Hosea 1:2

“When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea: ‘Go take yourself a wife of harlotry, for the land has committed a great harlotry by departing from the Lord.’”

• Harlotry- repeated or habitual sexual sin; prostitution.
• Biblically, this represents the adultery Israel committed against the Lord by worshiping idols and turning to sin, rather than appreciating the gifts and blessings He had granted them.
• God often refers to His church as His wife, or His bride and by Hosea taking up “a wife of harlotry”, it seems to represent the Lord later taking back those who had once sinned against Him.

Hosea’s wife, Gomer, then bore him a son.

Hosea 1:4

“Then the Lord said to him: ‘Call his name Jezreel for in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. It shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.’”

• Jezreel- God sows.

Jezreel is said to be the valley that the final battle is supposed to take place between Jesus and the followers of the devil. Jesus sowed many seeds during His first coming throughout this valley, and is going to finish Satan’s evil reign in the valley of Jezreel.

• Many battles have taken place in that valley, one of which Jehu slaughtered all who worshiped Baal and other false idols.
• Idols worshiped in those times included: Ashteroth, Baal, Molek, and Chemosh.
• Because of Jehu’s son Jehoahaz, who succeeded him, Israel fell right back into idolatry, thus committing more adultery against God.
• By “house of Jehu” it means his house, his bloodline, not necessarily Jehu himself. According to 2 Kings 9:14-29, Jehu did what was right in the Lord’s eyes in ridding the valley of idol worship, but He did not appreciate the blood-lust, which is why He would avenge the blood shed of the pagans.
• Now that Jehu’s family fell to sin, they would suffer the same consequences as the rest of Israel.

Gomer then had a daughter with Hosea.

Hosea 1:6

“Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away.”

• Lo-Ruhamah- the uncompassionated; no more mercy.
• Sure enough, Israel’s monarchy ended between forty to sixty years after this book was written (760-720 BCE).
• It was taken over by the Assyrian Empire around 722 BCE.
• Judah was a separate state until around 586 BCE when it was then taken over by the Babylonian Empire.
• God used Hosea to prophecy what would come so that Israel had a chance to turn from their ways and be spared, or suffer the consequences of their actions. It proved His glory to all who heard and remembered His warnings. Our God knows the past, present, and future.

Gomer bore a second son next.

Hosea 1:9

“Then God said, ‘Call his name Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I will not be your God.’”

• Lo-Ammi- not my people.
• Don’t turn your back on God, lest He turn His back on you. As our creator, we rely on Him for life and prosperity, without Him we cannot have peace. He Himself is peace, hope, strength, and light: if He walks away you have none of those things.
• Just as with any other human, if you turn from Him, He will do the same.

Hosea 1:10

“Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered.”

• Just as promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because God is always faithful and true to His word.

“And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there it shall be said to them, ‘You are the sons of the living God.’”

• Jesus eventually said to the people that they are the children of the living God.
• Nazareth was near the Jezreel valley where He frequented.

Hosea 1:11

“Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and appoint for themselves one head; and they shall come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel!”

• Many believe that this “one head” may be Zerubbabel, who was succeeded and his works finished by Nehemiah and Ezra.
• You can also look at the “one head” as Jesus Christ who is referred to as the Shepherd, and the head of the church. He will bring the children of Israel to Jerusalem and the second earth to rule with Him.
• Jezreel is where the last battle is supposed to take place, where there will be great destruction(Armageddon).

Hosea 2:1

“Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’ and to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’”

• Ammi- my people.
• Ruhamah- the loved ones; mercy is shown.
• In those days of darkness they will turn to each other with compassion and mercy.
• In trouble, people tend to rely on one another and Israel will be brothers and sisters again.

God, again and again throughout the Biblical records, keeps turning back to Israel, and saving them from absolute destruction. He keeps referring to His collection of dust as His children, even when the dust spreads out and meddles in muck. He proves His faithfulness and loving-kindness without fail!

Hosea 2:2

“Bring charges against your mother, bring charges; For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband! Let her put away her harlotries from her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;”

• God is ordering Israel through Hosea to stop worshiping idols and committing sexual sin.
• He is telling them to stop wearing their idolatry proudly.
• Idolatry is taken seriously by the Lord, which is why there are two commandments involving worshiping anyone besides God and any graven image.

God wants us to recognize Him for the work He does: the only work these demons do is an attempt to drag our human souls to hell. The Father wants us to love Him as He is and stop turning to poisons, believing they are cures.

Hosea 2:3

“Lest I strip her naked and expose her, as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.”

• God will deliver punishment to Israel for their sin; exposing all their wrongdoings and making the land barren.
• God is often referred to as living water, saying they will be slain with thirst is likely referring to literal thirst and spiritual thirst.
• Imagine a life completely devoid of God’s assistance—How unfortunate it would be to not have the love and helping hand of our creator. It would be the lowest point aside from hell.

Hosea 2:4-5

“I will not have mercy on her children, for they are the children of harlotry. For there mother has played the harlot; she who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who gave me my bread and water, my wool and linen, my oil and my drink.’”

• Israel has behaved shamefully by going after idols and graven images; accrediting their provision and success to these false deities.
• The women and men falling to idolatry, harlotry, and adultery care more about the substantial gain and provision from the sin. The Bible does say, “Sin is pleasurable,” so they move towards the pleasure rather than the relationship with the creator.
• God will allow the consequences to fall on all who turn from Him, allowing the next generations to learn from those mistakes.

Hosea 2:14

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfort to her.”

• God is merciful and will continue welcoming His people. He will comfort them and be with them through the consequences of their own actions.
• 2 Timothy 2:13 states that, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” He is more faithful than we could ever be and when He says this, He’s not saying it lightly! God cannot lie or else He would be breaking His own eternal law!

Hosea 2:17

“For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals, and they shall be remembered by their names no more.”

• God is mightier than any of these false deities.
• These are only demons, posing as gods and the Lord will rid them from the land of His people.
• That worship did end widespread in Israel between 722 BCE and when it was captured by Babylon in 597 BCE, proving this prediction true.
• Most religious texts don’t state bold predictions like this, and when they do, they don’t come true, proving them to be false prophets (which was, funny enough, predicted by the Bible).

Hosea 2:19-20

“I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in loving-kindess and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.”

• God will take His wife back from these adulteries and forgive them forever; in time He will rid them all of sin and it will all be forgotten.
• God is faithful and will not leave His people behind, even though they have continuously strayed.
• All things will be reconciled to Him forever.
• This is another prediction for the Messiah coming with mercy and making humans righteous with justice. To follow His own laws, God had to send someone who could live spotlessly as a sacrifice, to right the wrongs of this world.

God had to follow His own laws, because He is holy and cannot be dishonest. It would not be a righteous and just choice to eliminate free will, snapping His fingers and eradicating sin. He had to give humans the choice to follow Him or not, accepting and having faith in His sacrifice, or not. Who else could live perfectly in this world? Only someone from God Himself could do it! God sent that third part of Himself, the Word to be that for us. Praise Him for His kindness! Praise Him for His mercy!

Hosea 2:21-22

“‘It shall come to pass in that day that I will answer,’ says the Lord; ‘I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth. The earth shall answer with grain, with new wine, with oil; they shall answer Jezreel.’”

• God will make Israel new. He will sow (Jezreel) new wine and grain from the earth and create a new kingdom after fully expelling the sin and demons from the earth.
• He will answer the heavens that will answer the earth and cleanse it all, making it right and just in His standards.

He will not continue to stand for evil, but all this will end in His perfect timing. Only He knows what the future holds and all things that happen in the present. He has His reasons for orchestrating as He does. It’s up to us to trust His judgement because our view are so subjective.

Hosea 2:23

“Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy,”

(No longer Lo-Ruhamah — now Ruhamah.)

“Then I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’”

(No longer Lo-Ammi — now Ammi.)

• He will take His people back, reclaiming them from their iniquity.
• God will heal and strengthen His people by way of His Spirit, making them righteous again with His Son.
• “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” John 8:36.

God loves us more than we can even imagine and wants to make things right! That was why Jesus came down here! Who would send a separate messenger to His bride to say that the husband loves her? Wouldn’t He go Himself? He loves His individual children that make up His church and will eventually take away all the pain and sin that surrounds us. We just have to be patient, because His time is outside of our own and He can see everything! He knows when the best time is!

Thanks for reading this study! As I keep figuring out my formatting, I hope to make this blog appear more professional. I appreciate your patience and your engagement! If you have any critiques, or testimonies, please put them in the comments below, or you can DM my Instagram! God bless you and I hope you have a great day!