Hosea chapter 2
The LORD God will punish Israel. Israel will be deprived of its idols. Israel will be deprived of the LORD’s blessings. The LORD God will restore Israel.
THE LORD GOD WILL PUNISH ISRAEL
VERSE 1. “Say to your brothers, ‘My people!’ and to your sisters, ‘My loved one!’
VERSE 2. Contend with your mother! Contend, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
Contend with your mother. For people who have been abused by their own mother, the LORD God can be an encircling wall of fire.
He can isolate and protect them from an abusive mother.
VERSE 3. Lest I strip her naked, and make her bare as in the day that she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst.
Lest I strip her naked. Their society punished adulterers by stripping them naked in public.
This is mentioned again in verse 10 below.
VERSE 4. Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy; for they are children of unfaithfulness;
ISRAEL WILL BE DEPRIVED OF ITS IDOLS
VERSE 5. For their mother has played the prostitute. She who conceived them has done shamefully; for she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
VERSE 6. Therefore behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she can’t find her way.
VERSE 7. She will follow after her lovers, but she won’t overtake them; and she will seek them, but won’t find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.’
her lovers. The people were in not in love with the LORD God.
Rather, they were in love with fertility deities.
ISRAEL WILL BE DEPRIVED OF THE LORD’S BLESSINGS
VERSE 8. For she didn’t know that I gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and multiplied to her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.
VERSE 9. Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my new wine in its season, and will pluck away my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness.
VERSE 10. Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of my hand.
I will uncover her lewdness. We saw this in verse 3 above.
Their society punished adulterers by stripping them naked in public.
in the sight of her lovers. Even though her lovers took part in her sin, they are not punished.
In this narrative, only the woman is punished. The men receive no punishment.
VERSE 11. I will also cause all her celebrations to cease: her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.
VERSE 12. I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, about which she has said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me; and I will make them a forest,’ and the animals of the field shall eat them.
VERSE 13. I will visit on her the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense, when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me,” says the LORD.
THE LORD GOD WILL RESTORE ISRAEL
VERSE 14. “Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.
I will allure her. The LORD God is winning our hearts. He allures us. He leads us into the spiritual desert. There, we re-discover him. There, he speaks to our heart.
Don’t waste your words. Say things that will minister to the people around you. But say those things according to the specific needs of each person. Read more »
VERSE 15. I will give her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will respond there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
VERSE 16. It will be in that day,” says the LORD, “that you will call me ‘my husband,’ and no longer call me ‘my master.’
my master. Literally, “My Baal.”
It is usually translaterated as “My master.”
VERSE 17. For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they will no longer be mentioned by name.
VERSE 18. In that day I will make a covenant for them with the animals of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creeping things of the ground. I will break the bow, the sword, and the battle out of the land, and will make them lie down safely.
NLT translation. On that day I will make a covenant with all the wild animals and the birds of the sky and the animals that scurry along the ground so they will not harm you. I will remove all weapons of war from the land, all swords and bows, so you can live unafraid in peace and safety.
This verse is fantastic! Would you consider memorizing it? More great verses to memorize from the Book of Hosea and from the entire Bible.
the animals. In this context, animals are symbols of whatever fills us with fear.
The LORD God wants us to be free of fear.
VERSE 19. I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in loving kindness, and in compassion.
righteousness. The Hebrew word is “tsedeq.”
justice. The Hebrew word is “mishpat.”
loving kindness. The Hebrew word is “hesed.”
compassion. The Hebrew word is “rahamin.”
It is often translated as “mercy.”
VERSE 20. I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know the LORD.
faithfulness. The Hebrew word is “emunah.”
you shall know the LORD. Knowing the LORD is the essence of eternal life.
Eternal life is knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ. Do you know them? Do you have a love-relationship with them? Here are the Bible verses about this »
VERSE 21. It will happen in that day, I will respond,” says the LORD, “I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth;
VERSE 22. and the earth will respond to the grain, and the new wine, and the oil; and they will respond to Jezreel.
VERSE 23. I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, ‘You are my people;’ and they will say, ‘My God!’ ”
Hosea 1:9. He said, “Call his name Lo-Ammi; for you are not my people, and I will not be yours.
Hosea 2:23. I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, ‘You are my people;’ and they will say, ‘My God!’ ”
1 Peter 2:10. In the past, you were not a people, but now are God’s people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
HOSEA
CHAPTERS: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
RESOURCES: Summary, Outline, Memorize
Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.