Bible Strands
Hosea 5:15
Then I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses Ephraim and the house of Judah immediately after declaring His judgment as a tearing lion who will withdraw to His own location.
The words — אָשׁוּבָה (a.Shu.vah) translates literally as "I will return," coupled with עַד (ad, "until") to establish a conditional withdrawal that ends only when the people acknowledge guilt and seek God.
The thread — The pattern of divine withdrawal followed by seeking God appears in Isaiah 26:16 and Jeremiah 29:12, where prayer and calling upon the Lord follow discipline and divine address.
Why it lands — The text demands readers recognize that God’s hiddenness is a deliberate pause rather than a permanent abandonment, and that genuine repentance must precede restored communion.
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
I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 26:16 O LORD, they sought You in their distress; when You disciplined them, they poured out a quiet prayer.
- Jeremiah 29:12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
- Deuteronomy 4:29 But if from there you will seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
- Psalms 78:34 When He slew them, they would seek Him; they repented and searched for God.
- Leviticus 26:40 But if they will confess their iniquity and that of their fathers in the unfaithfulness that they practiced against Me, by which they have also walked in hostility toward Me—
- Psalms 50:15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”
- Jeremiah 3:13 Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the LORD your God. You have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every green tree and have not obeyed My voice,’” declares the LORD.
- Job 27:8 For what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?
- Isaiah 26:9 My soul longs for You in the night; indeed, my spirit seeks You at dawn. For when Your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.
- Jeremiah 2:27 say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ They have turned their backs to Me and not their faces. Yet in the time of trouble, they say, ‘Rise up and save us!’