Hosea 1:2-5

Some have thought, that what is here said of Hosea, was in vision, and not in reality. But others have deemed it to be literally as is here stated. In either sense, the doctrine is the same. God intended to show thereby the divorcement of his people. The name of Gomer is very expressive, meaning waste. God's Israel are threatened to be wasted and scattered. And Jezreel is to the same amount, meaning scattered. Reader! while we read these scriptures, and behold in the day in which we live their fulfillment; is it not sweet to recollect the promise, He that scattered Israel will gather him. Jeremiah 31:10; Genesis 49:10; John 11:52.