Hosea 10:12 (YLT)

Passage

Sow for yourselves in righteousness, Reap according to loving-kindness, Till for yourselves tillage of knowledge, To seek Jehovah, Till he come and shew righteousness to you.

Nearby Context

Hosea 10:10 When I desire, then I do bind them, And gathered against them have peoples, When they bind themselves to their two iniquities.

Hosea 10:11 And Ephraim <FI>is<Fi> a trained heifer--loving to thresh, And I--I have passed over on the goodness of its neck, I cause <FI>one<Fi> to ride Ephraim, Plough doth Judah, harrow for him doth Jacob.

Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves in righteousness, Reap according to loving-kindness, Till for yourselves tillage of knowledge, To seek Jehovah, Till he come and shew righteousness to you.

Hosea 10:13 Ye have ploughed wickedness, Perversity ye have reaped, Ye have eaten the fruit of lying, For thou hast trusted in thy way, In the abundance of thy might.

Hosea 10:14 And rise doth a tumult among thy people, And all thy fortresses are spoiled, As the spoiling of Shalman of Beth-Arbel, In a day of battle, Mother against sons dashed in pieces.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "yourselves", "righteousness", "reap", "loving-kindness", "till", "tillage", and "knowledge". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "yourselves" and "righteousness", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 11's "And Ephraim FI is Fi a trained..." into verse 13's "Ye have ploughed wickedness Perversity ye have...", so "yourselves" and "righteousness" belong inside that flow. In Hosea context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "yourselves" and "righteousness" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.