The word of Jehovah that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
The book opens not with a sermon but with a date and a family name, anchoring what follows to real kings and a real man. That line raises two questions. Why does God date His message by five named rulers? And why do four of them belong to Judah, when Hosea's message is for Israel?
Before the verse says anything about Israel's sin, it tells us who is speaking and to whom. One writer notes that even the two names in the line carry meaning:
This opening line gives the period of Hosea's ministry. First stands the statement that the word of the Lord came to him. Hosea means salvation; his father's name, Beeri, means "my well." Both names carry meaning beyond themselves.
Beyond his father's name, the record tells us nothing about the man:
Apart from the name of his father Beeri (Hos. 1:1) we do not know anything about the background of this prophet.
Hosea's subject is Israel, yet he dates his book mostly by the kings of Judah. Commentators have treated this as a deliberate choice rather than a slip:
Hosea marks his prophecy by the names of the kings of Judah, because God's own rule through the king continued in Judah. He mentions Jeroboam the Second, whose reign ended in the fourteenth year of Uzziah. Jeroboam was the last king of Israel through whom God acted to help the rival kingdom... The kings who followed were robbers and murderers. The Spirit of God finds their names unfit to mention in Hosea's prophecy.
One writer finds this silence striking:
Hosea prophesied under Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Yet he names only one king of Israel, Jeroboam. He says nothing about the kings who came after him, though he prophesied under them too (Hosea 1:1). That is remarkable. For him their history seems to stop with Jeroboam.
Stack those reigns end to end and you get a lifetime of ministry. The length is not a dry statistic; it measures what the man endured:
Uzziah began his reign fourteen years before the end of Jeroboam's reign. Uzziah reigned fifty-two years. Jotham reigned sixteen. Ahaz reigned sixteen. Hezekiah reigned twenty-nine. So Hosea prophesied for over fifty years, and possibly longer. All those years he watched Israel rebel against Jehovah. His heart was grieved and broken by the sin of a people he loved. He longed for their happiness as Jehovah's own people.
The reign that dates the prophecy looked like a good era. The prophecy itself shows what lay under that surface:
That king of Israel dates the prophecy. On the surface, his reign was a time of prosperity for that part of the land. The prophecy itself will inform us of its moral condition. The patience of God bore long with the rebellion of His people, taking pity on their affliction (see 2 Kings 17)... So it was still possible to bless the people without giving up a true witness to who God is, even in the eyes of the nations. This lasted, in a word, "until there was no remedy."
Under the surface, the throne itself had become a prize taken by violence:
Jeroboam II was almost the last king who ruled by the appointment of the Lord. After him, kings took Israel's shaky throne by murdering the king before them. Shallum killed Zechariah; Menahem killed Shallum; Pekah killed the son of Menahem; Hoshea killed Pekah. All was anarchy in Israel.
Hosea shares his kings with Isaiah, but not his subject matter:
So Hosea lived at the same time as Isaiah, who prophesied under the same kings. But only Hosea names the king of Israel who was reigning then. Israel, not Judah, is his subject. The word of Jehovah to him takes in the condition of Israel as a whole. It uses the grim state of Ephraim, the northern kingdom, for the moral good of Judah.
Because of the state described in verse 1, the message could not stay verbal:
By the days of the kings named in this opening verse, Israel had sunk so low that mere words were useless. They would have fallen on deaf ears.
The prophet's own name is tied to what his book presses toward:
"Hosea" means "salvation." "Isaiah" means "Jehovah's salvation." ... Isaiah deals mostly — though not only — with salvation as God works it from outside... Hosea shows the inward side of that salvation. What he dwells on is repentance and return to God.
- Word — the verse's first claim is that God spoke; everything harsh that follows is His word, not a man's opinion.
- Kings — Hosea dates his book by four kings of Judah, because God's rule stayed with that throne. He leaves Israel's later kings unnamed.
- Years — over fifty years of ministry made Hosea a long-term witness, with a heart broken over a people he loved.
- Ruin — the era looked prosperous while it rotted, and God's patience ran on "until there was no remedy."
- Salvation — his name means salvation. His book calls for repentance and return to God.
The beginning of the word of Jehovah through Hosea. And Jehovah said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms; for the land is entirely given up to whoredom, away from Jehovah.
God's first word through Hosea is not a sermon but a command that reaches into the prophet's own home. Why would God ask this of His servant, and what did the marriage mean?
Words alone had stopped working on Israel. One writer explains why.
Sometimes mild measures achieve nothing. Only extreme and drastic ones are of any use. In the days of the kings named at the start of this prophecy, Israel had sunk so low that mere words were useless. They would have fallen on ears that were completely deaf.
So the prophet's life carried the message. The command also worked on Hosea himself.
The first chapter mainly consists of symbolic action, which represents the course of God's purposes… God commanded the prophet to do something bound to be most painful in itself. As a man of God, he must have felt it to be humbling and repulsive. But this was Israel's attitude to their God. Jehovah would make the prophet, and those who paid attention to the prophecy, understand in some measure what He must feel about His people.
The word is not chosen loosely. A real marriage bond stands behind the charge.
The sad truth is that Israel was married to Jehovah, as the prophets remind the people (Isa. 54; Jer. 3). So their unfaithfulness is branded, not like the New Testament Babylon as prostitution, but as adultery (so in Hosea 3 and elsewhere). Yet in time His grace may deal with Israel not as a guilty widow but as a woman forsaken and a wife of youth.
Some think such an order is unworthy of God. One writer answers from God's rights as Creator.
We must not imagine things to be unworthy of God because they do not commend themselves to us. God does not set aside the moral law, because the moral law has its source in the mind of God Himself. To set it aside would mean to contradict Himself. But God is absolute Lord of all things He made. At His sovereign will He may dispose of the lives or the things He created… He who created marriage told Hosea whom he should marry. At God's bidding the prophet took a defiled woman as his lawful wife. This did not defile him, however hard a thing it was.
Commentators differ on whether Gomer was already immoral at the wedding. One writer answers from what the marriage was meant to picture.
The all-knowing Lord called Gomer "a wife of whoredom," in anticipation of her future conduct. She fell and became immoral after her union with Hosea, and not before. In this way she became a symbol of Israel, married to the Lord, but later becoming the unfaithful wife… Yet the prophet still loved her despite her unfaithfulness, and did not abandon her. This illustrates Jehovah's love for Israel.
Another writer leaves both readings open.
Another possibility would be that the word "prostitute" or "wife of whoredom" (chap. 1:2) anticipates what Gomer would do after her marriage. On the other hand, the wording may also mean that Gomer had led an immoral life before her marriage. Given how far the people had fallen, that would be quite understandable.
The marriage bears fruit, and that fruit is judgment.
In this action Hosea might say, in the words of another prophet, "Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are signs and portents in Israel." All of this clearly sets out the apostasy and judgment of Israel. The marriage of the prophet with the wife of whoredom is Jehovah's covenant with faithless Israel. Its fruit is therefore judgment, until the children of Israel were found, as they now are, rejected silver, a "Lo-ammi" — a people disowned by their God.
The sentence is not the last word, and the opened door is wider than Israel.
God has now pronounced the judgment of the people briefly but clearly. At once He announces, with equal clearness, His sovereign grace towards them… But this grace opens the door to others besides the Jews. "In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' it shall be said to them, 'Children of the living God.'" The apostle applies this passage to the Gentiles in Romans 9:24-26.
- Cause. The land had left the Lord. Because Israel was married to Him, that departure counts as adultery.
- Command. Words fell on deaf ears, so God turned the prophet's marriage into the message — an acted sign no one could ignore.
- Cost. The order was humbling and repulsive to Hosea. That was the point — he felt a little of what God feels about His people.
- Question. Commentators differ over whether Gomer was immoral before the wedding or only after. Either way, God may dispose of what He made, without setting aside His own moral law.
- Consequence and grace. The children stand as signs of judgment, ending in "not my people." Yet in that very place comes the promise: children of the living God.
And he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived and bore him a son.
Hosea's first sermon was not preached but lived: God told him to marry, and he obeyed. That short verse still raises three questions: was this a real marriage, who was Gomer, and why did God ask it?
The verse records no protest and no delay. One writer weighs what the order cost, and why God gave it:
God commanded the prophet to do something bound to be most painful in itself. As a man of God, he must have felt it humbling as well as repulsive. But this was Israel's attitude towards their God. The Lord would make the prophet, and all who listened to the prophecy, understand in some measure what He Himself must feel about His people.
Commentators differ here. Some read a real marriage. Others read the whole scene as a picture:
The prophet was to unite himself to a corrupt woman (a prophetic picture, I have no doubt), whose conduct expressed that of the people.
The objection to a real marriage is moral: such a union seems beneath God. One writer answers that marriage belongs to God in the first place:
We must not imagine things to be unworthy of God simply because they do not appeal to us. God does not set aside the moral law, because the moral law has its source in the mind of God Himself. To set it aside would mean contradicting Himself. But God is absolute Lord of everything He made. He may at His sovereign will dispose of the lives or the things He created… He who created marriage told Hosea whom he should marry. At God's bidding the prophet took a defiled woman as his lawful wife, and this did not defile him — however hard a thing it was.
Was Gomer already immoral when Hosea married her, or did she fall later? Commentators differ. One reads God's words as naming in advance what she would become, and finds the same message in her name:
Gomer was called "a wife of whoredoms" by the all-knowing Lord, in anticipation of her future conduct. She fell and became immoral after her union with Hosea, not before. In this way she became a symbol of Israel: married to the Lord, but afterwards the unfaithful wife… The woman's name is also telling. Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, means "Completion — a double cake of figs." The name pictures Israel's wickedness as complete, and the double cake of figs stands for sensual pleasures. And despite her unfaithfulness, the prophet still loved her and did not abandon her. This shows the Lord's love for Israel.
Once you see who the wife stands for, the wedding itself becomes the prophecy. One writer follows it to its end — a people their God disowns:
In this action Hosea might say, in the words of another prophet, "Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel." All this clearly sets out the apostasy and judgment of Israel. The prophet's marriage to the wife of whoredom is the Lord's covenant with faithless Israel. Its fruit is judgment, until the children of Israel were found, as they now are, rejected silver — a "Lo-ammi," a people disowned by their God.
One suggestion about the children runs straight into the wording of the verse:
Commentators have said, "The children were not the prophet's own, but born of adultery and presented to him as his." But that cannot be the meaning, in view of the plain statement that she conceived and bore him a son.
- Command. God tells Hosea to marry, and Hosea goes. The verse records the obedience, with no word of protest.
- Cost. The order was humbling and repulsive to a man of God — and that was the point. It let the prophet feel what God feels about His people.
- Covenant. The marriage stands for the Lord's bond with Israel. The wife falls after the wedding, as the nation did after God joined it to Himself.
- Completion. Her name and her father's name spell out the message: wickedness come to the full, fed on sensual pleasure.
- Constancy. Hosea kept loving the wife who betrayed him, and the son is his own. That love pictures the Lord's love for Israel.
And Jehovah said unto him, Call his name Jizreel; for yet a little, and I will visit the blood of Jizreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease.
Hosea's son carries a name that works as a verdict on Jehu — the king God once rewarded for destroying the house of Ahab at Jezreel. So why does God now charge that blood against Jehu's own family, and why does the whole northern kingdom fall with him?
The child's name is not just a label for a baby. It is a message about the nation's future.
The son she gives birth to is a sign. The name the prophet is to give him points to the judgment of God on the house of Jehu, and on the kingdom of Israel, which would cease to exist. In fact, after Jehu's family died out there were several more kings, but all was confusion in the kingdom of Israel — the kingdom was lost.
Jezreel was a place with a history of murder for gain. Ahab wanted Naboth's vineyard there. Naboth refused to sell, and it cost him his life. God later raised Jehu up to settle that account.
Through the cunning of Jezebel, and by the hand of certain worthless men, Naboth's blood is shed in Jezreel (1 Kings 21:13). Ahab seizes his inheritance, the inheritance of his fathers. For this deed the Lord, through His prophet, announces judgment on Ahab and his house. Blow after blow, He makes a full end of them... God calls out Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi, to finish this judgment, to be the avenger of blood, and to cleanse the land that had been polluted with it (Num. 35:33). As his reward, God secures the throne of Israel to his family for four generations (2 Kings 10:30).
God had once told Jehu he had done well. But God's silence about the blood at Jezreel was not approval of everything Jehu did.
The Lord had kept silent about the blood Jehu shed at Jezreel; He had not spoken of it to anyone — not even to guilty Jehu. God had said to him, "You have done well in carrying out what is just in my eyes" (2 Kings 10:30), and had promised to reward him. So it might have seemed to Jehu that God approved everything he had done. Far from it! The Lord had indeed raised him up for judgment and approved him in that. But the time had come when this king's deceit and furious violence must be punished.
God weighed the deed, and He also weighed the heart behind it.
God, in His righteous judgment, used Jehu to deal with the wicked house of Ahab. But He did not overlook the mixed motives that drove Jehu. In carrying out the vengeance of the Lord, Jehu was indulging his own cruel heart for his own ends. If God has to deal in judgment, it is His strange work. If Jehu undertakes to deal with evil, it is to him a task he enjoys.
Darby puts the charge sharper still. Self-serving zeal is worse, not better, when it wears God's name.
In a word, nothing that comes from self is hidden from His eyes. It all gets exactly what it deserves — all the more because it hides behind the great name of the Lord.
The threat reaches past one family. Jehu's line ended with the murder of his descendant Zechariah, and the nation went down after it.
The murder of Zechariah ended the dynasty of Jehu — five generations in all, more than a hundred years. From the time of Jeroboam's death, decline set in, ending less than seventy years later in the kingdom's final overthrow. From this time on, prophetic ministry greatly increased. As an unknown writer says, "Such is the way of our gracious God: when judgment is near at hand, testimony is multiplied."
One sin Jehu left alone decided the outcome.
Jehu had no conscience about the sin of Jeroboam, so the Lord judged it in due time. God struck not only Jehu's house, but Israel. The kingdom was to pass away. It might linger a little while afterwards, but God had struck it. This is what is represented by Jezreel. God would scatter in due time.
The name itself holds two futures.
Jezreel is interpreted both as "God scatters" and "God sows." Hosea 1:4 refers to judgment on the house of Jehu and the house of Israel. Hosea 1:10-11 refers to blessing. Then it will be said of both Israel and Judah, "Children of the living God," and "great shall be the day of Jezreel."
- Name. The child is a sign: Jezreel announces judgment on Jehu's house and the end of the northern kingdom.
- Blood. Jezreel was where Naboth died for his vineyard — and where God recorded Jehu's own bloodshed against him.
- Motive. God approved the deed and still judged the heart. Zeal that serves self under God's name is judged all the more.
- End. Jehu's line closed with Zechariah. As judgment came near, God multiplied prophetic testimony.
- Sown. The same name means "God scatters" and "God sows." The place of heaviest judgment becomes the day of restoration.