Hosea 2

1 “Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’

Israel Punished and Restored

2 “Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
3 Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst.
4 I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery.
5 Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’
6 Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.
7 She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’
8 She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold— which they used for Baal.
9 “Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her naked body.
10 So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of my hands.
11 I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals.
12 I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them.
13 I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot,” declares the LORD.
14 “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor[a] a door of hope. There she will respond[b] as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
16 “In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.[c]
17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked.
18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.
19 I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in[d] righteousness and justice, in[e] love and compassion.
20 I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD.
21 “In that day I will respond,” declares the LORD— “I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth;
22 and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.[f]
23 I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.[g] ’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,[h] ’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’ ”

Hosea 2 Commentary

Chapter 2

The idolatry of the people. (1-5) God's judgments against them. (6-13) His promises of reconciliation. (14-23)

Verses 1-5 This chapter continues the figurative address to Israel, in reference to Hosea's wife and children. Let us own and love as brethren, all whom the Lord seems to put among his children, and encourage them in that they have received mercy. But every Christian, by his example and conduct, must protest against evil and abuses, even among those to whom he belongs and owes respect. Impenitent sinners will soon be stripped of the advantages they misuse, and which they consume upon their lusts.

Verses 6-13 God threatens what he would do with this treacherous, idolatrous people. They did not turn, therefore all this came upon them; and it is written for admonition to us. If lesser difficulties be got over, God will raise greater. The most resolute in sinful pursuits, are commonly most crossed in them. The way of God and duty is often hedged about with thorns, but we have reason to think it is a sinful way that is hedged up with thorns. Crosses and obstacles in an evil course are great blessings, and are to be so accounted; they are God's hedges, to keep us from transgressing, to make the way of sin difficult, and to keep us from it. We have reason to bless God for restraining grace, and for restraining providences; and even for sore pain, sickness, or calamity, if it keeps us from sin. The disappointments we meet with in seeking for satisfaction from the creature, should, if nothing else will do it, drive us to the Creator. When men forget, or consider not that their comforts come from God, he will often in mercy take them away, to bring them to think upon their folly and danger. Sin and mirth can never hold long together; but if men will not take away sin from their mirth, God will take away mirth from their sin. And if men destroy God's word and ordinances, it is just with him to destroy their vines and fig-trees. This shall be the ruin of their mirth. Taking away the solemn seasons and the sabbaths will not do it, they will readily part with them, and think it no loss; but He will take away their sensual pleasures. Days of sinful mirth must be visited with days of mourning.

Verses 14-23 After these judgments the Lord would deal with Israel more gently. By the promise of rest in Christ we are invited to take his yoke upon us; and the work of conversion may be forwarded by comforts as well as by convictions. But usually the Lord drives us to despair of earthly joy, and help from ourselves, that, being shut from every other door, we may knock at Mercy's gate. From that time Israel would be more truly attached to the Lord; no longer calling him Baali, or "My lord and master," alluding to authority, rather than love, but Ishi, an address of affection. This may foretell the restoration from the Babylonish captivity; and also be applied to the conversion of the Jews to Christ, in the days of the apostles, and the future general conversion of that nation; and believers are enabled to expect infinitely more tenderness and kindness from their holy God, than a beloved wife can expect from the kindest husband. When the people were weaned from idols, and loved the Lord, no creature should do them any harm. This may be understood of the blessings and privileges of the spiritual Israel, of every true believer, and their partaking of Christ's righteousness; also, of the conversion of the Jews to Christ. Here is an argument for us to walk so that God may not be dishonoured by us: Thou art my people. If a man's family walk disorderly, it is a dishonour to the master. If God call us children, we may say, Thou art our God. Unbelieving soul, lay aside discouraging thoughts; do not thus answer God's loving-kindness. Doth God say, Thou art my people? Say, Lord, thou art our God.

Cross References 61

  • 1. ver 23; 1 Peter 2:10
  • 2. ver 5; S Isaiah 50:1; S Hosea 1:2; Hosea 4:5
  • 3. S Isaiah 1:21; S Ezekiel 23:45
  • 4. S Ezekiel 16:37
  • 5. Ezekiel 16:4,22
  • 6. Isaiah 32:13-14
  • 7. S Ezekiel 8:18; Hosea 1:6
  • 8. Hosea 5:7
  • 9. S Jeremiah 3:6; S Hosea 1:2
  • 10. Jeremiah 44:17-18
  • 11. S Job 3:23; S Job 19:8; S Lamentations 3:9
  • 12. Hosea 5:13
  • 13. S Isaiah 54:5
  • 14. Jeremiah 2:2; S Jeremiah 3:1
  • 15. S Ezekiel 16:8
  • 16. S Isaiah 1:3
  • 17. S Numbers 18:12
  • 18. S Deuteronomy 8:18
  • 19. ver 13; Ezekiel 16:15-19; Hosea 8:4
  • 20. Hosea 8:7
  • 21. Hosea 9:2
  • 22. Ezekiel 23:10
  • 23. Jeremiah 13:26
  • 24. S Ezekiel 16:37
  • 25. Jeremiah 7:34
  • 26. S Isaiah 24:8
  • 27. S Isaiah 1:14; Jeremiah 16:9; Hosea 3:4; Hosea 9:5; Amos 5:21; Amos 8:10
  • 28. S Isaiah 7:23; S Jeremiah 8:13
  • 29. S Jeremiah 5:17
  • 30. S Jeremiah 3:1
  • 31. S Isaiah 5:6
  • 32. Hosea 5:7; Hosea 13:8
  • 33. Isaiah 65:7
  • 34. ver 8; S Jeremiah 7:9; Hosea 11:2
  • 35. S Ezekiel 16:17; S Ezekiel 23:40
  • 36. Hosea 4:13
  • 37. Hosea 4:6; Hosea 8:14; Hosea 13:6
  • 38. S Jeremiah 44:17; Hosea 13:1
  • 39. S Ezekiel 19:13
  • 40. S Joshua 7:24,26
  • 41. Exodus 15:1-18
  • 42. S Jeremiah 2:2; S Ezekiel 16:22
  • 43. S Ezekiel 28:26; Hosea 12:9
  • 44. S Isaiah 54:5
  • 45. Exodus 23:13; Psalms 16:4
  • 46. S Joshua 23:7; Zechariah 13:2
  • 47. S Job 5:22
  • 48. S Psalms 46:9; S Isaiah 2:4; Zechariah 9:10
  • 49. S Job 5:23; S Jeremiah 23:6; Ezekiel 34:25
  • 50. S Isaiah 62:4; 2 Corinthians 11:2
  • 51. S Isaiah 1:27
  • 52. S Isaiah 54:8
  • 53. Jeremiah 31:34; Hosea 4:1; Hosea 6:6; Hosea 13:4
  • 54. S Ezekiel 16:8
  • 55. Isaiah 55:10; Zechariah 8:12; Malachi 3:10-11
  • 56. S Jeremiah 31:12; Hosea 14:7; Joel 2:19
  • 57. S Ezekiel 36:29-30; S Hosea 1:4
  • 58. S Jeremiah 31:27
  • 59. S Hosea 1:6
  • 60. S ver 1; S Isaiah 19:25; S Hosea 1:10
  • 61. S Jeremiah 29:12; Romans 9:25*; 1 Peter 2:10

Footnotes 8

Chapter Summary

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.

Hosea 2 Commentaries

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