Hosea 2

Hosea 2 is the second chapter of the book of Hosea. It opens by reversing the names Lo-ruhamah and Lo-ammi, which were given in Hosea 1 to the children born to the prophet and Gomer. The chapter division differs in the Hebrew text: 1:10–11 in most English and Korean versions corresponds to 2:1–2 in the Hebrew, where the chapter has 25 verses.

Outline

• Verse 1 The hearers are told to call their brothers "Ammi" (my people) and their sisters "Ruhamah" (having obtained mercy).
• Verses 2–5 The children are told to plead with their mother, and her harlotry is denounced. She had said that her lovers gave her bread and water, wool and flax, oil and drink.
• Verses 6–8 God hedges up her way with thorns and a wall so that she cannot find her lovers; only then does she resolve to return to her first husband. The grain, new wine, and oil, as well as the silver and gold she used for Baal, had all been given by God.
• Verses 9–13 God declares that he will take back his grain, wine, and wool, expose her shame, put an end to her feasts, new moons, and sabbaths, and turn her vines and fig trees into a forest.
• Verses 14–15 God will bring her into the wilderness, speak comfortably to her, and make the valley of Achor a door of hope, and she will respond as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
• Verses 16–17 In that day she will call God "my husband" and no longer "my Baal," and he will take the names of the Baals out of her mouth.
• Verses 18–20 God will make a covenant with the beasts, the birds, and the creeping things, break the bow and the sword, and make his people lie down safely. He will betroth her to himself forever in righteousness, judgment, lovingkindness, mercy, and faithfulness.
• Verses 21–23 The heavens, the earth, the grain, and Jezreel answer in turn; God will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy and will call those who were not his people "my people."

Key Verses

• Hosea 2:15 "and the valley of Achor for a door of hope" — the turning point of the chapter, where a place of judgment becomes an entrance to restoration.
• Hosea 2:19 "And I will betroth thee unto me for ever" — a representative verse that portrays the relationship between God and his people as a marriage covenant.
• Hosea 2:23 "and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people" — this verse reverses the children's names from chapter 1 and is quoted in the New Testament.

People and Places

• The LORD: The speaker in this chapter, who likens himself to a forsaken husband.
• The mother (wife): In the text she represents Israel. She is sometimes read in connection with Gomer from chapter 1.
• Baal: The Canaanite fertility god. The Hebrew word ba'al can also mean "master" or "husband," which gives rise to the wordplay in verse 16.
• The Valley of Achor: The place where Achan was punished in Joshua 7.
• Egypt: Recalls the time of the Exodus, when Israel first responded to God.
• Jezreel: The name of the firstborn son in chapter 1 and also the name of a valley. It means "God sows," which connects with "I will sow her" in verse 23.

Interpretive Considerations

• The marriage imagery of this chapter is generally read not as the account of an individual marriage but as prophetic poetry depicting the covenant relationship between God and Israel. Interpreters differ on whether Hosea's marriage should be understood as an actual event or as symbolic; this debate centers mainly on chapters 1 and 3.
• Some modern scholars read the language of stripping the wife critically, arguing that it can be used to justify violence. Other interpreters explain it as a metaphor drawn from the language of an ancient courtroom.
• Christian tradition has linked the marriage covenant of verses 19–20 with the relationship between Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:31–32). In Judaism, these verses are reportedly recited by custom while the strap of the tefillin (phylacteries) is wound around the finger.
• Verse 23 is quoted in Romans 9:25–26 as grounds for the calling of the Gentiles, and the same expression appears in 1 Peter 2:10.

In the Korean Church

• The "Valley of Achor" of verse 15 is familiar to Korean Christians through the hymn "Called and Sent Forth" (Bureum Bada Naseon I Mom), whose lyrics include the line "even to the empty fields of the Valley of Achor." The hymn, however, uses the phrase to mean a harsh place to which the gospel must be carried, whereas Hosea uses it to mean the place where restoration and hope begin.