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.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jizreel.
Hosea's first son carries a name that is also a sentence of judgment: Jezreel. This verse says what that name will cost the northern kingdom. God will break its fighting strength in the same valley where its rulers had shed blood.
Writers explain why the bow, rather than the sword, stands for a nation's strength:
Throughout Scripture the bow is the symbol of strength to conquer the enemy. The sword fights hand to hand. The bow attacks from a distance and opposes the enemy's approach. The archer sees the enemy coming far off. He takes account of his movements and his plans. He brings him down before he has a chance to attack. The bow takes more skill than the sword. Above all it is the symbol of strength, because it takes strong arms and hands to draw a bow and use it well.
To break Israel's bow, then, is to end its ability to defend itself at all.
The valley has a history of battles, and a battle still to come:
The wide valley or plain in which the last-named city stood, in southern Galilee. People have called it the battlefield of Palestine. Barak won his victory there, and Josiah met his defeat there, Judges 5:19; 2 Chronicles 35:22. Megiddo is in the same area. It is also perhaps the place where the great battle of Armageddon will be fought. Revelation 16:16. It is a very fertile plain, and is now well cultivated (compare Hosea 2:22); Joshua 17:16; Judges 6:33; Hosea 1:5.
God names the plain where Israel had won its battles as the place where its strength will be broken.
The previous verse ties this to Jehu, the king who wiped out Ahab's house at Jezreel. Commentators read his zeal as self-serving, which is why the man God used is also the man God judges:
But in all this Jehu had himself in view. He pretended zeal for the Lord, while he was really satisfying his own desire. Ahab had coveted the vineyard of Naboth in Jezreel, close to his palace, and he shed the blood of the righteous to get it. In the same way Jehu loved power. For the sake of it — and not in the spirit of service to the Lord — he carried out God's judgment on the house of Ahab. And so in his turn, like Ahab, he is made to answer for the blood of Jezreel.
God had once approved this same king. That is what makes the sentence against him so striking:
The Lord had raised him up for judgment and approved him in that. Even so, the time had come when the deceit and the furious violence of this king must find their punishment... What a God is ours! Who else can weigh in the same balance both the acts He approves and those He condemns, and reward and punish them both?
Writers name whom God struck, and the power He used to do it:
God struck not only Jehu's house, but Israel. The kingdom was to pass, though it might linger for a little while afterwards; but God struck it. This is what Jezreel represents. God would scatter in due time. The Assyrian broke the power of Israel in the valley of Jezreel, later called Esdraelon. That valley was a scene of greed and blood from first to last.
The name Jezreel carries two meanings at once:
The Lord commands him to call this son "Jezreel." The name Jezreel also has a symbolic meaning. It means "God shall scatter" (Jeremiah 31:10); but it also means "God shall sow" (Zechariah 10:9). So Israel was to be scattered and sown among the nations.
By the end of the chapter the same name has changed direction:
"For great shall be the day of Jezreel." The name of Jezreel was once a term of reproach and the start of judgment. Now the grace of God turns it into a title of endless mercy. Then they will indeed be the seed of God — not for scattering only, but for the rich harvest of blessing that is to mark the coming day.
- Bow — the bow pictures a nation's strength to keep an enemy at a distance. God breaks it, and Israel can no longer defend itself.
- Blood — the judgment goes back to the blood Jehu shed at Jezreel. He claimed zeal for the Lord, but he served his own ambition.
- Balance — God weighs both in the same scales. He rewarded what He approved in Jehu, and punished the deceit and violence He condemned.
- Battlefield — the blow falls in the valley of Jezreel, the plain of Israel's battles. The Assyrian is the one who broke Israel's power there.
- Blessing — Jezreel means both "God shall scatter" and "God shall sow." The name that opens the judgment ends as the name of Israel's harvest of mercy.
And she conceived again, and bore a daughter. And he said unto him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah; for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, so that I should pardon them.
Hosea's second child is a daughter, and God chooses her name. The name is the message. It raises two questions: has God finished with Israel for good, and why does Judah keep the mercy Israel loses?
The New Testament carries her name over, and gives it in two shades.
Next a daughter is born. Here "bore him," as found in verse 3, is left out. The prophet receives a name for her — Lo-ruhamah, which means "not having received mercy." The Holy Spirit renders this passage in two interesting ways in the New Testament. Romans 9:25 gives it as "not beloved." First Peter 2:10 gives it as "has not received mercy." Love and mercy were now to be withdrawn from Israel. They were to be taken away completely.
Another writer ties the name to what God was about to do, and names the one nation He spared.
A symbolic name given to Hosea's daughter. The context shows its meaning to be "not having received mercy," as in the margin. It was given to stress that God was going to punish the people of Israel and take them out of the land. Judah, though, still had His mercy for a time.
The first child's name, Jezreel, announced judgment on one royal house. This second name widens it to the whole northern kingdom.
Then a daughter appears. Her name was to be called Lo-ruhamah — a name that expresses the absence of pity toward the people. No more mercy was to be shown… Jezreel was only the beginning of the judgments of God. "I will utterly take them away." So it was not only the collapse of the house of Jehu. Israel as a whole was to be swept out of the land. It would never be restored again as a separate nation.
(Kelly quotes an older translation, "I will utterly take them away." The ESV reads "to forgive them at all.")
How final is this sentence? One writer answers with a single exception.
God commands the prophet to call her Lo-ruhamah (that is, "no more mercy"). God carried out judgment on Israel. And this judgment was final — apart from sovereign grace, which He kept back for the last days. There was no longer any room for God's patience toward the kingdom of Israel. God's power would still preserve Judah.
The next verse spares Judah, and says how God will do it. History soon proved it.
Then the house of Judah is mentioned. They will be saved by the Lord their God, because He has mercy on them. Their salvation was not by bow, by sword, or by battle, horses and horsemen. Only a little later the Assyrian came before the gates of Jerusalem. He was God's instrument in carrying out judgment on Israel. But Jerusalem was saved just as predicted here, not by bow or sword. The angel of the Lord struck down an army of 185,000 in one night.
Peter picks up this language and turns it around for people who now belong to God.
"Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy" (1 Peter 2:10). This is a word from Hosea 2. Because of their wickedness and sin, God had said that Israel should not get mercy and were not His people (Hosea 1:6)… Despite their sin, disobedience and unfaithfulness — and My judgment too — I will bring them into blessing later on, God says. In the very spot where they were judged, there they will be blessed. Judgment has gone by, and mercy triumphs over judgment, for even disobedience cannot frustrate the purposes of God in grace.
This sentence reaches further than Israel. Romans uses it to include Gentiles — people outside Israel.
The prophecies clearly apply only to Israel. Yet it is Israel at the same distance from God as though they had been Gentiles: "not My people." If God could have mercy on Israel after declaring them "not My people," it plainly follows that He could be merciful to Gentiles too. They were in exactly the same class.
- Named — Lo-ruhamah means "not having received mercy." The child's name is God's verdict, given later as "not beloved" and "has not received mercy."
- Removed — with mercy withdrawn, Israel was swept out of the land and never restored as a separate kingdom. Jezreel was only the start.
- Reserved — the judgment was final except for sovereign grace, which God kept back for the last days.
- Spared — Judah received the mercy Israel lost. God saved them without bow or sword, as the Assyrian army found out in a single night.
- Reversed — mercy triumphs over judgment. Those told "no mercy" receive mercy, and by the same logic God's mercy reaches Gentiles too.
But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by Jehovah their God; and I will not save them by bow, or by sword, or by battle, [or] by horses, or by horsemen.
God had just told Hosea to name a child "Lo-ruhamah," a sign that the northern kingdom of Israel would get no more pity. Verse 7 turns to the southern kingdom, Judah. The same God who has finished with one house promises to save the other — and says exactly how.
One commentator notes how close together the two announcements stand.
Jezreel was only the beginning of God's judgments. God would take Israel away completely. This was not just the fall of the house of Jehu. Israel as a whole would be swept from the land, never to return as a separate nation. "But," He says in the very same breath, "I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the LORD their God." God let the Assyrian king destroy the kingdom of Israel, but stopped him by divine power when he hoped to carry off Judah.
God names the weapons He will not use. One writer traces that promise through three rescues, the last still future.
Then the house of Judah is mentioned. They shall be saved by the Lord their God, because He has mercy on them. Their salvation was not by bow, by sword, or by battle, horses and horsemen. Only a little later the Assyrian army came before the gates of Jerusalem. Assyria was God's instrument for executing judgment on Israel. Yet God saved Jerusalem in the way predicted here. Not by bow or sword — the angel of the Lord struck down the army of 185,000 in one night. Later God saved Judah and brought a remnant back from Babylon. Then there is a future salvation for Judah at the end of the age.
Bow, sword, horses and horsemen were what a nation trusted in war. One writer explains what God teaches His people by refusing them.
All these things were symbols of human strength — what people rely on in battle. In that day His people will have to learn that God alone is their refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Even Christians are slow to grasp that lesson.
The rescue comes through God Himself. One writer links this to the name given to Jesus at His birth, which carries God's own name inside it.
What a wonderful name is His. It is His human and personal name — given to Him in the manger at His birth, and nailed to His cross as the charge against Him at His death. Men treated it as a name of shame, yet it carries divine glory, for its full meaning is "Jehovah the Saviour." Israel are His people. He came to save them, and He will yet do it. God had said to them, "I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour… I, I am the LORD, and besides Me there is no Saviour" (Isaiah 43); and again, "I will have mercy on the house of Judah and I will save them by the LORD their God."
So why Judah? One writer points back to God's purpose of grace and the throne of David.
God had a purpose of grace to carry out, so He delayed full judgment. God had set David on the throne, and that was a pledge that Christ must sit there also. For Christ on the throne of David is God's centre of blessing for this earthly sphere. So God preserves the tribe the King would come from, until the appointed time when Jesus is born in Bethlehem.
Judah's reprieve did not last. Hosea's next child is named Lo-ammi, which means "not my people."
Afterwards another child is born — a son… It was no longer only a case of breaking up Israel completely; Judah now comes into judgment. While the royal tribe stood, there was still a centre around which all the people might be gathered… But now the innermost circle has proved unfaithful, and God marks the solemn crisis by the birth of the son called Lo-ammi.
- Mercy — God ends His pity toward Israel and opens it toward Judah in the very same breath.
- Method — God names the weapons He will not use. Bow, sword, horses and horsemen stand for human strength, and God removes them so His people learn He alone is their refuge.
- Means — the Saviour is God Himself. The name Jesus means "Jehovah the Saviour," and God says there is no Saviour besides Him.
- Motive — Judah is spared for God's purpose of grace: the throne of David, kept until the King is born in Bethlehem.
- Measure — the reprieve was partial. Lo-ammi follows, and the full salvation of Judah waits for the end of the age.
And she weaned Lo-ruhamah; and she conceived and bore a son;
Each of Hosea's children carries a name God chose as a sign to Israel, and the second — No Mercy — is also called Lo-ruhamah. When that child is weaned, a third is born, and his name will cancel the tie that set Israel apart from every other nation.
The names run in order, and each one takes the sentence further than the last.
The first child is "Jezreel" — the sign of the doom of both the house of Jehu and the house of Israel. The second child is "Lo-ruhamah" — the sign that God would withdraw His mercy from the house of Israel. The third is "Lo-ammi" — the sign that He would disown Israel, so that they should be no more His people. But a promise of final re-gathering follows all this, called "the day of Jezreel," when that very same nation, now cast off, will be restored.
The gap between the second child and this son is not empty. Judah, the southern kingdom, still had quiet years left, and the house of David still stood.
Judah's time of quiet lasted longer. For the moment, at least, they showed faithfulness to the LORD in their own measure. Afterwards another child is born — a son… It was no longer simply a case of breaking Israel up completely. Now Judah comes into judgment. As long as the royal tribe stood, there was still a centre around which all the people could be gathered. As long as the house of David was true in any measure… God could, morally speaking, still work a recovery. But now, on the proved faithlessness of the innermost circle, God represents the solemn crisis by the birth of the son called Lo-ammi.
The birth announces a sentence that would take years to land. Commentators mark two points in the nation's history where the two names came true. Nebuchadnezzar, named below, was the king of Babylon.
There are two phases in the history of the Jewish people. First He owns them as the people of God; He disciplines them by Egypt and Assyria, yet still owns them. Later on He rejects them, and the people become Lo-ammi, Not-His-people. When Israel was carried away captive, it was Lo-ruhamah, but there was not yet an absolute cutting off as a people. When Nebuchadnezzar takes Jerusalem, the people become Lo-ammi. Israel is rejected. God no more owns His people. He watches over them still for final restoration to their land, but "the times of the Gentiles" begin.
Israel had suffered defeats and deportations before without losing this. The third name removes something no earlier trouble had touched.
In all their previous calamities, they had still been owned of God as His people, and He had owned Himself to be their God. This was what constituted, in fact, the great distinction between them and other nations. But this was now in judgment set aside.
Writers apply this child's name to Israel today, not only to the ancient past. Stephen was the first follower of Jesus put to death, stoned after preaching to the nation's leaders.
For long centuries God had looked for fruit from Israel, but found none as a nation. After our Lord had been rejected and cast out, God gave Israel another chance in the testimony of the Holy Spirit. But the only answer to it was the murder of Stephen, and the defiant message sent with him, "We will not have this Man to reign over us." As a result the barren fig tree has been cut down. Israel as a nation has been set aside by God.
Once God writes that name on them, Israel has no claim left. That is what turns any future blessing into pure gift.
God, because of His people's sin and turning away, gave them the name, wrote the sentence upon them, of Lo-ammi (not my people). They have therefore forfeited all claim. So their restoration and blessing will be just as much a work of grace and mercy as the salvation of the Gentiles in the present time of God's favour… What they had lost under responsibility He will give back — and how much more! — in keeping with His own purposes of grace.
Commentators differ on emphasis. Some read the third name as falling mainly on Judah's later failure. Others take it as covering the whole nation.
- Sequence. Three children, three steps down: scattering, then mercy withdrawn, then the tie itself cut.
- Delay. The weaning is a pause of patience — Judah's extra quiet years — before God speaks the heaviest name.
- Reach. Earlier judgment fell on the northern kingdom. This one reaches the royal line — the place where any recovery had to begin.
- Loss. The name takes away the one thing defeat had never touched: God owning them as His people.
- Reversal. Israel forfeited every claim. Future blessing can only be mercy — the same grace that saves anyone outside — and God gives back more than was lost.
and he said, Call his name Lo-ammi; for ye are not my people, and I will not be for you.
Hosea's second son carries the heaviest name of all. God tells the nation He drew out of Egypt that it is no longer His. The verse raises two questions the rest of the book will answer — when did this sentence fall, and is it the last word?
The first two children announced judgment on the house of Jehu and the end of mercy toward the ten tribes. This third name widens the ruin to include the tribe that had so far been spared.
A second son is named Lo-ammi (that is, "not my people"), for now Jehovah no more acknowledged the people to be His. Judah held this position for a time, even though the ten tribes were lost. At last her unfaithfulness has plunged the whole nation under the terrible judgment of being no longer the people of God, with Jehovah no longer their God.
Israel had suffered defeats and invasions before. What made this different is that God had always claimed them through those disasters.
God has disowned them as His people. In all their previous troubles, they had still been owned by God as His people, and He had owned Himself to be their God. This was in fact what made the great distinction between them and other nations. But this was now set aside in judgment.
The verse ends, "I am not your God." Others render it, "I will not be for you." Here is what that meant in practice.
They rebelled against Jehovah again and again. So He separated Himself from them. He gave them the name "Lo-ammi," which means "You are not My people, and I will not be for you" (Hosea 1:9). From their rescue out of Egypt to their captivity under Gentile rule, the children of Israel had been His own special people. He no longer regarded them so. Jehovah hid His face of favour from them and withdrew His protecting arm. They were cast back into the sea of nations out of which He had drawn them.
Commentators differ over when the words landed. Some tie it to Nebuchadnezzar's capture of Jerusalem.
There are two phases in the history of the Jewish people. There is first the time when they are owned as the people of God, whom He disciplines by Egypt and Assyria, yet owns. Later He rejects them, and the people become Lo-ammi, Not-His-people... When Nebuchadnezzar takes Jerusalem, the people become Lo-ammi. Israel is rejected. God no more owns His people. He watches over them still for final restoration to their land, but "the times of the Gentiles" begin.
Others date its full moral force to the death of Christ.
From this scripture we learn that a time was coming when God would disown His ancient people the Jews, and cast them off. And this took place at the death of their Messiah. Then the dreadful sentence "Lo-ammi" took effect morally, and they are no longer owned by God as His people. This suspension of relationship is clearly taught in Matthew 23:38-39... The Jews being thus rejected, room was left for the gathering in of the Gentiles.
The sentence touches how God governs His people. It does not touch what He has decided about them.
When God said to Israel, "not my people," it was not that God gave them up. He did not change His mind; no, never! They shall be His people at last, because He did not mean it in purpose when He said Lo-ammi — but now they are Lo-ammi still.
Paul takes up Hosea's words in Romans 9. Once God falls back on His own sovereignty, the ground is as open to a Gentile as to a Jew — and the promised title is higher than the one forfeited.
God drops the word "people" and uses "sons" instead. With perfect fitness He signals through His prophet that when He was going to work in grace, He would work worthily of His name. He would bring Gentiles not merely into the place of Israel, but into a better standing. Granted that they were the vilest of the vile: even so grace could and would raise them into the nearest relationship to God Himself.
Hosea 2 turns each name of judgment inside out, and the reply from the people's own mouth completes the exchange.
"And I will sow her to Me in the earth [this refers to the name Jezreel]. And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy (Lo-ruhamah). And I will say to those who were not My people (Lo-ammi), You are My people; and they shall say, My God."
- Cause. Long rebellion, reaching at last into Judah, brought the whole nation under the name "not my people."
- Loss. God withdrew the one thing that marked Israel out from every other nation: He owned them as His, and owned Himself as theirs.
- Purpose. He disowned them, but He did not give them up. They are Lo-ammi still, and in His purpose they will be His people at last.
- Reach. Israel's rejection made room for the Gentiles. God calls them "sons" — a nearer place than the one Israel lost.
- Reversal. Hosea himself turns each name around: no mercy becomes mercy, not my people becomes "My people" — answered by "My God."
Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea which cannot be measured or numbered; and it shall come to pass, [that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, it shall be said unto them, Sons of the living God.
God has just called Israel Lo-ammi — "not my people." In the same chapter He promises a people beyond counting and a new name, given in the very place where that sentence fell — so who are these sons?
Lo-ammi describes how God deals with Israel, not what He has decided about them.
Because of the sin of Israel they are, for a time, outwardly not God's people. God has not changed His purpose concerning His ancient people, Romans 11:29; He has only changed His manner toward them. Hosea 2:23 adds, "I will say to those who were not my people, You are my people; and they shall say, You are my God." This will be when God's set time arrives for bringing them again into blessing.
Everything here turns on one word. God does not cancel Lo-ammi by saying "Ammi" — "my people." He says something else. (The ESV reads "children of the living God"; the writers quoted here use the older wording "sons," and the argument rests on that word.)
In a vague and general sense, compared with distant Gentile nations, Israel is called son, child, firstborn. But that is only as a nation, while "sons" is individual. The expression "in the place… you are the sons of the living God" is the faint allusion to the call of the Gentiles I mentioned earlier. It is so faint that many people swallow it up altogether and make it bear on Israel. If God had said, "Then they shall be Ammi," we could have read this of Israel. He does not, however, say this. He says "sons of the living God."
The promise does not hand Israel's old title to someone else. It gives a better one.
He would bring Gentiles not merely into the place of Israel, but into a better standing. Granted, they were the vilest of the vile. Even so, grace could and would raise them into the nearest relationship to God Himself. Then they should be, not a mere substitute for Israel, but "the sons of the living God" — a title never given in its full force to any but the Gentiles who are now being called.
Paul applies the verse to Gentiles, and the wording fixes where the new name is spoken.
Paul, writing to the saints in Rome — chiefly Gentiles — applies in Romans 9:25-26 not only Hosea 2:23, which predicts the future recall of Israel, but also Hosea 1:10, which reveals the actual call of Gentiles. They are not to be His people as Israel will be later, but to have the blessed title of Christians now, "sons of the living God." Notice the peculiarity of the phrase "in the place where it was said to them Lo-ammi, there it shall be said to them, 'sons'". It was among the nations while the Jews are not recognised as such.
That sentence puts Israel where the nations already stood.
The Gentiles were always "Lo-ammi," and He says to Israel, "Lo-ammi"; so all are "Lo-ammi." But now we get a new principle. "In the place where it was said to them, Lo-ammi, there they shall be called the children of the living God." And this is going on now. When Israel is restored, it is as "the people of God."
Peter and Paul both quote Hosea, but not the same lines. One writer makes that difference the strongest proof that this verse looks past Israel.
What confirms this as the true interpretation is that Peter also quotes from our prophet. Peter was writing to a remnant of Jews only, while the apostle Paul was writing in his own proper place to Gentiles. Peter does quote Hosea, but he leaves out the words "They shall be called the sons of the living God." See 1 Peter 2:10. For his purpose he quotes from Hosea 2, not from Hosea 1.
So does the verse speak of Israel or of the nations? One writer holds both together.
The first chapter shows more than the restoration of Israel. That restoration is perfectly true, and no one should argue against it. But in a mysterious way God also left room for bringing in the Gentiles. The form of the allusion is very easy to overlook. By it He proves His perfect knowledge beforehand, and tells us of the call of the Gentiles in their own proper distinctive relationship as sons of the living God, and not merely His people.
- Sentence. Lo-ammi changed God's manner toward Israel, not His purpose; the name has a set time to expire.
- Substitution. God does not answer "not my people" with "my people" — He says "sons," and that single word is where the wider promise hides.
- Standing. Sonship is individual, and it lifts those who had no claim at all above the place Israel held as a nation.
- Spot. God speaks the new name in the very place He spoke the rejection — among the nations, while Israel goes unrecognised.
- Split. Peter quotes Hosea 2:23 to believing Jews and stops. Paul adds this verse for the Gentiles — one prophet, two reaches of the same mercy.
And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint themselves one head, and shall go up out of the land for great is the day of Jizreel.
Hosea's first chapter is heavy with judgment. Then the last verse turns it all around: a divided nation gathers, picks one head, and the name that once meant ruin becomes the title of its greatest day.
Was the verse fulfilled when a small group of exiles came home from Babylon? One writer says no.
The eleventh verse is a great prophecy and remains still unfulfilled. Some expositors claim that it was fulfilled in the return of the remnant of Jews under Zerubbabel. But the Babylonian captivity is not in view here at all. The great day of Jezreel will come, when King Messiah, our Lord, returns. Then shall Judah and Israel be gathered together under one head, and gather once more to their national feasts in the land.
Another writer pins the timing to a scene the world has not yet seen:
Note the time is stated when this happy event will take place. It is when Judah and Israel will be joined together in the land with one King, even the Lord Jesus Christ, their Messiah.
The wording is unusual: they appoint for themselves one head. The head is God's gift, yet the people's own choice, and a changed heart is what makes them willing.
He is first spoken of in Hosea as the one Head under which the divided nations of Judah and Israel will be reunited in that day. He will be their Head not only by God's appointment, but by the choice of the people themselves. They will appoint for themselves one Head. They will have turned in true repentance to the God of their fathers, and their stony heart will have been exchanged for a "heart of flesh." So they will gladly fall in with God's gracious plans. With one voice they will acclaim Him, whom God has given them, as their Head.
The split between Israel and Judah was old and deep. One writer names both the moment it was cut and the day it will heal.
The union of Israel and Judah was to be in His hand... that unity depended upon David their king, their one head. His rejection broke all this... and they will surely not be united again until the King is acknowledged again. Then indeed these things will be according to the sure mercies of David. Until then, even if in their land, they will be a divided and weakened people.
What does "they shall go up from the land" mean? One commentator rules out a march out of exile.
Gathered together, Israel and Judah will appoint themselves one head, and will come (or go) up out of the land. I do not think this means out of Babylon or Assyria, or even out of the earth at large. It expresses instead their union in worship, in the same solemn assemblies and feasts, as we have already seen them one people under one head. It was accomplished neither after the captivity nor when Christ came, but the very reverse happened. It remains to be fulfilled when He comes to reign over the earth. "For," then indeed, "great shall be the day of Jezreel." God shall sow His people in His land, not scatter them out of it. It is the day not of humiliation but of manifested glory.
The name Jezreel carries two senses, and the chapter uses both.
Symbolic name both of the son of Hosea and of Israel. Hosea 1:4, 11. Jezreel is interpreted both 'God scatters' and 'God sows.' Hosea 1:4 refers to judgment upon the house of Jehu and the house of Israel; and Hosea 1:11 to blessing, when of both Israel and Judah it will be said, "Children of the living God." Then "great shall be the day of Jezreel."
Sowing is never for the seed's sake alone. The harvest reaches past Israel to the whole earth.
There is an unbroken chain of blessings. It runs from the Lord Himself down to the earthly blessings poured out in abundance upon Israel, who is the seed of God (this is the force of the word 'Jezreel'). For this reason it says, "I will sow her for myself in the land." For Israel will become the instrument of blessing to the earth, as life from among the dead.
- One reversal — the name that announced scattering now promises sowing. The same word carries judgment in verse 4 and blessing here.
- One Head — Christ is God's appointment, and the people gladly acclaim Him, once their heart of stone has become a heart of flesh.
- One people — the old split between Judah and Israel holds until they welcome the King again. Without Him they stay divided and weak, even in their own land.
- One land — restored Israel goes up together to its feasts. Commentators say the return under Zerubbabel did not fulfil this.
- One harvest — God sows His people in His land. Restored Israel becomes the channel of blessing to the whole earth: the great day of Jezreel.
Say unto your brethren Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.
In chapter 1 God had declared Israel "not my people," with no mercy shown; now the names are reversed. Two questions follow: who is addressed, and when does the change come?
Some translations keep the Hebrew names: Ammi and Ruhamah. One writer sets out what each name means and where the chapter goes next:
This introduces a remnant: the 'brothers' and 'sisters' of the prophet, those acted on by the Spirit. To them God's message was Ammi, 'my people,' and Ruhamah, 'received in mercy.' They will plead with their mother — Israel as a whole — and tell her that she was not the wife of Jehovah. She must be dealt with in judgment. But the valley of Achor, where God's anger was turned away (Joshua 7:26), should be a door of hope... Those who had not received mercy will receive mercy. Those who had been declared 'not God's people' would be able to say, 'You are my God.'
Notice what God does not say. He does not take the mother back. He gives two new names to her children.
The opening words of the chapter seem to me to recognise the principle of a remnant. God's heart owns them as a people and as an object of mercy, while the nation, as a body, is rejected by the Lord... By the Holy Spirit Jehovah does not say to the prophet, "I have married your mother, and I will not put her away." He says, "Say to your brothers, Ammi (my people), and to your sisters, Ruhamah (received in mercy)." He says it to those who, moved by the Spirit of God, truly enter in heart into the mind of the prophet — those who have the character that made Jesus say, These are my brothers and my sisters. The prophet alone could do this. He was to own his brothers and sisters as in relationship with God, in the full sense of the promise, even though that promise was not yet fulfilled.
One writer separates the two ways Israel is seen here: as people, and as one body.
"Brothers" and "sisters" look at the Jews, I think, one by one. "Your mother" looks at them together as one body... Here then we see a most painful picture. Jehovah threatens to put Israel to shame, and to have no mercy on her children, because their mother had behaved shamelessly toward Himself.
The same writer adds what the message asks of those who carry it. It is "a call to those who like Hosea could feel, speak, and act according to the Spirit of Christ, with the courage that comes from being sure of such relationships." At that moment, he notes, the state of the people was "as far from comforting as could well be conceived."
Commentators differ over who exactly is meant.
Who is addressed in the first verse of this chapter? Some think the children of the prophet are meant. The Lord addresses the godly in Israel, those who obtained mercy, for He acknowledges such still as "Ammi" — my people.
One writer sets this verse at the far end of a long gap. Between the sentence of chapter 1 and this word of mercy lies a stretch of time God passes over.
During the whole of this interval God declares Israel to be "Lo-ammi [not my people]; for you are not my people, and I will not be your God." But now Israel's restoration is at hand. The ark of the covenant is again seen in heaven, and God sends His message: "Say to your brothers, Ammi [my people]; and to your sisters, Ruhamah [having obtained mercy]." (Hosea 1:9, 2:1.) All that intervenes is buried in silence.
Peter's letter uses the same two ideas — a people, and mercy — for believers now.
"Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy" (1 Peter 2:10). This is a word from Hosea 2... Despite their sin, their disobedience, their unfaithfulness, and My judgment too, I will bring them into blessing later on, God says. In the very spot where they were judged, there they will be blessed (Hosea 2:23). Judgment has gone by, and mercy triumphs over judgment, for even disobedience cannot defeat God's purposes in grace.
- Names reversed. Ammi means "my people" and Ruhamah "received in mercy." They undo the two names of judgment given to Hosea's children.
- Mercy first. God does not start by taking the mother back. He starts by owning a remnant as His people, while the nation as a body stands rejected.
- Who counts. The message goes to those the Spirit moves, who share the prophet's mind. That is the character Jesus named when He spoke of His brothers and sisters.
- Two levels. "Brothers" and "sisters" see the people one by one. "Your mother" is the nation. So mercy given to some becomes a plea to all.
- Reach. Peter applies these words to believers now. They already share the mercy this verse announces, before Israel's restoration comes.
Plead with your mother, plead; for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband and let her put away her whoredoms from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
God told Hosea to marry an unfaithful woman. Now the picture becomes a public appeal: the children must argue with their own mother, while God says He no longer owns her as His wife. So the verse holds two things at once — a broken bond, and a plea that still expects an answer.
God sends the message through those He still calls His people. They must take it to the nation as a whole. One writer separates the two levels of the picture.
We begin with the message: "Say to your brothers, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. Plead with your mother." It is a call to those who, like Hosea, could feel, speak, and act according to the Spirit of Christ. They had the courage that comes from being sure of these relationships, even though at the time the state of the people was as far from comforting as could be imagined. "Brothers" and "sisters", I think, look at the Jews one by one. "Your mother" looks at them together as one body.
Another writer asks who exactly is called on, and who they must speak to.
Who is addressed in the first verse of this chapter? Some think the children of the prophet are meant. The Lord is addressing the godly in Israel, those who obtained mercy, for He still acknowledges them as "Ammi" — my people. They are to plead with the rest of Israel, their mother, whom Jehovah has disowned as His wife because of her adulterous conduct.
To lose the marriage bond with God is to lose everything that came with it. The prophets picture that condition as widowhood.
The figure of widowhood means the loss of divine ownership, protection, and supporting care. The Holy Spirit uses it in the prophecies to picture the religious and moral destitution of the people of Israel, because they publicly associated themselves with the false gods of the nations. So through one of the earliest prophets Jehovah renounced all relationship with His people because of their unfaithfulness to Him: "She is not My wife, and I am not her Husband."
God disowns her, but He never issues a bill of divorce. One writer weighs what such a document would have meant.
If He had issued a bill of divorcement against them, it would have been permanent. They would have been "cast away" (Rom. 11:1) — and Paul answers that idea with "By no means!" The fact was that they had sold themselves into disaster by their many transgressions.
The plea asks her to put the sin itself away. It also names what will follow if she does not.
But in fact, with respect to God's dealings, God had to plead with the mother — with Israel, looked at as a whole. God could not own her as married to Him; He would not be her husband. She must repent, if she would not be punished and made bare before the world.
The verse repeats the word "plead." Through this book God argues with His people instead of only sentencing them.
There is a pleading of the heart of God in Hosea, God coming down to man's level, and as a man pleading face to face with a people whom He loves... He does not stand far off, high above them, and pronounce judgment. In the person of the prophet He comes down to their true condition, down to their unfaithfulness to Him, and begs them to return.
This disowning is not the last word of the chapter. Later the same marriage language returns, with a changed tone. The quote follows an older translation that keeps two Hebrew words, then explains each one.
There has been the putting away. Jehovah has said, "She is not my wife, and I am not her husband." But a day is coming when she will say, "I will go and return to my first husband." Jehovah answers, "You shall call me Ishi," that is, 'husband'; "and shall call me no more Baali," 'master.' "I will betroth you to me forever."
The marriage image is used in Scripture of more than one relationship, and mixing them creates confusion.
The figure of marriage is, as we know, used to picture for us the union of Christ with His Church in glory; it is also used in the same way to convey to us the relation of Jehovah to Israel, both in time past and in that to come — suspended for the present through national unfaithfulness (Isa. 50:1; Hosea 2:2). The relation in the first case is heavenly, to be enjoyed there; in the second, earthly.
- Plead — The verse is an argument, not a verdict. God comes down to their level and begs instead of judging from a distance.
- Disowned — "She is not my wife" means the loss of God's ownership, protection and support: the condition of a widow.
- Not divorced — A bill of divorce would have been permanent, and Israel would have been cast away for good. God never issued one.
- Repent — God asks her to put the sin away. If she will not, He will strip her bare before the world.
- Restored — Later in the chapter the marriage language returns: no longer "master" but "husband," and a betrothal that lasts forever.
lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her as a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
God speaks here as a husband whose wife has left Him. He threatens to expose her: to strip her bare, set her back where she began, and leave her dry. The question the verse forces is whether this is the end of the marriage or the beginning of its repair.
The chapter opens with a message to the faithful few. They must plead with "your mother." Commentators read this family language as two views of one nation: the people one by one, and the nation as a body.
"Brothers" and "sisters" look at the Jews (I think) one by one. "Your mother" looks at them as a body. Here we see a most painful picture. Jehovah threatens to put Israel to shame, and to show no mercy to her children, because their mother had behaved shamelessly towards Him.
The verse begins with "lest." The stripping comes only if she refuses to turn. That makes the warning an appeal, not a sentence already passed.
But, in fact, with respect to God's dealings, God had to plead with the mother — with Israel, looked at as a whole. God could not own her as married to Him: He would not be her husband. She must repent, or God would punish her and strip her bare before the world.
The phrase points somewhere specific. One writer sends the reader to Ezekiel 16 for the picture behind it.
God will strip her naked and set her as in the day she was born (see Ezekiel 16:4). Nor would there be mercy for her children, because the mother, Israel, kept going after her lovers.
Ezekiel 16 fills in that day. It also shows where every ornament she later wore came from.
How was it here? A wretched outcast without the least care or pity, left out in the field on the day she was born. (Verses 4, 5) Then Jehovah passed by. He saw her covered with her own blood, and said to her in her blood, "Live" — and He said it with great emphasis. (Verse 6) Under His care she grew up to womanhood, dressed and decked with the most splendid ornaments. Jehovah entered into covenant with her and took her as His own.
God does not need to invent a punishment to make her naked. He takes back what He had given, down to the clothing she had credited to other gods.
"For she did not know that I gave her grain, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they made into images of gold." So they turned everything to the service of false gods and credited it all to their favour. "Therefore," He says, "I will take my grain in its time, and my new wine in its season. I will recover my wool and my flax that were meant to cover her nakedness. And I will expose her shame before her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand."
The picture of drought is not only about a woman. One writer ties it to the land itself, and to how long the dryness lasts.
It seems to me that Ezekiel 34-37 shows that the land of Israel will not prosper until the Lord restores Israel to it. I should think Hosea 2 shows the same thing.
The threatened desert is not where the story stops. Later in the chapter God leads her into that same wilderness Himself.
But Jehovah brought this unfaithful woman into the wilderness. There she must learn that these false gods could not enrich her. He had drawn her into it Himself, and He would speak to her heart in grace. When she had understood where her sin had brought her, and was alone with Jehovah in the wilderness He had drawn her into, He would comfort her. He would give her entrance through grace into the power of those blessings which He alone could give.
- Plead — those who still belong to God must warn the nation as a whole, pictured as a mother with her children.
- Lest — the stripping is conditional. God holds it out to bring her back, not to announce ruin.
- Born — the day she was born shows a helpless outcast with nothing. Every ornament she later wore came from the God she left.
- Stripped — God takes back the grain, wine, wool and flax she had credited to false gods. That leaves her exposed before the lovers she chased.
- Wilderness — the desert of judgment becomes the desert of grace. Once she learns her idols cannot enrich her, He speaks to her heart there and gives her the blessings only He can give.
And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they are the children of whoredoms.
In Hosea 2 God speaks about Israel the way a husband speaks about a wife who has left him. The sentence does not stop with her. It reaches the children born while she was unfaithful. Two questions press on this verse: who are these "children," and how can a God who is merciful say He will show them none?
The mother and the children are one people, seen from two angles. Kelly separates the nation as a body from the people inside it.
"Brothers" and "sisters" look at the Jews, I think, as separate people. "Your mother" looks at them together as one body. Here we see a most painful picture — Jehovah threatening to put Israel to shame, and to have no mercy on her children, because their mother had behaved shamefully towards Him.
Darby ties the children's position to the home they were born into. Their mother had already turned to other gods.
God could not own her as married to Him. He would not be her husband. She had to repent, or He would punish her and strip her bare before the world. Jehovah would not pity her children either, because they were born while she was chasing false gods. Israel credited every blessing Jehovah had poured on her to the favour of false gods.
The words "no mercy" had already been given to the prophet's daughter as her name. The New Testament picks the same word up twice.
The prophet receives a name for her — Lo-ruhamah, which means "not having obtained mercy." The Holy Spirit renders this passage in two interesting ways in the New Testament. Romans 9:25 renders it "not beloved," and 1 Peter 2:10, "has not obtained mercy." Love and mercy were now to be taken from Israel, and taken completely.
So when God says He will have no mercy on the children, He is writing the prophet's daughter's name across a whole generation.
The chapter opens with a call to plead with the mother. Commentators differ on who is being called.
Some think the children of the prophet are meant. The Lord addresses the godly in Israel, those who received mercy, for He still owns such as "Ammi" — my people. They are to plead with the rest of Israel, their mother — the wife whom Jehovah has disowned because of her adultery... Nor would there be mercy for her children because the mother, Israel, continued to go after her lovers.
Darby reads the same opening as marking off a smaller group inside the doomed nation.
The opening words of the chapter seem to me to recognise the principle of a remnant. God's heart owns this small group as a people and as an object of mercy, while the Lord rejects the nation as a body.
The refusal of mercy is not the last word of the chapter. The same words come back reversed:
They will plead with their mother — Israel as a whole — and tell her that she was not the wife of Jehovah. She must face judgement, but the valley of Achor (where God's anger was turned away, Joshua 7:26) should be a door of hope... Those who had not received mercy will receive mercy. Those who had been declared "not God's people" would be able to say, "You are my God." Compare 1 Peter 2:10.
Kelly notes where God takes her before He speaks kindly.
Still, Jehovah remembers mercy. At once He announces that He will allure her. Though He leads her into the wilderness, He will speak tenderly to her. But it would not be the old story repeated... The very place which of old was a door of judgment under Joshua becomes a door of hope in the prophetic vision.
- Mercy named. "No mercy" repeats the name Lo-ruhamah, "not having obtained mercy." Romans 9:25 renders it "not beloved"; 1 Peter 2:10, "has not obtained mercy."
- Mercy withheld. The mother is the nation as a body; the brothers and sisters are the people inside it. God will not own her as His wife, and the children share her position.
- Mercy forfeited. The children were born while their mother chased false gods. She credited those gods with everything God had given her.
- Mercy pleading. God sends those who already stand as "my people" to plead with her. Commentators differ on who they are: the prophet's own children, or the godly inside Israel.
- Mercy restored. The chapter does not end here. The valley of judgment becomes a door of hope, and those refused mercy receive it.
For their mother hath played the harlot; she that conceived them hath done shamefully for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give [me] my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns; and I will fence [her] in with a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
The word "therefore" makes this verse God's answer to a wife who had decided to chase her lovers: her road is about to be closed. Are the thorns and the wall punishment, protection, or both?
The chapter opens with God speaking of Israel as a wife who had shamed her husband.
Here we see a most painful picture. Jehovah threatens to put Israel to shame, and to show no mercy to her children, because their mother had acted shamelessly towards Him. "For she is not my wife, and I am not her husband." She must put away her scandalous unfaithfulness... Her children are children of unfaithfulness, because their mother has been unfaithful and acted shamefully; for she said, "I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water."
Thorns and a wall go up together, and the "lovers" they block are named for what they really were.
God will hedge up her way with thorns. He will raise a wall of separation to keep her from her lovers. If she chases them and joins herself to them in sin — a picture of the idol worship of the pagan nations, which Israel copied — she will not find them. So she might return to her first husband, to Jehovah.
Did the hedge work? Kelly weighs what it produced in Israel's history.
So Jehovah threatens to hedge up her way with thorns... At times there was regret, and now and then a little revival, even in Israel. But the people never truly repented, and so they never left their course of sin. Their good resolutions proved God's goodness and were the fruit of His testimony. Yet they never produced a thorough repentance in Israel.
Hamilton Smith sets this verse beside a scene from the Gospels.
Christ made Himself strange in the same way on the day when a Gentile woman, driven by her need, came to Him and was met by silence... But we know it was the way of perfect love that led to blessing. So too in His future dealings with the Jewish people, Christ will make Himself strange. Through the prophet He says, "I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths." The Lord also says, "I will take back my grain in its time." He will bring famine on them, to bring them into the wilderness, where they have no resources but God. In that wilderness place the Lord can say, "I will speak to her heart."
The ESV puts that last line as "speak tenderly to her."
The order matters. Turpin looks at where God starts with the remnant — the faithful part of Israel.
The words used here show that this is all conscience-work. Look at the order. First, the remnant feel in their conscience the condition they had fallen into. It is the same in every case — conscience first. And oh, if there is anything one longs for... it is for more real, solid, earnest work of conscience among us.
What God does with a nation He also does with one person.
The very scene of judgment will be the starting point of recovery. Deliverance must come out of "Achor" — that is, out of trouble. It cannot come any other way. That is how He will work with Israel later on, and in the same way now in the souls of any who have wandered from Him.
- Cause. Israel said she would chase her lovers for bread and water. The thorns are God's reply to a choice she had already made.
- Barrier. God raises thorns and a wall for one purpose: to keep her from her lovers, so she may return to her first husband.
- Limit. The hedge produced regret and short revivals. But Kelly says good resolutions never amounted to true repentance.
- Method. God makes Himself strange and takes back His gifts. He brings His people into a wilderness where they have nothing but Him. There He speaks to the heart.
- Order. Conscience first, comfort after. The scene of judgment becomes the starting point of recovery — for Israel then, and for any wanderer now.
And she shall pursue after her lovers, and shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, and shall not find them and she shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now.
God speaks here as a husband whose wife has run after other lovers. He does not chase her; He blocks her road until she turns for home, saying it was better for her then than now.
God hedges her way with thorns and raises a wall. That is why she can chase her lovers and never catch them. The barrier does not shut her out; it shuts her in to one road home.
Her way is to be hedged up with thorns; a wall of separation is to be raised to keep her from her lovers. And if she follows them and makes a sinful alliance with them, she would not find them. This is a picture of the idol worship of the nations, which Israel practised. So she might return to her first husband, to the LORD.
Another writer describes the same act. God turns her round in the road she chose, then takes back the gifts she had credited to her idols.
Israel ascribed all the blessings that the LORD had poured on her to the favour of false gods. So the LORD forcibly turned her back in her path. She did not know that it was the LORD who filled her with this abundance. So He would take it from her, and leave her naked and destitute.
Her words at the end of the verse are marriage words. She is not returning to a system but to a person she once belonged to. The chapter goes on to record His reply.
There is a day coming when she will say, "I will go and return to my first husband." The LORD answers, "You shall call me Ishi" — that is, "husband." "And you shall no longer call me Baali" — that is, "master." "I will betroth you to me for ever."
Her words sound like repentance. One writer tests them against Israel's record.
There was occasional remorse in Israel, and a little revival from time to time. But the people never truly repented, and so never left their sinful course. Their good resolutions were the proof of God's goodness and the fruit of His testimony. But they never brought Israel to a thorough repentance.
The words "it was better for me then than now" are her own verdict on her life. One writer finds in this an order that God still follows.
The expressions used here show that it is all conscience-work. If we look at the order, we find this first: the remnant feel in their conscience the state they had got into. It is as in every case — conscience first... It is the conscience which is reached. Whether it is a sinner before conversion, or a saint after he has fallen, all must begin in the conscience.
Her lowest point is not where God leaves her. One writer draws that out from Achor, the place whose name means trouble.
That is, the very scene of judgment will be the very starting-point of recovery. It must be out of "Achor" — that is, out of trouble — that the deliverance comes; it cannot come any other way. That is how He will work with Israel later on, and in the same way now in the souls of any who have wandered from Him.
The same is true now for anyone who has drifted from God. One writer weighs the word "backsliding":
The word "backsliding" assumes recovery, and that the heart will be turned back again to God, because that is what the Lord wants. He longs to have us very near Him.
- Hedge — God's first act of mercy is a barrier. He plants thorns and raises a wall so she cannot reach her lovers.
- Hunger — He takes back what she credited to her idols. Her substitutes can give her nothing.
- Homeward — Cut off from everything else, she names her first husband. One day she will call Him Ishi, "my husband."
- Heart-work — Saying "it was better for me then than now" is conscience at work. Conscience comes first. Without it, good resolutions are only passing remorse.
- Hope — The place of judgment becomes the door of hope. God restores Israel that way in the end, and any wanderer now.
And she did not know that I had given her the corn and the new wine and the oil, and had multiplied to her the silver and gold, which they employed for Baal.
God's charge here is not first that Israel worshipped idols. It is that she never recognised whose hand had filled her barns. Every good thing she owned came from Him — and she spent it on Baal, the false god she had taken as her master.
The gifts named are ordinary and daily: grain, wine, oil, silver, gold. Israel enjoyed them all and gave the credit elsewhere.
"...I multiplied her silver and gold, which they made into images of gold." So they twisted everything into the service of false gods, and put it all down to their favour.
Kelly quotes an older translation of that last phrase. The ESV reads "which they used for Baal." Either way, God's gifts became the raw material of idolatry.
The verse names a not-knowing, not an open rebellion. A heart does not walk away from God in one step.
The creature has always been the object of the Creator, and the blessed God Himself has been and is always the source of blessing to His creature. But the favour the Creator gives can become the object of the creature, instead of the God who gave it. The moment that happens, I repeat, the seed of decline is sown in the soul. I shall tell you why: you have displaced the God who gave that favour, and the devil has used a very clever trick to do it — God's own favour. Satan can displace God from the hearts of His people far more effectively by one of His favours than by some evil thing. Satan will never look for a bad thing if he can find a good one, and so we need to watch good things and bad alike.
Because she treated the supply as coming from her idols, God answers by cutting off the supply. The verses that follow list what goes: the grain, the wine, the wool and the flax. That stripping carries mercy inside it.
Israel credited all the blessings that Jehovah had poured on her to the favour of false gods. So Jehovah turned her back by force in her path. She did not know that it was Jehovah who filled her with this abundance. So He would take it from her, and leave her naked and destitute, and punish her for all the days of the Baals, when Israel served them and forgot Jehovah. But He would bring this unfaithful woman into the wilderness, where she must learn that these false gods could not enrich her. Having drawn her there, Jehovah Himself would speak to her heart in grace.
The stripping has a purpose beyond punishment: it exposes how empty the rival gods were all along.
Jehovah said He would strip Israel of the mercies He had given them, to show them their folly. In the last days He will bring a remnant into the wilderness and speak kindly to them. Self-judgement will be their door of hope.
Few readers today melt gold into an image. The failure in the verse is quieter, and it happens wherever we enjoy the gifts and forget the Giver.
Are we not prone to forget the Lord our God, to rest in His gifts instead of Himself? Alas! alas! we cannot deny it. We rest in the stream, instead of getting up to the Fountain. We take the very mercies, blessings and benefits that fill our path so richly, and turn them into an occasion for self-satisfaction and self-congratulation. In them we should find our constant ground of praise and thanksgiving.
The verse says she did not know. She was blind not only to where her food came from, but to the One who loved her — and the chapter does not leave her there.
In the past she did not know, in her blindness, who it was that truly loved her. He gave her grain, and wine and oil, and decorated her with jewels. But when grace works in her heart, she will turn to Him in sorrow and repentance, so that He may receive her to His heart once more. "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart... And in that day, says Jehovah, you shall call Me Ishi (my husband); and shall call Me no more Baali (my lord)."
- Giver. Grain, wine, oil, silver and gold all came from one hand; the sin of the verse is not knowing that hand.
- Displacement. When the blessing takes the place of the One who gave it, the seed of drifting away is already sown in the heart.
- Diversion. She spent what God supplied on Baal, turning His gifts into the material of idolatry.
- Removal. Since she would not own the Giver, He takes the gifts back, stripping her bare to show the emptiness of her idols.
- Recovery. In the wilderness she loses everything, and there He speaks to her heart. "Master" gives way to "my husband."
Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my new wine in its season, and will withdraw my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness.
God speaks here as the true owner of the harvest, and He is taking His gifts back. Two questions follow: why does God take back what He gave, and what is He after when He leaves His people exposed?
The repeated word "my" is the heart of the verse. Israel had already learned the same lesson from the law of tithes:
I may note that Israel was also taught by the law of tithes that they held their land as the Lord's; for it was like rent payable by a tenant. Rabbi Bechai says on Deuteronomy 14:23, "If you pay the tithe, then it is your grain; if not, it is mine" — that is, the Lord's. Hosea says the same: "Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season."
God does not act at random. The previous verse gives the reason, and one writer traces the whole chain of loss back to it:
Israel credited all the blessings that Jehovah had poured on her to the favour of false gods. So Jehovah forced her back in her path. She did not know that it was Jehovah who filled her with this abundance. So He would take it from her, and leave her naked and with nothing.
What she failed to know then, she will one day know in full:
Israel's decline starts with her lack of knowledge about Jehovah's generosity: "she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain" (Hosea 2:8). But in the day of future glory, Jehovah will betroth her to Himself, and she will know Him fully. "You shall know the LORD" (Hosea 2:20).
Wool and flax are not luxuries; they are clothing. God gave them to cover her, and now He takes them back. This verse opens a whole list of removals:
Verses 9-13 make the punishment fully known. God will leave her alone. He will withdraw the gifts and blessings, uncover her lewdness, and end all her celebrating.
God cannot deal with someone still dressed up in what they are proud of:
God can only deal with us when we are truly stripped of all nature's ornaments. He can clothe a naked sinner, but a sinner dressed up in ornaments must first be stripped.
Taking away the grain creates hunger, and hunger drives her to the one place where God can be heard:
So too in His future dealings with the Jewish people, Christ will act like a stranger. According to the prophet, He will say, "I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths." And the Lord says, "I will take back my grain in its time." The Lord will bring famine on them, to bring them into the wilderness, where they have no resources but God. In that wilderness place the Lord can say, "I will speak to her heart."
The order in this chapter is the order God still uses with a wandering heart:
If we look at the order, we find this first: the remnant who are left feel in their conscience the condition they had fallen into. It is as in every case — conscience first... This is God's order; this is the divine way of working.
Israel did have better moments. They never went deep:
There was occasional regret in Israel, and a little revival from time to time. But the people never truly repented, and so they never gave up their course of sin. Their good resolutions proved God's goodness and were the fruit of His testimony. Yet they never brought Israel to a thorough repentance.
The taking away is not the last word over that land:
Here Jezreel is the name given to the whole land. It had all become polluted with blood and oppression... In judgment Jehovah takes away His blessings. But "that day" is coming, when God reverses the judgment. Then the place where the heaviest judgment fell will be cleansed from its sin, and Jezreel too, the defiled and forsaken, will flourish again, even more than before.
- Owner — the fourfold "my" is the claim of the Giver; Israel held grain, wine, wool and flax the way a tenant holds a field.
- Ignorance — she did not know who gave the gifts. She credited them to false gods, so God took them back.
- Stripping — the wool and flax covered her; God takes them back and leaves her exposed. He can clothe a naked sinner, but first He strips the one dressed up in ornaments.
- Wilderness — the famine has an address: a place with no resources but God, and there He speaks to the heart.
- Reversal — conscience first, comfort after. The ground of heaviest judgment becomes the ground of richest flourishing.
And now will I discover her impiety in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand.
Hosea 2 pictures Israel as a wife who left her husband. Verse 10 is the moment the covering comes off. Two questions press: why would God shame His own people in public, and what is that inescapable hand meant to do?
God speaks here to the nation as a whole. Two things follow: the threat is conditional on her repentance, and it reaches her children as well.
God could not own her as married to Him: He would not be her husband. She must repent, or He would punish her and strip her bare before the world. Neither would Jehovah have pity on her children, for they were born while she was going after false gods.
The wool and flax of the previous verse were clothing — and clothing she had not made. So the stripping is God taking back what is His. The exposure shows what was underneath all along. And the lovers who watch cannot step in.
"For she did not know that I gave her grain, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they made into images of gold." So they perverted it all into the service of idols, and credited it to the favour of false gods. "Therefore," He says, "I will take back My grain in its time, and My new wine in its season; and I will recover My wool and My flax that were meant to cover her nakedness. And I will expose her vileness before her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of My hand."
Taking the gifts back is not only punishment. The loss has a purpose, and that purpose reaches beyond the loss into Israel's future.
Israel had credited to the Baals the blessings Jehovah had given them: Jehovah said He would strip them of those mercies to show them their folly. In the last days God will bring a remnant into the wilderness and speak comfort to them. Self-judgment will be the door of hope — the Valley of Achor. They will no longer call God "my Master," which is what the word Baali means, but "Husband." He will take away the names of their idolatrous masters, the Baals, and no one will remember them again.
Verse 10 sits inside a longer list of punishments. One writer names who her lovers are and how far the judgment goes.
If she follows after her lovers and makes a sinful alliance with them, she will not find them. That alliance pictures the idol worship of the nations, which Israel practised. Verses 9 to 13 make the punishment fully known. She is to be left alone. The gifts and blessings will be taken away. Her lewdness is to be uncovered. All her joy will stop. And the days of the Baals, spent in immoral worship, would come back on her in judgment.
The order of the chapter matters. Shame comes before comfort. One writer sees the same order in the way God deals with anyone, not only with a nation.
Look at the order. First, the remnant feel in their conscience the state they had got into. It is like this in every case — conscience first… This is God's order; this is the divine way of working. It is the conscience that God reaches. Whether it is a sinner before conversion, or a believer after he has fallen, all must begin in the conscience.
That no one can deliver her out of His hand is not only a threat. Since she cannot be taken from Him, the same hand that exposes her is free to restore her — and does, in the verses that follow.
That is, the very scene of judgment will be the very starting-point of recovery. It must be out of "Achor" — that is, out of trouble — that the deliverance comes; it cannot come in any other way. That is how He will work with Israel later on, and in the same way now in the souls of any who have wandered from Him.
- Gift. The grain, wine, oil, wool and flax were all His. The Husband she abandoned had clothed her.
- Credit. Her sin was not poverty but wrong credit — she handed His gifts to the Baals and never knew the Giver.
- Exposure. He takes back the covering, and what she is stands visible before the lovers she preferred.
- No rescue. Not one lover intervenes; the hand she is in is God's alone, and there is no exit from it.
- Return. Because the hand is His, the place of shame becomes the place of recovery — conscience first, then comfort.
And I will cause all her mirth to cease her feasts, her new moons, and her sabbaths! and all her solemnities.
Hosea 2 pictures Israel as a wife who has left her husband, crediting the corn, wine and oil He gave her to the gods she ran after. Verse 11 gives the answer. God Himself will shut down her whole religious calendar — the feasts, the new moons, the sabbaths — and end her joy with it.
The verse sits inside a chain of "I wills." God blocks her path. He takes back His gifts. Then He silences the celebrations. One writer shows what lay underneath: Israel treated her wealth as proof that the idols worked.
"For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they made into images of gold." So everything was twisted into their service, and credited to the favour of false gods... Then He threatens that all her mirth shall cease, "her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies. And I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees." Even her natural blessings had to be cut off, since her unbelief made them an excuse for the idols she set up.
The feasts, new moons and sabbaths were still running when this word came. Israel had not dropped the outward system. She kept the old forms going, with a golden calf at the centre of her worship.
On the surface they kept up the ceremonies of the law: the feasts of Jehovah, the new moons and Sabbath days, the sacrifices and offerings. But the whole thing was corrupt worship. The calf was the immediate object of that idolatrous worship.
God does not call them My feasts here — He calls them hers. The same shift shows up elsewhere in Scripture. One writer names the cost: God Himself shut out of the feasts He gave.
They were "the feasts of the Lord." That was their true character, their original title. But the Gospel of John calls them "feasts of the Jews." They had long ceased to be Jehovah's feasts. He was shut out. They did not want Him... There is a solemn lesson in this. Man quickly spoils what God sets up.
The verse says God will do it. The same collapse of feasts and sabbaths later fell on Jerusalem. One writer refuses to give the credit to the invading Chaldean army.
"Jehovah has caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion. In the heat of His anger He has despised the king and the priest. The Lord has cast off His altar, He has abhorred His sanctuary"... It was of no use to think of the Chaldeans. It was God who brought it all to nothing — Zion and the temple, the feasts and fasts and sacrifices, the king and the priest.
Why take the joy away first, when the tender words come later in the chapter? The order is deliberate, and God still works that way.
Trace in this prophecy how God will deal with that people in the future. You will find it is the same order in which He deals in restoring grace now. Let me refer for a moment to another scripture, Hosea 2:6-15. The expressions used here show that it is all conscience-work. Look at the order. First comes the sense in the conscience of the remnant, of the state they had fallen into. It is as in every case — conscience first.
The chapter does not stop at silenced festivals. The same God who ends her celebrations promises singing again. He even names the place: Achor, the valley that once meant judgment.
Still, Jehovah remembers mercy. Right afterwards He announces that He will draw her to Himself, and though He leads her into the wilderness, He will speak tenderly to her... to her He would grant her vineyards from there, the valley of Achor for a door of hope. The very place which of old was a door of judgment under Joshua becomes a door of hope in the prophetic vision. "And she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth."
- Cause — Israel credited God's corn, wine, silver and gold to false gods. So the gifts went, and the gladness with them.
- Cover — Israel still kept the feasts, new moons and sabbaths. The forms stayed; the worship underneath was corrupt.
- Claim — God calls them "her" feasts, not His. What He institutes, man can take over until He is shut out of His own festival.
- Cutting — No enemy gets the credit. He says, "I will put an end to all her mirth." The loss of the feasts is His own act, and it aims first at the conscience.
- Comfort — The silencing is not the end. The same chapter leads through the wilderness to a valley of judgment turned into a door of hope, and to singing again.
And I will make desolate her vine and her fig-tree, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards which my lovers have given me; and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
Israel's vines and fig trees came from God. She called them payment from her lovers, so God takes them back and lets the land run wild.
She used God's gifts in the worship of idols, and gave the idols the credit. That is why the gifts themselves had to go.
Everything was perverted to that service, and it was credited to the favour of false gods... Even her natural blessings had to be cut off, because her unbelief made them an excuse for the idols she set up.
The vine is not picked at random. It is the picture of Israel as a people planted to bring something back to God.
The vine was the symbol of God's people as the supplier of fruit for His pleasure. With this in view God brought them out of Egypt and planted them in a land flowing with milk and honey. The temple, the priesthood and the sacrifices were all part of God's way of bringing back to Him the fruits He had given Israel for His delight. Their worship and praise, their lives of righteousness and holiness, would bring pleasure to the God who had blessed them so richly. Sadly, instead of righteousness and holiness there was rebellion against Him and corruption. They gave their praise and worship to idols instead of to Jehovah.
Why would God ruin His own gifts? Because plenty loosens a person's grip on the Giver. Hardship tightens it.
The very fullness of the blessing enjoyed might make people forget the gracious hand that gave it. "Fullness of bread" had long ago been the destruction of Sodom. Trial and need wake up the sense of man's need of God. When he lacks nothing, he can easily lose the sense that he still depends on God... In this state the gods that man's own heart has invented are more attractive than the glorious God who is our Creator.
Judah's land showed the same reversal: farmland gone back to forest. And good soil only makes the wild growth worse.
The cultivated "field" has, as it were, grown wild, grown into a forest, as we know was the case with Judah... In such a case, the ground's own richness and the care it once had only help the wild growth to flourish. It is the usual story of privileges and blessings of every kind turned to the wrong use.
The destruction of the vines belongs to a sequence running through this part of the chapter. Withdrawn harvests, exposed shame, silenced festivals — all of it lands on a woman who thought her lovers were paying her.
Israel had received from the Lord grain, wine, oil, silver and gold. Then they attributed it all to Baal and used it in idol worship. Verses 9-13 make the punishment fully known. She is to be left alone. God will take back the gifts and blessings. Her indecent conduct will be exposed, all rejoicing will cease, and God would judge her for the days of Baalim, spent in immoral worship.
The stripping is not the end of the story. Poverty is the schoolroom where a false claim like "my lovers gave me these" finally dies, and the same hand that empties her afterwards speaks to her.
She did not know that it was Jehovah who filled her with this abundance. So He would take it from her, and leave her naked and with nothing... But He would bring this unfaithful woman into the wilderness. There she must learn that these false gods could not enrich her. And there Jehovah Himself, who had drawn her into it, would speak to her heart in grace.
- Gift. The vines and fig trees came from Jehovah. The vine stood for a people planted to bring fruit back to God for His pleasure.
- Misread. She did not know who filled her with abundance. So she gave false gods the credit, and spent the harvest on them.
- Removal. The natural blessings had to go, because her unbelief turned them into an excuse for her idols.
- Reversal. Tended ground goes back to forest. Rich soil now only feeds the wild growth — the usual story of privilege misused.
- Recovery. In the wilderness she learns that false gods could never enrich her. There the God who stripped her speaks to her heart in grace.
And I will visit upon her the days of the Baals, wherein she burned incense to them, and decked herself with her rings and jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith Jehovah.
Hosea pictures Israel as a wife who left her husband. This verse is God's sentence on her: He will call her to account for every day she gave to the Baals, and the charge ends on one wound — she forgot Him.
The picture is not unique to Hosea, and it does not end in judgment.
The figure of marriage is used again and again for the relation between Jehovah and Israel, a people brought into close and unique attachment to Himself. This is true both in the history of the past and in the prophecy of the future… In Hosea 2, God judges them for their wanderings from Him as adultery. At the same time He foretells the return of the nation to her "first husband," as the result of His dealings with her in the time to come.
Older translations read "the days of Baalim," and the quote below keeps that older wording. The name has an everyday meaning.
Baal means "husband" and "lord," with the main idea of ownership… Yet it has no necessary bad sense either. In the sense of "husband," God uses it of His own relation to the people: "your Maker is your baal"; "though I was a baal to them" (Isa. 54:5; Jer. 31:32). Still, God rejects the word in the end. Through Hosea He says, "You shall call me Ishi [my husband], and you shall no more call me Baali: for I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth."
The punishment reaches the days themselves, and the whole life built around them.
Verses 9-13 make the punishment fully known. She is to be left alone. The gifts and blessings will be taken away. Her shameful behaviour will be exposed, all her joy will stop, and God would bring upon her in judgment the days of the Baals, spent in immoral worship.
The jewellery she wore for her lovers came from the God she left.
Israel had credited the Baals with the blessings Jehovah had given them. Jehovah said He would strip them of those mercies to show them their folly.
Regret did come. Commentators explain why it never held.
There was remorse at times, a little revival now and then even in Israel. But the people never truly repented, and so never gave up their course of sin. Their good resolutions were the proof of God's goodness and the fruit of His testimony, but they never produced a thorough repentance in Israel… So everything was turned to the service of idols, and credited to the favour of false gods.
The list of sins closes on forgetting. One writer links that forgetting to the judgment, then shows where God takes her next.
She did not know that it was Jehovah who filled her with this abundance. So He would take it from her, and leave her naked and destitute. He would visit upon her all the days of the Baals, during which Israel had served them and had forgotten Jehovah. But He would bring this unfaithful woman into the wilderness, where she must learn that these false gods could not enrich her. There Jehovah Himself, who had drawn her in, would speak to her heart in grace.
The next verse opens with a "therefore" that turns everything around. This, writers say, is how God still works.
The very scene of judgment will be the very starting-point of recovery. It must be out of "Achor" — that is, out of trouble — that the deliverance comes; it cannot come in any other way. That is the way He will work with Israel in time to come, and in the same way now in the souls of any who have wandered from Him.
- Relationship — God treats Israel's idolatry as adultery inside a marriage. The return He promises is a return to her "first husband."
- Ownership — "Baal" means husband and lord, with the idea of ownership. God later refuses that title for Himself.
- Gifts — The jewels she wore for her lovers came from Him. He takes back the blessings she credited to idols, to show her folly.
- Forgetting — The charge climbs from feast days and incense to the real wound: she forgot Him. Those forgotten days are what He brings up.
- Recovery — The sentence is not the end. The place of judgment becomes the starting point of recovery — for Israel, and for anyone who has wandered.
Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart.
God has just announced judgment on a nation that behaves like an unfaithful wife. Then the whole passage turns on one word — "Therefore" — and what follows is not more punishment but courtship.
Notice who receives this promise. God speaks it to a people He has already judged.
In this passage from the prophet, Israel is not just guilty. She has already gone through judgment. God had declared that He would no longer show mercy... and that Israel was no longer His people. But afterwards, once the judgment had fallen, He returns to His unchangeable purposes of grace. He allures Israel as a forsaken wife, and gives her the valley of Achor for a door of hope. That was the valley of trouble, where Achan was stoned — the first judgment on unfaithful Israel after they entered the promised land. For judgment is changed into grace, and God begins everything again on a new principle. It was as though Israel had come up out of Egypt again, but on an entirely new principle. He betroths her to Himself for ever — in righteousness, in judgment, in grace, in mercy — and all is blessing. Then He calls her "Ruhama," that is, "the object of mercy," and "Ammi," "my people."
God does not order her back, and He does not drag her back. This is how a dishonoured Husband speaks when He still means to win His wife back.
The prophet speaks of Israel as an unfaithful wife. He shows the unmatched love with which her dishonoured Lord not only receives her, but woos her to return to Him. He says: "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her."
God does not speak to her heart in the comfortable city. He takes her out where nothing competes with His voice. One writer, using an older wording — "speak to her heart" — sees Him still working this way.
Long centuries before, the Lord had said to the prophet, "Behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart" (Hosea 2:14). As one has said, "There was no talking to her heart... in the fair and flourishing city... but out in the cold, hungry, empty wilderness, He allured her," there to speak to the conscience and win the heart. And today how often He takes this way with sinners, and, indeed, with saints. We seek comfort and ease, and too often our hearts grow cold and careless. Then the Lord breaks in on our ease with sorrow and trial, to speak to our hearts and draw us to Himself.
God's promise is to speak to her heart. What opens a heart is love, not threat. The same writer points to the look that recovered Peter, and to the word Joseph spoke to the brothers who sold him.
Was it not a look of love that recovered Peter?... Peter discovered by that look that his denial of the Lord had not altered the Lord's love to him. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. Love broke him down. Our sins broke His heart, but His love breaks our hearts. How did Joseph dispel the lingering doubts in his erring brothers, who had treated him so shamefully? We read "he comforted them and spoke to their hearts" (Gen. 50:21, margin). He confirmed his love to them.
The next verse names the place He leads her to: the Valley of Achor, where Achan was judged in Joshua's day. Watch what the relationship becomes when it starts again there. (The quote below uses an older translation, which reads "sing" where the ESV reads "answer.")
Still, Jehovah remembers mercy. Right after this He announces that He will allure her. Though He leads her into the wilderness, He will speak soothingly to her... The very place that was once a door of judgment under Joshua becomes a door of hope in the prophetic vision. "And she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt." And this freshness of renewed youth will not fade away as it did then. "And it shall be at that day, says Jehovah, that you shall call me Ishi, and shall no longer call me Baali" — that is, "husband" in love, not just "lord".
- Therefore. The promise comes after the judgment, not instead of it. Only when the sentence has fallen does God return to grace and begin again on a new principle.
- Allure. The dishonoured Husband does not just take His wife back. He wins her, and the winning is His work, not hers.
- Wilderness. He could not reach her heart in the comfortable city. In the desert nothing competes with His voice.
- Heart. Love does the breaking, not threats. Joseph spoke to the hearts of the brothers who wronged him; God speaks to hers.
- Hope. The valley of judgment becomes the door of hope. God calls her "my people" again, and she calls Him "my husband," not "my lord." This renewed youth will not fade.
And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
God has just described this nation as an unfaithful wife. Yet instead of ending her story, He promises her vineyards back and names Achor — a valley remembered for judgment — as her door of hope.
The valley got its name from a failure in Israel's first days in the land. One man secretly kept treasure for himself, and the whole nation lost its next battle.
It is possible for us to find ourselves in "valley" circumstances as the result of our own failures, an experience involving sorrow of heart. In Joshua 7, the people of God are found in the "valley of Achor" — the valley of sorrow, following their defeat by the men of Ai. Achan (which means "troubler") had coveted "a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels." It seems the cloak from Shinar — that is, Babylon — attracted him first, something that would make him stand out and give him prominence before others. If failure has come in, with the sorrow that follows it, the remedy is to seek the Lord. He alone can make such circumstances yield blessing and substance to truly repentant hearts.
The whole force of the promise lies in the reversal. God uses the same ground twice, for opposite purposes.
The very place that was once a door of judgment under Joshua becomes a door of hope in the prophetic vision.
That reversal is not God overlooking what happened. It is God outdoing it.
The judgment of God began to fall there, on the unfaithful people, after they entered the land. God was acting according to their responsibility. In that same place He would now show that grace abounded over all their sin. The joy of their first deliverance and redemption would be restored to them. It would be a fresh start of their history in grace, only now it would be an assured blessing.
Achor means trouble, and the promise does not remove the trouble — it makes it the route. Writers apply this both to the nation's future and to any believer who has drifted.
That is, the very scene of judgment will be the very starting-point of recovery. It must be out of "Achor" — that is, out of trouble — that the deliverance comes; it cannot come in any other way. That is the way He will work with Israel by and by, and similarly now in the souls of any who have wandered from Him.
The trouble is specific. Israel had to drag the hidden thing out of Achan's tent and destroy it before the nation could move on.
Their final clearance will only come when they enter the valley of Achor again as a nation. In other words, they must come to whole-hearted self-judgment. They must utterly and radically give up and destroy the accursed thing.
The verse hands back two things: fruitfulness and voice. Older translations read the second half as "she shall sing there"; the ESV renders it "she shall answer." Commentators dwell on the singing, and on the word there.
"She shall sing THERE." Where? In the valley of Achor. Not literally and physically of course, but morally and spiritually she will be there.
Both comparisons in the verse look back to one morning: the day Israel came out of Egypt and stood on the far side of the Red Sea.
How amazing the grace that shines in these promises! To think that at the end of Israel's disastrous history there will yet be a moment when she sings the praises of Jehovah! She will sing with the sweetness of her youth, and with the strength of that moment on the far bank of the Red Sea, when she saw all her enemies dead on the shore!
Writers place the vineyards and the song in Israel's future, tied to a coming time of national distress.
Then she will get her vineyards, her place of blessing, promised to Israel as His earthly people... When Israel is in that great trouble — the great tribulation — the valley of trouble will become the door of hope. For then the Lord will forgive them their sins, cover them with His grace and redeem them by His power. Then the singing times begin again for Israel.
- Trouble. Achor means trouble. The valley took its name from a judgment that fell on Israel at the very start of their life in the land.
- Turn. The place that was once a door of judgment is the place God names as a door of hope — the same ground, the opposite outcome.
- Through. Deliverance comes out of Achor, not around it. Israel must drag the hidden thing out and destroy it before there is a way forward.
- Gift. God gives back what she lost: her vineyards, her place of blessing. The gift is assured this time, not a repeat of the old history.
- Song. She sings there, in the valley itself, with the freshness of the Red Sea morning — grace abounding over all her sin.
And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah, [that] thou shalt call me, My husband, and shalt call me no more, Baali;
God speaks here to a people who had run after other gods. Instead of naming their punishment, He names the new word they will one day use for Him. The change is only one word. Commentators treat it as the difference between distance and intimacy, and they ask when that day comes.
The verse uses two Hebrew words for "husband." They carry very different weight. One writer traces the difference back to the making of man and woman.
The change of title here is significant. So far they had known God only in the distant place of "master." They had not known the reality of His glorious nature, or the affectionate closeness He was seeking. So nothing kept them from being drawn away to "other lords" that had wrongly taken His place.
"Baal" was not an evil word in itself. God had used it of His own relationship to Israel — which makes His decision to drop it all the more striking.
Baal means "husband" and "lord," and its main idea is ownership... The word does not have to carry a bad sense. In the sense of "husband," God uses it of His own relationship to the people: "your Maker is your baal"; "though I was a baal to them." (Isa. 54:5; Jer. 31:32.) Still, in the end God rejects the word.
The reason follows: they used the same word for the idols they had served.
Israel had credited the Baals with the blessings the LORD had given them. The LORD said He would strip them of those mercies to show them their folly... Israel will no longer call God 'my Master,' which is what the word Baali means, but 'Husband.' He will take away the names of their idol masters, the Baals, and they will not be remembered any more.
The new title is more than a change of words. It tells Israel something about the God who chose it.
Hosea 2 describes the restoration of Israel from the standpoint of the LORD's faithful love. He will be known to His people by a name that expresses that love... We must always bear in mind that the LORD of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New. And in this place He, the LORD Jesus known to us in grace, is addressed as Israel's Husband. After all her years of wandering and turning away, she will be brought to know the love that has followed her unfailingly.
The promise does not arrive out of nowhere. It follows the wilderness and the valley of Achor — a name that stands for trouble.
That is, the very scene of judgment will be the very starting-point of recovery. It must be out of "Achor" — that is, out of trouble — that the deliverance comes; it cannot come in any other way. That is how He will work with Israel in the days to come, and how He works now in the souls of any who have wandered from Him.
Commentators say none of this has happened yet. They warn against reading it as already fulfilled.
None of these promises about Israel's future — her restoration and spiritual blessings — has come true yet. "It is folly to think that all this was fully accomplished when a remnant returned from the captivity... No; it is a brighter day, when the power of God will make a complete clearance from the world of disorder, misrule, man's violence and corruption."
- Master. "Baali" means lord or owner. It left Israel at a distance, knowing God's authority but not His affection.
- Husband. "Ishi" means "my man," a word reaching back to creation, and it names the intimacy God had always been seeking.
- Cleansing. God drops the old word because Israel used it for idols too. He takes the names of the false gods out of her mouth.
- Achor. The change comes only after the wilderness and the valley of trouble. The scene of judgment becomes the starting point of recovery — for Israel then, and for any wanderer now.
- That day. Commentators hold that this is still future. God will restore Israel, and she will know the LORD of the Old Testament as the Jesus of the New.
for I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.
Just before this, God promises that Israel will call Him her husband, not her master. This verse gives the result — the names of the false gods vanish from her speech — and it raises two questions: why does a change of address break the hold of idolatry, and when does this happen?
Verse 16 uses two Hebrew words for "husband." They do not carry the same weight, and the difference explains how the idols kept their hold.
The change of title here matters. "Ishi" and "Baali" are both used for "husband." But "Baali" means strictly "lord, master," and implies only the wife's subjection. "Ishi" means "my man." Like similar words in other languages, it goes back to creation and to the basic fitting of man and woman to each other, so that the relationship should hold real fellowship or kinship. It is easy, then, to see the link between swapping one title for the other in speaking of the true God and the dropping of the very names of the "Baals," the false gods, out of Israel's mouth. Until then they had known God only in the far off place of "master." They had not known the reality of His glorious nature, or the affectionate closeness He was seeking. So nothing held them back from being drawn away to "other lords" that had seized His place.
The word was not evil in itself. Scripture even uses it of God's own bond with His people. Yet here He drops it for good.
Baal means "husband" and "lord," and its main idea is ownership. Even a bird is a "baal of wing," and a hairy man a "baal of hair." So it does not stand so much for the idea of one who rules; that word is rather adon, from din, to "discern," to "judge." Yet the word has no necessarily bad sense either. In the sense of "husband," God uses it of His own relation to the people: "your Maker is your baal"; "though I was a baal to them." (Isa. 54:5; Jer. 31:32.) Still, in the end God rejects the word.
Behind the refusal lies something God wants known about Himself.
How gladly would God have us know that He has a heart!
God attaches the promise to a place with a bad history.
The valley of Achor would be her door of hope. There the judgment of God first began to fall on the unfaithful people, after they entered the land, when God dealt with them according to their responsibility. There He would now show that grace overflowed all their sin. He would give them back the joy of their first deliverance and redemption. Their history would begin again in grace, and this time the blessing would be secure. The principle of Israel's relationship with Jehovah would change. He would not be a Master (Baal) she had to answer to, but a Husband who had married her. The Baals would be entirely forgotten.
Her heart changes first. She finally sees who had been giving her everything all along.
In the past she was blind. She did not know who it was that really loved her, and gave her grain and wine and oil, and decked her with jewels. But when grace works in her heart, she will turn to Him in sorrow and repentance, so that He may take her to His heart once more.
So has any of this happened yet?
All these promises about Israel's future — her restoration and spiritual blessings — are still unfulfilled. "It is a delusion to think that all this was fully accomplished when a remnant returned from captivity."
And the promise is certain, not conditional.
This gives absolute assurance that God will bring them back into relationship with Himself, and that the relationship will last. It will be closer than any they have ever known.
- Distance — Israel knew God only as owner and master. That far-off place left room for other lords.
- Nearness — He asks for the name "my husband." It goes back to creation and means real fellowship, not just subjection.
- Removal — He does not ask her to drop the idol names; He takes them away, so the Baals are entirely forgotten.
- Doorway — At Achor, judgment first fell on Israel. There grace now overflows all their sin, and the place becomes her door of hope.
- Permanence — No return from captivity fulfilled this. It is still ahead, and it brings Israel closer to God than she has ever been.
And I will make a covenant for them in that day with the beasts of the field, and with the fowl of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will break bow and sword and battle out of the land; and I will make them to lie down safely.
Hosea has just pictured a broken marriage healed: the Lord takes His people back to Himself. Verse 18 turns outward, to peace with the animals and an end to weapons of war.
The verse gives a date, but only a phrase: "on that day." Commentators place that day beyond anything Israel has seen so far. They warn against pulling it into the present age:
It is not the time of the Incarnation, as some godly men say — though it is astonishing that they dare to say it. "That day" is still future. It awaits the appearing and the kingdom of the Lord Jesus. It is distressing to confuse such a prophecy with Peter's vision and so apply it all to the church now.
The same phrase runs through the prophets with a settled sense:
"That day," then, is clearly a well understood phrase. Used without any special connection, it means the period of Messiah's reign and Israel's blessing.
Notice who does the making. Israel does not bargain with the animals. God makes the agreement for them — and only after He has settled His own relationship with them:
Hosea 2 then gives us a fuller view of Israel's guilt and misery, and of their final blessedness. There is the beautiful description of the covenant the Lord makes for Israel, between them and the beasts of the earth, after He has taken them into covenant with Himself. And there is the view we get of the Lord at one end of a magnificent system of blessing, and Israel at the other, after wilderness days. Both are exquisite.
God names three groups: beasts of the field, birds of the heavens, and creeping things of the ground. That is the whole animal creation. Commentators refuse to shrink the promise down to something already fulfilled:
It is foolish to think that all this came fully true when Israel returned from the Babylonian captivity. This wretched error misleads even Christians. It drags them into the impiety of counting God's word here as mere exaggeration, added to heighten the effect. It is as if the Holy Spirit stooped to be a trickster with words, or a prophet were as vain as a writer chasing style. No; it is a brighter day. Then the power of God will sweep the world clear of disorder, misrule, and man's violence and corruption. He will also reduce the whole animal kingdom to harmless and happy subjection.
Verse 18 sits between Israel's restoration and the blessing of the earth. That order matters:
Verse 18 tells us that creation will then be blessed; the time of its deliverance has come. Here the same thing is indicated as in Isaiah 11:6-7 and Romans 8:21. The end of wars comes then, and universal peace blesses the whole earth. This is always the order in the divine forecasts. First, Israel has to be brought back. After that come the blessings for the earth and the nations. That includes the peace which the blinded world-church tries to secure without the Lord Jesus Christ.
Israel's return to the Lord, flowing out of His grace toward them, brings universal blessedness with it. God will make all the earth feel, to its own joy, the gracious restoration of His long-estranged people.
God abolishes the bow, the sword, and war. He does not regulate them or reduce them. The result is a people lying down without fear. One writer finds a preview of that rest when Christ fed the five thousand:
The scene that follows is surely a foretaste of millennial blessing. It shows the Lord's perfect administration, and the power of one Person to calm the world's unrest and meet its desperate hunger. At His word five thousand men are in a moment set in perfect rest. He speaks the word, and at once we read, "The men sat down." So it will be in the day of the Lord. Then He will "abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land," and "make you lie down in safety" (Hosea 2:18).
- Relationship first. God settles His own covenant with His people first. Only then does He make a covenant for them with creation. Peace outside flows from peace with Him.
- God is the maker. God makes the agreement for Israel. They add nothing to the deal between themselves and the beasts, birds, and creeping things.
- Creation next. God brings Israel back first. Then comes creation's deliverance, and blessing for the earth and the nations.
- Then the weapons go. God abolishes bow, sword, and war from the land. His people lie down in safety, as the five thousand sat down at Christ's word.
- Still ahead. "That day" is not the Incarnation, not the return from captivity, and not the present age. It waits for the appearing and kingdom of the Lord Jesus, and God means it exactly as He says it.
And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; and I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies;
God speaks here as a husband to a wife who had left Him. He does not just take her back. He binds her to Himself for ever. So who is this bride? When does this promise come true? And how can a holy God enter such a bond again?
The betrothal promise comes after God has already declared the relationship over. One writer traces the order: sentence first, then a fresh start.
In this passage from the prophet, Israel is not just guilty. Israel has already gone through judgment. God had declared that He would no more have mercy... and that Israel was no longer His people... But afterwards, once the judgment had fallen, He returns to His purposes of grace, which He will never revoke... He betroths her to Him for ever, in righteousness, in judgment, in grace, in mercy, and all is blessing.
Betrothal was not the wedding itself. In Israel it still bound the couple by law, and Scripture uses the word in two directions.
The Jews saw this as being as binding as marriage. Only a divorce could end it... Scripture uses it as a picture of Jehovah's favour to His ancient people in a future day, when He will 'betroth' them to Himself for ever. Hosea 2:19-20. Also as to the position in which the church stands to Christ: Paul wrote to the Corinthian saints "I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ." 2 Corinthians 11:2. The conduct of the saints should be true to this betrothal.
Earlier in the chapter she stops calling Him "my master" and calls Him "my husband." One writer shows why that change makes the betrothal hold.
"Ishi" and "Baali" both mean "husband." But "Baali" means "lord, master," and points only to the wife's place under him. "Ishi" means "my man." It goes back to creation and to the basic fitting of man and woman to each other, so that there should be real fellowship or kinship in the relation... So far they had known God only in the distant place of "master." They did not know the reality of His glorious nature, or the affectionate closeness He wanted. Thus there was nothing to hinder their being drawn away to "other lords" which had usurped His place. But now, in the future which He here contemplates, all would be changed, so as to make stable the relationship.
The terms are startling when you see who receives them. She had chased other lovers; He answers with righteousness.
There is to be acceptance for this unfaithful one with her injured Lord. She has been unfaithful, it is true... she has said, "I will go after my lovers," but the Lord has also said, "I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy."
Another writer points to the place where God's judgment first fell inside the land.
God's judgment first fell on the unfaithful people after they entered the land. There He acted according to their responsibility. In that same place He would now show that grace abounded over all their sin... The whole basis of Israel's relationship with Jehovah would change. He would not be as a Master (Baal) to whom she was responsible, but as a Husband who had betrothed her.
Some have tied this promise to Christ's first coming. One writer rules that out, and then weighs the betrothal against every other blessing in the chapter.
It is not the time when Christ came as a man, as some godly men say... "That day" is still future, and waits for the appearing and the kingdom of the Lord Jesus... But, better than all, "I will also betroth you to Myself for ever." What is every other mercy worth, compared with this closest bond with Jehovah Himself?
The verse does not end with a private reunion. Because the bond holds, blessing spreads from the heavens to the earth.
Heavens and earth will be gloriously united, and in answer to the call of His people the heavens will hear and cover all with blessing, for Satan's power is now gone. Israel is no longer "not My people," but they will be "His people" and He will be "their God," while the redeemed nation itself will be a blessing in the earth.
- Judgment first. God speaks this promise to a people already sentenced. Only then does He return to purposes He will never take back.
- Betrothal, not sentiment. The word carried the full binding force of marriage. Scripture uses it of Israel's future and of the church's standing toward Christ now.
- Master becomes Husband. The old distance of "my master" left room for other lords; intimacy is what makes the new bond stable.
- Righteousness for the unfaithful. Grace abounds where judgment once fell. He takes the wife who chased other lovers in righteousness, justice, steadfast love and mercy.
- Forever outweighs everything. This chapter promises many mercies. Nearness to God Himself dwarfs them all, and from it blessing spreads to the whole earth.
and I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness and thou shalt know Jehovah.
Hosea 2 ends with God speaking as a husband to a wife who had run after other gods. He pledges Himself three times over, and this last pledge — "in faithfulness" — raises two questions: when does it happen, and what does it mean to know the LORD?
Commentators place this promise in a future day, not in any past restoration. They read the betrothal as worth more than every other mercy God gives.
"That day" is still future. It awaits the appearing and the kingdom of the Lord Jesus… But, better than all: "I will also betroth you to Myself for ever." What is every other mercy worth compared with this closest association with Jehovah Himself? "Yes, I will betroth you to Myself in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies," says He for the third time. "I will betroth you to Myself in faithfulness; and you shall know Jehovah."
Readers have long argued over who this promise belongs to — Israel or the Church. One writer answers that plainly.
Nothing could be more decisive than this… Surely no one can twist it in the way that has been so common, reading "the Church" where it says "Israel." This is how the Old Testament speaks throughout.
The pledges pile up — righteousness, judgment, loving-kindness, mercies — and faithfulness closes the list. Earlier in the chapter God also changes the name Israel calls Him by. That change explains the knowledge promised here.
"Ishi" and "Baali" are both words for "husband." But "Baali" means, strictly, "lord, master," and implies only that the wife is under him. "Ishi," "my man," goes back to creation and to the basic fitting of man and woman to each other, so that there should be real fellowship or kinship in the relation… They had known God until now only in the far-off place of "master," not in the reality of His glorious nature, not in the affectionate closeness He was seeking. So there was nothing to stop them being drawn away to "other lords" which had taken His place. But now, in the future He has in view, everything would change. The change would make the relationship stable: "I will even betroth you to Me in faithfulness"—or "steadfastness"—"and you shall know the Lord."
God takes the valley of Achor, a place tied to His judgment, and makes it a door of hope. That reversal sets the terms of the whole betrothal.
The judgment of God first fell on the unfaithful people after they entered the land, when He dealt with them according to their responsibility. In that very place He would now show that grace abounded over all their sin… It would be a fresh start of their history in grace, and this time the blessing would be secure. God would change the whole basis of Israel's relationship with Him. He would not be a Master (Baal) whom she owed duty to, but a Husband who had betrothed her to Himself.
The last words of the verse answer a problem Hosea named earlier in the chapter.
We can trace Israel's decline first of all to her lack of knowledge about Jehovah's generosity: "She did not know that I gave her grain" (Hosea 2:8). But in the day of future glory, when Jehovah betroths her to Himself, she shall fully know Him. "You shall know the Lord" (Hosea 2:20).
Jeremiah's new covenant carries the same promise. One writer marks how it differs from what believers have now.
When the new covenant is established with Israel, the Lord says, "They shall all know Me" (vv. 31-34). That will indeed be a glad and glorious day… This blessing is so rich that it will be like life from the dead. It will truly be eternal life, though not in the same measure and relationship that belongs to the believer now. They will know Jehovah: we are brought to know the Father and the Son.
The union does not stop with Israel. Blessing runs down from heaven to the land and to every creature.
What an uninterrupted line of blessing, from the heavens down to every earthly blessing in the land of Israel! Every creature of God will then enjoy to the full the fruits of that restored and completed union between Jehovah and His ancient people.
- Grace begins it. God turns the place where judgment first fell into a door of hope, and sets the bond on a new footing — Husband, not Master.
- Faithfulness secures it. The third pledge is "steadfastness," the quality that makes the bond stable after all Israel's wandering.
- Knowledge crowns it. She who did not know who gave her the grain will fully know Him; the far-off place of "master" gives way to closeness.
- Blessing follows it. From that union runs an unbroken line of supply, heaven to earth, enjoyed by every creature.
- Timing frames it. Commentators read "that day" as still future. It waits on the appearing and kingdom of the Lord Jesus, and God speaks the promise to Israel.
And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith Jehovah, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;
Hosea 2 closes with God speaking to a nation He had once named "not My people." He promises to bind her to Himself for ever. This verse shows what follows: answers running from God, through the heavens, down to the land and its harvest. Older translations read "I will hear" where the ESV has "I will answer." The commentators use that older wording. The picture is the same: a call goes up, and supply comes down.
The verse lists the links in order: God, the heavens, the earth, then the harvest. Nothing in between is blocked.
What an uninterrupted line of blessing, from the heavens down to every earthly blessing in the land of Israel! Every creature of God shall then reap in full enjoyment the fruits of the restored and consummated union of Jehovah with His ancient people.
Read from the bottom up, the chain is a series of calls going up to God. The answer comes back down. One writer traces what broke the links, and what repaired them:
Sin had interfered with the flow of blessing to the earth. Redemption reconnects the broken links, and the chain is complete — most clearly when the Lord Jesus reigns in glory over the earth… The corn, the wine, and the oil call upon the earth to bring forth, and the earth calls to the heaven, for the first and the latter rain, and the heavens call to Jehovah. God, the source and giver of all, hears and gives in the appointed order and way.
If God must "answer the heavens," something had stopped them answering before. The reason given is a hostile presence above, and corrupt worship below.
The sin of man had cut the heavens off from the earth, and had done so of necessity and for a long time. Satan had gained power not only on the earth. Above it, he could claim a seeming title of righteousness as accuser before God. So the heavens were turned into brass against His people… For man did not look up to God in adoration. He made the heavens and their host of stars, not God, the highest object of his worship. This was the earliest form of idolatry.
Another writer looks ahead to the reverse. What is silent now will be in direct touch then.
The heavens will be new, for they will be in direct touch with earth, as Hosea 2:21 describes, instead of standing cut off and silent as they do now. As a result the earth will be blessed.
The last link in the chain is a name, and the name carries the meaning of the whole promise.
There is an unbroken chain of blessings from Jehovah Himself down to the earthly blessings poured out in abundance on Israel. Israel is the seed of God, for this is the force of the word 'Jezreel.' That is why He adds (v. 23), "I will sow her for Myself in the land." For Israel will become the instrument of blessing to the earth, as life from among the dead.
Jezreel was also a real place with a bloody past:
In the prophet's day the crimes that made Jezreel notorious in the days of Ahab marked the whole land, and in judgment Jehovah takes away His blessings… But in "that day," the day when judgment is reversed, He will cleanse the place where the heaviest judgment fell from its iniquity.
Some read this promise as fulfilled when the exiles came back from Babylon. One writer rejects that, and warns where it leads:
It is folly to think that all this was fully accomplished when Israel came back from the captivity in Babylon. This miserable error misleads even Christians. It draws them into the irreverent, rationalist habit of treating God's word here as mere exaggeration for effect… No; it is a brighter day, when the power of God will sweep the world clean of disorder, misrule, and man's violence and corruption.
Most of the Old Testament promises about the coming age describe an earthly scene. One writer names this verse as one of the few that lift the eye higher.
This coming age is the theme of many a glowing Old Testament Scripture… still, such Scriptures view the age as the age of Messiah's glory. Israel is gathered under Him as the head of the nations, and the other nations are set in order and blessed in a place under Israel. Only in very rare cases — as Hosea 2:21 — do they mention the heavenly side at all.
- Chain. The verse is one unbroken line of supply — God, heavens, earth, harvest, Jezreel — with no link blocked.
- Break. Sin severed heaven from earth and left the sky like brass; that is why God must first answer the heavens.
- Repair. Redemption reconnects the severed links, and the chain is complete when Christ reigns.
- Seed. Jezreel means the seed of God — the very place of bloodshed becomes the sown field God blesses.
- Reach. The promise is still future, and it is one of the rare Old Testament glimpses of the heavenly side of that day.
and the earth shall hear the corn, and the new wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jizreel.
Hosea 2:22 closes a chain of answers running from God down to the soil, and it ends on a name — Jezreel — that once meant bloodshed and judgment. Why does blessing travel in this order, and how does a name of ruin become the name of a harvest?
The quotes below follow an older translation: it says "hear" where the ESV says "answer", "corn" where the ESV says "grain", and "the earth" where the ESV says "the land" in verse 23.
Verses 21 and 22 are not separate promises. They are one movement, running from heaven down to the crops of the ground.
What an unbroken line of blessing, from the heavens down to every earthly blessing in the land of Israel! Every creature of God will then reap and fully enjoy the fruits of the restored and completed union of Jehovah with His ancient people.
Read the chain from the bottom, and each level asks the one above for what it needs. But why did the chain ever need repair?
Sin had cut off the flow of blessing to the earth. Redemption reconnects the broken links, and the chain is complete. This shows most clearly when the Lord Jesus reigns in glory over the earth. Jezreel — the place once of sin and judgment, now of mercy — calls to the corn and the wine and the oil. They are the evidence of God's favour, and this call agrees with His promise at the beginning. That promise was forfeited then, because it was conditional on obedience; it is secure now through restoring grace. These call on the earth to bring forth. The earth calls to the heaven for the first and the latter rain. The heavens call to Jehovah. And God, the source and giver of all, hears and gives in the appointed order and way. But the land of Israel can no more be the limit of this blessing than the Jews could be the only objects of grace after the cross. Both the grace and the glory must overflow.
Why corn, then wine, then oil?
That order seems to hold throughout the Old Testament, right on to Hosea. The reason for this order is clear: the corn is the result of the harvest, the wine is the result of the vintage, and last of all comes the oil. In God's dealings through the ages there will be a "harvest judgment", a judgment between good and evil. Then comes the "vintage" — the removal of every opposing element. This leads to the outpouring of the Spirit of God. So the blessing of God will be enjoyed in the power of the Spirit in the world to come.
One writer traces all three back to their source.
"The corn, the wine, and the oil" are so often linked together in Deuteronomy and other scriptures. They take in the produce of the field, the vineyard and the orchard. All are made to yield their increase in blessing from Him of whom it is said, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof."
The chain ends at a name, and that name explains what God is doing with Israel.
There is an unbroken chain of blessings from Jehovah Himself down to the earthly blessings poured out in abundance upon Israel. Israel is the seed of God — that is the force of the word "Jezreel". For this reason He adds in verse 23, "I will sow her for Myself in the earth." Israel will become the instrument of blessing to the earth, as life from among the dead.
Jezreel was a place of innocent blood and heavy judgment. That is where God plants.
Here Jezreel is the name given to the whole land, which had all become polluted with blood and oppression. But in "that day," the day when judgment is reversed, God will cleanse the place where the heaviest judgment fell. He will take away the curse of innocent blood... In "that day" He will not only free the earth from bondage. Mercy will rejoice against judgment, and Jezreel too, the defiled and forsaken, will flourish again even more richly than before.
The passage keeps saying "in that day." One writer dates it plainly.
"That day" is still future, and awaits the appearing and the kingdom of the Lord Jesus.
- Chain — The verse is one link in an unbroken line from God down to the harvest. Every creature shares in the restored union between Him and His people.
- Answer — Sin cut the links, and redemption reconnects them. Each level calls on the one above, until the call reaches God, who gives in the appointed order.
- Harvest — Corn, wine and oil cover field, vineyard and orchard. Their fixed order traces harvest, then vintage, then the outpouring of the Spirit.
- Seed — Jezreel means the seed of God. He sows Israel for Himself, to make them the channel of blessing to the whole earth.
- Mercy — The ground stained by the heaviest judgment is the ground that flourishes most. It waits on the appearing and kingdom of the Lord Jesus.
And I will sow her unto me in the land; and I will have mercy upon Lo-ruhamah; and I will say to Lo-ammi, Thou art my people; and they shall say, My God.
The closing verse of Hosea 2 turns the language of judgment inside out. God plants the nation, pities the child named "No Mercy," and calls "Not My People" His own people again. The question it raises is who this promise belongs to — the nation of Israel in a future day, or those who believe now.
Hosea's children were given names that acted as sentences on the nation. The word "Lo-ammi" means "not my people," and the last verse cancels it.
Because of the sin of Israel they are for a time openly not God's people. God has not changed His purpose concerning His ancient people, Romans 11:29; He has only changed His manner toward them. Hosea 2:23 adds, "I will say to Not My People, 'You are my people'; and he shall say, 'You are my God.'" That will happen when God's set time comes to bring them back into blessing.
"I will sow her" picks up the name Jezreel. That name tells you what God plans to do with this nation.
There is an unbroken chain of blessings from the Lord Himself down to the earthly blessings poured out in abundance on Israel, who is the seed of God (for this is the force of the word "Jezreel"). This is why the verse adds (v. 23), "I will sow her for myself in the land." For Israel will become the instrument of blessing to the earth, as life from among the dead.
The verse before it describes God answering the heavens, the heavens the earth, and the earth the grain, wine and oil. Verse 23 is the end of that line, and nothing along it is left broken.
What an uninterrupted line of blessing, from the heavens down to every earthly blessing in the land of Israel! Every creature of God will then reap in full enjoyment the fruits of the restored and completed union of the Lord with His ancient people.
Israel earns none of this.
Because of their wickedness and sin, God had said that Israel should not get mercy, and were not His people (Hosea 1:6). The nation has lost the blessing through their disobedience. In the second chapter, the Lord promises to give it back. Despite their sin, their disobedience, their unfaithfulness, and My judgment too, I will bring them into blessing later on, God says. In the very spot where they were judged, there they will be blessed (Hosea 2:23). Judgment has gone by, and mercy rejoices against judgment, for even disobedience cannot frustrate the purposes of God in grace.
The promise is to be planted in the land, and commentators insist that the plain subject of the sentence stands.
You would think it impossible to twist this in the way that has been so common — reading "the Church" in place of "Israel." This is how the Old Testament speaks throughout. So Isaiah says (chapter 27:6): "He will cause those who come from Jacob to take root. Israel will blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit."
Peter quotes this verse of believers in his own day (1 Peter 2:10) — yet what they receive is the mercy, not the settled place in the land.
Paul, writing to the saints in Rome — mostly Gentiles — applies not only Hosea 2:23, which predicts the future recall of Israel, but also Hosea 1:10, which reveals the actual call of Gentiles (Romans 9:25-26). They are not to be His people as Israel will be later on, but to have the blessed title of Christians now, "sons of the living God." Peter, writing to the Christian Jews scattered in Asia Minor (1 Peter 2:10), applies only Hosea 2:23. Those who now believe anticipate that blessing, along with much more that belongs to Christianity alone: "who were once not a people, but now God's people; who were not objects of mercy, but now have obtained mercy." The verses that follow then show something else with care. Believers now are not sown in the earth, never to be uprooted, flourishing forever in the bright kingdom of Messiah here below. They are called to follow Him in present rejection, reproach and patience, "as pilgrims and strangers" until He appears.
Paul quotes both this verse and Hosea 1:10 in Romans 9, and the logic of the pairing rests on how far Israel had fallen.
The prophecies clearly apply only to Israel. Yet it is Israel at the same distance from God as though they had been Gentiles — "not My people." God could have mercy on Israel after declaring them to be "not My people." It plainly follows that He could be merciful to Gentiles too, for they were in exactly the same class. What admirable wisdom! What blessed grace!
- Named — The names spelled out the sentence: "No Mercy," "Not My People." Verse 23 cancels both in one breath.
- Sown — Jezreel marks Israel as the seed of God. He plants that nation to make the whole earth fruitful.
- Pitied — God pities the very people He said would get no mercy, on the ground where He judged them. They earn none of it.
- Widened — Israel sank to "not My people." So the same mercy can reach the nations, who stood in the same class.
- Answered — The verse ends in two voices. He says, "You are my people." The people reply, "You are my God." The relationship is restored, not just the fortunes.
And Jehovah said unto me, Go again, love a woman beloved of a friend, and an adulteress, according to the love of Jehovah for the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love raisin-cakes.
God tells His prophet to love a woman who has already betrayed him, and He gives the reason at once: this is how He loves Israel. So what love keeps loving after adultery, and what has Israel chosen over Him?
Hosea is not sent to a stranger. Notice who this woman is, and why he is told to love her.
The command here is not that the Prophet should enter into relation with another woman, but it concerns the same Gomer, the unfaithful wife. It seems she left the prophet and lived in adultery with another man… She is not called "your wife," but simply "a wife." Yet the Lord tells the prophet to love the adulterous wife. The Lord commands Hosea to love this woman, and he had loved her before her fall. Now he was to love her after her fall, and while she was still in that state, to save her from staying in it. It was for her sake, so that he might win her back. Such is the love of Jehovah for Israel.
Every word of the description counts. These writers use an older translation of the verse, which reads "a woman beloved of her friend, and an adulteress." Notice how exactly she is named, and what the law would have allowed Hosea to do instead.
Again that most distressing contrast: the object of Jehovah's affection, and yet the base and gross response of Israel. Gomer stands for Israel here. She had been unfaithful to the prophet, just as the word before the marriage had indicated she would be. The exact wording is beautiful, and so is the purity of God's servant under such an unusual instruction. She is called no longer your wife but "a woman"; her impurity came after marriage, and so she is rightly called an adulteress. The Lord tells him to go again, and love her, a woman loved by a "friend." Marriage love is not what is meant; yet she was to be loved, as she had been. There was no excuse for her sin in any failure of his affection. The instruction was not after the manner of men, nor even of the law which regulated Israel's ordinary ways. It was grace.
That last line is the key. The law would have released Hosea. Grace sends him back.
The Authorised Version — the old King James Bible — treated this word as a measure. The Hebrew points to something else.
ashishah: the Authorised Version treats it as a measure. Most now understand it to mean a 'cake of raisins.' The raisins are pressed into a cake, in the same way that figs are… In Hosea 3:1 the words 'of wine' are not added. It should be translated, as in the margin, 'of grapes,' meaning as before 'cakes of raisins.'
The detail matters. Gaebelein notes that these cakes were "used in the idolatrous worship." Israel's adultery was not a vague drift. It had its own table and its own ritual.
The verse compares Hosea's love to God's love for His people. Hamilton Smith finds the same order in Christ's love for the church.
Let us remember that He did not first make the church worthy of love, and then love it and give Himself for it. He loved it as it was, then gave Himself for it, and now works to make it suitable to Himself. God acted on the same wonderful principle with Israel… Israel's time of need was God's time of love.
So God does not ask the prophet to wait for repentance. The love comes first, and the love is what wins her back.
One question hangs over the whole book: does adultery break the bond for good? Hosea 3 answers it.
But in the prophet Hosea, as in the picture given by Ruth, God makes mercy rejoice against judgment. The "woman beloved of her friend yet an adulteress," is received again after many days (Hosea 3). Jezreel, the scattered, is gathered. Lo-ruhamah, who had received no mercy, does receive mercy. The Lo-ammi, who were no people, become the people of God again.
Those names were verdicts — "no mercy" and "not my people." Hosea 3 begins to undo both, and it gathers scattered Jezreel too.
- Same woman. The command sends Hosea back to Gomer, the wife who left him — not to a new relationship. The point of the sign is that the broken bond is the one being repaired.
- Same love. He had loved her before her fall. He is told to love her after it, "while she was still in that state," so she would not stay there. The law would have released him; grace sent him back.
- Same order. God does not make the object worthy first and then love. "Israel's time of need was God's time of love" — the love comes first and does the making.
- Same rival. The raisin cakes belonged to idol worship. Israel's turning was not drift; it was a deliberate preference for another table.
- Same ending. "No mercy" becomes mercy, "not my people" becomes the people of God. Mercy rejoices against judgment — and that is the whole argument of Hosea 3 in one line.
So I bought her to me for fifteen silver [pieces], and for a homer of barley, and a half-homer of barley.
The Lord sends the prophet back to a woman who has broken faith with him. The first thing he does is pay for her. The price is strange: part silver, part grain. It raises two questions. What does such a price say about the woman? And what does it say about the man who pays it?
The payment comes in two parts: silver, and grain measured as a homer and a lethech — a homer and a half-homer, in older translations. One writer says the two halves together make the price of a female slave. He also rules out a dowry, since the woman was already married to the buyer.
What he paid, half in barley and half in money, is the price of a female slave. This marks how low the guilty woman had sunk. It was of course not a dowry, since she had already been married to him.
Not everyone reads it that way. A Bible dictionary lists this verse with the passages about the dowry — the sum a man paid to the family of the woman he married:
The sum paid by a man to the relatives of the woman who becomes his wife. Genesis 34:12; Exodus 22:16-17; 1 Samuel 18:25: compare Hosea 3:2.
The figures are a verdict. Another writer measures the sum against the law's price for a slave and finds it comes to half. The barley carries its own message. It recalls the ritual for a wife suspected of unfaithfulness, and the ordinary use of the grain.
He bought the adulteress for half the price of a common slave (Exodus 21:32); it shows her worthlessness. The measure of barley reminds us of the offering brought by a woman accused of adultery. Barley was food for animals, so it shows her degradation too.
The barley of that ritual was plain by design. It was "not of fine flour as in the meal-offering, but of barley meal, which was coarser." It had no oil and no frankincense on it, because "no joy and worship could be connected with this offering of jealousy" (Arno Clemens Gaebelein).
The buying obeys a command. Hosea must love a woman who has given him every reason not to — and love her while she is still in her sin.
The Lord commands Hosea to love this woman. He had loved her before her fall. He was now to love her after her fall, while she was still in that condition, to save her from staying in it. It was for her sake, that she might be won back to him. Such is the love of Jehovah for Israel.
The price is not the whole cost. One writer lists three things the prophet does for this woman.
He buys his wife (Hosea 3:2), he washes and cleanses her, and also bears the reproach of marrying one who is in herself so worthless and lost.
The money does not restore the marriage at once. It buys her a place of waiting: set apart, belonging to no one else, for a season with no stated length.
He was to buy her back, but not so that she could live with him as his wife. She was to sit as a widow. She was not to run after others, but to wait for him through a long season with no set end, until he would come and take her to himself. While she was not to belong to another man, he, her lawful husband, would be her guardian. Israel's spiritual adultery is in view in all this.
That waiting has a stated end. One writer traces where the long wait leads:
Israel remain for a long time apart to wait for their God... but afterwards they should return, and should seek Jehovah their God, and David their king.
- Price — Silver plus barley makes up the sum paid for a female slave. Kelly reads it as a mark of how far she had fallen. A Bible dictionary compares it instead to a marriage payment; commentators differ.
- Half — The sum comes to half the price of a common slave. The barley recalls the offering of a suspected wife, and the food given to animals.
- Paid — She could not buy herself back. The man she wronged paid the price, and took the shame of marrying someone so lost.
- Loved — He loved her before her fall, and God told him to love her after it. Not because she improved, but so she would not stay where she was.
- Kept — The price buys a long season of waiting under his care. It ends when Israel returns to seek the Lord their God and their king.
And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be [another] man's, and I will also be for thee.
Hosea has just bought this woman back. Now he tells her to wait for him through a long stretch of time — no other man, and no return to married life either. The arrangement is strange, and it is meant as a picture. The question is what it pictures.
Kelly works through the verse clause by clause, from an older translation. He weighs what "abide" means, how wide the ban is, and what the last words promise.
The prophet said to her, "You shall abide [literally, sit] for me many days; you shall not commit lewdness, and you shall not be to a man" — that is, neither in sin nor in lawful married life. "So I also toward you." Here we see his heart and care. He is not "to her" as her husband, but "toward" her in affection as a friend.
So the closing promise is not a pledge to resume the marriage. It matches his position to hers: he waits as she waits.
Hosea pays for her in the verse just before this one. Gaebelein reads that price and this command together, and finds her left in a state that is neither marriage nor freedom.
He bought the adulteress for half the price of a common slave (Ex. 21:32); it shows her worthlessness. The measure of barley mentioned recalls the offering brought for someone accused of adultery. Barley is animal food, so it shows her degradation too. He was to buy her back — not so that she would live with him as his wife, but so that she might sit as a widow. She was not to run after others. She was to wait for him through a long season with no set end, until he would come and take her to himself. While she was not to belong to another man, he, her rightful husband, would be her guardian.
The command has two halves. He holds her back, and he looks after her. She must wait, but she does not wait alone.
Kelly names what the sign stands for. In one line he holds two things together: a woman still loved, and a woman still guilty.
In Hosea 3 the prophet buys a woman who is loved and yet an adulteress. In this Jehovah showed the standing of guilty Israel: no longer idolatrous, yet not truly a wife.
"No other man" answers to Israel giving up idols. "Not to be a wife" answers to Israel losing the standing she once had. Both restrictions land on the same people at the same time.
The phrase sets no limit. Kelly says this chapter tells us something the earlier chapters could not, and that the open wording answers an objection.
Hosea 3 gives solemn evidence that the humbling of Israel would bring a very marked and unusual isolation. It was not to be a passing visit, but a long state, while grace would bless more than ever in the end. ... So the Spirit of God, true to the divine purpose, gives us enough in these few words to meet the objection of anyone who complains that Christianity assumes such an immense time for Israel's blindness and departure from God. The answer is that the Jewish prophet says as much, and by it the Lord leaves room for all that had to come in the meantime. Of course, "many days" would not carry the thought of ages as its necessary meaning at first. But as the time lengthened out, people would see that it had all been foreseen and predicted.
Hosea's first readers could not measure that span. Readers long after can, and the long wait is no surprise.
The sentence is severe, but it is not the last word. Darby traces the arc of the chapter from the isolation to what follows it.
Israel should remain for a long time apart to wait for their God. They should have neither true God nor false god, neither king, nor priest, nor sacrifice. But afterwards they should return, and should seek Jehovah their God, and David their king. That is, all Israel should seek the true kingship that God gave at the first, and Christ is its fulfilment.
That is why Hosea buys the woman before he tells her to wait. The price comes first, the long silence second, and the return last.
- Bought. Hosea pays a slave's price for her before he gives her any command. Her place here rests on what he paid, not on what she promised.
- Bound. The restriction is double: no other man, and no resumption of marriage either. She stands between two states: no one else may have her, and she has not yet come back to him.
- Waiting. "Many days" carries no set length. Long ages can pass, and the prophecy still holds.
- Guarded. The closing words match his position to hers. He is not her husband in the meantime, but he is her guardian, and his affection holds.
- Returned. The whole arrangement is temporary. It ends with a people seeking their God and their king — the waiting was always aimed at a homecoming.
For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without statue, and without ephod and teraphim.
Hosea 3:4 sets out a strange in-between condition. Israel is kept alive, yet stripped of the worship God gave them and of the idols they had chased. It names six things they would lack. Commentators read it as a photograph of a nation you can still recognise today. It leaves two questions open: how long "many days" lasts, and what comes after.
One writer sums up the verse in a sentence, then points past it:
They shall have neither the true God nor a false god (so it is with them now); but after that they shall seek Jehovah and David — the well-beloved, that is, Christ.
The six items fall into three areas of national life. Two of the words need explaining:
Here we have direct prophecy, a very remarkable one, about Israel's present condition. This is to be their state for "many days." These "many days" are not counted out; they are the days of this present age... Their condition is to be threefold. First, no civil order: no king or prince. Second, no appointed Levitical worship: no sacrifice. Third, no practice of idolatry, which they had given themselves to: no image, ephod or teraphim. The ephod was the priestly garment; the teraphim were the household gods they used before the captivity. Before the captivity they had kings; now they have none. After the captivity Judah had princes; during the "many days" there are no princes. They cannot present a sacrifice, because they have no temple and no priesthood any more.
The terms alternate: one belongs to God, the next to idols, right down to the two ways of asking about the future. The older word "teraphim" is what the ESV calls "household gods."
Here is a condition altogether unique: a religion neither divine nor idolatrous, but a wretched emptiness — "without sacrifice, and without pillar, and without ephod and teraphim." Even D. Kimchi explains it rightly enough, if not fully. He says: "Without sacrifice refers to God, without pillar refers to idols, without ephod refers to God who declares the future by Urim and Thummim, without teraphim refers to idols who declare the future according to the opinions of those who believe in them."
You can check the verse against history:
To this day (many days indeed) they remain a people living among other peoples, yet not absorbed. They are a people without the ties that hold a nation together, for they are "without a king, and without a prince."... So they are in the strange position of a people who are no people. Somehow they cannot worship truly, yet they are not idolaters. They stand in contrast to all other nations, and most of all to their own past.
One writer ties the loss of king and prince to a choice the nation made for itself:
The two tribes had had kings of the God-appointed line, and the ten tribes princes of their own choosing. Hosea declared that soon they should have neither. But as if that were not enough for these evil men, they now deliberately accepted Gentile tyranny. They appealed to Caesar, and God has seen fit to leave them under the crushing rule of one tyrant after another.
This verse gives only the negative side of the picture. There is a positive side too:
That God should use this time of Israel's recess to bring in other purposes is the simplest thing possible, and we can all understand it... The Jew had here at least the negative side of the picture: his own puzzling state, the people of God who are not His people, a nation without a government. Stranger still, he has no false god and yet not the true one, and neither priest nor sacrifice. The Spirit of God gives the positive side in the New Testament. There we have the call of the Gentiles meanwhile, and within it the gathering of the faithful into the church — Christ's body.
One writer warns that this empty state will not last, and that what fills it later is worse:
"The unclean spirit of idolatry has gone out of them" during these "many days." It will return later with "seven other spirits more wicked than himself" — the very perfection of spiritual wickedness. Then will come days of tribulation like no other on that long misguided and deeply rebellious people — "the time of Jacob's trouble."
- Without. The verse works by subtraction: no king or prince, no sacrifice, no ephod — and no idols either. Neither the true God nor a false one.
- Without a government. Israel had kings before the captivity and princes after it. They lost both, and sealed the loss themselves by appealing to Caesar.
- Without worship, without idols. The pairs alternate between God and idols, leaving a religion that is neither — a state no other nation has ever occupied.
- Many days. No one is told how long the wait runs. Meanwhile God is doing something else: calling the Gentiles and gathering the church.
- Afterward. The empty condition is not the end. Commentators expect a darker phase first, then Israel seeking the Lord and David their king.
Afterwards shall the children of Israel return, and seek Jehovah their God, and David their king; and shall turn with fear toward Jehovah and toward his goodness, at the end of the days.
Hosea has just been told to buy back an unfaithful woman and keep her apart, neither cast off nor restored. She pictures Israel left without king, sacrifice or idol. Verse 5 is the turn: after that long emptiness, Israel returns and seeks two things — the LORD their God, and David their king.
Verse 4 and verse 5 are not two halves of one experience. One is a present fact, the other a promise still waiting.
Here we have facts so surprising that no human mind could have guessed them beforehand, and they are given in the most precise terms. Verse 4 is being fulfilled to this day. Verse 5 awaits its fulfilment in that welcome day which all the prophets hailed, and which all saints of the Old Testament or the New ought to expect.
The gap between them is not a pause in God's work. He is busy with something else in it.
It is the simplest thing possible, and we can all understand it, that God should use this time when Israel is set aside to bring in other purposes... The Spirit of God gives the positive side in the New Testament. There we have the call of the Gentiles in the meantime, and within it the gathering of the faithful into the church — Christ's body.
The verse names David. Commentators say the one meant is not David himself.
Their future is returning and seeking the Lord their God and David their king. This is Christ. Nearly all the rabbinical writers and expositors explain it in this way. This could not be David himself. It is He who is David's Son and David's Lord, our Lord (Ezek. 37:23, 24). Here we have the prediction that Israel will be converted to the Lord in the latter days, the days of His coming again.
The title also settles what is promised — a kingdom on earth.
How utterly meaningless it is to apply this title of Christ to the Church. How perfectly and beautifully fitting it is when predicting the setting up of that kingdom, which is the central thought in God's plan for governing the earth.
The verb describes a people coming back to a relationship they once had, not people joining something new.
Verse 5 says that afterwards they will not turn but "return," and seek Jehovah their God. This is not a description of becoming members of Christ, or of receiving the new and deeper revelations of the New Testament... God will save them by His grace through faith in the Lord Jesus. But it will be in the measure given to their fathers rather than to us now, with this difference: the Lord will reign openly.
What they seek is the kingship God gave them at the start, and the goodness of the LORD Himself.
Afterwards they should return, and should seek Jehovah their God, and David their king. That is to say, all Israel should seek the true kingship God gave at the start, of which Christ is the fulfilment. They should bow their heart before Jehovah and His goodness in the latter days.
Israel's long emptiness does not mean God has changed His mind. He keeps His promises, and that explains both the delay and its end.
"The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable." He made promises to Abraham for his descendants. He keeps them, despite all Israel's present unwillingness and stubbornness... They were unwilling in the day of the Lord Jesus' grace. Then He said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." They were too proud to understand such divine condescension. But they shall be willing in the day of His power, after they have passed through the burning fiery furnace.
Their blessing then rests on a different footing from the one that failed.
In the past, all failed under law. In the future, all will be re-established under grace. In the past, they were on the ground of the conditional part of the covenant. In the future, they will be on the ground of the unconditional grace of God. The value of the sacrifice of their once-rejected Messiah, and the fulness of the love of God, will be the measure of their blessing.
This return is national, and it lands where the apostle lands in Romans.
They shall return as a people — not merely to their land (though all Scripture makes that certain), but to Jehovah their God and to David their king. The context shows He can be none other than the Messiah. "And in this way," says the great apostle, "all Israel will be saved" (Rom. 11:26).
- Emptiness first. Verse 4 is being fulfilled now — a people with neither true worship nor idols; verse 5 has not yet begun.
- Afterward, not instead. The call of the Gentiles and the gathering of the church fill the gap; then Israel's own story resumes.
- Two objects sought. They come back to Jehovah their God and to David their king — the Messiah, David's Son and David's Lord.
- Return, not convert. The verb points to an old relationship restored. It rests on unconditional grace, not the conditional covenant that failed.
- Willing at last. Unwilling in the day of His grace, they will be willing in the day of His power — and so all Israel will be saved.