Hosea 2:1-23
1 Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi;a and to your sisters, Ruhamah.
2 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;
3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.
5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.b
6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and makec a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.
8 For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine,d and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.
9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recovere my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.
10 And now will I discover her lewdnessf in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.
11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.
12 And I will destroyg her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.
14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortablyh unto her.
15 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
16 And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi;i and shalt call me no more Baali.
17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.
18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.
19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;
22 And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.
23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.
Hosea 2:1. Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi, that is, my people; and to your sisters, Ruhamah, that is, mercy, or oh mercy, or having obtained mercy, or mercy shall follow.
Hosea 2:3. Lest I strip her naked. The feminine name was given by the Greeks to all countries, and on that idea the text is founded. Nudity was the ancient punishment of an adulteress. Ezekiel 16:37. The scenes of drunkenness and prostitution which attended gentile feasts, were such as cannot be recited.
Hosea 2:12. I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees, by the army of Salmanezer, who devastated Samaria. 2 Kings 17:6. A contemporary prophet speaks in the same manner as Hosea: “Wo to the drunkards of Ephraim.” Isaiah 28:1.
Hosea 2:15. I will give her the valley of Achor for a door of hope. This was the entrance to the promised land, a beautiful vale, and situate near Jericho. As God purged Achan's sin in this place, so he promises to purge his christian Israel, and to give them every blessing of the new covenant. Any farther import of this impressive promise must refer to the glory of the latter day.
Hosea 2:16. Thou shalt call me Ishi. Man, my man, or my husband. No more Baal, lord or oppressor. This may indicate the bondage of the law; but the bride calling the Messiah her husband implies the highest privilege, liberty and honour which the church can enjoy.
Hosea 2:17. I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth. The mention of the name of idols was forbidden by the Mosaic law. Exodus 23:13. The church having her Maker for her husband, must scorn the name of idols. I believe many young men, by reading the Greek and Roman classics, get their attachment diminished, if it ever existed, to the sacred scriptures. Hence abridgments of the classics have been advised for the use of christian schools.
Hosea 2:18. I will make a covenant with the [wild] beasts the fowls and the creeping things, as serpents, not to hurt them. This is coincident with the promise in Isaiah 11:6. The Psyllians of Africa boasted of a power against the bite of serpents.
Gens unica terras Incolit a sævo serpentum innoxia morsu Marmaridæ Psilli. Pax illis cum morte data est. PHAR. 9:894.
Of all who Afric's scorching sun endure,
None like the swarthy Psyllians are secure;
With healing gifts and privileges graced,
Well in the land of serpents were they placed;
Truce with the dreadful tyrant death they have,
And border safely on his realm the grave. ROWE.
Hosea 2:22. And they shall hear Jezreel. The heaven and the earth shall hear Jezreel, or the sons of the prophets, or the people of Israel who formerly inhabited the valley of Jezreel, or God's dispersed people. It implies that heaven and earth should hear the Lord's converted people, praising him for the temporal and spiritual blessings of his covenant.
REFLECTIONS.
Hosea, proceeding with his subject, is led to pronounce the Lord's divorce against his carnal people for idolatry, and incorrigible wickedness. He declares concerning his once chosen church, she is neither my wife, nor am I her husband. This awful sentence, which it is presumed Hosea lived to see accomplished, should strike terror on certain apostate men who seem, in their style of manners, to be superior to the weakness of a scrupulous conscience, and of sanctifying fear. Perhaps their confidence, and superior wisdom may not guard every avenue at which punishment may enter.
We have the aggravation of Israel's sin. She said, my lovers have given me this bread and water, this wool and flax. Thus she honoured the newly- imported idols of the gentiles above the God whom her fathers revered, and who gave her the land. To ascribe our mercies either to chance, or to our own industry and skill, is a sin which is marked in heaven.
We have Israel's punishment. I will hedge up her way with thorns, or the three usual calamities of famine, sickness, and war, as Joel, a contemporary prophet, has remarked in chap. 4. Thus her mirth, her feasts, her beauty departed; yet she returned not to the Lord. What follows must therefore respect the new-testament church, and the glory of the latter day.
We have the recollection and repentance of the church. She said, I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now. The few of the ten tribes who survived at home might continue their corruptions in exile, and pine away, and lose their glory by marrying with the gentiles; yet God is ever nourishing his spiritual Zion, by converts brought to recollection and to tears. And oh, it is peculiarly happy when back-sliders are so far recollected and humbled as to return to the Lord, and to his house.
We have lastly, the return of consolation to the church, which seems to flow with a double tide for having been obstructed. I will allure her, as in Egypt, and bring her into the wilderness. Yes, and when I shall gather in my people, and give the gentiles a portion with them, I will make a covenant with the beasts not to hurt them. I will break the bow, and make wars to cease. I will also betroth thee unto me for ever in righteousness and in faithfulness. St. John affirms the same of the church. Revelation 21:22.