I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.
I taught Ephraim also to go - literally, to use his feet: 'I set Ephraim on his feet.' Compare a similar image, Deuteronomy 1:31; Deuteronomy 8:2; Deuteronomy 8:5; Deuteronomy 8:15; Deuteronomy 32:10-11; Nehemiah 9:21; Isaiah 63:9; Amos 2:10. God bore them as a parent does an infant unable to supply itself, so that it has no anxiety about food, raiment, and its going forth. So Acts 13:18, margin [etrofoforeesen], 'He bore fed them, as a nurse beareth or feedeth her child.' So the Septuagint, Deuteronomy 1:31. Which passage of Acts probably refers to this passage of Hosea.
Taking them by their arms - or else, 'taking them in his arms'. Compare Isaiah 63:9, as above; and especially Numbers 11:12, "Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child." He took them by the arms, to guide them, that they might not stray, and to hold them up, that they might not stumble.
But they knew not that I healed them - i:e., that my design was to restore them spiritually and temporally (Exodus 15:26).