11:1 called my son. This verse was appropriated and modified by the Holy Spirit through Matthew, and applied to the child Jesus. When Joseph and Mary fled with Him to Egypt to escape Herod’s slaughter of the children, He “was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son” (Matthew 2:15). Israel, as the national “son” of the Father, was thus taken as a type of God’s only begotten Son, who was Himself Israel’s substitute to endure the wrath of God, thus assuring Israel’s ultimate repentance and restoration.

11:5 shall not return. In the context of this chapter, Israel had been once-for-all called “out of Egypt” (Hosea 11:1). Because of their long-continued rebellion against God, however, they were to be cast out of their land—this time into Assyria, rather than Egypt. However, Hosea had said shortly before this (Hosea 8:13) that “they shall return to Egypt.” By this he meant the pagan ways and practices of Egypt, not the actual land of Egypt. See also Hosea 9:3, where it says that “Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.” The one is metaphorical, the other literal. In Revelation 11:8, once again “the great city” (that is, Jerusalem) is “spiritually…called Sodom and Egypt.”