Hosea's Unfaithful Wife - Hosea 1: 2 - 10
(Bible quotes are from the New EnglishBible, unless otherwise noted)


V2.

This is the beginning of the Lord's message by Hosea.  He said, Go, take a wanton for your wife and get children of her wantonness; for like a wanton this land is unfaithful to the Lord.

take a wanton for your wife: When Hosea began to be a prophet, God told him to go and marry a prostitute/a promiscuous woman/a wanton woman, because Israel was unfaithful to God.  Hosea's marriage was, itself, to express a prophesy.  His private life was to be an example of God's love to unfaithful Israel.

In different ways from what he asked of Hosea, God asks each of us to make our lives an example which expresses his love and care for the people around us.

God's instruction to Hosea seems unfair to Hosea!  God must have had great faith in Hosea's understanding of him and faithfulness to him and of his strength of character.  He sometimes asks us to do things or endure things which seem unfair.  We must trust him as Hosea did, that he knows what he is doing, that he knows what is best for us and that he will never let us down.

get children of her wantonness:  (NIV: children of her unfaithfulness.)(NLT: so some of her children will be born to you from other men.)
God is generous and will accept as his own, people who have previously been worshippers of other gods.  He will adopt all of us and make us his own.

New Bible Commentary, p 767.  Literally, v2 says: 'Take for yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land does indeed commit harlotry in departing from the Lord.'  The straightforward meaning would be 'marry a prostitute/fornicator.....', but it is unlikely that Hosea would be commanded to do something so much against the Law.  Perhaps, therefore, it means 'marry someone who comes from a situation where prostitution is normal', or (more likely) 'marry someone who will turn out to be a prostitute'.  In other words Hosea, looking back on his broken marriage, sees it as God's will that he should have married such a person.

Vs 3, 4.

So he went and took Gomer, a worthless woman, and she conceived and bore him a son.
And the Lord said to him,

Call him Jezreel, for in a little while
I will punish the line of Jehu for the blood shed in Jezreel and put an end to the kingdom of Israel.

Jezreel =  God shall sow.(NEB note)
New Bible Commentary, p 767. God scatters, God sows.  Jezreel sounds like Israel in Hebrew, which satisfies Hebrew writers' love of puns.

Quest Study Bible note p 1234.  Jehu had engineered the slaughter of the descendants of Ahab at Jezreel in fulfilment of the prophesies of Elijah (1 Kings 21: 21; 2 Kings 10: 1-11).  So Jezreel became a picture of judgement as well as a warning to heed God's prophet.

V5.

On that day
I will break Israel's bow in the Vale of Jezreel.

The prophesy:  God would punish Jehu's line for that slaughter and will destroy Israel, the kingdom.

Does it seem to us unfair that Jehu's descendants and the people of his kingdom should suffer for Jehu's crime?  We all pass on to our descendants our own values.  And each one of us must accept some responsibility for what is done in our society.  When we stand silent and make no protest about things our governments do, we take on some of the responsibility for their desisions and actions.  The church is the body of Christ in this world and must take action for injustice as he did.

V6.

She conceived again and bore a daughter, and the Lord said to him,

Call her Lo-ruhamah;
for I will never again show love to Israel,
and never again forgive them.

Lo-ruhamah = not loved (NEB)
NIV: 'ruhamah' - connected with the word for 'womb'

The prophesy:  God will not show to Israel the kind of warm comforting loving care that a baby has in the womb - no more security in knowing that they were God's chosen people.

God does not tolerate injustice.

V7.

Then I will love Judah and will save them 
not by bow or sword or weapon of war,
by horses or by horsemen, 
but by the Lord their God.

God promises, however, to continue to show love to the southern kingdom, Judah.  Judah will be saved from destructin not by normal armies and weaponry, but by God's personal intervention - so they will know who looks after them and that they can't do it on their own.

Neither can we save ourselves from destruction by our own efforts.  We need God.

Vs 8,9.

After weaning Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son; and the Lord said;

Call him Lo-ammi;
for you are not my people,
and I will not be your God.

Gomer's next baby - probably two or three years later, after her daughter was weaned - was another son who was to be called Lo-ammi.

Lo-ammi = not my people (NEB)

New Bible Commentary, p. 767.  ...the most devastating word of judgement.  Israel will no longer be the elect people of God.

V 10.

The Israelies shall become countless as the sands of the sea
which can neither be measured nor numbered;
it shall no longer be said, 'They are not my people',
they shall be called the Sons of the Living God.

The prophesy: a promise of forgiveness.  Israelites will increase - so many that they can't be counted and will be called sons (NEB & NIV)/ children (NLT) of the living God. It recalls the covenant with Abraham (Genesis 22: 17 - I will bless you abudantly and greatly multiply your descendants until they are as numerous as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the sea-shore.
Genesis 32:12 -  I will prosper you and will make your dscendants like the sand of the sea, which is beyond all counting.
The New Testament tells us that after Jesus, all believers become part of a new Israel and have the right to be called children of God.
(Romans 9: 24-26 - Such vessels are we, whom he has called from among the Gentiles as well as Jews, as it says in the Book of Hosea: 'Those who were not my people I will call My People, and the unloved nation I will call My Beloved.  For in the very place where they were told "you are no people of mine", they shall be called Sons of the Living God.'
1 Peter 2: 10 - You are now the people of God, who once were not his people; outside his mercy once, you have now received his mercy.)

So the prophesy of Hosea includes Gentiles and covers all the people of the world who believe in Christ and follow him.  We are all children of a wonderful, holy, powerful living God.