Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament · Hosea Chapter 12

To this God Israel is now to return. Hosea 12:6. “And thou, to thy God shalt thou turn: keep love and right, and hope continually in thy God.” שׁוּב with ב is a pregnant expression, as in Isaiah 10:22: “so to turn as to enter into vital fellowship with God;” i.e., to be truly converted. The next two clauses, as the omission of the copula before chesed and the change in the tense clearly show, are to be taken as explanatory of תּשׁוּב . The conversion is to show itself in the perception of love and right towards their brethren, and in constant trust in God. But Israel is far removed from this now. This thought leads the way to the next strophe (Hosea 12:8 -15), which commences afresh with a disclosure of the apostasy of the people.

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