Albert Barnes Commentary Hosea 3:5

"afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek Jehovah their God, and David their king, and shall come with fear unto Jehovah and to his goodness in the latter days." — Hosea 3:5 (ASV)

Afterward the children of Israel will return – Elsewhere it is said more fully, "return to the Lord." It expresses more than "turning" or even conversion to God. It is not conversion only, but reversion too, a turning "back from" the unbelief and sins for which they had left God, and a return to Him whom they had forsaken.

And will seek the Lord – This word, "seek," expresses in Hebrew, from its intensive form, a diligent search; as used with regard to God, it signifies a religious search. It is not such seeking as our Lord speaks of, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled (John 6:26), or, many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able (Luke 13:24), but that earnest seeking to which He has promised, Seek, and ye shall find. Before, she had diligently sought her false gods. Now, in the end she will as diligently seek God and His grace as she had previously sought her idols and her sins.

And David their King – David himself, after the flesh, this could not be. For he had long since been gathered to his fathers; nor was he to return to this earth. "David" then must be "the Son of David," the same of whom God says, I will set up One Shepherd over them, and He shall feed them, even My servant David, and He shall be their Shepherd, and I the Lord will be their God, and My servant David a Prince among them (Ezekiel 34:23–24).

The same was to be a witness, leader, commander to the people (Isaiah 55:4); He who was to be raised up to David, a righteous Branch, (Jeremiah 23:5–6) and who was to be called the Lord our Righteousness; David’s Lord (Psalms 110:1), as well as "David’s Son." Therefore, the older Jews of every school, Talmudic, mystical, Biblical, grammatical, explained this prophecy as referring to Christ. Thus their received paraphrase is: "Afterward the children of Israel shall repent, or turn by repentance, and shall seek the service of the Lord their God, and shall obey Messiah the Son of David, their King."

And will fear the Lord – Literally, "shall fear toward the Lord and toward His goodness." It is not then a servile fear, not even, as elsewhere, a fear which makes them shrink back from His awful Majesty. It is a fear, the most opposed to this; a fear by which "they shall flee to Him for help, from all that is to be feared;" a reverent holy awe, which should even impel them to Him; a fear of losing Him, which should make them hasten to Him.

It has been said: "They shall fear, and wonder exceedingly, astonished at the greatness of God’s dealing, or of their own joy." Yet they should "hasten tremblingly," bearing in mind their past unfaithfulness and wrongdoings, and fearing to approach, but for the greater fear of turning away.

Nor do they hasten with this reverent awe and awful joy to God only, but "to His Goodness also." His Goodness draws them, and to it they turn, away from all causes of fear: their sins, themselves, the Evil one.

Yet even His Goodness is a source of awe. "His Goodness!" How much it contains! It contains all by which God is good in Himself, and all by which He is good to us.

It is that by which He is essentially good, or rather Goodness itself; that by which He is good to us as His creatures, and even more so as His sinful, ungrateful, redeemed creatures, reborn to bear the image of His Son.

So then His Goodness overflows into beneficence, and condescension, and graciousness and mercy and forgiving love, and joy in imparting Himself, and complacence in the creatures which He has formed and reformed, redeemed and sanctified for His glory. Well may His creatures "tremble toward" it, with admiring wonder that all this can be made theirs!

This was to take place "in the latter days." These words, which are adopted in the New Testament where Apostles say, in the last days (Acts 2:17); in these last days (Hebrews 1:2), mean this: the last dispensation of God, in contrast with all that went before—the times of the Gospel.

The prophecy has all along been fulfilled during this period for those, whether of the ten or of the two tribes, who have been converted to Christ since God ended their temple worship. It is fulfilled in every soul from among them who now is "converted and lives."

There will be a fuller fulfillment, of which Paul speaks, when the eyes of all Israel will be opened to the deceitfulness of the last antichrist. Then Enoch and Elias, the two witnesses (Revelation 11:3), will have come to prepare for our Lord’s second coming, will have been slain, and, by God’s converting grace, all Israel shall be saved (Romans 11:26).