What Does Hosea 6:2 Mean in the King James?

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

Hosea 6:2 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

What English presents as “revive” and then “live” is one Hebrew root unfolding: restoration and living belong to the same movement.

THE MEANING

This verse holds you in a movement from being raised to living in God’s presence. The Hebrew uses the same root for “revive” and “live,” joining restoration to the life that follows. The third day marks the passage into that restored life.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that being revived and being truly alive are unrelated dissolves here: Hosea names both with the same root.

THE ROOT

יְחַיֵּנוּ

yechayyenu

GROWS FROM

חיה

Live, be alive; in causative forms, bring to life or keep alive.

“revive / live” in this verse is yechayyenu. The verse uses this seed twice: ⁨יְחַיֵּנוּ⁩ (yechayyenu, “he revives us”) and ⁨וְנִחְיֶה⁩ (venichyeh, “we live”). English can make these sound like separate ideas, but Hebrew holds them in one word-family: being brought into life and living share the same root.

ALSO GROWS

chai: Living, alive.

חַי

This branch names the state the verse moves toward: life present now.

chayyim: Life.

חַיִּים

The same root holds both the act of reviving and the life that follows.

יְקִמֵנוּ

yeqimenu

GROWS FROM

קום

Rise, stand, arise; in a causative form, make someone stand, raise, or establish.

“raise us up” in this verse is yeqimenu. The verb is causative: he makes us stand. The root also carries the sense of establishing, so the raising includes being set back on one’s feet.

ALSO GROWS

qam: He stood or arose.

קָם

This is the root’s basic image: rising to one’s feet.

heqim: Raise, set up, establish.

הֵקִים

This causative form shows how the root expresses making someone stand or establishing them.

THE PATTERN

Life is restored as what is down or dead is made to stand and live.

So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

Ezekiel 37:10 · KJVLife arrives, and those who were down stand on their feet.

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

John 11:25 · KJVThe verse joins resurrection and life, just as Hosea’s shared root joins revival and living.

And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

1 Corinthians 15:4 · KJVThe third day carries the passage from burial into rising.

THE THREAD

O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

Psalm 30:3 · KJV

“Kept me alive” uses ⁨חיה⁩ (chayah, live), the same root Hosea uses for both “revive” and “live.” Psalm 30 joins that life-root to being brought up from the grave, making explicit the movement Hosea compresses: raised, then alive.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us