Bible Commentaries
Hosea 2

Verse 1

Hosea’s Marriage and its Lessons

1. A general heading. Hosea 1:2-9. The prophet’s marriage with Gomer, the birth of her three children, and the symbolical meaning attached to them.

Hosea 1:1 to Hosea 2:1. The future material and religious prosperity of the people.

1. A general heading, perhaps the work of a late Judæan editor. Hosea 1-3 probably belong to the time of Jeroboam II; but it is extremely improbable that any of the prophecies belong to so late a date as the days of Hezekiah, when the punishment foretold at the hands of Tiglath-pileser (Pul) had already been partially fulfilled on Israel (2 Kings 15:29). That Hosea wrote the book is clear from Hosea 3:1.

2. The beginning.. Lord] RV ’When the Lord spake at the first by Hosea.’ A wife of whoredoms] Hosea is probably speaking in the light of his later experiences. His wife was probably innocent of this evil when he married her—or if not the prophet was ignorant of her true character.

4. For the giving of names for a prophetic purpose cp. Isaiah 7:8-14; Isaiah 8:1-4. The name Jezreel (’God will sow’) signified, (1) the town which was the capital of Israel during Jehu’s dynasty, and the scene of the murders by which he established his rule (2 Kings 9); (2) the resowing of the restored Israel (Hosea 1:11). The name was given to the child as a reminder of the punishment due for the massacre. I will avenge the blood] This prophecy was fulfilled by the overthrow of the ruling dynasty when Jeroboam’s son, Zechariah, had reigned six months: see 2 Kings 15:10, and cp. Amos 7:9. Hosea looks at Jehu’s murders from a different point of view from that of Elisha and the editors of the book of Kings: see especially 2 Kings 10:30. They regarded chiefly his outward religious policy and his probably genuine detestation of Baal-worship. Hosea sees mainly the motives of personal ambition and lust of cruelty which underlay his actions. Time had shown that neither Jehu nor his descendants had justified his zeal by any high religious principle. Will cause to cease] This and Hosea 1:5 extend the prophecy to the final destruction of the kingdom at the hands of the Assyrians: see 2 Kings 17:6. The valley of Jezreel was the battlefield of Palestine, and nothing would seem more probable to the prophet than that the final overthrow would take place there.

6. Lo-ruhamah] i.e. ’not pitied.’ But.. away] RV ’that I should in any wise pardon them.’

7. The verdict on the kingdom of Judah is in the earlier portions of the book more favourable than in the later; cp. Hosea 5:10, Hosea 5:14, etc. This prophecy was fulfilled by the destruction of Sennacherib’s army (2 Kings 19:35).

9. Lo-ammi] i.e. ’not my people.’ By their sin and perfidy Israel had ceased to act as God’s people. They had refused the responsibilities of their calling, and could not expect its privileges.

10. Here, as elsewhere, Hosea cannot bear to dwell upon God’s punishments without looking beyond them to His greater mercies. Here he evidently contemplates a restored people, fulfilling the promise of earthly greatness made to Abraham (Genesis 32:12), and brought into even closer relation to God, that of sonship: cp. Romans 9:26. Living God] i.e. God manifesting His power in action.

11. As with many other prophecies, the vision of the future includes the union once more of Israel and Judah in one people (cp. Isaiah 11:13; Ezekiel 37:19), a prophecy unfulfilled except so far as the church is symbolised by the whole of Israel, The day of Jezreel] The union of Israel and Judah is to be marked by a prosperity which shall take away the reproach from Jezreel (see on Hosea 1:4). This is more fully explained in Hosea 2:23.

Hosea 2:1. Ammi.. Ruhamah] This v. is closely connected with Hosea 1:10-11, and must be read along with them. As Jezreel is to become a name of honour in the predicted future, so also the old names of the other two children will have become quite inappropriate. The not will have to be omitted, and they will become ’My people,’ ’Pitied.’

Verses 2-23

The Discipline and Restoration of Faithless Israel

The unfaithful conduct of Gomer and the prophet’s gentle treatment of her are regarded as an analogue of the nation’s faithlessness and God’s gentle correction, a proof of the love which will triumph in the end. But the acted parable and its interpretation are so blended that they cannot always be separated; and frequently the prophet’s personal experience is overshadowed by the larger thought of God’s dealings with His people.

2. Plead] addressed to Gomer’s sons. The people Israel in this acted allegory are sometimes the sons, as in Hosea 2:1, but more generally the wife. When as here distinguished we may suppose that the prophet is appealing to those willing to hear to remonstrate with the faithless majority. There is a somewhat similar mixture of figure in Isaiah 62:5. She is not my wife] The people by their idolatry had put themselves into a false relation with Jehovah. He was no longer their God, nor they His people: cp. Hosea 1:9.

3, 4. As a punishment for her faithlessness, the country would be made desolate by an invading enemy, and the inhabitants slain with the sword. So would she be put to shame.

Children of whoredoms] By their idolatries the people had proved themselves to be children of other gods, the lovers of Hosea 2:5.

5. They worshipped the gods of the land—the local deities who were supposed to give abundant crops if propitiated. See Intro. They did not ascribe the fertility of the land to Jehovah, but to the local Baalim, who were personifications of the reproductive powers of nature, and in whose worship they had practically merged the worship of Jehovah.

6, 7. Through the disasters brought by a foreign enemy, including the siege of their cities, the people would discover the impotence of their idols, and seek Jehovah in earnest: cp. Hosea 14:3, etc. Make a wall] RV ’make a fence against her.’

7. Lovers] i.e. the Baalim.

8. They prepared for Baal] RM ’made into the image of Baal.’ How absurd and how insulting to use God’s gift in this way!

9. Will I.. take away] RV ’will I take back.’ In the time thereof] i.e. when it should be ripe, the crop would fail. God would thus punish them for the abuse of His gift.

10. Her lovers] The idols would be ashamed, unable to help their devotees, when the land was laid waste. 11. Jehovah would put an end to her religious feasts of all kinds. New moons and sabbaths were the most distinctive feasts in connexion with the worship of Jehovah in the N. (1 Samuel 20:5; 2 Kings 4:23).

12. Rewards] RV ’hire’: the bribe for which Israel had worshipped the idols (lovers) under the mistaken belief that they gave them these things: see on Hosea 2:5.

13. Baalim] RV ’the Baalim,’ i.e. the images of Baal: cp. Hosea 2:8. The allusion here is to heathen or heathenish festivals looked upon as acts of faithlessness to Jehovah. They are spoken of as past in relation to the future judgment which Hosea has in mind, or because idolatry had from the first been the besetting sin of the northern kingdom.

14. Therefore, etc.] ’This being her miserable condition, I will entice her to repent by gentle discipline.’ The key to such expressions lies in the tenderness felt by Hosea for his sinning wife (see Intro.). The wilderness] either the land of captivity in which she realises her sin and turns to God, or the land wasted by the enemy. Men allure to destruction: God allures to punishment, to make the outpouring of love possible. Comfortably] Heb. ’to her heart,’ as in Isaiah 40:1, etc.

15. I will give] The vineyards destroyed by the enemy (Hosea 2:12) would be restored. Achor] i.e. trouble. Achor was the valley where Achan was stoned for his sin (Joshua 7:26). It was on this account called the valley of Achor, or trouble. What is meant by its use here is that, while the Israelites would find that as of old sin would be followed by punishment, the punishment was meant to purify and discipline, and the ’trouble’ was thus the ’door of hope.’ Though Israel had been again unfaithful, God was still ’plenteous in mercy.’ Sing] RV ’make answer,’ i.e. listen to the call of God.

16. Ishi.. Baali] Both words were used by a wife to her husband. The first, ’my man,’ implied a relation of intimacy: the second, ’my lord,’ that of servitude, or at least ownership. But the passage seems to imply that Baal, a common name for all heathen gods, had in common practice been used also of Jehovah. This would account for its appearing in several place-names, such as Baal-Hamon, Baal-Shalisha.

17. Baalim] RV ’the Baalim.’ Whether they represented Jehovah or heathen gods, the names with their debasing associations would be utterly discarded.

18. Make a covenant] Jehovah is here represented poetically as making an agreement with, or laying a command upon, noxious animals, that they will not, it may be supposed, hurt either man or the fruits of his labours: cp. Isaiah 11:9. Break the bow, etc.] destroy the weapons of warfare no longer needed in a land of security: cp. Isaiah 9:5 (RV).

19, 20. The idols had hired Israel’s love with gifts of worldly prosperity, and even these they could not really give (Hosea 2:12). Jehovah would woo Israel in the first place with much higher gifts, righteousness, judgment, etc.

21, 22. I will hear, etc.] The natural order of thought is reversed, because Jehovah (through the prophet) is speaking of His work. The whole thought is highly poetical. Jezreel (’God-soweth,’ used for Israel, for the sake of the play on the word) cries for the com and wine and oil. These cry to the earth to produce them. The earth in its turn cries to the heaven for rain, and the rain cries to Jehovah to send it. Jehovah hears the cry, and so the heart’s desire of the people is granted, even without their expressly asking Jehovah for it.

23. I will sow] With reference to the name Jezreel see on Hosea 1:4. Jehovah promises the renewed increase of the population: cp. Jeremiah 31:27.

I will have mercy] a repetition of the promises of Hosea 1:10; Hosea 2:1.