Hosea 1:2

The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea, literally, "In the beginning when Jehovah spoke with Hosea,". and the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms, most commentators believing this to have been done internally and in a vision, since the force of the symbolical act would otherwise be lost, and children of whoredoms. The figure represents the northern kingdom in its relation to Jehovah at the time of the prophet, when the nation as such had become unfaithful and in its individual members could well be compared to children of adultery, as the prophet says; for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord, its idolatry was of a kind to call forth the righteous anger of the Lord.