Bible Strands
Hosea 14:1
Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks directly to Israel, calling them back after they have stumbled by their iniquity. The following verse (14:2) specifies the form of that return: bringing confessions and asking for iniquity to be taken away.
The words — שׁוּבָה (shuvah), the imperative "return," is the command that drives the verse; it is the same root used throughout prophetic literature for national repentance. כָשַׁלְתָּ (khashalta), "you have stumbled," renders moral failure as a physical misstep — a fall, not a calculated choice.
The thread — The call to return recurs in Hosea 6:1 ("Come, let us return to the LORD… He will heal us") and Hosea 12:6 ("return to your God; maintain love and justice"), and in Joel 2:12, where the return is qualified by wholeheartedness, fasting, and mourning.
Why it lands — The verse issues a command, not an invitation: "Return." It names the obstacle (your iniquity) without offering an excuse, and the next verse makes the cost explicit — you must bring confessions and ask for iniquity to be removed.
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
O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
Cross-references
- Hosea 6:1 Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.
- Joel 2:12 “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”
- Hosea 12:6 But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and always wait on your God.
- 2 Chronicles 30:6 At the command of the king, the couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his officials, which read: “Children of Israel, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that He may return to those of you who remain, who have escaped the grasp of the kings of Assyria.
- Zechariah 1:3 So tell the people that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts.’
- Isaiah 55:6 Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.
- Jeremiah 4:1 “If you will return, O Israel, return to Me,” declares the LORD. “If you will remove your detestable idols from My sight and no longer waver,
- Acts 26:18 to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’
- Hosea 13:9 You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against Me—against your helper.
- Jeremiah 3:12 Go, proclaim this message toward the north: ‘Return, O faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will no longer look on you with anger, for I am merciful,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will not be angry forever.