New English Translation
Hosea 12:6
6But you must return to your God, by maintaining love and justice, and by waiting for your God to return to you.
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 an angel and prevailed; he wept and begged for his favor. He found God at Bethel, and there he spoke with him! 5As for the Lord God Almighty, the Lord is the name by which he is remembered! But you must return to your God, by maintaining love and justice, and by waiting for your God to return to you. 7The businessmen love to cheat; they use dishonest scales. 8Ephraim boasts, “I am very rich! I have become wealthy! In all that I have done to gain my wealth, no one can accuse me of any offense that is actually sinful.”
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 14:1Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for your sin has been your downfall!
- Proverbs 1:23If only you will respond to my rebuke, then I will pour out my thoughts to you and I will make my words known to you.
- Isaiah 31:6You Israelites! Return to the one against whom you have so blatantly rebelled!
- Isaiah 55:6Seek the Lord while he makes himself available; call to him while he is nearby!
- Jeremiah 3:14“Come back to me, my wayward sons,” says the Lord, “for I am your true master. If you do, I will take one of you from each town and two of you from each family group, and I will bring you back to Zion.
- Lamentations 3:39Why should any living person complain when punished for his sins? נ (Nun)
- Joel 2:13Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and boundless in loyal love – often relenting from calamitous punishment.
- Zechariah 1:3Therefore say to the people: The Lord who rules over all says, “Turn to me,” says the Lord who rules over all, “and I will turn to you,” says the Lord who rules over all.
- Acts 2:38Peter said to them, “Repent, and each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
- Acts 26:20but I declared to those in Damascus first, and then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds consistent with repentance.
- Hosea 4:1Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites! For the Lord has a covenant lawsuit against the people of Israel. For there is neither faithfulness nor loyalty in the land, nor do they acknowledge God.
- Proverbs 21:3To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
- Isaiah 1:16Wash! Cleanse yourselves! Remove your sinful deeds from my sight. Stop sinning!
- Isaiah 58:6No, this is the kind of fast I want. I want you to remove the sinful chains, to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke, to set free the oppressed, and to break every burdensome yoke.
- Jeremiah 22:15Does it make you any more of a king that you outstrip everyone else in building with cedar? Just think about your father. He was content that he had food and drink. He did what was just and right. So things went well with him.
- Amos 5:24Justice must flow like torrents of water, righteous actions like a stream that never dries up.
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
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