Bible Strands
Hosea 11:1
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Israel through the prophet Hosea, recalling the nation's corporate origin as a dependent people. This declaration immediately precedes a rebuke of Israel's subsequent idolatry in the following verse.
The words — The text emphasizes נַ֥עַר (naʿar), meaning "youth" or "child," and קָרָ֥אתִי לִ/בְנִֽ/י (qārātî li-bnî), meaning "I called to My son." These terms establish Israel's national identity as both a vulnerable dependent and a designated son of God.
The thread — The text states that God called His son out of Egypt, a phrase Matthew 2:15 cites as fulfilled in Jesus' return from Egypt and Exodus 4:22 uses to define Israel's covenant status. Hosea 13:4 reiterates this deliverance as the historical basis for Yahweh's exclusive claim on the nation.
Why it lands — The verse demands acknowledgment that Israel's existence and rescue originate from God's prior love and sovereign call. It requires the reader to accept that covenant privilege establishes accountability, not immunity, for subsequent rebellion.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
Cross-references
- Matthew 2:15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”
- Exodus 4:22 Then tell Pharaoh that this is what the LORD says: ‘Israel is My firstborn son,
- Hosea 13:4 Yet I am the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but Me, for there is no Savior besides Me.
- Jeremiah 2:2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.
- Hosea 2:15 There I will give back her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
- Deuteronomy 7:7 The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
- Ezekiel 16:6 Then I passed by and saw you wallowing in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’ There I said to you, ‘Live!’
- Hosea 12:13 But by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved.
- Malachi 1:2 “I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you ask, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet Jacob I have loved,
- Hosea 12:9 But I am the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt. I will again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast.