Hosea 12:6
New International Version
But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.

New Living Translation
So now, come back to your God. Act with love and justice, and always depend on him.

English Standard Version
“So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.”

Berean Standard Bible
But you must return to your God, maintaining love and justice, and always waiting on your God.

King James Bible
Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.

New King James Version
So you, by the help of your God, return; Observe mercy and justice, And wait on your God continually.

New American Standard Bible
So as for you, return to your God, Maintain kindness and justice, And wait for your God continually.

NASB 1995
Therefore, return to your God, Observe kindness and justice, And wait for your God continually.

NASB 1977
Therefore, return to your God, Observe kindness and justice, And wait for your God continually.

Legacy Standard Bible
Therefore, return to your God, Keep lovingkindness and justice, And hope in your God continually.

Amplified Bible
Therefore, return [in repentance] to your God, Observe and highly regard kindness and justice, And wait [expectantly] for your God continually.

Christian Standard Bible
But you must return to your God. Maintain love and justice, and always put your hope in God.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
But you must return to your God. Maintain love and justice, and always put your hope in God.

American Standard Version
Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep kindness and justice, and wait for thy God continually.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
But you, return to your God, and keep grace and judgment; expect your God constantly

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Thou therefore shalt return to thy God: keep thou mercy and judgment, and draw nigh to thy God continually.

Contemporary English Version
So return to your God. Patiently trust him, and show love and justice.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Therefore turn thou to thy God : keep mercy and judgment, and hope in thy God always.

English Revised Version
Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Return to your God. Be loyal and fair, and always wait with hope for your God.

Good News Translation
So now, descendants of Jacob, trust in your God and return to him. Be loyal and just, and wait patiently for your God to act.

International Standard Version
So you, return to your God; guard grace and justice, and look to your God always.

JPS Tanakh 1917
Therefore turn thou to thy God; Keep mercy and justice, And wait for thy God continually.

Literal Standard Version
And you, through your God, turn, | Keep kindness and judgment, | And wait on your God continually.

Majority Standard Bible
But you must return to your God, maintaining love and justice, and always waiting on your God.

New American Bible
You must return to your God. Maintain loyalty and justice and always hope in your God.

NET Bible
But you must return to your God, by maintaining love and justice, and by waiting for your God to return to you.

New Revised Standard Version
But as for you, return to your God, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.

New Heart English Bible
Therefore turn to your God. Keep kindness and justice, and wait continually for your God.

Webster's Bible Translation
Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.

World English Bible
Therefore turn to your God. Keep kindness and justice, and wait continually for your God.

Young's Literal Translation
And thou, through thy God, dost turn, Kindness and judgment keep thou, And wait on thy God continually.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
A Reproof of Ephraim, Judah, Jacob
5the LORD is the God of Hosts—the LORD is His name of renown. 6But you must return to your God, maintaining love and justice, and always waiting on your God. 7A merchant loves to defraud with dishonest scales in his hands.…

Cross References
Ezekiel 18:30
Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not become your downfall.

Hosea 6:1
Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.

Hosea 10:12
Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of loving devotion; break up your unplowed ground. For it is time to seek the LORD until He comes and sends righteousness upon you like rain.

Hosea 14:1
Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.

Joel 2:12
"Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning."

Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 7:7
But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.


Treasury of Scripture

Therefore turn you to your God: keep mercy and judgment and wait on your God continually.

turn.

Hosea 14:1
O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.

Proverbs 1:23
Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

Isaiah 31:6
Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted.

keep.

Hosea 4:1
Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

Proverbs 21:3
To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.

Isaiah 1:16
Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

wait.

Genesis 49:18
I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.

Psalm 27:14
Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Psalm 37:7
Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

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Always Continually Fast Help Hold Judgment Justice Kindness Love Maintain Mercy Observe Right Times Turn Wait Waiting
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Always Continually Fast Help Hold Judgment Justice Kindness Love Maintain Mercy Observe Right Times Turn Wait Waiting
Hosea 12
1. A reproof of Ephraim, Judah, and Jacob.
3. By former favors he exhorts to repentance.
7. Ephraim's sins provoke God.














(6) Therefore . . .--More correctly, But do thou return to thy God. There is an implied contrast between the patriarch and his degenerate descendants in the days of Hosea.

Verse 6. - Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually. God's character in itself, and his conduct towards the great forefather of the Hebrew race, call at once for confidence and contrition. The evidence of their repentance is twofold: one aspect is manward, consisting of mercy and judgment; the other is Godward, being a constant waiting upon God. The literal rendering brings out the meaning more clearly; it is, "And thou, in [or, 'by'] thy God thou shalt return." If we render the preposition by "in," we may understand it to imply entire dependence on God, or close and cordial fellowship with God; if we take it to mean "by," it signifies the power or help of God; while the return is moral and spiritual, with perhaps material and literal restoration implied A parallel for be in the signification of "by" occurs in the first chapter of this book at the seventh verse: "I will save them by (be) the Lord their God;" also in Deuteronomy 33:29, "O people saved by (be) the Lord." We prefer the former sense as more simple and suitable; it is concisely and correctly explained by Keil as follows: "'שׁוב with בְ is a pregnant expression, as in Isaiah 10:22, 'So turn as to enter into vital fellowship with God; ' that is, to be truly converted.... The next two clauses are to be taken as explanatory of תשוב. The conversion is to show itself i, the perception of love and right towards their brethren, and in constant trust in God." The difference between שׁוּב בְּ and שוּב אֶל is that the latter signifies "to return to," and the former "to return into," and thus expresses inward union with him. The general sense of the clause is thus expressed by Aben Ezra: "If thou wouldst return to God, he would be thy help to bring thee back to him;" and by Kimchi as follows: "But thou who art the seed of Jacob, if thou art willing, canst return unto thy God, i.e. thou canst rest in him, as 'In returning and rest shall ye be saved' (Isaiah 30:15)." The second point of the verse has an instructive parallel in Micah 6:8, "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" In regard to the waiting upon God, of which the last clause speaks, Aben Ezra has the pithy remark, "Depend not upon thy riches nor thy strength, for the strength thou hadst from him, also the riches." Kimchi comments on the same more fully, as follows: "On this condition thou canst rest and not be afraid of the enemy, if thou wilt observe to do mercy and judgment: for his conditions are as he said, 'I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.' And although he does not mention righteousness here, yet he has said in another place, 'Keep ye judgment, and to justice [literally, 'righteousness'].' And he says here, 'And wait upon thy God continually;' now it is righteousness and equity that thou waitest on thy God continually. And even when thou shalt have great possession and riches and wealth, thou shalt say to thyself, ' It is all from him; thou shall remember him continually and wait on him, as he says in the Law (Deuteronomy 8:18), ' Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth; not like Ephraim, who says, 'I am become rich, I have found me out substance.'" The Septuagint has ἔγγιζε, equivalent to "draw near to," having probably read קְרֹב instead of קַוֵּה.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
But you
וְאַתָּ֖ה (wə·’at·tāh)
Conjunctive waw | Pronoun - second person masculine singular
Strong's 859: Thou and thee, ye and you

must return
תָשׁ֑וּב (ṯā·šūḇ)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - second person masculine singular
Strong's 7725: To turn back, in, to retreat, again

to your God,
בֵּאלֹהֶ֣יךָ (bê·lō·he·ḵā)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine plural construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

maintaining
שְׁמֹ֔ר (šə·mōr)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine singular
Strong's 8104: To hedge about, guard, to protect, attend to

love
חֶ֤סֶד (ḥe·seḏ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 2617: Kindness, piety, reproof, beauty

and justice,
וּמִשְׁפָּט֙ (ū·miš·pāṭ)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4941: A verdict, a sentence, formal decree, divine law, penalty, justice, privilege, style

and always
תָּמִֽיד׃ (tā·mîḏ)
Adverb
Strong's 8548: Continuance, constant, ellipt, the regular, sacrifice

waiting
וְקַוֵּ֥ה (wə·qaw·wêh)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Imperative - masculine singular
Strong's 6960: To bind together, collect, to expect

on
אֶל־ (’el-)
Preposition
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to

your God.
אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ (’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā)
Noun - masculine plural construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative


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OT Prophets: Hosea 12:6 Therefore turn to your God (Ho Hs Hos.)
Hosea 12:5
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