The New John Gill Exposition of the Entire Bible

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Hosea 1:7

But I will have mercy on the house of Judah…
The two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which retained the true worship of God among them; see (Hosea 11:12) and though they often sinned against the Lord, he showed them mercy, and spared them longer than the ten tribes; and though he suffered them to be carried captive into Babylon, he returned them again after seventy years: this is mentioned as an aggravation of the punishment of Israel, that Judah was spared, when they were not; and to show that God will have a people to seek and serve him, and, when he rejects some, he will make a reserve of others: and will save them by the Lord their God;
by his own arm and power, and not theirs, or any creature's; nor by any warlike means or instruments whatever, as follows: and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses,
nor by horsemen:
which may respect either the deliverance of the Jews from the invasion and siege of Sennacherib's army; which was done without shooting an arrow, or drawing the sword, or engaging in a pitched battle, or by a cavalry rushing into his camp, discomfiting his army, and pursuing them; but by an angel sent from heaven, which in one night destroyed a hundred and fourscore and five thousand, (2 Kings 19:35) or else refers to Cyrus being stirred up by the Lord to issue forth a proclamation, giving liberty to the Jewish captives to go free, without price or reward; and so was brought about, not by the might and power of man, but by the Spirit of the Lord; see (Ezra 1:1) (Isaiah 45:13) (Zechariah 4:6) though a greater salvation is pointed at, or at least shadowed forth, by this, even the spiritual and eternal salvation of God's elect by Christ; which is the fruit of mercy, and not the effect of the merits of men; is obtained not by human power, or by man's righteousness; but by the Lord Jesus Christ, who is Jehovah our righteousness, the Lord God of his people; who stands in a relation to them prior to his being the Saviour of them; to which work and office he is equal, being the eternal Jehovah, and the true and living God. So the Targum,

``and I will save them by the Word of the Lord their God;''