“I will heal their waywardness. I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from him.
Parallel translations
- KJV I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.
- BSB I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for My anger has turned away from them.
- NKJV “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, For My anger has turned away from him.
- NASB ¶I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, Because My anger has turned away from them.
- NLT The Lord says, “Then I will heal you of your faithlessness; my love will know no bounds, for my anger will be gone forever.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God promises to heal Israel's waywardness and love them freely, with his anger turned away. It reveals the abundant grace that meets true repentance.
Overview
God answers the prayer of repentance with a pledge to heal their apostasy at its root. The phrase "I will love them freely" emphasizes that this love is unmerited grace, not earned by their return. The turning away of his anger points to the gospel reality where wrath is removed through atonement, freely justifying those who come to him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 23
- Isa 57:18I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.
- Jer 3:22Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding. “Behold, we have come to you; for you are Yahweh our God.
- Isa 12:1In that day you will say, “I will give thanks to you, Yahweh; for though you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you comfort me.
- Eph 2:4–9But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
- Zeph 3:17Yahweh, your God, is among you, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will calm you in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.
- Hos 6:1“Come, and let us return to Yahweh; for he has torn us to pieces, and he will heal us; he has injured us, and he will bind up our wounds.
- Ps 78:38But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn’t destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn’t stir up all his wrath.
- 2 Cor 5:19–21namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation.
- Exod 15:26and he said, “If you will diligently listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, and will do that which is right in his eyes, and will pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you, which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am Yahweh who heals you.”
- Titus 3:4But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared,
- Jer 33:6‘Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them; and I will reveal to them abundance of peace and truth.
- Jer 17:14Heal me, O Yahweh, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for you are my praise.
- Jer 5:6Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them, a wolf of the evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch against their cities; everyone who goes out there shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, and their backsliding is increased.
- Jer 14:7Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name’s sake, Yahweh; for our rebellions are many. We have sinned against you.
- Jer 8:22Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? Why then isn’t the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
- Hos 11:7My people are determined to turn from me. Though they call to the Most High, he certainly won’t exalt them.
- Rom 3:24being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;
- Deut 7:7–8Yahweh didn’t set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples:
- Matt 9:12–13When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.
- Eph 1:6to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved,
- 2 Tim 1:9who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal,
- Num 25:4Yahweh said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them up to Yahweh before the sun, that the fierce anger of Yahweh may turn away from Israel.”
- Num 25:11“Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I didn’t consume the children of Israel in my jealousy.
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Christ at the center
God's relentless love for an unfaithful bride dramatizes the gospel: 'Out of Egypt I called my son' is fulfilled in Jesus, who redeems an adulterous people at his own cost.
How Hosea 14:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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