I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. I will be as the dew unto Israel - On these metaphors I gladly avail myself of the elegant and just observations of Bp. Lowth. "These verses (Hosea 14:5-7) contain gracious promises of God's favor and blessings upon Israel's conversion. In the fifth verse, it is described by that refreshment which copious dews give to the grass in summer. If we consider the nature of the climate, and the necessity of dews in so hot a country, not only to refresh, but likewise to preserve life; if we consider also the beauty of the oriental lilies, the fragrance of the cedars which grow upon Lebanon, the beauteous appearance which the spreading olive trees afforded, the exhilarating coolness caused by the shade of such trees, and the aromatic smell exhaled by the cedars; we shall then partly understand the force of the metaphors here employed by the prophet; but their full energy no one can conceive, till he feels both the want, and enjoys the advantage, of the particulars referred to in that climate where the prophet wrote." - Lowth's twelfth and nineteenth prelection; and Dodd on the place.
What a glorious prophecy! What a wonderful prophet! How sublime, how energetic, how just! The great master prophet, Isaiah, alone could have done this better. And these promises are not for Israel merely after the flesh; they are for all the people of God. We have a lot and portion in the matter; God also places his love upon us. Here the reader must feel some such sentiment as the shepherd in Virgil, when enraptured with the elegy which his associate had composed on their departed friend. The phraseology and metaphors are strikingly similar; and therefore I shall produce it.
Tale tuum carmen nobis, divine poeta,
Quale sopor fesses in gramine, quale per aestum
Dulcis aquae saliente sitim restinguere rivo.
Nec calamis solum aequiparas, sed voce magistrum.
Fortunate puer! tu nunc eris alter ab illo.
Nos tamen haec quocunque modo tibi nostra vicissim
Dicemus, Daphninque tuum tollemus ad astra:
Daphnin ad astra feremus: amavit nos quoque Daphnis.
Virgil. Ecl. v., ver. 45.
"O heavenly poet, such thy verse appears,
So sweet, so charming to my ravish'd ears,
As to the weary swain with cares oppress'd,
Beneath the sylvan shade, refreshing rest;
As to the feverish traveler, when first
He finds a crystal stream to quench his thirst.
In singing, as in piping, you excel;
And scarce your master could perform so well.
O fortunate young man! at least your lays
Are next to his, and claim the second praise.
Such as they are, my rural songs I join
To raise your Daphnis to the powers divine;
For Daphnis was my friend, as well as thine."