Hosea2
New International Version
1“Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’
2“Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
3Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst.
4I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery.
5Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’
6Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.
7She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’
8She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold— which they used for Baal.
9“Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her naked body.
10So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of my hands.
11I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals.
12I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them.
13I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot,” declares the Lord.
14“Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her.
15There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
16“In that day,” declares the Lord, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.’
17I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked.
18In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.
19I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.
20I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord.
21“In that day I will respond,” declares the Lord— “I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth;
22and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.
23I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Hosea 2.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The idolatry of the people. (1-5). God's judgments against them. (6-13). His promises of reconciliation. (14-23).
vv1-5
This chapter continues the figurative address to Israel, in reference to Hosea's wife and children. Let us own and love as brethren, all whom the Lord seems to put among his children, and encourage them in that they have received mercy. But every Christian, by his example and conduct, must protest against evil and abuses, even among those to whom he belongs and owes respect. Impenitent sinners will soon be stripped of the advantages they misuse, and which they consume upon their lusts.
vv6-13
God threatens what he would do with this treacherous, idolatrous people. They did not turn, therefore all this came upon them; and it is written for admonition to us. If lesser difficulties be got over, God will raise greater. The most resolute in sinful pursuits, are commonly most crossed in them. The way of God and duty is often hedged about with thorns, but we have reason to think it is a sinful way that is hedged up with thorns. Crosses and obstacles in an evil course are great blessings, and are to be so accounted; they are God's hedges, to keep us from transgressing, to make the way of sin difficult, and to keep us from it. We have reason to bless God for restraining grace, and for restraining providences; and even for sore pain, sickness, or calamity, if it keeps us from sin. The disappointments we meet with in seeking for satisfaction from the creature, should, if nothing else will do it, drive us to the Creator. When men forget, or consider not that their comforts come from God, he will often in mercy take them away, to bring them to think upon their folly and danger. Sin and mirth can never hold long together; but if men will not take away sin from their mirth, God will take away mirth from their sin. And if men destroy God's word and ordinances, it is just with him to destroy their vines and fig-trees. This shall be the ruin of their mirth. Taking away the solemn seasons and the sabbaths will not do it, they will readily part with them, and think it no loss; but He will take away their sensual pleasures. Days of sinful mirth must be visited with days of mourning.
vv14-23
After these judgments the Lord would deal with Israel more gently. By the promise of rest in Christ we are invited to take his yoke upon us; and the work of conversion may be forwarded by comforts as well as by convictions. But usually the Lord drives us to despair of earthly joy, and help from ourselves, that, being shut from every other door, we may knock at Mercy's gate. From that time Israel would be more truly attached to the Lord; no longer calling him Baali, or "My lord and master," alluding to authority, rather than love, but Ishi, an address of affection. This may foretell the restoration from the Babylonish captivity; and also be applied to the conversion of the Jews to Christ, in the days of the apostles, and the future general conversion of that nation; and believers are enabled to expect infinitely more tenderness and kindness from their holy God, than a beloved wife can expect from the kindest husband. When the people were weaned from idols, and loved the Lord, no creature should do them any harm. This may be understood of the blessings and privileges of the spiritual Israel, of every true believer, and their partaking of Christ's righteousness; also, of the conversion of the Jews to Christ. Here is an argument for us to walk so that God may not be dishonoured by us: Thou art my people. If a man's family walk disorderly, it is a dishonour to the master. If God call us children, we may say, Thou art our God. Unbelieving soul, lay aside discouraging thoughts; do not thus answer God's loving-kindness. Doth God say, Thou art my people? Say, Lord, thou art our God.
Key Words
אָמַר: to say (used with great latitude)
אָח: a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relationship and metaphorical affinity or resemblance (like father))
עַם: a people (as a congregated unit); specifically, a tribe (as those of Israel); hence (collectively) troops or attendants; figuratively, a flock
אָחוֹת: a sister (used very widely (like brother), literally and figuratively)
רָחַם: to fondle; by implication, to love, especially to compassionate
רִיב: properly, to toss, i.e. grapple; mostly figuratively, to wrangle, i.e. hold a controversy; (by implication) to defend
אֵם: a mother (as the bond of the family); in a wide sense (both literally and figuratively (like father))
כִּי: (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below); often largely modified by other particles annexed
אִשָּׁה: a woman
אִישׁ: a man as an individual or a male person; often used as an adjunct to a more definite term (and in such cases frequently not expressed in translation)
Cross References
Hosea 2Explicitly cited by Paul to show the inclusion of the Gentiles as God's people.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Peter quotes this verse to describe the spiritual identity of the New Testament church.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The husband imagery for Yahweh, contrasting Baali with Ishi (my husband).
Supported by JFB
Direct continuation of the prophetic names (Lo-ammi, Lo-ruhamah) reversed in restoration.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Detailed parallel of stripping the unfaithful wife naked in judgment before her lovers.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Parallels God's hedging up the way with thorns and blocking paths in times of judgment.
Supported by JFB
The Valley of Achor, once a place of trouble, is transformed into a door of hope.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Parallels the concept of God blocking one's path so they cannot pass.
Supported by JFB
The resolution of the wayward wife echoes the Prodigal Son's decision to return.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
The law's command that the names of other gods should not be mentioned.
Supported by John Calvin
God as husband inviting the backsliding children to return and be married to Him.
Supported by JFB
The Lord's metaphorical divorce of the nation of Israel due to her transgressions.
Supported by JFB
Using God-given silver and gold to construct idolatrous images.
Supported by JFB
Jeroboam's false, manufactured feasts contrasted with God's divinely ordained sabbaths.
Supported by JFB
A covenant of peace securing safety from dangerous beasts.
Supported by JFB