What Does Hosea 6:3 Mean?
Let us know; let us pursue to know the LORD. His going forth is set firm as the dawn, and he will come to us as the rain, as the late rain that pours on the earth.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.THE KEY
Knowing the LORD unfolds as pursuit, and the encounter comes with the certainty of dawn and the reach of rain.
THE MEANING
Knowing the LORD is a living movement: you keep pursuing a knowing that comes by encounter, not by collecting facts. The LORD’s appearing is as dependable as morning and reaches you like rain reaching the earth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that knowing the LORD is a fact already possessed or a hidden state beyond approach; here, knowing is ongoing pursuit met by his dependable arrival.
THE ROOT
נֵדְעָה
nēdʿāh
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, perceive, or recognize through encounter.
“Let us know” in this verse is nēdʿāh. The verse repeats this root: “we shall know” and “to know the LORD.” That repetition presents knowing as an ongoing encounter, not simply information held in the mind.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: knowledge
דַּעַת
This noun grows from the same root, showing that knowledge and the act of knowing share one seed.
yōdēaʿ: one who knows
יֹדֵעַ
The person who knows is described through the same root as the encounter being pursued here.
נִרְדְּפָה
nirdəfāh
GROWS FROM
רדף
To pursue, chase, or follow after.
“let us pursue” in this verse is nirdəfāh. The Hebrew verb carries the force of pursuit: knowing the LORD involves sustained movement toward knowing. The English “follow on” can sound mild, while this root evokes a chase that keeps going.
ALSO GROWS
rādaph: to pursue or chase
רָדַף
This is the verb’s root form, making explicit the active movement beneath “follow on.”
rōdēph: a pursuer
רֹדֵף
The person pursuing is formed from the same root, linking the continuing action to the one who carries it out.
שַׁחַר
shaḥar
GROWS FROM
שחר
Dawn; the first light of morning.
“as the dawn” in this verse is shaḥar. The same Hebrew consonants also form a verb meaning to seek early or earnestly. That echo places pursuit beside dawn: the seeking continues as the LORD’s appearing comes with morning’s certainty.
ALSO GROWS
shaḥar: dawn or morning light
שַׁחַר
This is the image Hosea uses for the LORD’s sure appearing.
shaḥar: to seek early or earnestly
שָׁחַר
The shared consonants echo the verse’s pursuit of knowing in its picture of dawn.
THE PATTERN
Knowing the LORD unfolds through seeking and encounter, like morning that arrives and rain that reaches the earth.
A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, you are my God; at dawn I seek you. My living soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you in a dry and weary land, where there are no waters.And you will seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.That I may know him, and the power of his standing up again, and the sharing in common of his sufferings, being shaped together with his death.THE THREAD
And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and his brother, saying, Perceive the LORD, for they shall all perceive me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will release their crookedness, and their shortcomings I will remember no more.“Know” in both verses comes from the Hebrew root ידע (yadaʿ), knowing by encounter. Hosea holds that knowing as a pursuit; Jeremiah opens onto its wide arrival, shared from the least to the greatest.
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