Hoshe'a 6 | “Your Goodness Dissolves Like Morning Mist”

At the end of the previous chapter, we saw that Israel sought healing from Assyria (5:13), and God’s declaration that this attempt would not succeed: “For I will be like a lion to Efrayim and like a young lion to the House of Yehuda. For I – yes, I – will tear them to pieces and leave; I will carry them off, and none will rescue them” (5:14). The chapter concluded with God stating that He would withdraw until Israel acknowledges its guilt and seeks Him on its own: “I will go and return to My place until they realize their guilt and seek Me out, for only in their distress will they long for Me” (5:15).

At the beginning of our chapter, this is precisely what happens: the people remember God, recognize that their troubles come from Him, and seek healing from Him: “Come, let us return to the Lord, for though He has ripped us apart, He will heal us, for though He battered us, He will bandage us up” (6:1). God’s response is surprising — instead of accepting their return, He rebukes them for their sins. While the people use the imagery of rain to describe their yearning for knowledge of God, the prophet takes the same motif and turns it against them, expressing skepticism about their sincerity: “What can I do for you, Efrayim; what can I do for you, Yehuda? Your goodness dissolves like morning mist; like dew at daybreak it swiftly fades” (6:4) — your good intentions are like morning mist that seem to promise rain but disappear without bringing any real change.

Why is God’s response to their repentance so cold? We already saw the underlying reason back in Chapter 2, in the allegory that opens Sefer Hoshe'a. There, God blocks the woman’s path to her lovers so that, having no other choice, she will want to return to her first love — to God. But even when she remembers and desires to return, He does not immediately accept her. The educational process continues: “Hence I will take back My grain as it ripens in its season, My wine as it ages...” (2:11). This seems to be the exact test of whether the people’s desire to return is like morning mist or like rain-bearing clouds: at first, their desire to return to God meets an indifferent response. If they are truly determined, they will persist, and ultimately, if they seek God’s presence for a long enough time and in a convincing manner, their repentance will be complete and genuine.

“Gilad, a city full of sinners, is stained with tracks of blood” (6:8) — the verses rebuke Israel for murder and planned ambushes. What is this referring to? Harav Yaakov Medan explains that these words allude to the endless revolts in the kingdom of Israel during its final years. During this period, kings rose and were assassinated one after another. Most of these coups stemmed from the division between the eastern side of the Jordan River (Gilad) and the western side (Shechem), as seen, for example, in Pekach’s revolt against Pekachia: “Then Pekach son of Remalyahu, his adjutant, formed a conspiracy against him; he struck him down in the citadel of the royal palace in Shomron. With him were Argov and Aryeh and fifty men of the Gileadites; they assassinated him, and he reigned in his place” (Melakhim II 15:25).