Hosea 12:6 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Therefore turn thou, &c.— From these words we learn on what account that which is said concerning Jacob, and concerning God, is spoken; and how it so concerned the Israelites of Hosea's time, as that this exhortation should be thence inferred to them. With respect to the things which are mentioned concerning Jacob, they were manifestly so ordered by God, as to be a sign to his sons or posterity after him, and more evidently to be fulfilled in them than in him. What was done by him, shews what ought to have been done by them, that they might approve themselves to be his genuine offspring. What was done or spoken by God, and promised to Jacob, shews what God would certainly do for them, and make good to them, if they so approved themselves; which if they did not, they shewed themselves to be degenerate from him, and to be ungrateful to God; unmindful of his goodness to Jacob, and in him to them: and if they did not enjoy or were deprived of those blessings to him, and in him to them promised, it was through their own fault; not through any failure on God's part; who still continued to be the mighty God of Jacob, able and willing to bless all those who strive with him for a blessing. See Pococke.