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.