Introduction

The prophecies of Hosea are a brief reference to the historical account, but a forceful reminder that after a century and a half as part of a broken kingdom, the people of Isra’el have not been willing to put away their idols or forget their pagan Baal. To God, the people of Isra’el have been as a wife in a covenant relationship with Him. God calls upon Hosea to bring his message and warnings through both hard preaching and prophecy, and in an unusual way. God calls on Hosea to marry a woman whom God knows will be unfaithful to Hosea and bear children of her unfaithfulness. When Hosea’s wife, Gomer, consorts with other lovers, she only typifies Isra’el’s unfaithfulness in playing the harlot with other gods. Hosea begins his ministry during Jeroboam’s reign and will continue his work for the next 60 or 65 years. ^[1]

Hosea is one of the most autobiographical of the Prophetic Books in that the opening account of Hosea’s marriage and family forms a vital part of his unique message. God’s word of grace and His call to repent are dramatically portrayed and punctuated by Hosea’s scorned but constant love for his wife Gomer and the odd names of his three children. Apart from this information about his immediate family, Hosea is unknown. His divinely commissioned marriage to the promiscuous Gomer, which brought Hosea such heartache, seems to have been the beginning.

Preface

1 ¹ This is the word of Adonai that came to Hoshea the son of Be’eri during the reigns of ‘Uziyah, Yotam, Achaz, and Y’chizkiyah, kings of Y’hudah, and during the reign of Yarov’am the son of Yo’ash, king of Isra’el.

Hosea’s Own Family

² Adonai’s opening words in speaking to Hoshea were to instruct Hoshea,

“Go, marry a whore,

and have children with this whore;

for the land is engaged in flagrant whoring,

whoring away from Adonai.”

³ So he went and married Gomer, the daughter of Divlayim. She conceived and bore him a son.

Hosea’s initial call to the prophetic ministry began with perplexing instructions to find a wife among the promiscuous women of Isra’el (of which there were apparently many; Hosea 4:14). This was no mere parable or vision but an actual command to enter a literal marriage that would vividly portray God’s perspective on Isra’el. Flagrant whoring describes her behavior and character when Hosea married her. She is not called a prostitute, but she almost certainly used her sexuality for her livelihood (see 2:5). Hosea, like the Lord, would have a wayward wife and a broken heart.

⁴ Adonai said to him, “Call him Yizre’el, because in only a short time I will punish the house of Yehu for having shed blood at Yizre’el; I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Isra’el. ⁵ When that day comes, I will break the bow of Isra’el in the Yizre’el Valley.”

Yehu had carried out God’s judgment (2 Kings 9:7) by putting the last of Omri’s dynasty to the sword at the city of Yizre’el (2 Kings 9:24–10:11). God commended him for this (2 Kings 10:30). Hosea named his first child Yizre’el, symbolizing that Yehu’s dynasty. Yehu’s dynasty began in violence and would end similarly, but as the recipient rather than the instrument of divine judgment. Zechariah, Yehu’s last royal descendant, was assassinated by Shallum in 752 BCE, probably at Ibleam in Jezreel (2 Kings 15:10).

⁶ She conceived again and bore a daughter. Adonai said to him, “Name her Lo-Ruchamah [unpitied], for I will no longer have pity on the house of Isra’el. By no means will I forgive them. ⁷ But I will pity the house of Y’hudah; I will save them not by bow, sword, battle, horses or cavalry, but by Adonai their God.”

Hosea’s second child, a daughter, was given the pathetic Hebrew name Lo-Ruchamah, meaning unpitied, symbolic of the fact that by her continual unfaithfulness, Isra’el had forfeited God’s love.

⁸ After weaning Lo-Ruchamah, she conceived and bore a son. ⁹ Adonai said, “Name him Lo-‘Ammi The Hebrew name of Hosea’s third child, Lo-ammi, meaning Not My People, was a symbolic proclamation that Israel had broken covenant with God (Ex 6:7; Lev 26:12). I will not be your God is literally “and I will not be to you.” This could also be rendered “and I am not ‘I AM’ to you” (Ex 3:14–15). God’s statement amounted to a decree of divorce because you are not my people, and I will not be your [God].

The Hebrew name of Hosea’s third child, Lo-ammi, meaning Not My People, was a symbolic proclamation that Isra’el had broken the covenant with God (Exodus 6:7; Leviticus 26:12). I will not be your God is literally “and I will not be to you.” This could also be rendered “and I am not ‘I AM’ to you” (Exodus 3:14–15). God’s statement amounted to a decree of divorce.

¹⁰ “Nevertheless, the people of Isra’el will number as many as the grains of sand by the sea, which cannot be measured or counted; so that the time will come when, instead of being told, ‘You are not my people,’ it will be said to them, ‘You are the children of the living God. ^[2]

The allusion to the Avrahamic covenant in the phrase “as many as the grains of sand by the sea” (cp. Genesis 22:17) indicates that God’s “divorce” of Isra’el was not final but applied only to that generation—the nation or leadership of that time. Eternal promise is placed profoundly beside final judgment, reconcilable only because the living God could bring life out of death.

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^[1] An excerpt from F. LaGard Smith’s commentary.

^[2] Hosea 1:1-10.