What Does Hosea 6:3 Mean in the King James?
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 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
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.
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.
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.
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, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;THE THREAD
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin 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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