Hosea 6:2

After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up,.... The Jews, in their present state, are as dead men, both in a civil and spiritual sense, and their conversion and

After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

In this verse it is most certain we are to regard both the literal and historical sense, and distinguish it from the mystical and accommodated sense; in this latter, these words foretell the death, and resurrection, and future glory of Christ and Christians, as , and so are generally interpreted and applied by expositors. As to the letter, his history, it is in brief thus: After two days; after some short time of sufferings for our sins, or rather when our sufferings have brought us to repentance and return to God, our God will soon after show us his grace and favour, and revive our dead state. It is not needful we inquire how long time this two days intends, it is a certain time for an uncertain, two days for a short time. God doth not delay long when we return to him, ,19, with ; and , with . He will revive us: though we were as dead men, buried in our miseries, and neither deserved from God, nor could hope from any other hand, a resurrection, and recovery to a better state; yet our merciful God will quicken us again. ,9, expresseth their return out of captivity in those words that might well paraphrase our prophet. In the third day he will raise us up: mercy recovers by degrees, and therefore a third day is added, in which this people shall be raised up, increased, established, and confirmed. Possibly the prophet may allude to the third day, which is said to be a critical day to the wounded, who conceive hopes when better on that day; or possibly it may refer to the third decree by Darius made to Nehemiah for building Jerusalem, and the two days may refer to the times of Cyrus reviving the Jews, first, by his decree of liberty, and command to build the temple. The second day or time that of Darius Hystaspes to Zerubbabel and Joshua, for building the temple, in which work his bounty revived the hopes of the Jews; however poor and unable, yet the temple should be built, and the worship of God restored. This was a great reviving, but their settlement was upon the third decree, which was given out by Darius Longimanus to Nehemiah, . We shall live; flourish in peace, wealth, and joy; in pure worship of God, in righteousness among ourselves, in safety from enemies. In his sight; the eye of our God being upon us for good, and we filled with the fruits of his favour, inheriting his promises here till we fully possess them in the light of glory.

Hosea 6:2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.Ver. 2. After two days will he revive us] Whereas some of those who were called upon to "Come and return unto the Lord," might say with those in Jeremiah 18:12, "Nay, for there is no hope," God hath mortally wounded us, so that we are already in the jaws of death, "free among the dead," as the Psalmist hath it, Psalms 88:5, free of that company. The better sort of them, fullest of faith, answer, dead though we be, yet God will revive us; and long though it seem, yet after two days, or such a matter, in a very short time, as soon as ever it shall be convenient, and for our greatest good, "He that shall come" to our comfort, "will come, and will not tarry," Hebrews 10:37. And for the certainty of it, as sure as the third day followeth the second, so sure shall deliverance come in due season; fear ye not. In the third day he will raise me up] He will, he will, never doubt it. Oh, the rhetoric of God! Oh the certainty of the promises! See the like expressions, Isaiah 26:20; Isaiah 10:25 Haggai 2:7 Habakkuk 2:3 Hebrews 10:37, and have patience. God’ s help seems long, because we are short: Nec quia dura, sed quia molles patimur (Seneca). We should draw forth hope as a line; and think we hear Christ saying, as he did to Peter, "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter," John 13:7.

(2, 3) Render, So that we shall live in his presence, and shall know and strive after the knowledge of Jehovah, whose coming forth is sure, like the dawn (another play on 6:15, “I will return to my place, &c.”), so that he may come as the plentiful (dashing) rain for us, as the latter rain (needed for the ripening corn) which watereth the earth.

Verse 2. After two days will he revive] Such is his power that in two or three days he can restore us. He can realize all our hopes, and give us the strongest token for good. In the third day he will raise us up] In so short a time can he give us complete deliverance. These words are supposed to refer to the death and resurrection of our Lord; and it is thought that the apostle refers to them, 1 Corinthians 15:4: "Christ rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures;" and this is the only place in the Scriptures, i.e., of the Old Testament, where his resurrection on the third day seems to be hinted at. The original, יקמנו yekimenu, has been translated, he will raise him up. Then they who trusted in him could believe that they should be quickened together with him. And we shall live in his sight.] His resurrection being a proof of theirs.

2. This verse contains the germ of the striking allegory of the dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-10), and reminds us also of the prediction of an Israelitish resurrection in Isaiah 26:19. The idea is that, contrary to all human expectation Israel shall quickly emerge from the depths of trouble. What human skill could cure a dangerously wounded man in three days? Yet a wonder as great has happened to the sick man Israel. That the passage has primarily a contemporary reference, and contains a figurative description of a national revival, is admitted by Pococke, who however endeavours to combine with this view a very forced interpretation of pre-critical origin. He thinks the Jews ‘might say, after two days, &c., because by him whom God would so raise up deliverance should be wrought for them when their case was as desperate as of one that had been so long dead’; or, to put his view of the secondary meaning more clearly, the resurrection of the coming Christ was to the Israelites (though they knew it not) the justification of their hope of a national restoration. The view is ultimately traceable to the paraphrase in the Targum, ‘he will revive us in the days of consolation which are to come’, i.e. at the resurrection (see the Peshito of Joh 11:25, which shows that ‘consolation’ and ‘resurrection’ are synonymous in Aramaic). Pusey and many old expositors even take the supposed reference to our Lord’s resurrection to be primary. But the context certainly does not favour any such reference, whether primary or secondary. Calvin, with his usual fine perception, remarks, ‘sensus ille videtur mihi nimium argutus.’ live in his sight] Lit, ‘before him’, i.e., under his protection (comp. Genesis 17:18; Isaiah 53:2; Jeremiah 30:20.

After two days will He revive us (or quicken us, give us life,) in the third day He will raise us up - The Resurrection of Christ, and our resurrection in Him and in His Resurrection, could not be more plainly foretold.

THE PEOPLE’S RETURN TO JEHOVAH, Hosea 6:1-3.The first three verses of chapter 6 form the natural continuation of Hos 5:15, with which LXX.