Albert Barnes Commentary Hosea 14:4

"I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for mine anger is turned away from him." — Hosea 14:4 (ASV)

I will heal their backsliding - God, in answer, promises to “heal” that wound of their souls, from where every other evil came, their fickleness and unsteadfastness. Until now, this had been the characteristic of Israel. Within a while they forgot His works, and would not abide His counsels (Psalms 106:13). They forgot what He had done. Their heart was not whole with Him; neither continued they steadfast in His covenant. They turned back and tempted God. They kept not His testimonies, but turned back and fell away like their forefathers, starting aside like a broken bow (Psalms 78:12, 37, 42, 57-58). Steadfastness to the end is the special gift of the Gospel. Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 28:20; Matthew 16:18). And to individuals, Jesus, having loved His own, loved them unto the end (John 13:1).

In healing that disease of unsteadfastness, God healed all besides. This He did to all, wheresoever or howsoever dispersed, who received the Gospel; this He does still; and this He will do completely in the end, when all Israel shall be saved.

I will love them freely - that is, as the word means, impelled to it by Himself alone, and so (as used of God) moved by His own Essential Bountifulness, the exceeding greatness of His Goodness, largely, bountifully.

God loves us freely in loving us against our deserts, because He is love; He loves us freely in that He freely became Man and, having become Man, freely shed His Blood for the remission of our sins, freely forgave our sins.

He loves us freely in giving us grace, according to the good pleasure of His will (Ephesians 1:5), to become pleasing to Him, and causing all good in us. He loves us freely in rewarding infinitely the good which we have from Him: “More manifestly here speaks the Person of the Savior Himself, promising His own Coming to the salvation of penitents, with sweetly sounding promise, with sweetness full of grace.”

For My anger is turned away from him - As He says, In My wrath I smote you; but in My favor have I had mercy on you (Isaiah 60:10). He does not withhold only, or suspend His anger, but He takes it away wholly. So the Psalmist says, You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people; You have covered all their sin; You have taken away all Your wrath; You have turned from the fierceness of Your anger (Psalms 85:2–3).