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The Book of Hosea Chapter 2:1–23 Marital Problems Hosea’s wife Gomer had been guilty of adultery. Two of her children were witnesses to this fact, inasmuch as they were evidently not Hosea’s children. The law allowed a husband in Hosea’s situation to divorce his wife. Whilst the legal punishment for adultery was death (Lev 20.10), the custom in some Middle Eastern nations was to strip the woman of her clothes (Ezek. 16.39) and expel her from the home. The words used by in verse one were the legal formula for divorce. The law gave Hosea every right to withdraw his love and support for Gomer and no longer be her husband. Yet, looking at the passage in detail, we will see that Hosea still loved his wife and wished, under the right conditions, for her to be reconciled to him. The condition was, of course, that she would stop playing around and having affairs with other lovers. If she repented and returned home, Hosea was willing for the relationship to continue. If not, he would disown her: she would no longer be sheltered under his roof nor be provided for by him. She would no longer be his wife, this is divorce. Perhaps Gomer did indeed leave her husband’s home and went to her lovers. Perhaps they were unwilling or unable to house her, and she began to realise for a time as we say in Wales ‘where her bread was buttered’. We could imagine her returning, not actually repentant, but merely looking for the benefits that she had once received from her husband. We might imagine that as Hosea received her back, he hoped that she would one day put away her lovers and be his and his alone, once and for all. I say perhaps and imagine because whilst these thoughts are applied by the prophet to the situation concerning Israel, it is only conjecture to say that all of this actually happened to Hosea and Gomer. But even so, it is very probable. Yet whilst we have applied these words to Hosea and Gomer, they actually relate to God’s relationship with his people.
Spiritual Adultery 2:1-2 Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;