Is Hosea 11:1 about Jesus or Israel?

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.
Matthew 2:13-16

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
Hosea 11:1

In Matthew 2:15, Matthew quotes Hosea 11:1, "out of Egypt I called my son." The original text was a prophecy about the people of Israel, but he attributes it to Jesus, aka Yeshua. Once you understand the nature of Biblical prophecy, you can see why Matthew's application of Hosea was legitimate and perfectly aligned with how prophecy works throughout the Old Testament.

[tindle]

Outstanding brother Jay!!!

Yes, Prophecy is definitely cyclic. I heard someone once say the Torah is the purest form of prophecy (Typology).

"Declaring the end from the beginning..." Isa 46:10

[WojciechPrzyborowski]

Thank you! Greetings from Poland. You put it very logically.

[solonkazos]

Matthew has a habit of telling the reader to dig here. When we do the investigating we find the deeper meanings Matthew was pointing to. It give us a more 3D look at scriptures. So very good point.

[kolsofer]

Yis'rael is a prophetic name for Mashiach, as is found in one of the Servant Songs of Yesha`yahu (49.1-6), which is why the sages thought those prophecies to be of Yis'rael and not Mashiach. David is also a prophetic name of Mashiach in Hoshea 3.5.