Hosea 2

Hosea 2:1

2:1 In chapter 2 Hosea is told to speak to a faithful remnant of the nation. These brethren are spoken of as Ammi (My people) and Ruhamah (she who has obtained mercy).

Hosea 2:2

III. GOD’S WARNING AGAINST ISRAEL’S UNFAITHFULNESS AND HIS THREATENED JUDGMENT (2:2-13) 2:2, 3 The faithful remnant should plead with the mass of the nation of Israel to put away her idolatry and harlotries or God will strip her naked and bring drought upon her. 2:4, 5 The children of the sinful nation will also be unpitied because they are children of a harlot who went after false gods and gave these idols credit for supplying her with food, clothing, and luxuries. 2:6, 7 God will put all kinds of roadblocks and obstructions in her way, and cut her off from her idols until she decides to return to Him (her first husband). 2:8 She did not give God credit for supplying her with necessities and luxuries, including the gold and silver which she used to make an idol of Baal. 2:9, 10 So God will cut off from her the food and clothing, and will thoroughly uncover her lewdness. 2:11-13 Her mirth and her appointed religious holidays will be canceled and her vines and . . . fig trees will be destroyed (she thought these were her pay from her idol lovers), and she will be punished for all the days . . . she served Baal.

Hosea 2:14

IV. A FUTURE OF BLESSING FORETOLD FOR ISRAEL (2:14-23)2:14-17 After that, He will restore and comfort Israel. God will give her her vineyards and she will sing as in the time when she came up from the land of Egypt. She will then call Him Ishi (My Husband), not Baali (My Master). The people will be cleansed from Baal-worship, even to the degree of forgetting the names of the Baals. 2:18-20 The nation will dwell in safety and peace because of the covenant God will make with the beasts of the field and other animals, rendering all wild animals harmless. Warfare will also be ended. Israel will be married to the LORD forever, under terms of righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy, bound by God’s faithfulness. 2:21-23 In that day, Jezreel (Israel) will no longer mean scattered, but sown. The people will be sown in their own land; heaven and earth will join in blessing them and making them fruitful. Williams helpfully explains this paragraph as follows: Jezreel (Israel), as sown by God in the land (v. 23), will cry to the corn, the wine, and the oil to supply her needs; they will cry to the earth to fructify them; the earth will cry to the heavens for the needed rain in order to produce the fruit; and the heavens will cry to Jehovah to fill them with the required water, and from Him there will be no further appeal, for He is the Great First Cause! In response to the appeal He will fill the heavens with moisture, the heavens will discharge it upon the earth, the earth will produce, as a result, the corn, the wine and the oil, Israel will have ample provision, and the heaven and earth will be bound together with a chain of love. Then God will have pity on Israel, will acknowledge her as His people, and Israel will acknowledge Him as her God.