Hosea 2:5-15

5 their mother prostituted herself, she who conceived them behaved shamelessly; she said, 'I will pursue my lovers, who give me my food and water, wool, flax, olive oil and wine.'

6 Therefore, I will block her way with thorns and put up a hedge so she can't find her paths.

7 She will pursue her lovers but not catch them. She will seek them but won't find them. Then she will say, 'I will go and return to my first husband; because things were better for me then than they are now.'

8 For she doesn't know it was I who gave her the grain, the wine and the oil; I who increased her silver and gold, which they used for Ba'al.

9 So I will take back my grain at harvest-time and my wine in its season; I will snatch away my wool and flax, given to cover her naked body.

10 Now I will uncover her shame, while her lovers watch; and no one will save her from me.

11 I will end her happiness, her festivals, Rosh-Hodesh, and shabbats, and all her designated times.

12 I will ravage her vines and fig trees, of which she says, 'These are my wages that my lovers have given me.' But I will turn them into a forest, and wild animals will eat them.

13 I will punish her for offering incense on the feast days of the ba'alim, when she decked herself with her earrings and jewels, pursuing her lovers and forgetting me," says ADONAI.

14 "But now I am going to woo her - I will bring her out to the desert and I will speak to her heart.

15 I will give her her vineyards from there and the Akhor Valley as a gateway to hope. She will respond there as she did when young, as she did when she came up from Egypt.

Hosea 2:5-15 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO HOSEA 2

This chapter is an explanation of the former, proceeding upon the same argument in more express words. The godly Israelites are here called upon to lay before the body of the people their idolatry, ingratitude, obstinacy, and ignorance of the God of their mercies; and to exhort them to repentance, lest they should be stripped of all their good things, and be brought into great distress and difficulties; all their joy and comfort cease, and be exposed to shame and contempt, Ho 2:1-13, yet, notwithstanding, many gracious promises are made unto them, of their having the alluring and comfortable word of the Gospel; of a door of hope; of salvation being opened to them; of faith in the Lord, and affection to him as their husband; of the removal of all idolatry from them; of safety from all enemies; of their open espousal to Christ; of his hearing of their prayers, and giving them plenty of all good things; and of their multiplication, conversion, and covenant relation to God, Ho 2:14-23.