Albert Barnes Commentary Hosea 11:10

"They shall walk after Jehovah, who will roar like a lion; for he will roar, and the children shall come trembling from the west." — Hosea 11:10 (ASV)

They shall walk after the Lord - Not only would God not destroy them all, but a remnant of them would walk after the Lord, that is, they will believe in Christ. The Jews of old understood this to refer to Christ. One of them says, “This points to the time of their redemption.” And another says, “Although I will withdraw My divine presence from their midst for their iniquity, and remove them out of their own land, yet there will be a long time in which they will seek after the Lord and find Him.” This is what Hosea has said before, that they would abide many days without a king and without a prince, and without a sacrifice; afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king (Hosea 3:4–5).

Whereas now they fled from God, and walked after other gods after the imagination of their evil hearts, after their own devices (Hosea 7:13; Jeremiah 7:9; Jeremiah 3:17; Jeremiah 18:12), then He promises, they will walk after God the Lord, following the will, the mind, the commandments, the example of Almighty God. As God says of David, He kept My commandments, and walked after Me with all his heart (1 Kings 14:8); and Micah foretells that many nations shall say, We will walk in His paths (Micah 4:2). They will follow after Him, whose infinite perfections no one can reach; yet they will follow after, never standing still, but reaching on, by His grace, to that which is unattainable, attaining the more by imitating what is inimitable, and stopping short of no perfection, until, in His presence, they are perfected in Him.

He shall roar like a lion - Christ is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5). His roaring is His loud call to repentance, by Himself and by His Apostles. The voice of God to sinners, although full of love, must be full of awe too. He calls them, not only to flee to His mercy, but to flee from the wrath to come. He will call to them with a voice of majestic command.

When He shall roar, the children shall tremble from the West - That is, they will come in haste and fear to God. His word is powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow (Hebrews 4:12). Thus, those whose hearts were pricked at the preaching of Peter said to him with trembling, Men and brethren, what shall we do? (Acts 2:37). The preaching of judgment to come so terrified the world that from all places some came out of the captivity of the world and fled to Christ. He says, from the West; for from the West most have come into the Gospel. Yet the Jews were then about to be carried to the East, not to the West; and of the West the prophets had no human knowledge.

But the ten tribes, although carried to the East into Assyria, did not all remain there, since before the final dispersion, we find Jews in Italy, Greece, Asia Minor; where those who had been restored to their own land would not have again exiled themselves. In these, whenever they were converted, this prophecy was fulfilled.