Matthew Poole and continuators on Hosea 14:1

1 O Israel , return unto the LORD thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity .

You that are the true Israel of God, you that are the [illegible: 2 letters]mnant amidst so great a Body of incurable Rebels.

Repent [illegible: 2 letters]e throughly, not hypocritically, turn ye from all your sins [illegible: 1 letter]n which with others you have been defiled, and turn to the Lord.

The Everlasting living God, who is worthy to be worshipt and obey'd; your Idols were never worth your love, but the Lord, the Fountain of Being and Life is worthy of it.

Turn to him as thy God in covenant with thee, to get pardon for past sins according to Covenant promise, to renew Covenant for time to come, and to ingage thy self sincerely and heartily to be his people.

Thy sins against the Lord thy God have enkindled his Wrath against thee, have involved thee in endless troubles, have turn'd thy prosperity into extream adversity; sin hath cast thee from the height of Glory to the depth of reproach and contempt, thus thou art fallen.

It is singular number either because all their sins were so link't together, they were as one huge mass of sin, or it refers particularly to their Idolatry, which [illegible: 1 letter]s by way of eminency, and above any one other sin, a [illegible: 2 letters]lling from God, and here punisht with a fall into calamities.

Marginal references: chap. 12.6.