Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

1:10 In the same breath that the Lord uttered his detachment from physical Israel, he uses the language of the Abrahamic covenant to articulate the basis for restoration: the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea (Gen. 22:17; 32:12). The failure of Israel to live up to the demands of the covenant at Sinai could not nullify the promises made to Abraham (cf. Gal. 3:17). Israel's salvation must be gained just as Abraham's was: salvation by grace through faith and not by works of the law (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:1-3; Gal. 3:6). In the place is not a geographical reference but a reference to the event when God and his people bonded at Sinai. The Lord will meet Israel at the same place he met with Israel before, i.e., under the same conditions. It is the place of repentance (cf. also Hos. 2:7, 16). God will take Israel back to the desert and begin his work with them all over again.

1:11 the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together. The hostility between "the children of Judah" (the southern kingdom) and the "children of Israel" (the northern kingdom) had a protracted history (beginning in 1 Kings 12:16-24). "Shall be gathered together" is passive; a force outside of Judah and Israel is operative, i.e., God keeping his promises to Abraham. This did not happen in Hosea's time. The prophecy points forward, perhaps to a messianic age when the people would be in such agreement that they would appoint for themselves one head. Their reconciliation is depicted in their following the same leader. While it is not explicit here what form this reconciliation would take, the text views the judgment at Jezreel (Hos. 1:5) as working toward that glorious experience, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.