Hoshe'a 11 | "When Israel Was a Child, I Already Loved Him"

In Chapter 11, God expresses, plainly and sincerely, that He simply loves Israel, His child: “When Israel was a child, I already loved him; from Egypt I called him to Me to be My son” (11:1). And just like in a classic relationship between a father and his adolescent son — the father cares for his child, while the child is ungrateful: “It was I who guided Efrayim's first steps, carrying them in My arms, but they never grasped that I was the one who tended them” (11:3). God lifts the child to His cheek in affection and feeds him tenderly: “I led them with reins of human compassion, with ties of love; I was to them like him who lifts the harness from their mouths, and I gently bent down to feed them” (11:4).

Yet despite all of this, the child does not return to God, and so calamity befalls him: “The sword will linger in their cities; it will consume all their villages and devour them because of their evil designs” (11:6). But even in the midst of this punishment, God’s compassion is stirred by His love for His child: “How can I relinquish you, Efrayim; hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Adma and treat you like Tzevoyim? My heart has turned upon Me; My compassion has been kindled” (11:8). God declares that He will not utterly destroy Efrayim; He will return them to their homes, and they will once again follow Him.

In Chapter 2, we saw a similar dynamic, but framed in terms of husband and wife rather than father and son. There, too, the husband showered his wife with goodness, but she persisted in her betrayal of him. The solution in that chapter was an entire process of returning to the wilderness and renewing the love between them. Here, however, the process is much simpler: the allegory of father and son highlights a love that is instinctive, one that does not depend on the beloved’s behavior. Even when the child deserves to be punished, in the end, his father will have mercy on him.