‘Come, and let us return to YHWH, for he has torn, and he will heal us, he has smitten, and he will bind us up.'
The carcass torn by the Lion and smitten and diseased (Hosea 5:13-14), is called on itself to ‘return' (a favourite word of Hosea, see Hosea 3:5; Hosea 7:10; Hosea 14:1-2) to YHWH in repentance and hope, with a view to their being ‘healed and bound up' and ‘revived' and ‘raised up'. Note the inner chiasm, ‘torn -- heal -- smitten -- bound up.' It is the smitten who are healed and the torn who are bound up. The picture is of God's estranged people once more seeking His face and praying for full restoration. It occurred to some extent after the Babylonian exile (which had followed all the preceding exiles), and it occurred especially under the ministry of John the Baptist, and of course of Jesus Christ when a new Israel growing out of the old would be established (Matthew 2:15; Matthew 16:18; Matthew 21:41; John 15:1-6).