Goodness as Kindness
Hosea 6:4
O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do to you? for your goodness is as a morning cloud…


Some take the words to mean, "Your kindness," that is, the mercy which I have hitherto exhibited to you is "as the morning dew" "ye immediately dry up My favour." This seems not unsuitable, for we see that the unbelieving by their wickedness absorb the mercy of God, so that it produces no good, as when rain flows over a rock or a stone, while the stone within, on account of its hardness, remains dry. As then the moisture of rain does not penetrate into stones, so also the grace of God is spent in vain and without advantage on the unbelieving.

( John Calvin.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.

WEB: "Ephraim, what shall I do to you? Judah, what shall I do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that disappears early.




God's Grief Over Evanescent Goodness
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