"And it comes to pass in that day, I will hear, is the word of Jehovah; I will hear heaven, and it hears the earth. And the earth will hear the corn, and the new wine, and the oil; and they will hear Jezreel (God sows)." God will hear all the prayers that ascend to Him from His church (the first אענה is to be taken absolutely; compare the parallel in Isaiah 58:9), and cause all the blessings of heaven and earth to flow down to His favoured people. By a prosopopeia, the prophet represents the heaven as praying to God, to allow it to give to the earth that which is requisite to ensure its fertility; whereupon the heaven fulfils the desires of the earth, and the earth yields its produce to the nation.

(Note: As Umbreit observes, "It is as though we heard the exalted harmonies of the connected powers of creation, sending forth their notes as they are sustained and moved by the eternal key-note of the creative and moulding Spirit.")

In this way the thought is embodied, that all things in heaven and on earth depend on God; "so that without His bidding not a drop of rain falls from heaven, and the earth produces no germ, and consequently all nature would at length be barren, unless He gave it fertility by His blessing" (Calvin). The promise rests upon Deuteronomy 28:12, and forms the antithesis to the threat in Leviticus 26:19 and Deuteronomy 28:23-24, that God will make the heavens as brass, and the earth as iron, to those who despise His name. In the last clause the prophecy returns to its starting-point with the words, "Hear Jezreel." The blessing which flows down from heaven to earth flows to Jezreel, the nation which "God sows." The name Jezreel, which symbolizes the judgment about to burst upon the kingdom of Israel, according to the historical signification of the name in Hosea 1:4, Hosea 1:11, is used here in the primary sense of the word, to denote the nation as pardoned and reunited to its God.

This is evident from the explanation given in Hosea 2:23 : "And I sow her for myself in the land, and favour Unfavoured, and say to Not-my-people, Thou art my people; and it says to me, My God." זרע does not mean "to strew," or scatter (not even in Zechariah 10:9; cf. Koehler on the passage), but simply "to sow." The feminine suffix to זרעתּיה refers, ad sensum, to the wife whom God has betrothed to Himself for ever, i.e., to the favoured church of Israel, which is now to become a true Jezreel, as a rich sowing on the part of God. With this turn in the guidance of Israel, the ominous names of the other children of the prophet's marriage will also be changed into their opposite, to show that mercy and the restoration of vital fellowship with the Lord will now take the place of judgment, and of the rejection of the idolatrous nation. With regard to the fulfilment of the promise, the remarks made upon this point at Hosea 1:11 and Hosea 2:1 (pp. 33, 34), are applicable here, since this section is simply a further expansion of the preceding one.

Hosea 13:10 Parallel Commentaries

I will be thy king. or, Where is thy king? King Hosea being then in prison,

2 Kings 17:4 And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt...

.

Psalm 10:16 The LORD is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.

Psalm 44:4 You are my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.

Psalm 47:6,7 Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises to our King, sing praises...

Psalm 74:12 For God is my King of old, working salvation in the middle of the earth.

Psalm 89:18 For the LORD is our defense; and the Holy One of Israel is our king.

Psalm 149:2 Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

Isaiah 33:22 For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.

Isaiah 43:15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.

Jeremiah 8:19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion?...

Zechariah 14:9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.

John 1:49 Nathanael answered and said to him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.

where.

Hosea 13:4 Yet I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt, and you shall know no god but me: for there is no savior beside me.

Hosea 10:3 For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the LORD; what then should a king do to us?

Deuteronomy 32:37-39 And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted...

Jeremiah 2:28 But where are your gods that you have made you? let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble...

thy judges.

Hosea 8:4 They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not...

Judges 2:16-18 Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them...

1 Samuel 8:5,6,19,20 And said to him, Behold, you are old, and your sons walk not in your ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations...

1 Samuel 12:11,12 And the LORD sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side...

1 Kings 12:20 And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, that they sent and called him to the congregation...