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.