acceptable to the Lord than offering a sacrifice.
- Isaiah 1:16“Wash yourselves! Become clean! Get your evil deeds out of my sight. Stop doing evil.
- Isaiah 58:6This is the kind of fasting I have chosen: Loosen the chains of wickedness, untie the straps of the yoke, let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke.
- Jeremiah 22:15Do you think you’re a better king than others because you use more cedar? Your father ate and drank and did what is fair and right. Everything went well for him.
- Amos 5:24But let justice flow like a river and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Commentaries on Hosea 12:6
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 6Therefore turn thou to thy God - Because he is the same, and cannot change. Seek him as faithfully and as fervently as Jacob did, and you will find him the same merciful and compassionate Being.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 6Therefore turn thou to thy God - (Literally, “And thou, thou shalt turn” so as to lean “on thy God.”) “And thou” unlike, he would say, as thou art to thy great forefather, now at least, “turn to thy God;” hope in Him, as Jacob hoped; and thou too shalt be accepted. God was the Same. They then had only to turn to Him in truth, and they too would find Him, such as Jacob their father had found Him, and then “trust in him continually. mercy and judgment”…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 6The Lord urged Israel to stop living like Jacob. Instead, they should return to God and act with love and justice.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 66. thou--who dost wish to be a true descendant of Jacob. to THY God--who is therefore bound by covenant to hear thy prayers. keep mercy and judgment--(Mi 6:8). These two include the second-table commandments, duty towards one's neighbor, the most visible test of the sincerity on one's repentance. wait on thy God--alone, not on thy idols. Including all the duties of the first table (Psa 37:3, 5, 7; 40:1).Read the comment
Topics related to Hosea 12:6
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Hosea 12
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
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