Chapter Two

1–15. Israel’s transgressions and punishment for them. 16–19. Israel’s future repentance. 20–23. Restoration of the covenant between the people and God.

Hosea 2:1. Say to your brothers, “My people,” and to your sisters, “Mercy has been shown. Verse 1 by its content belongs to the end of the preceding chapter and contains a consoling promise that mercy of God will be returned to Israel. “Say...” the prophet contemplates the people whom God has had mercy on and demands that its members address one another with new names (ammi – My people, ruchamah – “She has obtained mercy”), which have been given to them by God. The prediction contained in the end of chapter 1 (Hos 1:10) and in the beginning Hos 2 by the prophet about the coming change in Israel’s fate was in part fulfilled in the fact of the return from Babylonian captivity, when under the leadership of Zerubbabel, a descendant of David, the remnants of the ten-tribe kingdom united with the Judeans. But the prophet’s vision, obviously, penetrates in the verses under consideration into a more distant future, and it is here precisely that the prophet expects the fulfillment of his predictions. The number of the children of Israel became as the sand of the sea only when Israel according to the spirit appeared, when all who believed in Christ began to enter the Church. The words of the prophet: in the place where they were told, “You are not my people,” they will be told, “You are the children of the living God” were fully realized only when Gentiles became the children of God through entry into the Church. Therefore Apostle Peter (1 Pet 2:10) and Paul (Rom 9:26) cite the words of the prophet Hosea (Hos 1:10) as a prophecy about the calling of the Gentiles to sonship in Christ.

Hosea 2:2. Contend with your mother, contend; for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband; let her put away her harlotry from her face and her adultery from between her breasts. From verse 2 begins the denunciation of Israel’s transgressions. As is evident from Hos 2:3 the speech is conducted from the person of Jehovah, not from the prophet. “Plead with your mother”. The prophet represents under the image of a mother the whole society of Israel, in relation to which individual members are children. The call of the prophet is directed to those members who, during the apostasy of the entire people to idolatry, remained faithful to Jehovah. “Plead”, that is, protest, oppose impiety, in order to prevent punishment. By the twofold repetition of the call (“plead, plead”) the prophet emphasizes the urgency of this call and the necessity to heed it quickly. Let her put away her harlotries from her face: the address relates both to Gomer, evidently having broken her marital union with the prophet, and to Israel, having defiled the covenant with Jehovah. Regarding Israel, harlotry is the deviation into the worship of the Baals. In the Greek and Slavonic texts instead of the imperative “let her put away” is read the future tense and “I will put away”.

Hosea 2:3. So that I may strip her naked and expose her as on the day of her birth, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a dry land, and cause her to die of thirst. A husband of an unfaithful wife can take back all his gifts and as it were strip her naked. In like manner Jehovah will deprive the unfaithful people of all his gifts. Israel will again come to such a miserable state as it was in “on the day of her birth,” – that is, on the eve of its political independence, during its stay in Egypt (Blessed Theodoret) and at the time of the exodus from Egypt; it will become like “a wilderness and a parched land”, that is, it will be deprived of necessary food. The prophet, without doubt, has in mind the times of captivity.

Hosea 2:4. And I will have no mercy on her children, for they are children of harlotry. Punishment will befall both the whole society (“mother”) and individual members (“children”). These children are “children of harlotry”, that is, as St. Ephrem explains, together with the mother sank into her evil deeds.

Hosea 2:5. For their mother has played the harlot; 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 linen, my oil and my drink. The reason for the mother – Israel’s deviation to harlotry (idolatry) lies in the false idea that idols (lovers) give her both food and clothing, and all that is necessary. Instead of the words “wool and flax” in Slavonic from Greek “my garments and my cloaks”.

Hosea 2:6. Therefore behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns and build a wall around her, so that she cannot find her paths. “Therefore” – for the deviation to idolatry – “I will hedge up her way with thorns”: an image of the straits and deprivations that Israel will experience in captivity and which will cause her to cease from idolatry (will not find her lovers).

Hosea 2:7. And she will pursue her lovers but will not overtake them, and she will seek them but will not find them. And she will say, “Let me go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now. “And she shall pursue her lovers but shall not overtake them”. The prophet expresses the idea that Israel will serve idols zealously, but will not receive the salvation she expects from them. This will cause her to come to her senses (and she shall say) and return to her first husband, that is, to Jehovah.

Hosea 2:8. But she did not know that I, I gave her the grain and the wine and the oil, and multiplied silver and gold for her, which they used for Baal. “Made idols for Baal”, Hebrew asu labbaal: the verb asah with a preposition means to make something (Isa 1:17) and to use for something (2 Chr 24:7). In verse 8 it is better to understand the verb asah in the latter sense. Thus the prophet rebukes Israel for using the silver and gold received from Jehovah to support the worship of the Baals. Under the name Baal the prophet understands all idols, including the golden calves, which in 1 Sam 14:9 are placed alongside idols.

Hosea 2:10. And now I will uncover her shame before the eyes of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her from My hand. “In the sight of her lovers”, that is, before the idols, who will not help Israel on the day of judgment upon her.

Hosea 2:11. And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts and her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her appointed seasons. The people are threatened with deprivation of festivals, which were days of rejoicing. “Her feasts”: probably the annual festivals – Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles are meant here.

Hosea 2:12. And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, about which she said, “These are my wages, which my lovers have given me,” and I will make them a forest, and the wild beasts shall eat them. The words of the prophet can be understood directly about the laying waste of gardens and vineyards. But besides that, the vine and the fig tree in the Old Testament writers are images and, in general, of all goods sent by God (compare 1 Sam 4:25; Isa 36:16; Joel 2:22). The prophet threatens the taking away of these goods. “My lovers” – that is, idols. Instead of the words and “I will make them a forest” (lejaar) in Slavonic “and I will turn them into a testimony” είς μαρτύριον; evidently the Septuagint instead of jaar (forest) read a similar word ed (testimony). The final words of the Slavonic text (“and the birds of heaven, and the creeping things of the earth”) are not in the original, nor in other translations except the Greek. Probably they are a gloss taken from Hos 2:18 and fell from the margins into the text.

Hosea 2:13. And I will punish her for the days when she made offerings to the Baals, when she burned incense to them and decked herself with her jewelry and went after her lovers, and forgot Me, says the Lord. “And I will punish her for the days of serving the Baals”. At different times and in different places Baal was worshipped in different forms. In the Bible are mentioned Baal of the Covenant, baal-berith (Judg 8:33), Baal of the Flies baal-zevuv (2 Sam 1:2-3), Baal-Peor (baal-peor; Hos 9:10). Therefore the prophet uses the name Baal in the plural in Hos 2. – The Slavonic text “nose-rings” Hebrew nesem Greek ενώτια a ring of gold or ivory, which was hung from the nostrils or ears (Gen 35:4; Ezek 16:12); “necklaces”, Hebrew сhali καθόρμια, a neck ornament of precious stones (Prov 25:12; Song 2:1).

Hosea 2:14. Therefore behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart. The speech of the prophet in verses 14–15 is wholly figurative in character. Therefore it is not easy to establish its precise meaning. Among both ancient and modern commentators verses 14–15 are understood both as a consoling promise (in bono sensu) and as a threat (in malo sensu). According to the Septuagint translation (Slavonic: “I will seduce her and make her like a wilderness”) and according to Blessed Theodoret’s explanation, in verse 14 the prophet speaks of captivity, when, having become a captive, the unfaithful wife will wander and be deprived of all goods (also Hitzig, Ewald). According to the interpretation of Blessed Jerome, the Lord will caress the land of Israel and lead it out from evils (“bring into the wilderness”). The majority of commentators understand the prophet’s words in the latter sense, that is, as a consoling promise. The prophet likens the future salvation of the people to the miraculous deliverance from Egypt and borrows his images from the events of that period. “Bring her into the wilderness”... the prophet has in mind the Arabian wilderness, where, after leaving Egypt, Israel was brought up as a people of God and where the mercies of the Lord were poured out upon him. “And speak tenderly to her”, that is, to console (compare Gen 34:8; Judg 19:3; Isa 40:1-2). Instead of “I will allure her” in Slavonic: “I will seduce her”. The Septuagint understood the verb patach (to persuade, to seduce) in malo sensu.

Hosea 2:15. And I will give her from there her vineyards and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope, and she shall sing there as in the days of her youth and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. And I will give her from there (mischscham) her vineyards. The grapevine – an image of goods sent by God. The prophet wants to say that just as once Israel, having passed through the wilderness, entered the land of vineyards, so also in the future he will enjoy precious goods. “And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope”. The image is borrowed from the time when the Hebrews entered the land of Canaan. The Valley of Achor – (Hebrew achor – trouble) a valley that was on the northern border of the tribe of Judah, near Jericho (Josh 15:7). Here God’s judgment was executed on Achan, who hid part of the cursed thing (Josh 7:1). After this judgment God’s anger turned away from Israel. Thus the Valley of Achor became a memorial of how the Lord, after cleansing the people’s guilt through the punishment of the transgressor, returned his mercy to the community (Brodovich). This return of God’s mercy to Israel, according to the prophet’s thought, will happen again in the future. “And she will sing there as in the days of her youth”, that is, she will sing a song of thanksgiving for salvation. The prophet, obviously, recalls the song sung at the crossing of the Red Sea (Exod 15:1) and from this takes his image. In Slavonic instead of the words and I will give her from there her vineyards (et keramajha) is read – “and I will give her possessions (κτήματα) her thence”: the Septuagint often uses the general instead of the particular. Instead of the words “and she will sing (veanethah) there” in Slavonic from Greek “and she will humble herself (ταπεινωθήσεται) there”. The verb anah has several meanings: to answer, to sing, to humble oneself. In the sense of to sing, to answer, the verb is understood by most ancient translations (Aquila υπακούσει, Theodotian άποκριθήσεται, Vulgate canet).

Hosea 2:16. And it shall be on that day, says the Lord, you will call Me “My husband,” and you will no longer call Me “My Baal. Hosea 2:17. And I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips, and they shall be remembered no more. “Baal” – “My Lord”. The prophet proclaims the restoration of Israel’s marital relations with Jehovah, that is, the restoration of the Covenant. The name Baal in verse 16, apparently, is used in its common meaning – master, as it is contrasted with the common noun my husband. The prophet wants to express the idea that when the marital relations of Israel to Jehovah are restored in purity, the foundation of these relations will be not so much fear (“you will no longer call me, My Master”) as love (“my husband”). If we understand the name Baal in its proper sense, then the prophet’s meaning will be: the people will not only cease to call Jehovah Baal – and thus confuse them, introduce pagan elements into the worship of Jehovah – but will also generally forget the name Baal.

Hosea 2:18. And I will make a covenant for them on that day with the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven and the creeping things of the earth, and I will break the bow and the sword and war from the land, and I will make them lie down safely. The Lord’s mercy toward the people will be expressed in that the Lord will, as it were, make a covenant with animals for the benefit of Israel, (compare Isa 2:4; Zech 9:10). At the same time Jehovah will protect Israel also from people, so that the instruments of war and war itself will be abolished.

Hosea 2:19. And I will betroth you to Me forever, and I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in kindness and mercy. Hosea 2:20. And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. “And I will betroth you”. The verb aras – to betroth is used of betrothal to a virgin (Deut 20:7). Thus the prophet expresses the idea that Israel will enter the new marital union with Jehovah as a chaste virgin, that is, Israel’s sinful past will, by God’s mercy, be forgotten. Through the threefold repetition of the words betroth, the prophet aims to assure of the infallible fulfillment of the great promise. Characterizing the new marital union of Israel with Jehovah, the prophet says that its foundation will be righteousness and justice (“I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice”), that is, the righteousness of God and his Justice, cleansing from all defilement, steadfast love and mercy (Slavonic: “in mercy and in compassion”). The pledge of the indissolubility of the covenant will be “faithfulness” (emunath) of God, that is, firmness, immutability. The consequence of the restoration of the covenant will be that Israel shall know (vejadath) the Lord; the Hebrew verb jadah expresses the idea not of theoretical knowledge alone of God, but of inner union with him in love.

Hosea 2:21. And it shall be on that day, I will answer, says the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they will answer the earth. Hosea 2:22. And the earth will answer the grain and the wine and the oil, and they will answer Jezreel. In a series of images the prophet expresses the idea that Jehovah will hear every petition of the mercied people, and nature, which is in the “hand of God”, will serve the well-being of Israel. In the world there will come complete harmony. “They shall answer Jezreel”, that is, Israel. The prophet calls Israel by the symbolic name Jezreel, with the meaning of the latter name in mind – “God will sow”.

Hosea 2:23. And I will sow her for Myself in the land, and I will have mercy on Lo-ruhamah, and I will say to Lo-ammi, “You are My people,” and he shall say, “You are my God! At the time of the blessed state of Israel the inauspicious names of the prophet’s sons – Jezreel, Lo-Ruhamah, and Lo-Ammi – will be changed to names full of good tidings. The course of the prophet’s thought and the expressions he has chosen show that in his consoling promise he has in mind not only the immediate future – liberation from captivity – but also the distant, which came with the advent of the Messiah. The end of chapter II represents the unfolding of the Messianic promise Hos 1:10 and Hos 2:1, and verse 23 in the New Testament (1 Pet 2:10; Rom 9:25) is interpreted as a proclamation of the calling of the Gentiles to divine sonship in Christ.