Oséias 11
Theodoret of Cyrus · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Oséias 11:1
It is as a result of folly and a childish attitude that they suffer this punishment. I recalled them from Egypt and freed them from that harsh servitude, but they proved ungrateful to me and opted for the worship of the idols (referring to them as "Baals"). Though I was the one who taught them to walk, who cured them of their awkward gait, showed them paternal affection and applied all kinds of healing to them, they refused to acknowledge me, even though I protected them from manifold destruction at the hands of the invaders as if clutching them to me in love like a kind of bond. It is in love that even now I care for them and invest them in these chastisements, acting in the manner of someone striking a forward child on the cheek. — COMMENTARY ON HOSEA 11:1–4
Oséias 11:9
"My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute the fierceness of my anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim." God imitates a father and mother who are naturally worried and cannot turn away from their children for too long. He says that, however, not because he wills one thing now and then changes his mind. Rather, he expresses his thought in different ways, in anger and love, in threat and mercy, chastising and persuading. — COMMENTARY ON HOSEA 11