Albert Barnes Commentary Hosea 14:2

"Take with you words, and return unto Jehovah: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and accept that which is good: so will we render [as] bullocks [the offering of] our lips." — Hosea 14:2 (ASV)

Take with you words - He commands them not to bring costly offerings, so that they might regain His favor; not whole burnt offerings of bullocks, goats, or rams, with which, and with which alone, they had before gone to seek Him (see the note above at Hosea 5:6); not the silver and gold which they had lavished on their idols; but what seems the cheapest of all, which anyone may have, without cost to their substance: “words”—worthless as mere words, precious when from the heart; words of confession and prayer, blending humility, repentance, confession, entreaty, and praise of God. God seems to assign to them a form with which they should approach Him. But with these words, they were also to turn inwardly “and turn to the Lord,” with your whole heart, and not your lips alone. “After you shall be converted, confess before Him.”

Take away all iniquity - (Literally and pleadingly, “You will take away all iniquity.”) They had “fallen by their iniquities”; before they can rise again, the stumbling blocks must be taken out of their way. They then, unable themselves to do it, must turn to God, with whom alone is power and mercy to do it, and say to Him, Take away all iniquity, acknowledging that they had manifold iniquities, and praying Him to forgive all, “take away all. All iniquities!” “Not only then the past, but what we fear for the future. Cleanse us from the past, keep us from the future. Give us righteousness, and preserve it to the end.”

And receive us graciously - (Literally, “and receive good.”) When God has forgiven and taken away iniquity, He has removed all hindrance to the influx of His grace. There is no vacuum in His spiritual, any more than in His natural, creation. When God’s good Spirit is chased away, the evil spirits enter the house, which is empty, swept, and garnished (Matthew 12:44), for them. When God has forgiven and taken away man’s evil, He pours into him grace and all good.

When then Israel and, in him, the penitent soul, is taught to say, “receive good,” it can mean only, the good which You Yourself have given; as David says, of Your own we have given You (1 Chronicles 29:14). As God is said to “crown in us His own gifts” (His own gifts, but “in us”); so these pray to God to receive from them His own good, which they had from Him. For even the good, which God gives to be in us, He accepts in condescension and forgiving mercy, Who crowns you in mercy and lovingkindness (Psalms 103:4).

They pray God to accept their service, forgiving their imperfection, and mercifully considering their frailty. For since our righteousnesses are filthy rags, we ought always humbly to entreat God not to despise our dutifulness for the imperfections, wanderings, and negligences mingled with it. For exceedingly imperfect it is, especially if we consider the majesty of the Divine Nature, which should be served, if it were possible, with infinite reverence.

They plead to God, then, to accept what, although from Him they have it, yet through their imperfection, would be, but for His goodness, unworthy of His acceptance. Still, since the glory of God is the end of all creation, by asking Him to accept it, they plead to Him that this is the end for which He made and remade them, and placed the good in them, that it might redound to His glory.

As, on the other hand, the Psalmist says, What profit is there in my blood, if I go down into the pit? (Psalms 30:9), as though his own perishing were a loss to God, his Creator, since thus there would be one creature less to praise Him: “‘Take from us all iniquity,’ leave in us no weakness, none of our former decay, lest the evil root should send forth a new growth of evil; ‘and receive good;’ for unless You take away our evil, we can have no good to offer You, according to that, depart from evil, and do good (Psalms 37:27).”

So will we render the calves of our lips - Literally, “and we would willingly repay, calves, our lips;” i.e., when God has “forgiven us all our iniquity,” and “received” at our hands what, through His gift, we have to offer, the “good” which through His good Spirit we can do, then we would “offer” a perpetual thank offering, “our lips.” This should be the substitute for the thank offerings of the law. As the Psalmist says, I will praise the Name of God with a song, and magnify Him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord, better than a bullock that has horns and hoofs (Psalms 69:30–31). They are to bind themselves to perpetual thanksgiving. As the morning and evening sacrifice were continual, so was their new offering to be continual. But more.

The material sacrifice, “the bullock,” was offered, consumed, and passed away. Their “lips” were offered, and remained; a perpetual thank offering, even a “living sacrifice,” living on like the mercies for which they thanked, giving forth their “endless song” for never-ending mercies.

This too points to the Gospel, in which, here on earth, our unending thanksgiving is beginning, and in which it was also the purpose of God to restore those of Ephraim who would return to Him:

“Here we see law extinguished, the Gospel established. For we see other rites, other gifts. So then the priesthood is also changed. For three sorts of sacrifices were ordained of old by the law, with great state. Some signified the expiation of sin; some expressed the ardor of piety; some, thanksgiving. To those ancient signs and images, the truth of the Gospel corresponds directly.

“Prayer to God, ‘to take away all iniquity,’ contains a confession of sin, and expresses our faith that we place our whole hope of recovering our lost purity and of obtaining salvation in the mercy of Christ. ‘Receive good.’ What other good can we offer than the detestation of our past sin, with burning desire of holiness? This is the burnt offering. Lastly, ‘we will repay the calves of our lips,’ is the promise of that solemn vow, most acceptable to God, by which we bind ourselves to keep in continual remembrance all the benefits of God and to render ceaseless praise to the Lord who has bestowed on us such priceless gifts. For ‘the calves of’ the ‘lips’ are prayers well-pleasing to God.

“Of which David says, ‘Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then shall they offer bullocks upon Your altar’ (Psalms 51:19).”