Bible Strands
Hosea 11:10
They will walk after the LORD; He will roar like a lion. When He roars, His children will come trembling from the west.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet records God speaking to the northern kingdom of Israel immediately after declaring He will withhold His full wrath and refrain from destroying Ephraim. The moment marks a pivot from threatened judgment to promised restoration.
The words — The Hebrew יִשְׁאָג (yish'ag) means "he will roar," combined with כְּאַרְיֵה (ke'ari) for "like a lion," while אַחֲרֵי (acharei) translates literally to "after" in the command to walk after Yahweh.
The thread — This roaring motif appears in Joel 3:16, Isaiah 31:4, and Amos 1:2, where Yahweh's voice from Zion or Jerusalem triggers tremors or mourning among the land and its shepherds.
Why it lands — The text states that God's lion-like roar will cause His children to return trembling from the west, demanding acknowledgment of His sovereign power as the force that gathers the scattered.
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
They shall walk after the Lord: he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.
Cross-references
- Joel 3:16 The LORD will roar from Zion and raise His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will tremble. But the LORD will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.
- Isaiah 31:4 For this is what the LORD has said to me: “Like a lion roaring or a young lion over its prey—and though a band of shepherds is called out against it, it is not terrified by their shouting or subdued by their clamor—so the LORD of Hosts will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and its heights.
- Amos 1:2 He said: “The LORD roars from Zion and raises His voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the summit of Carmel withers.”
- Jeremiah 25:30 So you are to prophesy all these words against them and say to them: ‘The LORD will roar from on high; He will raise His voice from His holy habitation. He will roar loudly over His pasture; like those who tread the grapes, He will call out with a shout against all the inhabitants of the earth.
- Isaiah 64:2 as fire kindles the brushwood and causes the water to boil, to make Your name known to Your enemies, so that the nations will tremble at Your presence!
- Jeremiah 31:9 They will come with weeping, and by their supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk beside streams of waters, on a level path where they will not stumble. For I am Israel’s Father, and Ephraim is My firstborn.”
- 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.
- Jeremiah 5:22 Do you not fear Me?” declares the LORD. “Do you not tremble before Me, the One who set the sand as the boundary for the sea, an enduring barrier it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot cross it.
- Jeremiah 7:6 if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm,
- Jeremiah 7:9 Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known,