Hosea 2:20 - Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And thou shalt know the Lord - This knowledge of God follows on God’s act of betrothal and of love. “We love God, because God first loved us.” And the true knowledge of God includes the love of God. “To love man, we must know him: to know God, we must love Him.” To “acknowledge” God, is not yet to “know” Him. They who love not God, will not even acknowledge Him as He Is, “Supreme Wisdom and Goodness and Power, the Creator and Preserver; the Author of all which is good, the Governor of the world, Redeemer of man, the most bounteous Rewarder of those who serve Him, the most just retributor of those who persevere in rebellion against Him.” They who will not love God, cannot even “know” aright of God. But to “know God,” is something beyond this. It is to know by experience that God is good; and this God makes known to the soul which he loves, while it meditates on Him, reads of Him; speaks of Him, adores Him, obeys Him. “This knowledge cometh from the revelation of God the Father, and in it is true bliss. Whence, when Peter confessed Him to be the Son of man and Son of God, He said, “Blessed art thou, for Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven.” Yea, this knowledge is life eternal, as He said, “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” John 17:3.