John Trapp on Hosea 13:4

Verſe 4. Yet I am the Lord thy God, &c.] Yet for all the ſorrow: and though, I thus threaten thee: for ſince I ſpake againſt thee, I do earneſtly remember thee ſtill, &c. Jer. 31.20. It is eaſie to obſerve, all along this Chapter, an interchange of menaces and mercies, as in the preceding verſe and this; ſo verſe 8. and 9. verſe 13. and 14. verſe 16. and chap. 14.1. to ſhew how ſoon the Lord repents him of the evil, and how ready to ſhew mercy to the worſt that return. If men could but finde a penitent heart, he would eaſily finde a pitying heart: like as David would have been friends with Abſalom after all the unkindneſſe, would he have been but better at laſt. To reduce Ephraim it was, that this Chapter, like checquer-work, is made up of promiſes and threatnings; that the tartneſſe of the one might make him the better to taſte the ſweetneſſe of the other.

Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt,] See the Note on Chap. 12.9. He was their God before, Gen. 17.7. but then he mainly manifeſted himſelf ſo to be, when he brought them thence with a ſtrong hand, and ſo declared himſelf to be Jehovah, Exod. 6.2. yea I am ready to ſhew thee the like mercy ſtill: for I remember (ſaith he) the kindneſſe of thy youth, the love of thine eſpouſals, when thou wenteſt after me in the wilderneſſe, in a land that was not ſowen, Ier. 2.2.

and thou ſhalt know no God but me,] i. e. Effectually acknowledge, worſhip, ſerve, love, none ſave me, Deut. 13.2. Gal. 4.9. Thou ſhalt experience none other: it is a bleſſed thing to be ignorant of falſe-worſhip; and not to be inſighted into, or verſed in the depths of Satan, Rev. 2.24. Thou ſhalt not enquire how theſe Nations worſhipped their gods, Deut. 12.30. Ahaz got hurt by ſeeing the Altar at Damaſcus: Many that will needs ſee the Popiſh-ſervice, are enſnared thereby.

for there is no Saviour beſide me. [This is a Title that God much glorieth in. See Eſay 60.16. and 63.1. Act. 5.31. and we ſhould go oft to him in this Name, as Ier. 14.8. ſith he is able to ſave them to the utmoſt that come unto him, Heb. 7.25. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. to ſave them perpetually, and perfectly. He is a ſole Saviour, a thorow Saviour, a Saviour in ſolidum: and doth not his work to the halves, as Papiſts make it. How blaſphemous is that direction of theirs to dying men, to ſay, Joyn, Lord, mine obedience with thoſe things which Chriſt ſuffered for me, &c.