54. 26. (In Hosea from beginning to end falsification is treated of, which is described by whoredom and Ephraim.)

[The sons of Israel shall abide many days: there shall be no king, no prince, no sacrifice, no image, no ephod, and no teraphim.] Then shall the sons of Israel return and seek Jehovah their God, and David their king, and come with fear to Jehovah, and to His goodness, in the last days (Hosea 3:4-5).

(I will return to my place, and they will seek Me in the morning (Hosea 5:15). Jehovah will revive us after three days, in the third day He will raise us up so that we shall live before Him; His going forth is prepared as the dawn (Hosea 6:2-3).)

(Woe unto them because they have wandered away from Me! destruction unto them! because they have transgressed, and I have redeemed them (Hosea 7:13).)

Devastation shall stand among thy people, there shall be laying waste, as in the day of battle (Hosea 10:14).

Ephraim feedeth on wind and followeth after the east wind, every day he increaseth lies and desolation, they make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt (Hosea 12:2).

6576. 'I will sustain you and your young children' means that they will have life from the Divine by way of the internal, through truth which is of the understanding and good which is of the will. This is clear from the meaning of 'sustaining' as an influx of goodness and truth, dealt with in 6106, thus life conveyed through truth and good; and from the representation of 'Joseph' as the internal, dealt with in 6499. But since spiritual life does not originate in the internal but in the Lord, though it comes by way of the internal, the expression 'from the Divine by way of the internal' is used. 'You and your young children' means spiritual truths within the natural and the innocence within those truths, which will have life from the Divine by way of the internal through truth and good. The reason why 'sustaining' means life conveyed through truth and good is that spiritual food consists in knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, thus in truth and good, see 56-58, 681, 4791, 5293, 5740, 5741, 5576, 5579. The expressions 'truth which is of the understanding' and 'good which is of the will' are used because all truth belongs to the understanding, and good to the will; for the understanding is the receptacle of truth, and the will is the receptacle of good.