Hosea Chapters 1,2,3: Commentary

Hosea Chapters 1-3

Introduction The name Hosea means “help, deliverance, salvation”. The same name was the original name of Joshua, the successor of Moses (Numbers 13:8,16). Hosea the prophet spoke during the reigns of Uzziah (810-758), Jotham (758-742), Ahaz (742-727), and Hezekiah (727-698), all kings of Judah. In addition, Jeroboam II, ruled in northern Israel during the same time period (825-773).

In his first prophecy, Hosea (1:4) foretells the collapse in the near future of Jehu’s dynasty (2 Kings 10:30), which occurred when Zachariah was murdered six months after Jeroboam’s death (2 Kings 15:8-12). Allowing five to ten years for the time elapsed between Hosea’s prophecy and its fulfillment, we arrive at about 785-780 for the possible date of Hosea’s call. Since he makes no mention of the destruction of Samaria (722), he may have written before this event. His activity as a prophet may have extended from 785 to around 725 B.C. Since early marriages were customary in Israel, the prophet may have attained an age of seventy-five to eighty years. About the only thing we know about his father’s history is that the name of his father was Beeri (bee EAR ih).

The Command to Marry 1:2 As with other prophets, God spoke through Hosea (2 Peter 1:20-21). “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry”: While God will command Jeremiah not to marry (Jeremiah16:2ff), here He commands Hosea to marry. The expression wife of harlotry has been interpreted in basically two ways. Either this is a woman who is already a harlot, a woman whose business or livelihood consisted of prostitution, or this is a woman who would lapse into harlotry. “The harsher

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view, that Gomer was a whore already, seems to me the right one; but whichever view we take, we should not soften it by making her a cult-prostitute, merely deluded and misused; for the Hebrew has a word for this, and it is not the word used here. What Hosea had to do was, in miniature, what God had done in giving His love to a partner with a history and with a roving eye” (The Message of Hosea, Derek Kidner, p. 19). If we think that God has required much of us, we need to look at the demand placed upon Hosea (and others: Hebrews 11). Hosea did not marry a harlot that turned out to have a heart of gold (like a Rahab). “He married a shallow, mercenary woman, the kind who might walk out on him the moment it suited her; and they started a family. She bore him a son. After that, she had two more children, who were apparently not his. Then she left him. She had made a fool of him; she had also made a fool of herself, for her new lover turned out to be as useless and heartless as herself” (Kidner p. 12). And the story does not end her, there is more “cost” and “heartbreak” to follow.

The Cost to God Too often we think about what our sins have cost us, but we forget the real cost, the cost to God. There is hurt, the cost or risking rejection, reopening old wounds, the cost of forgiveness, and the cross of Christ. This story reveals the intense betrayal and God feels when His people forsake Him, and the lengths He goes to woo them back. Here we see the grief that He obviously experiences, for no one can hurt us like those who we love the most.

The Harlotry There are three areas in which God’s people had been unfaithful to Him:   

In religion, with others gods.

In politics, relying upon foreign alliances rather than trusting Him. In morals, being unethical, sexually unfaithful and violent.

Bringing them Back God will use three avenues to bring His people back, or three methods: 

He will let the consequences of their actions catch up to them, He will withdraw Himself and no longer protect them, “Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone” (4:17); “They sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind” (8:7).

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 

He will be tough with them and bring His own vengeance (5:14; 9:9).

God will be tender with them and seek to woo them back (11:8; 14:4).

Some Lessons  



God loves the loveless, enough to let the ransom for them cost Him everything.

God will not be the bridegroom of His people for simply a day or two.

“He will settle for nothing less than love, nothing shorter than forever” (Kidner p. 14).

Every sinner is a “cheater”.

1:2 “Have children of harlotry”: This expression may infer that some of these children were not Hosea’s, or it may simply mean that the children were Hosea’s, but the mother was playing the part of a harlot during the time of their conception and birth. That is, they were born within the context of her unfaithfulness.

The reason for this command was that Hosea’s marriage relationship and family were to symbolize God’s experience with the Jewish nation. Gomer’s unfaithfulness to her loving husband was to picture to the people their unfaithfulness to God. This marriage was to demonstrate to the Jewish nation the utter heinousness of their sins. God views the relationship with His people as that of a marriage, and thus unfaithfulness on the part of His people is viewed as adultery (James 4:4). What this book should tell us is that God takes our unfaithfulness personally (Ephesians 4:30). The pain experienced by a husband when his wife cheats on him is the same type of pain that God experiences when we become unfaithful.

“It is rather easy to grow up with a naïve idea of God—something like a child’s impression of the adult world—and with a worrying conundrum about His way of doing things. The conundrum is this old one: If God is all-powerful and allgood, why does He not rid the world of evil? One of the things that Hosea does for us is to give us, with extraordinary frankness, the other side of that anomaly, God’s side…God compares His situation not to that of an autocrat whose orders nobody dares question, nor of a father who rejoices in an adoring wife and children, but to that of a husband whose wife has left him, and a father whose children are like strangers in his own house and are fast destroying themselves” (Kidner p. 11).

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1:2 “For the land commits flagrant idolatry, forsaking the Lord”: “The shameful whoredom of Israel, her idolatry, her calf worship, her Baalism, motivated this command” (Laetsch p. 19).

1:3 “This command involved a fearful sacrifice on the part of the prophet. He was obliged to give up every hope of a happy marriage; to endure the agony of observing the adulteries of his wife; to expose himself to the suspicion of being as wicked as she” (Laetsch pp. 19-20). Do we complain that God expects too much of us? Look at this example of submission to the will of God! Is our attitude, “Thy will be done?” The wife that Hosea chose was Gomer (GOAM ur), the daughter of Diblaim (dib LAY im). In this marriage we see the arrogance and lack of gratitude on the part of Israel. The nation had forsaken God and was steeped deep into all sorts of idolatry. Still, the nation and individual Israelites demanded recognition as God’s people. “As such they brazenly requested as their covenant right the protection and blessing of Him whose covenant they had broken long ago. What an impudence, worthy of their shameless adultery, to grieve Him with their sins, to cut Him to the quick with their wicked adulteries, to lay Him open to the suspicion as through He countenanced their idolatry, and then calmly and with brazen impertinence to demand His help and aid!” (Laetsch p. 20).

1:3 “She conceived and bore him a son”: Some feel that this means that this child was truly the product of a union between Gomer and Hosea. But Laestch makes the observation, “We have here the simple statement of these historical facts: Hosea married, Gomer conceived, she bare him a son. We might be inclined to regard this son as Hosea’s legitimate child because of the pronoun ‘him’. Yet in 1:4,5 the name given to him—symbolizing judgment—and God’s command, v. 2, demand that we regard him also as one of the ‘children of whoredoms’ whom Gomer presented to Hosea as his son and whom he was to accept as if he were his own.

1:4 “Name him Jezreel”: In a negative sense the name Jezreel means “God scatters”. The birth and name of this son anticipates God’s judgment upon the dynasty of Jehu. “The reference must be to the blood shed by Jehu when he massacred the house of Ahab. While it is true that Yahweh had commanded the elimination of the wicked house of Ahab, Jehu did not execute the command in the right spirit. The captain was motivated by personal ambition rather than religious zeal” (Smith p. 211). When we carry out the commands of God, we need to make sure that we carry them out with the right attitude (1 Corinthians 13:1-4).

The fulfillment of this prophecy came in 752 B.C. when Shallum assassinated 4

Zechariah, the fourth of Jehu’s descendants to rule the Northern Kingdom (2 Kings 15:10), thereby cutting off Jehu’s dynasty forever.

1:5 The bow was a principal weapon of war in Israel and the valley of Jezreel was the favorite battlefield in the region. Here the Assyrian army would crush the Israelites. The general fulfillment of this prophecy came in 734-722 B.C. when the Assyrians overran Israel and reduced it to a province within their empire.

1:6 “Lo-ruhamah”: This name is pronounced “low roo HAY muh) and means “she is not pitied” or “she has not obtained mercy”. The child of this birth signaled a time when God would no longer show mercy to the nation of Israel. It is one thing to lose a war and a kingdom (1:4) it is another thing to lose the mercy and compassion of God! “His love is not blind, nor is it coercive. It follows that since mercy without response is self-defeating, and forgiveness without healed relationship is empty, there may come a point at which the only thing left for even God to say is, ‘How often would I…and you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken’ (Matthew 23:37)” (Kidner p. 22).

1:7 Judah would be exempt from the judgment coming upon the northern kingdom. This is the first of several side glances toward Judah. Some of these side notes are favorable and some are unfavorable. Judah would face the same Assyrian armies which will destroy Israel and she would survive. Yet, there would be no such reprieve for unrepentant Israel and her capital, Samaria. Judah will not be delivered by military might or human skill. This promise was fulfilled in 701 B.C., when God supernaturally annihilated 185,000 soldiers in the Assyrian army in one might thus ending the Assyrian campaign against Judah (2 Kings 19:32-36).

1:8-9 “Lo-ammi”: This name is pronounced “loe AM eye” and means “not my people”. God had said to Israel, “I will be your God, and you will be My people” (Lev. 26:12; Exodus 6:7; Deut. 26:17-18). Yet now that relationship was to be severed. We (God’s people) can live in such a way that we cease to be God’s people. There was certainly no once-saved-always-saved in the Old Testament.

“From one angle this oracle was simply factual: just as accurate as would have been Hosea’s disclaimer of paternity for his children. Israel might be nominally the Lord’s, but in fact, she was the child of her times and of her pagan world” (Kidner p. 23).

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Reversal of the Names

1:10 “Yet”: In spite of the impending doom coming upon the unfaithful Israelites, God will still fulfill His purposes. God has promised to Abraham that his descendants will be as the sand of the seashore (Genesis 15:5). This promise will not fail, even though the northern kingdom would be destroyed. God would fulfill this promise to Abraham by including Gentiles (“You are not my people”), who believe in Jesus as being the spiritual sons of Abraham (Galatians 3:26-29). This passage is quoted in Romans 9:25-26 as applying to Gentiles who converted to Christianity. This passage contradicts the denominational concept of Predestination. If one has been predestined for salvation, then it could never be said that they were not God’s people. But here we have people who were not God’s people, who will become God’s people. In fact, in the previous verse, we have people who were God’s people, who cease to be God’s people. Note also 1 Peter 2:10.

1:11 Israel and Judah, which had split after the reign of Solomon will once again become one nation, under one leader (Jesus). In the New Covenant, God will gather honest hearts from both former nations (Jeremiah 31:31), including honest hearts from among the Gentiles and will unite them all in one body (Ephesians 2:11ff). The unity between Jew and Jew and Jews and Gentiles would be affected because they all recognize the same leader. “For great will be the day of Jezreel”: This appears to refer back to 1:4. The northern kingdom would be destroyed, but one day all true believers, Jews and Gentiles would be united into one kingdom (i.e. the church).

Chapter 2 2:1 The name Ammi (AM mih), means “my people”, and the name Ruhamah (roo HAH muh), means “mercy is shown”. This verse is really connected with the previous verses. Apparently this command is addressed to the future members of this coming united nation and thus are encouraged to recognize their spiritual relationship to one another. All those who will follow the Messiah will be God’s people, people who have experienced God’s mercy.

2:2 “The focus shifts now from the children to the mother…From one angle, Israel in her apostasy could be compared to a brood of children out of control or born out of wedlock, but from another angle, Israel is a fickle wife” (Kidner p. 27).

Individual Israelites are encouraged to contend, i.e., reproach and upbraid or 6

reprimand, their mother, that is, the nation. This verse is apparently addressed to the faithful few in the land to tell the nation as a whole that they are no longer God’s people. God clearly says concerning Israel, “She is not My wife”. God has put her away because of her unfaithfulness.

2:2 “Harlotry from her face”: May refer to the eyes of a harlot which glow with impure love, or the painted face of a prostitute. The expression, her adultery from between her breasts, may refer to either the harlot’s embrace of her lover or to the various ornaments which sometimes harlots wore on their exposed breasts.

2:3 God threatened to strip Israel naked, that is strip the nation of her land, prosperity, population, and privileges. The expression, slay her with thirst, seems to suggest the withholding of all blessings, including God’s physical blessings.

God had delivered Israel when she was a slave nation. God now threatens to return the nation to that sort of lowly condition.

2:4 No individual in Israel had any grounds to think that he might escape the coming judgment.

2:5 Harlotry throughout the book of Hosea is a metaphor for flirtation with foreign nations and foreign gods, and there is nothing “romantic” about an affair, literal or figurative. This was willful sin on the part of Israel, I will go after my lovers. “To these fertility gods Israel attributed the provision of necessities and luxuries: bread, water, wool, flax, oil and drink” (Smith p. 215). Israel also probably argued that alliances with ungodly nations were justified by the material prosperity which such alliances brought to the nation. Instead of attributing all material blessings to God, the nation believed that various false gods were the source of these blessings.

“Enviously she (Israel) regarded the surrounding nations, Phoenicia, Egypt, Assyria, who did not worship the Lord, yet possessed far greater political power and prestige, worldwide commerce, huge riches, marvelous luxuries, and far greater freedom from moral restraints than God’s people…Clandestine trysts at first, secret visits to heathen temples and altars, where their lusts and passions could be gratified, and finally open rebellion against the form of worship commanded by the Lord” (Laestch p. 28).

Point to Note:

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Nothing as changed. Today some professed Christians are trying to encourage God’s people to embrace and follow the human traditions found in the denominational world, which will of course lead further to the embracing of all false religious systems. Today we have people who are more enamored with human systems of faith than God’s system of faith. Simple New Testament Christianity seems boring and backward to some, and God’s moral code seems too demanding and restrictive. What is our attitude towards God? Do we view Him as a loving husband or a caring husband who is too strict? Do we secretly envy our religious neighbors, or do we see the darkness they are in and long to help them see the truth?

2:6 Yet God will put an end to all these alliances. God would soon block access to these lovers and Israel would find all the familiar paths blocked with thorns and stone walls.

2:7 When Assyrian would start to invade her, she would frantically increase her idolatry. In her desperation she would seek her idols, but would find no deliverance. In that experience the nation would learn that idols could bring no help. Finally, the nation would determine to return to God. They would finally acknowledge that all good things had come to them as a nation from God and not the idols. The exile those who survived would be cured of their idolatry.

Israel’s Ignorance 2:8 Like manner people today, Israel had forgotten that God was the true source of all their material blessings (Acts 14:16-17). And what God did give them, they used for the worship of their idols. How about us? Have we forgotten that God is the true source of our material prosperity? And does God get His fair share or do we use such things for ourselves, or worse, for sinful purposes?

2:9 In response, God would take back all His blessings. I think even we tend to forget that everything we own in reality belongs to God and not us. The verb rendered take back suggests a sudden and unexpected calamity, even a violent act.

2:10 Israel would be exposed to ridicule by those who once admired her. And when God judged this nation, no supposed god or real ally would be able to make any difference.

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2:11 The loss of material wealth is devastating in a materialist world. As a result, all of the festivals celebrated in Israel would cease. “When God got through pouring out His wrath on Israel there would be nothing left to celebrate” (Smith p. 217). As in the book of Amos, we found that Israel was a very religious nation, but worshipping the wrong god or worshipping in the wrong way is just as wrong as not worshipping anything. Many religious people will be condemned at the judgment day (Matthew 7:21-23).

2:12-13 God would destroy all her beautiful vineyards and orchards. Sadly, Israel had regarded such blessings as rewards from serving Baal. What about us? Do we attribute our blessings to God or do we think that our blessings have come from our own human talents, wisdom and power? Do we say to ourselves, “This is the reward for being shrewd, for compromising with the world a little bit”, “for knowing how to scratch the right back” and so on?

Israel’s Restoration 2:14 After such punishment has come upon Israel, God will still try to allure her back to Him. It is amazing that God would even want these ungrateful people back! The expression, bring her into the wilderness, suggests bringing the nation back to her roots (the honeymoon period), after God had brought Israel out of Egyptian bondage. Note, not everyone in the nation will get this second chance, for many will die in the battles to come. Yet what is left of the nation in captivity will be given this chance. God will speak kindly to the nation, that is, with persuasive words through the prophets.

2:15 Blessings would once again come upon the nation. The valley of Achor, was the site which Achan was executed for troubling Israel (Joshua 7). However, this time the valley will be a symbol of hope and better things to come.

As the nation had once rejoice and sang when they were delivered from Egypt, once again Israel would appreciate God. It makes most sense to me that these promises would be for those Jews who accepted Jesus Christ and thus become part of God’s new nation.

2:16 The term Ishi (ISH igh), means “my husband”. The title Baali (BAY uh lih), means “my lord, my master”. These two Hebrew terms are synonymous, however the Israelites had used “Baali” of false gods. Thus the people would finally realize that their true Master, Lord and Husband was God.

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2:17 Eventually even the names of the false gods would be forgotten. “After the exile event he proper names of earlier Israelites were changed to avoid the use of the term Baal” (Smith p. 220).

2:18 As a result, God’s people will be rewarded with peace (Isaiah 2:1-4). “The New Covenant would restore the relation between God and His people; a spirit of peace would characterize them” (Hailey p. 143). This is descriptive of the peace that would be found in the church (Ephesians 4:1-3).

2:19-20 God will once again bring to Himself a people and be their husband.

Here is a picture of the future relationship between Jesus and His church (Ephesians 5:22ff). This new marriage will be founded upon righteousness, justice, lovingkindness, and compassion. That is, God would expect of His people the same qualities that He has expected of the Israelites in the Old Testament.

2:22-23 God would shower blessings upon those in the church (Ephesians 1:3), and this marriage would include people who were not the people of God in times past, i.e., the Gentiles (Ephesians 2:11ff; 1 Peter 2:9-10).

Chapter 3

Having looked forward to the future, the messianic age, and the new covenant, Hosea now returns to the more immediate future.

3:1 “Go again”: Once more Hosea has to openly demonstrate his love for an unfaithful woman. The question is this is woman Gomer or another woman?

God tells Hosea that this action signifies God love and forbearance with the children of Israel. It would seem that Gomer was the woman, seeing that God hadn’t divorced Israel and married a completely different nation. Hosea was to bear up with Gomer’s unfaithfulness as God bore with the idolatry of Israel. To bring a new woman into the picture would seem to destroy this parallel. The husband in this verse is then Hosea. That is, Gomer is a woman loved by her husband and yet at the same time she is having affairs with other men. God commands Hosea to demonstrate love for a woman who is at the same time cheating on him.

3:1 The reference to raisin cakes, appears to be a reference to the type of delicacies employed in feasts offered in the honor of Baal.

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3:2 Hosea promptly obeys such a difficult command. The fact that he had to buy her suggests a couple of things. Had Gomer become a temple prostitute and hence become the property of someone else who employed her as a prostitute or hired her out as a concubine? Apparently, she has sunk so low that she had been forced to sell herself as a slave. The price of a slave in the ancient world was about 30 pieces of silver. Apparently Hosea paid half the price in silver and the other half in barley. What a humbling experience for Hosea! Yet, this is how God feels when He must deliver His people because of their sins.

3:3 Hosea doesn’t silently ignore the sins of Gomer, rather he preaches the word to her. Before the normal husband and wife relationship could be restored, she must be subjected to a period of discipline. Gomer must learn to control her passions. During this period, she can’t have any lovers, she would be restrained from sexual relations with any man, including Hosea her husband. Notice that true love is also very practical. “A clean break was needed, deep enough and long enough to make a new beginning possible: a pure return, in all humility” (Kidner p. 43).

3:4 This period of abstinence parallels the time when the nation of Israel would be in exile and thus be without a king. These beloved items to the unfaithful Jews would cease to exist in exile, sacred pillars erected in the honor of Baal, the ephod (breastplate worn by the high priest), and various household idols. Which means that in exile, they would be deprived of both legitimate and illegitimate forms of worship and government.

3:5 Whether nor not the discipline of Gomer brought the woman to her senses is not stated in the book. However, such discipline of the nation would bring some Jews back to God. Here we have a picture of true repentance, contrite hearts, the fact that a new David would rule over them (Jesus), and all of this would happen in the last days, i.e., the New Covenant (Acts 2:16-17; Hebrews 1:1-2). God’s people have been tempted in the past to resent or ridicule true worship. But when you are deprived of it, or have been in error for years, simple New Testament worship is refreshing for the person who has been lost. Do we tend to take God’s simple instructions for granted?

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