New International Version
Hosea 12:6
6But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.
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.
- 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.
- New Living Translation (NLT)So now, come back to your God. Act with love and justice, and always depend on him.
Context of Hosea 12:6
4He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there— 5the Lord God Almighty, the Lord is his name! But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always. 7The merchant uses dishonest scales and loves to defraud. 8Ephraim boasts, “I am very rich; I have become wealthy. With all my wealth they will not find in me any iniquity or 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 14:1Return, Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall!
- Proverbs 1:23Repent at my rebuke! Then I will pour out my thoughts to you, I will make known to you my teachings.
- Isaiah 31:6Return, you Israelites, to the One you have so greatly revolted against.
- Isaiah 55:6Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
- Jeremiah 3:14“Return, faithless people,” declares the Lord, “for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion.
- Lamentations 3:39Why should the living complain when punished for their sins?
- Joel 2:13Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
- Zechariah 1:3Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty.
- Acts 2:38Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
- Acts 26:20First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds.
- Hosea 4:1Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.
- Proverbs 21:3To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
- Isaiah 1:16Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong.
- Isaiah 58:6“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
- Jeremiah 22:15“Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him.
- Amos 5:24But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing 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
New International Version — © NIV® 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 Biblica
Commentaries