Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
cords of a man—parallel to "bands of love"; not such cords as oxen are led by, but humane methods, such as men employ when inducing others, as for instance, a father drawing his child, by leading-strings, teaching him to go (Hosea 11:1).
I was . . . as they that take off the yoke on their jaws . . . I laid meat—as the humane husbandman occasionally loosens the straps under the jaws by which the yoke is bound on the neck of oxen and lays food before them to eat. An appropriate image of God's deliverance of Israel from the Egyptian yoke, and of His feeding them in the wilderness.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Hosea 11:4:
Psalms 78:9-11
Song of Solomon 1:4
Jeremiah 31:3
John 6:44
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