Biblion Bible Commentary
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They Refused to Repent
Hosea 11:5-7
5 “They won’t return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian will be their king, because they refused to repent. · WEB
Three verses of verdict stand between the tenderest passage in the book and its most famous reversal, and they concede that the problem is a settled will.
The sentence in verse 5 is stated as a correction of expectation: they won't return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian will be their king. The book has twice said they would go back to Egypt Hosea 8:13 Hosea 9:3, and here it names the actual destination. Egypt was the figure; Assyria is the address.
And the reason is given in four words: because they refused to repent. The verb is the book's shuv, which falls twenty-one times, and here it appears as a refusal rather than an inability. Chapter 5 had said their deeds won't allow them to turn Hosea 5:4; this says they would not. The book gives both accounts and does not reconcile them.
Verse 6 describes what arrives: the sword falling on cities, the bars of gates destroyed, and will put an end to their plans. The last clause is the political epitaph of a kingdom that had been making covenants with two empires at once Hosea 7:11.
Then verse 7, and it is the bleakest assessment of the will in Hosea: my people are determined to turn from me. Determined — the disposition is fixed, and it is aimed in the wrong direction.
The verse's second half is harder still, and it concerns prayer. Though they call to the Most High, he certainly won't exalt them. Calling happens; lifting does not follow. The book has already distinguished howling from praying Hosea 7:14 and recorded a search with flocks and herds that found nobody home Hosea 5:6.
And the very next verse begins how can I give you up Hosea 11:8.
settled What this mark means