Hosea 14:1

[Anim8]

A friend of mine mentioned this verse to me. We’re both Catholic and believe in the Bible, but this verse seems to be a little rough compared to the compassionate God I have always heard / learned about / believed in.

Hosea 14:1
*“Samaria shall expiate her guilt, for she has rebelled against her God. They shall fall by the sword, their little ones shall be dashed to pieces, their expectant mothers shall be ripped open.”

*My reaction to this was first, what is the context? What is going on and why did He say this?

Reading a little further it seems that God is rebuking people that have turned away from Him, and become Godless.

*" They ate their fill; when filled, they became proud of heart and forgot me." -Hosea 13:6

*So obviously they have incurred God’s wrath.

After going on about what He will do, God says:

“Shall I deliver them from the power of the nether world? shall I redeem them from death? Where are your plagues, O death! where is your sting, O nether world! My eyes are closed to compassion.” - Hosea 13:14

Now, I see no conflict with God telling His people what He will do since they have turned from Him. The only real thing I see wrong here, and the only inconsistency, is the lack of compassion or mercy. God seems unwilling to forgive them.

But, just a short while later, He seems to offer room for forgiveness:

*"Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you words, and return to the LORD; Say to him, "Forgive all iniquity, and receive what is good, that we may render as offerings the bullocks from our stalls. Assyria will not save us, nor shall we have horses to mount; We shall say no more, ‘Our god,’ to the work of our hands; for in you the orphan finds compassion. “I will heal their defection, I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away from them.”*Hosea 14:2-5

Why does God say His eyes are closed to compassion, then offer a chance for forgiveness?



EDIT:

Also, why will the ‘little ones’ be punished? Why should the children feel the sting of their parents sin?

 

[puzzleannie]

A
Also, why will the ‘little ones’ be punished? Why should the children feel the sting of their parents sin?

the truth behind this and similar passages is that God is teaching his people the truth about sin, truth that still resonates, yet is largely ignored by the wider culture, even though everything in the culture clangs with the truth: sin does harm. It harms the sinner, it harms the victims and and harms those “innocent bystanders” who have do deal with the result of sin, even to the next generation.

The punishment is not something God dreamed up in the heat of the moment because he is angry, it is inherent in the sin, and is the reason why the choice, the course of action, the decision is sinful. If a parent–or a culture, or a government–adopts abortion, child murder, as personal choice or social policy, their will be innocent victims, the murdered babies, but the abortionists, the parent, and the society that enables this crime which cries out to heaven for vengeance will all be damaged. That is inherent in the crime.

This is one example, but it is especially apt because in most of these OT examples God is specifically warning the Chosen People, who have been given his revelation and law, about the consequences of turning against His covenant with them. To do so, in the cultures surrounding the Hebrews, was to embrace the pagan cultures and Jewish heretical societies, like the Samarians, in all their distorted and pagan beliefs, including child murder as religious, social and public policy.