Hosea 2:1-5

ISRAEL'S INGRATITUDESPIRIT OF HARLOTRY

TEXT: Hosea 2:1-5

1

Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

2

Contend with your mother, contend; for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her whoredoms from her face, 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

Yea, upon her children will I have no mercy; for they are children of whoredom;

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.

QUERIES

a.

What is the meaning of Ammi and Ruhamah?

b.

How were her children, the children of whoredom?

c.

Who were her lovers?

PARAPHRASE

Oh Jezreel, rename your brother and sister. Call your brother Now You Are Mine (Ammi); name your sister Beloved (Ruhamah), for now God will have mercy upon her. Plead with your mother (Israel); for she has committed spiritual adultery and married another; I am no longer her husband; she is no longer my wife. Reason with her to stop her spiritual adultery, to quit giving herself to other gods. If she doesn-'t, I will strip her naked of all that she calls her own; everything will be taken from her and she will be like she was when she was first born as a nation in Egypt; I will also make her desolate like a wilderness, arid like a dry land, and she will die because I shall withhold the life-giving water. Furthermore, I will take away the special favors from the people of Israel for in worshiping idols they show that they are her children. Israel, their mother, has committed spiritual adultery. She did a shameful thing when she said, I am determined to go and join myself to and consort with other gods for they are the ones who supply me with things I enjoy.

SUMMARY

Israel's apostacy is portrayed here under the figure of a wife leaving her husband for paramours. The Prophet pleads with the people to reason with one another and repent of the spirit of religious harlotry (idolatry) in their hearts.

COMMENT

Hosea 2:1 SAY. UNTO YOUR BRETHREN, AMMI; AND TO YOUR SISTERS, RUHAMAH. The Hebrew text of the O.T. makes Hosea 1:10-11 to become Hosea 2:1-2 and thus as we have it here in the English version would be Hosea 2:3 of the Hebrew text. This preserves the continuity of context and is to be preferred above our present English version. In other words Hosea 2:1 as we have it in the English version, belongs contextually to Hosea 1:10-11. Our present Hosea 2:2 begins another context and so the division in the English version leaves much to be desired. The English version has followed the arrangement of the Septuagint (LXX) and the Latin Vulgate in dividing the context as it has.

Ammi, means My people. Ruhamah, means Pited or Beloved. The victory which is accomplished (Hosea 1:10-11) at the fulfillment of the covenant and when all Israel (spiritual Israel) is gathered together under one head will so change man's relationship to God and God's relationship to man that redeemed man would thereafter be called God's people, and God would thereafter have pity upon them. So this is the conclusion of that which would be accomplished according to Hosea 1:10-11 and rightfully belongs to that context.

Hosea 2:2-3 CONTEND WITH YOUR MOTHER. LET HER PUT AWAY HER WHOREDOMS. LEST I STRIP HER NAKED. The word contend would be better translated, reason, persuade, plead or beg. The mother is Israel the nation. The children are the individual Israelites. This is simply a rhetorical mode of expression. Although the nation, regarded as a whole, had fallen into idolatry, a very few faithful formed a remnant and to these the Prophet pleads. They are the last hope for the nation. They must persuade the nation to put away its whoredoms.

Whoredom here probably refers to the idolatry practiced by the nation. Israel had entered into the covenant with Jehovah its God; Israel had joined itself to God as a woman joins herself to a husband. When it went after other gods its idolatry became a breach of the faithfulness which it owed to its God. Its idolatry was even more deplorable than that of the heathen for the idolatry of Israel constituted rebellion and ingratitude against greater privilege, more blessed circumstances, and greater revelation. Idolatry is referred to as whoredom (cf. Exodus 34:14-15; Leviticus 17:7; Leviticus 20:5-6; Numbers 14:33; Numbers 15:39; Deuteronomy 31:16; Deuteronomy 32:16; Deuteronomy 32:21).

Actually, this section (Hosea 2:2-5) would better fit our outline under I. B. 2., Israel's Ingratitude, Love of Sin. But that would place it out of its textual order and since we wish to deal with the text in the order it is given, the outline must become secondary.

The face can mirror or display either modesty or immodesty, shamelessness or shame (cf. Jeremiah 6:15; Jeremiah 8:6; Jeremiah 9:21). It was customary even in that day for the harlot to paint her face with cosmetics to attract and allure lovers. Nationally speaking, Israel was in some way displaying outwardly the face of a spiritual harlot. The harlot also adorned and exposed her breasts in order to allure. We have here a synonymous parallelism; an exhortation that Israel should correct the outward display of idolatrous practices for they exhibit the spirit of harlotry and rebellion that is within her national heart.

Israel is warned that if she continues in idolatry, God will strip her naked. like she was the day she was born. When Israel was born as a nation, she came from a disorganized, penniless, mass of slaves then serving the Egyptian pharoah. She had no worldly goods, no worldly position or nationhood and no land she could call her own, (cf. Ezekiel 16). God took her from Egypt, gave her a land, blessed her with material abundance, gave her national prominence and influence. But now that she has been unfaithful, God is going to disinherit her and cast her off and take away from her all that He has given. She will once again become the slave of a foreign nation; once again she will be without nationality and without material abundance. Israel as a nation will be like a land that has become arid, desolate, As a nation she will become worthless, cease to produce and die,

Hosea 2:4-5. UPON HER CHILDREN WILL I HAVE NO MERCY. THEIR MOTHER HATH PLAYED THE HARLOT. SHE SAID, I WILL GO AFTER MY LOVERS, THAT GIVE ME MY BREAD. We like the statement of K & D, The fact that the children are specially mentioned after and along with the mother, when in reality mother and children are one, serves to give greater keenness to the threat, and guards against that carnal security, in which individuals imagine that, inasmuch as they are free from the sin and guilt of the nation as a whole, they will also be exempted from the threatened punishment. The nation and its leadership (civil and religious) played the harlot by becoming idolaters and they led the people into the same sin. The children were not forced into whoredom. They loved to have it so, and willingly followed the leading of the nation.

The mother, however proud and vain she might represent herself, did a shameful thing when she was unfaithful to her God. I will go after could be literally translated, Let me go, or, I would go after. She does not wait to be enticed or allured or seduced. She brazenly goes, uninvited, unsought and contrary to the instinctive feelings of woman, after those who make no overtures to draw her and away from her Husband (God) who has loved her and beckoned her. Enviously she regarded the surrounding nations (Phoenicia, Egypt, Assyria) who did not worship Jehovah, 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. The spirit of worldliness made Israel think of her God as a cruel and unloving taskmaster and of His law as an unbearable yoke. She began to worship idols. Then as her prosperity and political prestige grew she rationalized that her lovers had supplied all these things she so greedily wanted. In the days of Jeroboam II idolatrous Israel suddenly gained power and riches rivaling those of David and Solomon. It seemed that idolatry paid better wages than service to Jehovah. God had warned them against such pride and ingratitude and idolatry in plain words (Deuteronomy 8:1 ff). It is interesting to note that the people of Judah said the same thing of their idols (Jeremiah 44:15-18); they attributed their prosperity to the heathen gods they worshipped rather than Jehovah. It is frighteningly true that people in so-called Christian America (and other Christianized nations) have not learned much from Israel and Judah. A great number of people today attribute the material and political affluence and prestige to their idols of science, man, sex or some other philosophy. This is just as brazen and shameful and just as much spiritual whoredom as Baalism was in the days of Hosea. Let us take the exhortation of Hosea to heart and plead with our mother that she put away her whoredom from her face.

QUIZ

1.

What is the proper division of Chapter s 1 and 2? Where should Hosea 2:1 go?

2.

Who is the mother and who are the children? What literary form is being used here?

3.

What is the whoredom of which both mother and children are guilty?

4.

How will God strip Israel naked?

5.

What makes Israel's going after other gods so shameful?

6.

Why did Israel think her heathen gods supplied the things she wanted?

7.

How do nations act the same way today as Israel acted then?