Book of Hosea
Compiled by WD Kemner December 2025
Chapter 2
Concordance: God's Divorce of Israel
1 Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.
2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
Ammi
“My people”, a name given by Jehovah to the people of Israel
Ruhamah
“Having obtained mercy”, a symbolical name given to the Jews
“Lest I strip her naked”, Divorce Custom
When getting married, a dowry was brought to the husband. This was written down. If later, a divorce was sought after, the woman would go away with that written list and the dowry amount. This was the case unless some vile offense had occurred that caused the divorce. If this was the case, then she was sent away “naked” or empty handed.
Just like Gomer, Israel left God. For a period BOTH marriages were dissolved.
Hosea 2:4-5
4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.
5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
Gomer had left Hosea and gone back to where the “money and lifestyle” was that she was familiar with.
This illustrated how in the same way Israel backslid and left God for the pagan idols which they worshipped.
6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.
8 For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.
Prophecy that Gomer would not be happy and would long to return to her husband.
Gomer was not aware that Hosea had provided her all the things that her lover had provided her.
She was going to be punished and learn a lesson.
The comparison to Israel now brings the judgment of God.
Hosea 2:9-13
Cross Reference: Israel run from God and Punishment
9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.
10 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.
11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.
12 And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.
The judgment of God as applied to Israel. The restoration would follow.
Israel’s many lovers were all the nations that they looked to instead of God.
Verse 11 makes it clear that they were not to keep a sabbath as part of rituals.
Punishment would come for the worship of Baal.
Wooing of Gomer – Winning back the Heart of Israel
Life after the Regathering – Millennial Kingdom
Hosea 2:14
Cross Reference: Israel being won back
14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
Hosea 2:15-18
Cross Reference: Life in Millennium resulting from Returning to Messiah
15 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for 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.
16 And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.
Ishi – “my husband”
Baali – “my Lord”
17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.
18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.
There will be no more war with Man or Beast!. They will live safely.
Hosea 2:19-23
19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.
Re-Marriage of God and His People!
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;
22 And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.
23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.