Though we know nothing of Hosea's personal life before he began prophesying, we do know about a crisis that arose in his family while he ministered. This personal tragedy and its happy ending proved to be a lesson to the people of Israel. This lesson corresponds to and illustrated the other messages of judgment and restoration that follow. Other prophets also experienced personal problems that the Lord used to teach His people (e.g., Isa. 20:1-4; Ezek. 4:1-5:4).
The major themes of the book come into view in this opening section: Israel's unfaithfulness to Yahweh, His judgment of her, and His later restoration of her.
The Lord used Hosea's family members as signs to communicate His message of coming judgment on Israel.
1:2 At the beginning of Hosea's ministry, Yahweh commanded him to take a wife of harlotry and to have children of harlotry. The reason the Lord gave for this unusual command was that the land of Israel (i.e., the people of the Northern Kingdom, cf. 4:1) were committing flagrant harlotry in the sense that they had departed from the Lord. The Lord used personification to picture the land as a woman acting as a prostitute.
Students of this book have understood the phrase "a wife of harlotry"(Heb. esheth zenunim) to mean one of four things. These major views fall into two groups: non-literal and literal interpretations.
First, some believe the text means that God gave Hosea a vision or that He told him an allegory in which his wife was or would become a harlot.9This view avoids the moral problem of God commanding His prophet to marry a woman who was already or who would become a harlot. However, there is no indication in the text that this was a visionary experience or an allegorical tale, and there are many details that point to it being a real experience. For example, Hosea recorded the name of his wife and her father's name (1:3). He also named the exact amount that he paid for her (3:2).
Second, some interpreters believe that Hosea's wife became "a wife of harlotry"because she was already or became a worshipper of a false god; her harlotry was spiritual rather than physical. A related view is that she was a spiritual harlot merely by being an Israelite since the Israelites had been unfaithful to Yahweh.10Again the details of the story as it unfolds argue for literal sexual unfaithfulness.
Third, it is possible that Hosea's wife was sexually promiscuous before he married her.11Some have even suggested that she may have been a temple prostitute.12If this is what the Lord meant, it would have been more natural for Him to say "take to yourself a harlot"(Heb. zonah) or "prostitute."The biggest problem with this view is ethical. It seems very unlikely that God would command His prophet to marry a woman who was already a harlot.
Fourth, the best view seems to be that Hosea's wife became unfaithful to him after they got married, and that Yahweh told him that she would do this before they got married. This view posits a situation that was most similar to the relationship that existed between Yahweh and Israel, which Hosea's marital relations illustrated (cf. 2:2, 4; 4:12; 5:4). Israel became unfaithful to Yahweh after previous faithfulness; Israel was not unfaithful when Yahweh married her (at Sinai). She was a brand new bride freshly redeemed out of Egyptian slavery (cf. Jer. 2:2-3).13
Another difficulty is the meaning of "children of harlotry."Were these children that Gomer already had?14Were they children that Hosea would have by Gomer that would prove unfaithful like their mother?15Or were they born to Hosea and Gomer after she became unfaithful? Probably the phrase means "children of a wife who is marked by harlotry."16It seems to me that the children in view were the children born to Hosea and Gomer, and they became known as children of harlotry when their mother became a harlot.
1:3-4 Hosea obediently married Gomer (probably "completion"), the daughter of Diblaim ("fig cakes"). She bore Hosea a son whom the Lord told the prophet to name "Jezreel."17The name "Jezreel"means "God sows,"but it was not the meaning of the name that was significant in this case but the associations with the town in Israel that bore that name.
Each section on Hosea's children (vv. 3-5, 6-7, 8-9) contains a birth notice, a word of instruction from the Lord about the child's name, and an explanation of the meaning of the name. The names of Hosea's children all reminded everyone who heard them of the broken relationship that existed between Yahweh and Israel, and each one anticipated judgment.
It was at Jezreel that King Jehu of Israel (841-814 B.C.) had massacred many enemies of Israel, including King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of Israel, King Jehoram of Israel, and many prophets of Baal, which was good (cf. 2 Kings 9:6-10, 24; 10:18-28, 30). But he also killed King Ahaziah of Judah and 42 of his relatives, which was bad (2 Kings 9:27-28; 10:12-14).18Jehu went too far and thereby demonstrated disrespect for the Lord's commands (cf. 2 Kings 10:29-31).
Because of Jehu's atrocities that overstepped his authority to judge Israel's enemies, God promised to punish his house (dynasty). The fulfillment came when Shallum assassinated King Zechariah, Jeroboam II's son and the fourth king of Jehu's dynasty in 753-752 B.C. This ended Jehu's kingdom (dynasty) forever (2 Kings 15:10). Another view is that the reference to putting an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel refers to the demise of the Northern Kingdom in 722 B.C.19It is very difficult to determine if the word rendered "kingdom"should be translated "kingdom"(Heb. mamlekat) or "kingship"(mamlekut).
1:5 This name of Hosea's first son would also point to a future judgment that would also take place in the valley near Jezreel. It would happen on "that day,"namely, a future unspecified day. Yahweh promised to break Israel's military strength, symbolized by an archer's bow, there then. The Assyrian king Tiglath-Pilesar III fulfilled this prophecy when he invaded and defeated Israel there in 733 B.C. (2 Kings 15:29; cf. 2 Kings 17:3-5).20
1:6 After some time Gomer bore Hosea a daughter.21The Lord told Hosea to name this girl "Lo-ruhamah,"meaning "she is not loved,"because He would not have compassion on Israel to forgive her for her sins. This was an outrageous name for a daughter. Yahweh had been very compassionate toward Israel in the past, but her persistent unfaithfulness to Him and His covenant with her made continuing compassion impossible.
1:7 In contrast, the Lord would have compassion on the Southern Kingdom of Judah and deliver her from such a fate. He said He would do this by Yahweh their God, perhaps using His own name this way to impress on the Israelites who their true God was. He said He would not do this in battle, however. The Israelites relied on human arms and alliances, but the Judahites trusted in the Lord, so He delivered the Judahites supernaturally. He did it in 701 B.C. by killing 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night as they lay camped around Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:32-36; Isa. 37). Jerusalem was the only great city that did not fall to the Assyrians during this invasion of Syria-Palestine. Judah's sins were not as great as Israel's at this time. Judah enjoyed a succession of four "good"kings (Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, and Jotham), and Hosea may have received this prophecy when Uzziah or Jotham was reigning.
1:8-9 Two or three years later, after Gomer had weaned Lo-ruhamah (cf. 1 Sam. 1:23; 2 Macc. 7:27), she bore Hosea another son.22This time the Lord told Hosea to name the boy "Lo-ammi,"meaning "not my people."The Lord no longer regarded the kingdom of Israel as His people or Himself as their God. He did not mean, of course, that He would break His unconditional promises to His people (e.g., Exod. 6:7; Lev. 26:12; Deut. 26:17-18), but that the relationship that they had enjoyed so far would come to an end. The last phrase of verse 9 literally is "I [am] not I AM [ehyeh] to you"(cf. Exod. 3:14). He would withdraw the covenant He had so dramatically made with the revelation of this same name. He would remove protection that He had formerly provided and allow another nation to invade and discipline His people.
This passage contains four symbolic names: the names of Hosea's three children and Yahweh's new name, "not your I AM,"indicating His rejection of Israel. Positive names were the rule in the ancient Near East, yet the last three of these names are bluntly negative. The collective impact of these four names is the message of this pericope: Israel's unfaithfulness had become so obnoxious to Yahweh that He would not tolerate her any longer.
"Hos 1:2-9 functions as a summarizing preface to the entire book. It presents an overview, in stark and moving terms, of the prophet's proportionately dominant message: God has given up his people. The theme of restoration after this judgment then follows immediately in 2:1-3 [in the Hebrew Bible, 1:10-2:1 in the English versions]."23
A promise of future restoration immediately follows this gloomy revelation of judgment. It provided encouragement to Hosea's audience by assuring a glorious and secure future for Israel.
1:10 Despite the judgment promised, Yahweh revealed that the number of the Israelites would be as the sand of the sea (i.e., innumerable, cf. Gen. 22:17; 32:12). He also said that in the same place where they heard His word of rejection (v. 9) they would hear His word of acceptance, namely, in the land of Israel. They would again be sons of the living God. This family terminology points to the restoration of intimate covenant relationship and privilege. The "living God"title recalls Joshua 3:10, where Joshua told the Israelites that they would know that the living God was among them when they saw Him defeat their enemies in the Promised Land. In this future day the Israelites would again see that Yahweh was the only living God (true God) when He defeated their enemies and led them in victory.24
1:11 The Northern and Southern Kingdoms would reunite, and they would have only one king instead of two (cf. 3:5; 2 Sam. 7:11-16; Isa. 9:6-7; Ezek. 37:22; Amos 9:11; Mic. 5:2). They would also go up from the land probably in the sense of growing strong in the land, as a plant.25When this happens it will be a great day of Jezreel (lit. God sows). As Jezreel was a place of former victory for Israel (Judg. 7), so it will be again in the future (cf. Isa. 9:4-7; 41:8-16; Joel 3:9-17; Amos 9:11-12; Rev. 19:11-21).
2:1 The Lord instructed representatives of the restored nation to announce to their fellow Israelites then that they were again "my [God's] people"and that they were again Yahweh's "loved one"(cf. Deut. 30:1-9; Rom. 11:25-32).
The fulfillment of this prophecy has not come yet, so we look forward to the regathering of Israel, rule by David's descendant, and Israel's flourishing in her land in the future. Amillennial interpreters believe the church replaces Israel in the promises of God and that Jesus began the day of Jezreel.26
