The many who walk with God are one
Origen is explaining why Hosea's verbs shift from plural to singular: the many who seek God become one when they find him.
Those who walk according to God and hold fast to his commandments, even if they are many, are one by being of one mind. For this reason, when a command about something good is given, it is said in the singular: “You shall eat for food” (Genesis 2:16). But when the matter of transgression is already being distinguished, he no longer speaks in the singular but in the plural: “You shall not eat from it; and on whatever day you eat, by death you shall die” (Genesis 2:17).
So here too, while they are still weeping and beseeching God, it is said in the plural: “They wept and beseeched” (Hosea 12:4). But when they find God, he no longer says in the plural, “There it was spoken to them,” but “to him” (Hosea 12:4). For the many have already become one in having found God and in hearing his word.
Greek
Οἱ γὰρ
κατὰ Θεὸν περιπατοῦντες καὶ τῶν ἐντολῶν αὐτοῦ ἀντεχόμενοι, κἂν πολλοὶ ὦσι, τῷ
ὁμόφρονες εἶναι οἱ πολλοὶ ἕν εἰσι. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ὅτε περὶ ἀγαθοῦ ἐντολὴ δίδοται, ἑνικῶς
αὐτὸ λέγεται τὸ, βρώσει φαγῇ· ὅτε δὲ ἤδη περὶ παραβάσεως διαστέλλεται, οὐχ
ἑνικῶς, ἀλλ' ἤδη πληθυντικῶς φησιν· Οὐ φάγεσθε ἀπ' αὐτοῦ· ᾗ δ' ἂν ἡμέρᾳ φάγητε,
θανάτῳ ἀποθανεῖσθε. Οὕτως οὖν καὶ ἐνθάδε, ὅτε ἔτι κλαίουσι καὶ δέονται πρὸς
Θεὸν, πληθυντικῶς λέγεται τὸ, Ἔκλαυσαν καὶ ἐδεήθησαν· ὅτε δὲ εὑρίσκουσι τὸν
Θεὸν, οὐκέτι πληθυντικῶς φησι τὸ, Ἐκεῖ ἐλαλήθη πρὸς αὐτοὺς, ἀλλὰ, πρὸς αὐτόν.
Ἤδη γὰρ ἐν γεγόνασιν οἱ πολλοὶ ἐν τῷ εὑρηκέναι τὸν Θεὸν, καὶ ἐν τῷ ἀκούειν
λόγον αὐτοῦ.