Hosea 2 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Hosea 2

Israel’s Unfaithfulness Punished

2:1 ¹ Say to your brothers, “You are my people,”² and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.”³

2   “Plead with your mother, plead—
    for she is not my wife,
    and I am not her husband—
  that she put away her whoring from her face,
    and her adultery from between her breasts;
3   lest I strip her naked
    and make her as in the day she was born,
  and make her like a wilderness,
    and make her like a parched land,
    and kill her with thirst.
4   Upon her children also I will have no mercy,
    because they are children of whoredom.
5   For their mother has played the whore;
    she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
  For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
    who give me my bread and my water,
    my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
6   Therefore I will hedge up her⁴ way with thorns,
    and I will build a wall against her,
    so that she cannot find her paths.
7   She shall pursue her lovers
    but not overtake them,
  and she shall seek them
    but shall not find them.
  Then she shall say,
    ‘I will go and return to my first husband,
    for it was better for me then than now.’
8   And she did not know
    that it was I who gave her
    the grain, the wine, and the oil,
  and who lavished on her silver and gold,
    which they used for Baal.
9   Therefore I will take back
    my grain in its time,
    and my wine in its season,
  and I will take away my wool and my flax,
    which were to cover her nakedness.
10   Now I will uncover her lewdness
    in the sight of her lovers,
    and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
11   And I will put an end to all her mirth,
    her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths,
    and all her appointed feasts.
12   And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
    of which she said,
  ‘These are my wages,
    which my lovers have given me.’
  I will make them a forest,
    and the beasts of the field shall devour them.
13   And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals
    when she burned offerings to them
  and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
    and went after her lovers
    and forgot me, declares the LORD.

The Lord’s Mercy on Israel

14   “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
    and bring her into the wilderness,
    and speak tenderly to her.
15   And there I will give her her vineyards
    and make the Valley of Achor⁵ a door of hope.
  And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,
    as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

16 “And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish⁶ the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.

21   “And in that day I will answer, declares the LORD,
    I will answer the heavens,
    and they shall answer the earth,
22   and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
    and they shall answer Jezreel,⁷
23     and I will sow her for myself in the land.
  And I will have mercy on No Mercy,⁸
    and I will say to Not My People,⁹ ‘You are my people’;
    and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

Footnotes

[1] 2:1 Ch 2:3 in Hebrew
[2] 2:1 Hebrew ammi, which means my people
[3] 2:1 Hebrew ruhama, which means she has received mercy
[4] 2:6 Hebrew your
[5] 2:15 Achor means trouble; compare Joshua 7:26
[6] 2:18 Hebrew break
[7] 2:22 Jezreel means God will sow
[8] 2:23 Hebrew Lo-ruhama
[9] 2:23 Hebrew Lo-ammi

Commentary

v1: From 1.10-11, the restored relationship with God.

v2-5: The charge against Gomer, and against Israel. She is guilty of adultery, but she is called to repentance (v2), thereby avoiding judgment (v3); compare Jer 2.9-13. Her attitude is exposed, "I will go after my lovers," indicating her carnal attitude, and her refusal to seek the Lord.

Many find an attraction in sins, Jer 44.15-19, seeking the "treasures of Egypt" (Heb 11.25-26), but this can only be for a season. We may also forget the good things that God has done for us, Ps 44.1-3.

v6-8 Hosea’s first tactic is to frustrate Gomer, blocking her path, to stop her pursuing her “lovers.” He does this to demonstrate his faithfulness. Like Ephesus, she left her first love; and tolerated rivals. The plan was that she would realise the blessings she enjoyed in Hosea’s household.

In the same way, God’s initial judgment upon Israel was gentle. Only later, when the nation persisted in sin, did more severe judgment follow.

v9-10: Suffering in store for Israel, as God removes His blessings.

v11-13: Even during her unfaithfulness, Israel maintained Feast Days, New Moons, Sabbaths; keeping an appearance of religion, Is 1.13-14. But God is not fooled when we neglect "the weightier matters of the law."

v14-23: Hosea points to a future restoration of Israel, esp. to a new relationship with God. There is no mention of geographical exile and return, but rather spiritual desolation, and subsequent restoration.

v14: Israel taken into the wilderness, Ezek 20.35-36, where the Lord God will allure, or woo, her. The way of judgment apparently brought little real repentance. Instead, God speaks lovingly to His wayward people, to bring them back to Himself.

v15: Israel's song, as at the beginning, in Ex 15; such will be the restoration. The Valley of Achor (Josh 7.25-27) had previously been a place of judgment; now to be a door of hope.

v16: "My husband," indicating the new relationship through Christ, not through the law.

v17: The experience of idolatry will be past, the names of idols not even mentioned. Such will be the thoroughness of the restoration.

v18: The new covenant, including beasts, birds, creatures, as well as the removal of warfare; ensuring total peace and security for God's people.

v19-20: Betrothed to the Lord God, a never-ending relationship. Characterised by; righteousness and justice, love and compassion.

v21-22: Fruitfulness on the earth, because God will sow; hence "Jezreel," Is 61.3.

v23: See 1.6,9; Hosea's children's names now fulfilled. Yet the nation, once unloved will again be loved by God. Previously they were not His people, having been rejected. Now they are accepted again.