“Say to your brothers, ‘My people!’ and to your sisters, ‘My loved one!’
Parallel Translations
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“Say to your brothers, ‘My people!’ and to your sisters, ‘My loved one!’
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Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ru-hamah.
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(2-3) Say ye unto your brethren: 'Ammi'; and to your sisters, 'Ruhamah.'
Cross-references (13)
Passages linked to Hosea 2:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Peter 2:10 In the past, you were not a people, but now are God’s people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
- Ezekiel 37:27 My tent also will be with them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
- Hosea 2:23 I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, ‘You are my people;’ and they will say, ‘My God!’ ”
- Romans 11:30-31 For as you in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they may also obtain mercy.
- 1 Timothy 1:13 although I used to be a blasphemer, a persecutor, and insolent. However, I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
- Exodus 19:5-6 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”
- Jeremiah 31:33 “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says Yahweh: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
- Jeremiah 32:38 Then they will be my people, and I will be their God.
- Ezekiel 11:20 that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
- Ezekiel 36:28 You will dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You will be my people, and I will be your God.
- Hosea 1:9-11 He said, “Call his name Lo-Ammi; for you are not my people, and I will not be yours. Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured or counted; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ The children of Judah and the children of Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint themselves one head, and will go up from the land; for great will be the day of Jezreel.
- Zechariah 13:9 I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is my people;’ and they will say, ‘Yahweh is my God.’ ”
- 2 Corinthians 4:1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we don’t faint.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain The Prophet having spoken of the people’s restoration, and…
The Prophet having spoken of the people’s restoration, and promised that God would some time receive into favour those whom he had before rejected, now exhorts the faithful mutually to stir up one another to receive this favour. He had previously mentioned a public proclamation; for it is not in the power of men to make themselves the children of God, but God himself freely adopts them. But now the mutual exhortation of which the Prophet speaks follows the proclamation; for God at the same time invites us to himself. After we are taught in common, it remains then that each one should extend his hand to his brethren, that we may thus with one consent be brought together to the Lord.
This then is what the Prophet means by saying, Say ye to your brethren, עמי omi, and to your sisters רוחמה ruchamah; that is, since I have promised to be propitious to you, you can now safely testify this to one another. We then see that this discourse is addressed to each of the faithful, that they may mutually confirm themselves in the faith, after the Lord shall offer them favour and reconciliation. Let us now proceed —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Seeing that I have promised you deliverance, it remaineth…
Seeing that I have promised you deliverance, it remaineth that you encourage one another to embrace the same, considering that ye are my people on whom I will have mercy.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Hos 2:1 Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and…
Hos 2:1 Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.
Ver. 1. Say unto your brethren, Ammi] Besides the public preaching of this gracious promise, Hos 1:10, "There it shall be said unto them," &c., charge is here given that this be the subject of their more private discourse also: and that they that fear the Lord speak often one to another, We that were not a people, are now a people: we that had not obtained mercy, have now obtained mercy. Iubet per prophetam ne haec vox in ecclesia taceatur (Mercer). God commands by the prophet that these sweet words, Ammi, Ruhamah, be tossed and spoken of at every friendly meeting; I will not leave you fatherless: in me the fatherless findeth mercy: I will never leave thee, I will not, not, not forsake thee (ουδε, ου μη, Heb 13:5): so many "nots" there are in the original for more assurance. God would have such precious passages as these to be rehearsed (even in the "places of drawing water," Jdg 5:11, where the maids met to fetch water, or do other ordinary chars) for mutual encouragement, and for the praise of his name. Oh, the matchless mercy of our God! Oh, the never enough adored depth of his free grace! who would not fear thee, O King of nations! Jer 10:7; who would not be telling of thy goodness in the morning, and of thy faithfulness every night? Read that triumphant Psa 114:1-8, and be you ever chanting out (as they of old at their daily employments), aliquid Davidicum; so building up one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Think but on these two words in the text, and you cannot want matter. Is it nothing to be in covenant with God, and to be under mercy? Oh, blessed are the people "that have the Lord for their God," saith David, Psa 144:15. "But I obtained mercy," saith Paul, 1Ti 1:16, and that was his μεγαλαυχημα, his confident boasting, wherever he came, being a constant preacher of God’s free grace: (as was likewise Augustine, which makes him hardly censured by the Semipelagian Papists and Arminians as an enemy to nature, because so high a friend to grace). Neither is he forgetful to tell his Ephesians and others to whom he writeth, that they were once dead in sins and trespasses, but now "quickened together with Christ," &c. They were foreigners, but now fellow citizens with saints: they were darkness, but now light in the the Lord, and should therefore "walk as children of light," Eph 5:8, and talk of his praises, who had drawn them out of dreadful darkness into marvellous light. Come, saith David, and I will tell you what God hath done for my soul, Psa 66:16. The Lord hath done great things for us, saith the Church, whereat we are glad, Psa 126:3. He which is mighty hath done to me great things: and holy is his name, saith the blessed Virgin, Luk 1:49. Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi, and to your sisters, Ruhamah. Say it, say it, to brethren and to sisters, upon every opportunity, and with the utmost importunity, that it may take impression upon their spirits, and not be as a seal set upon the water, nor as rain falling upon a rock that leaves no sign behind it. The Grecians being delivered out of servitude by Flaminius, the Roman general, rang out Soter, Soter, that is, Saviour, Saviour, with such a courage, that the very birds of the air, astonished thereat, fell to the earth. The people of Israel gave such a loud shout at the return of the ark, that the earth rang again. A drowning man, being pulled out of the water by Alphonsus, king of Aragon, and rescued from so great a death, cried out (as soon as he came again to himself) by way of thankfulness, Aragon, Aragon. Let us cry as loud Ammi, Ruhamah, hitherto God hath helped us, 1Sa 7:12, who were lately (with those Israelites in the wilderness) talking of our graves. Say therefore with the Psalmist, "Because thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, my feet from falling, I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living," &c., Psa 116:8.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain In the two last verses of the former chapter,…
In the two last verses of the former chapter, the prophet did from God promise marvellous mercy to Judah and Israel, to that remnant of the seed of Abraham who returned out of captivity, and to the converted Gentiles; now in this verse he calls upon them to acknowledge the mercy, and to excite one another to mutual love and esteem.
Say; declare, own, or publish.
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Ye; who of no people are made a people, who were once unpitied and unregarded, but now have obtained mercy; you that are the sons of the living God, whether Jews or Gentiles. You Christians, as the apostle applies the words, Rom 9:24,25; and so in the ant, type no doubt they are to be understood; but in the letter and type, the persons here mentioned are those who among this people were pious, feared God, and kept his law; some such there were among them.
Unto your brethren; to those of the ten tribes who are, and will be these forty years, your brethren.
Ammi; let them know that yet they are the people of God, and repentance may remedy all; they are still within the covenant of their father Abraham; if they will, as their father. walk with God, all shall be well.
And to your sisters, Ruhamah: in a decorum, to (what before was made an emblem of Israel) the prophet’s daughter, Lo-ruhamah, some are here directed to reason (as it is Hos 2:2) with her, i.e. with Israel, whose name is yet Ruhamah, and it may be so still, if Israel will retain it by returning to God.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain The first words of this chapter some make the…
The first words of this chapter some make the close of the foregoing chapter, and add them to the promises which we have here of the great things God would do for them. When they shall have appointed Christ their head, and centered in him, then let them say to one another, with triumph and exultation (let the prophets say it to them, so the Chaldee - Comfort you, comfort you, my people, is now their commission), "say to them, Ammi, and Ruhamah; call them so again, for they shall no longer lie under the reproach and doom of Lo-ammi and Lo-ruhamah; they shall now be my people again, and shall obtain mercy." God's spiritual Israel, made up of Jews and Gentiles without distinction, shall call one another brethren and sisters, shall own one another for the people of God and beloved of him, and, for that reason, shall embrace one another, and stir up one another both to give thanks for and to walk worthy of this common salvation which they partake of. Or rather, because the following words seem to have a coherence with these, these also are designed for conviction and humiliation. The mother (Hos 2:2) seems to be the same with the brethren and sisters (Hos 2:1), the church of the ten tribes, the body of the people, who were brethren, and in a special manner with the heads and leaders, who were as the mother by whom the rest were brought up and nursed. But who are the children that must plead with their mother thus? Either, 1. The godly that were among them, that witnessed against the iniquities of the times, let them boldly go on to bear their testimony against the idolatries and gross corruptions that prevail among them. Let those that had not bowed the knee to Baal reason the case with those that had, and endeavour to convince them with such arguments as are here put into their mouths. Note, Private persons may, and ought in their places, to appear and plead against the public profanations of God's name and worship. Children may humbly and modestly argue with their parents when they do amiss: Plead with your mother, plead, as Jonathan with Saul concerning David. Or, 2. The sufferers among them, that shared in the calamities of the times, let them not complain of God, let them not quarrel with him, nor lay the blame on him, as if he had dealt hardly with them, and not like a tender father. No; let them plead with their mother, and lay the fault on her, where it ought to be laid; compare Isa 50:1. "For her transgressions is your mother put away; she may thank herself, and you may thank her for all your miseries." Let us see now how they must plead with her.
I. They must put here in mind of the relation wherein she had stood to God, the kindness he had had for her, the many favours he had bestowed upon her, and the further favours he had designed her. Let them tell their brethren and sisters that they had been Ammi and Ruhamah, that they had been God's people and vessels of his mercy, and might have been so still if it had not been their own fault, Hos 2:1. Note, Our relation to God and dependence on him are a great aggravation of our revolts from him and rebellions against him.
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II. They must, in God's name, charge her with the violation of the marriage-covenant between her and God. Let them tell her that God does not look upon her as his wife, nor upon himself as her husband any longer. Tell her (Hos 2:2) that she is not my wife, neither am I her husband, that by her spiritual whoredom she has forfeited all the honour and comfort of her relation to God, and provoked him to give her a bill of divorce. Note, No consideration can be more powerful to awaken us to repentance than the provocation we have by sin given to God to disown and cast us off. It is time to look about us, and to think what course we must take, when God threatens to reject us; for woe unto us if he be not our husband. They must charge this home upon her (Hos 2:5): Their mother has played the harlot; their congregation has run a whoring after false prophets (so the Chaldee), or, rather, after idols, wherein they were encouraged by their false prophets; she that conceived them has done shamefully, in making and worshipping idols. An idol is called a shame (Hos 9:10) and idolatry is a shameful thing. It is not only an affront to God, but a reproach to men, to fall down to the stock of a tree, as the prophet speaks. Or it denotes that the sinner was shameless, impudent in sin, and could not blush; Jer 6:15. Or, She has made ashamed, has made all that see her ashamed of her; her own children are ashamed of their relation to her.
III. They must upbraid her with her horrid ingratitude to God her benefactor, in ascribing to her idols the glory of the gifts he had given her, and then giving that for a reason why she paid them the homage due to him only, Hos 2:5. In this she did shamefully indeed, that she said, I will go after my lovers that give me my bread and my water. Observe here, 1. Her wicked resolution to persist in idolatry, notwithstanding all that God said, both by his prophets and by his providences, to draw her from it. She said, Whatever is offered to the contrary, I will go after my lovers, or those that cause me to love them, whom I cannot but be in love with. The Chaldee understands it of the nations whose alliance Israel courted and depended upon, who supplied them with what they needed. But it is rather to be understood of the idols they worshipped, to justify their love of which they called them their lovers. See who do shamefully; those that are wilful and resolute in sin, and those that openly profess and own their resolution to go on in it. See the folly of idolaters, to call those their lovers that had not so much as life; yet let us learn to call our God our lover; let us keep up good thoughts of him, and put a high value upon our interest in him and in his love. 2. The gross mistake upon which this resolution was grounded: "I will go after my lovers, because they give me my bread and my water, which are necessary to sustain the body, my wool and my flax, which are necessary to clothe the body, and pleasant things, my oil, and my drink, my liquors" (so the word is), "wine and strong drink." Note, (1.) The things of sense are the best things with carnal hearts, and the most powerful attractives, in pursuit of which they care not what they follow after. The God of Israel set before them his statutes and judgments (Deu 4:8), more to be desired than gold, and sweeter than honey (Psa 119:10), promised them his favour, which would put gladness in their hearts more than corn, wine, and oil (Psa 4:7); but they had no relish at all for these things. Whence they thought their oil and their drink came, thither they would return their best affections. O curvae in terram animae et coelestium inanes! - O degenerate minds, bending towards the earth, and devoid of every thing heavenly! (2.) It is a great abuse and injury to God, in pursuance of the pleasures and delights of sense to forsake him, who not only gives us better things, but gives us even those things too. The idolaters made Ceres the goddess of their corn, Bacchus the god of their wine, etc., and then foolishly fancied they had their corn and wine from these, forgetting the Lord their God, who both gave them that good land and gave them power to get wealth out of it. (3.) Many are hardened in sin by their worldly prosperity. They had an abundance of those things when they served their idols, and then imagined them to be given them by their idols, which kept them to their service; thus they argued (Jer 44:17, Jer 44:18), While we burnt incense to the queen of heaven we had plenty of victuals.
IV. They must persuade her to repent and reform. God will disown her if she persist in her whoredoms; let her therefore put away her whoredoms, Hos 2:2. Let her be convinced that it is possible for her to reform; the idols, dear as they are, may yet be parted with; and it will certainly be well with her if she do reform. Note, Our pleading with sinners must be to drive them to repentance, not to drive them to despair. Let her put away her whoredoms and her adulteries; the doubling of words to the same purport, and both plural, denotes the abundance of idolatries they were guilty of, all which must be abandoned ere God would be reconciled to them. Let her put them out of her sight, as detestable things which she cannot endure to look upon; let her say unto them, Get you hence, Isa 30:22. Let her put them from her face and from between her breasts, that is, let her not do as harlots use to do, that both discover their own wicked disposition, and allure others to wickedness, by painting their faces, and exposing their naked breasts, and adorning them; let her not thus, by annexing all possible gaieties and pleasures to the worship of idols, engage herself and allure others to it. let her put away all these. Every sinful course, persisted in, is an adulterous departure from God. And here we may see what it is truly to repent of it and turn from it. 1. True penitents will forsake both open sins, will put away not only the whoredoms that lie in sight, but those that lie in secret between their breasts, the sin that is rolled under the tongue as a sweet morsel. 2. They will both avoid the outward occasions of sin and mortify the inward disposition to it. Idolaters walked after their own eyes, which went a whoring after their idols (Eze 6:9, Deu 4:19), and therefore they must put them away out of their sight, lest they should be tempted to worship them. Look not upon the wine when it is red. But that is not enough: the axe must be laid to the root; the corrupt bent and inclination of the heart must be changed, and it must be put away from between the breasts, that Christ alone may have the innermost and uppermost place there. Sol 1:13.
V. They must show her the utter ruin that will certainly be the fatal consequence of her sin if she do not repent and reform (Hos 2:3): Lest I strip her naked. This comes in here not by way of sentence passed upon her, but by way of warning given to her, that she may prevent it: Let her put away her whoredoms, that I may not strip her naked (so it may be read), intimating that God waits to show mercy to sinners, if they would but qualify themselves for that mercy. It is here threatened that God will deal with her as the just and jealous husband at length does with an adulterous wife, that has filled his house with a spurious brood, and will not be reclaimed; he turns her and her children out of doors and sends them a begging; I will not have mercy upon her children (Hos 2:4); the particular persons that share in the calamity of the nation, and the rising generation, shall be ruined by it, for they are children of whoredoms, and keep up the vain conversation received by tradition from their fathers. Now it is here threatened that they shall be both stripped and starved. They thought their idols gave them their bread and their water, their wool and their flax; but God, by taking them away, will let them know that it was he that gave them. 1. She shall be stripped: Lest I strip her of all her ornaments which she is proud of, and with which she courts her lovers, strip her and set her as in the day that she was born, send her as naked out of the world as she came into it; this death does, Job 1:21. I will strip her, and so expose her to cold, and expose her to shame; and justly is she exposed to shame that did shamefully, Hos 2:5. The day when God brought them out of Egypt, where they were no better than slaves and beggars, was the day in which they were born; and God threatens to bring them back to as low and miserable a condition as he then found them in. Whatever they had that either gained them respect or screened them from contempt, among their neighbours, should be taken from them. See Eze 16:4, Eze 16:39. 2. She shall be starved, shall be deprived not only of her honours, but of her comforts and necessary supports. She shall be famished, shall be made as a wilderness and a dry land, and slain with thirst. She that boasted so much of her bread and water, her oil and her drinks, which her lovers had given her, shall not have so much as necessary food. The land shall not afford subsistence for the inhabitants, for want of the rain of heaven; or, if it do, it shall be taken from them by the enemy, so that the rightful owners shall perish for want of it. Some understand it thus: I will make her as she was in the wilderness, and set her as she was in the desert land, where she was sometimes ready to perish for thirst. So it explains the former part of the verse: I will set her as in the day that she was born; for it was in the vast howling wilderness that Israel was first formed into a people. They shall be in as deplorable a condition as their fathers were, whose carcases fell in the wilderness, and in this respect, worse, that then the children were reserved to be heirs of the land of promise, but now I will not have mercy upon her children, for their mother has played the harlot.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your…
Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. These words are to be considered either in connection with the latter part of the preceding chapter, and as directed to the sons of the living God, who had not been, but now were, "Ammi", the Lord's people; and who had not, but now have, "Ruhamah", obtained mercy; which grace and mercy shown them, it became them to speak of one to another, to affect their hearts mutually with it, and to glorify God for it, Mal 3:16 as also to speak of it to their carnal relations, that so, if it was the will of God, it might be of use to them, to show them the state they were in, the danger of it, their need of the grace and mercy of God, and the hope there was by their own instance and example of obtaining it; see Rom 9:1, or as directed to the converted Jews that appointed Christ their Head, and believed in him; exhorting them to own the believing Gentiles as their brethren and sisters, since they were the spiritual seed of Abraham their father, and walked in the steps of his faith; and to call them Ammi and Ruhamah, since they, who were not the people of God, now were, and who had not obtained mercy, now have obtained mercy, Pe1 2:10, or else they may be considered as in connection with the following words,
plead with your mother; and that either as spoken to the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who were the people of God, retained the pure worship of God, and obtained mercy of the Lord, Hos 1:7,
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"O ye Ammi and Ruhamah, that are the Lord's people, and he has had mercy on; stir up and exhort your brethren and sisters of the ten tribes, for so they were, notwithstanding their separation, Kg1 12:4, to contend with their mother, the body of the nation, about idolatry and departure from God;''
or as spoken to the godly among the ten tribes, who were the real people of God, and sharers in his grace and mercy; the remnant he reserved for himself, who had not bowed their knees to idols; or as the command of God by the prophet, to the people of Israel, to exhort one another to contend with their mother, who were, as yet, the Lord's people, had mercy shown them, when this prophecy was delivered out; though, in case of obstinacy and impenitence, they were threatened with a "Loammi" and "Loruhamah"; so Schmidt, who thinks that "ammi" and "ruhamah" are put by way of "apposition to your brethren and sisters", in which he seems to be right. Aben Ezra thinks the words are spoken ironically, like those in Ecc 11:9, and others, but without reason. The Targum is,
"O ye prophets, say to your brethren, and my people, and I will have mercy on your congregation;''
but whether the words are spoken to the Jewish converts who first believed in Christ, were his people, received grace and mercy from him, and stood in the relation of brethren and sisters to one another, both in a natural and spiritual sense, to stir up one another to reprove their mother, the Jewish church, for rejecting Christ, saying, as follows:
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The prophet charges the people with their idolatry, and…
The prophet charges the people with their idolatry, and threatens them with the judgments of God, ver. 1-13. Promises of mercy, ver. 14-23.
Ye - Who of no people are made a people, who were once unpitied, but now have obtained mercy. Your brethren -- to those of the ten tribes, who are your brethren. Ammi - Let them know that yet they are the people of God, they are still within the covenant of their father Abraham, if they will as their father, walk with God, all shall be well.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The prophet exhorts his people to speak and to…
CHAPTER II
The prophet exhorts his people to speak and to act as became
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those who obtained mercy of God; and to remonstrate strongly
against the conduct of their mother, (Samaria,) whose captivity
is threatened on account of her forsaking God, and ascribing
her prosperity to idols, 1-5.
As an amplification of this threatening, the prophet
ennumerates a series of afflictions which were to befall her
to bring her to a sense of her duty to God; and of her folly
in seeking after idols, and falsely ascribing to them the
blessings of Providence, 6-13.
After these corrections, however, God promises to conduct
Israel safely to their own land; perhaps alluding to their
restoration from the Babylonish captivity, for this prophecy
is supposed to have been delivered about two hundred and fifty
years prior to this event, 14, 15.
He farther engages to deal with them as a tender husband, and
not as a severe master, as were the idols which they served,
16, 17.
The rest of the chapter promises the people of God, the true
Israel, security from every evil, with the possession of every
blessing, under a new covenant; and that in terms full of
beauty, energy, and consolation. Heaven and earth, and whatever
they contain; all nature, and the God of nature, are
represented as uniting to make the people of God happy; so that
if they only breathe a wish, one part of nature, animate or
inanimate, echoes it to another, and all join in sweet harmony
to transmit it to the ear of the Almighty. "I will hear, saith
the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the
earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and
the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel."
NOTES ON CHAP. II
Verse 1. Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi] I prefer the interpretation of these proper names. Say ye unto your brethren, MY PEOPLE; and to your sisters, who have OBTAINED MERCY.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Hos 2:1-2. Say to your brethren — Many interpreters…
Hos 2:1-2. Say to your brethren — Many interpreters consider this verse as being connected with the preceding chapter, thus: When that general restoration of the Jewish nation shall take place, you may change your language in speaking to those of your brethren and sisters whom I had before disowned, and you may call them Ammi, my people, and Ruhamah, she that hath obtained mercy. The prophet alludes to the 6th and 9th verses of the preceding chapter. Other expositors, however, with more apparent reason, consider this verse as connected with the following words, and translate it thus: “Ye that are my people, and have obtained mercy, speak to your brethren and sisters, and plead with your mother,” &c. “Although the Israelites, in the days of Hosea, were in general corrupt, and addicted to idolatry; yet there were among them, in the worst times, some who had not bowed the knee to Baal. These were always Ammi and Ruhamah; God’s own people, and a darling daughter. God commissions these faithful few to admonish the inhabitants of the land in general, of the dreadful judgments that would be brought upon them by the gross idolatry of the Jewish Church and nation;” and to reprove, and use their best endeavours to reform that general corruption which the nation had contracted by its idolatry; whereby the people had broken the covenant God had made with them, and had caused a separation, or divorce, between him and them. Let her therefore put away her whoredoms, &c. — Let her leave off her idolatries. These are often expressed in the Scriptures by the fondness and caresses which pass between unchaste lovers.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi - that is,…
Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi - that is, “My people, and to your sisters, Ruhamah,” i. e., “beloved or tenderly pitied.” The words form a climax of the love of God. First, the people scattered , unpitied , and disowned by God , is re-born of God; then it is declared to be in continued relation to God, “My people;” then to be the object of his yearning love. The words, “My people,” may be alike filled up, “ye are My people,” and “be ye My people.” They are words of hope in prophecy, “ye shall be again My people;” they become words of joy in each stage of fulfillment. They are words of mutual joy and gratulation, when obeyed; they are words of encouragement, until obeyed. God is reconciled to us, and willeth that we be reconciled to Him. Among those who already are God’s people, they are the voice of the joy of mutual love in the oneness of the Spirit of adoption; “we are His people;” to those without (whether the ten tribes, or the Jews of heretics,) they are the voice of those who know in whom they have believed, “Be ye also His people.” Despair of the salvation of none, but, with brotherly love, call them to repentance and salvation.”
This verse closes what went before, as God’s reversal of His own sentence, and anticipates what is to come (Hos 5:14 ff). God commands the prophets and all those who love Him, to appeal to those who forget Him, holding out to them the mercy in store for them also, if they will return to Him. He bids them not to despise those yet alien from Him, “but to treat as brethren and sisters, those whom God willeth to introduce into His house, and to call to the riches of His inheritance.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Brethren, &c. Or, call your brethren, My people; and…
Brethren, &c. Or, call your brethren, My people; and your sister, Her that hath obtained mercy. This is connected with the latter end of the foregoing chapter, and relates to the converts of Israel. (Challoner) --- I seemed to have abandoned them at the great day of carnage; (Haydock) but I will still receive (Calmet) this portion of my people, as well as Juda. (Haydock) --- Disdain not to call them brethren. More of the ten tribes than of the others embraced the faith of Christ, and more Gentiles than Jews became converts. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1. With this triumph a new era opens, an…
1. With this triumph a new era opens, an era of prosperity and felicity. This transformation warrants the change of the names of ill omen into their direct opposites.
Say ye — The members of the nation nearest the prophet are to spread the good news to their fellow countrymen.
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Ammi — My people.
Ruhamah — She is loved, or pitied. As the three names in Hos_1:4; Hos_1:6; Hos_1:9, symbolize the utter rejection of Israel, so the names of Hos_1:11; Hos_2:1, symbolize the complete restoration of the people.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. The parallel lines here seem misleading.
1. The parallel lines here seem misleading.
Say ye …] Now that the storm-cloud has rolled away, those names of baleful import Lo-ammi and Lo-ruhamah have ceased to be admissible, and are altered into the direct opposites. The verse is best understood as the conclusion of chap. 2, just as ‘Call his name Lo-ammi’, &c. ought to form the conclusion of chap. 1. The persons addressed are perhaps the disciples of the prophet, who are directed to communicate the joyful news summed up in the names Ammi (‘my people’) and Ruhamah (‘she hath found compassion’) to the whole nation.
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2–23, Hos_1:10-11, Hos_2:1. Hosea’s first discourse, slightly obscured by the dislocation of some of its verses (see above on Hos_1:10-11). The prophet sets forth in more intelligible language what he has already suggested rather enigmatically. The finest part of the chapter is from Hos_2:14 to Hos_2:23, where Hosea shows how Israel will emerge purified from her captivity, and enjoy the love and favour of her Divine Bridegroom.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your…
Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. Divine mercy being now received, the recipients are urged to extend to each other the right hand of fellowship, exhorting one another, encouraging one smother, confirming each other in the faith, and mutually provoking each other to love and good works. "Because the comparison deals with a son and a daughter, the prophet therefore adds, "your brothers and your sisters (Kimchi).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Hos_2:2. Plead] Jehovah makes the demand, urges individual Israelites…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Hos_2:2. Plead] Jehovah makes the demand, urges individual Israelites to reason with the mother, i.e. the nation viewed as one. The children were seduced, in danger of punishment, and as penitents must protest against her conduct. Wife] Forfeited all claims to my protection. Sight] Lit. from her face, the seat of modesty and shame (Jer_3:8; Jer_6:15). “The eyes are windows through which death, i.e. lawless desire, enters into the soul, and takes it captive” [Pusey].
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Hos_2:3. Strip] Nudity, the ancient punishment of an adulteress (Eze_16:37). Set] Lit. fix her as a gazing-stock, in a state of helplessness and misery. Wilderness] Reduced to want; an outward type of inward distress (Jer_2:6).
Hos_2:4. Children] inherit the nature, and exposed to the judgment, of their mother. Many imagine because free from the guilt and stain of sin they will not share its punishment.
Hos_2:5. Done shamefully] Heb. to practise shame (2Sa_19:5). “She made shameful everything which she could make shameful—her acts, her children, and herself” [Pusey]. The reproach of the mother should rouse the sons from spiritual apathy. Lovers] Idols and idolatrous nations whose alliance they courted, and to whom they ascribed the gifts of life, bread and water (Jer_44:17); a picture of life estranged from God.
HOMILETICS
FILIAL EXPOSTULATION.—Hos_2:1-5
The mother is the representative of the nation, of the ungodly in all nations and families. The sons must plead with them. They are involved in judgments, left orphans, and without protection, by the conduct of their mother.
I. Charge her with dissolution of the Marriage Contract. “She is not my wife.” A spiritual union was formed between God and his people, under terms of great endearment and oneness. But she was no longer united to God by faith and love, and God would own her no longer. Churches and individuals who give themselves to God must not decline in love. This will forfeit the honour, the protection of God, and his covenant relation; provoke him to anger, and lead to divorcement. How touching is the rebuke uttered by the complaint, Thou no longer lovest me! “She is not my wife, I am not her husband!” The history of the Church is a sad commentary upon these words. The Church at Ephesus was not wanting in purity of doctrine, nor in severity of discipline. The Lord disclosed the heart and published the fault. “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.”
II. Urge her to put away Sin. The idolatry is described as whoredom and adultery; a breach of fidelity which Israel owed to God; an act of apostasy from God; more culpable than heathenish idolatry and superstitions.
1. A public sin. Israel, like a barefaced harlot, displayed her sins in public before men. Publicity tempts the weak, taints the innocent, and leads to ruin. Wickedness like this is the most dissolute, and its woe will be the most intense. Some sin secretly, but others proclaim their sin to the world—they glory in their shame.
2. A shameful sin. The face and the breasts are those parts of the body which display want of chastity, and depict boldness and shamelessness. Many neither shame nor blush at their vice. Boldness without confession of wrong, wickedness done with desire of recognition, impudence in sin, will lead to hardness of heart. Those who will not blush will soon be unable to blush. “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall.”
III. Warn her of Danger. Sin always involves risk, and brings its consequences upon ourselves and others. Every one is in duty bound, in his house, among his friends and relations, and in his country, to labour for the happiness and good of all, to check the wickedness and ward off the dangers by which he is surrounded.
1. She will expose herself. “Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born,” &c. (a) Expose herself to nakedness and helplessness. Israel taken when weak and few in number; trained, fed, and clothed by God like a little child; married to God, and adorned as a bride; should now be stripped, deprived of every ornament, as an adulterous wife; of all temporal and spiritual blessings as a people; and left naked and helpless, a gazing-stock to others. When God ceases to care and provide for a people, withholds the gifts of nature and of grace, they will become defiled by sin, cast out and loathsome. Like Adam and Eve, they will lose their innocence, and learn their nakedness. Divine judgments strip men of natural defence, family honour, and leave them “naked unto their shame amongst their enemies” (Exo_22:25). (b) Expose herself to want and distress. “Make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land.” Incursions and hostilities of the enemy could lay her waste as a wilderness; or put her in great straits and distress, as in the desert when they came out of Egypt. Idolatry desolates the land and brings the devouring sword. She would be like a dry land, destitute of food and the maintenance of life. Well-watered gardens become deserts through sin. The outward is a type of the inward. “Mind hath its deserts no less than Region,” says Bacon. “Everything that I love,” said Napoleon, “everything that belongs to me, is stricken. Heaven and mankind unite to afflict me.” The soul of the sinner is desolate and unfruitful in the ways and works of God; devoid of God’s presence and blessing; unrelieved by green pastures and living rills. “Your house is left unto you desolate,” are words which describe the doom of all without Christ. Hungry and thirsty, they are not satisfied, but perish like a traveller in want. “Slay her with thirst.”
2. She would endanger her children. “I will not have mercy upon her children”—children of whoredom inheriting the nature and suffering from the conduct of their mother. There is no security in sin. The rising generation do not escape. Parents entail a curse upon their offspring, and individuals are involved in national calamities. As good is diffused on every hand, so evil has its consequences; consequences which have their influences, results themselves pregnant with other results, in endless succession. Our endeavour should be to guard ourselves from the evil of others, and guard against detriment from our own acts. “This man perished not alone in his iniquity.”
IV. Reprove her for Folly. She had acted shamefully in word and deed, towards herself and her children. The course of sin is a course of shame. The sinner forgets his best friend, and forsakes his own mercy. “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?” The conduct of Israel was an affront to God and a reproach to man. To fall down to any image, ancient or modern, is to turn our glory into shame. This was—
1. An ungrateful sin. God set before them his law and judgments, promised blessings for obedience, and had given them the necessities and the luxuries of life; “more than corn, wine, and oil” (Psa_4:7); but they claimed these gifts as their own; “my bread and my water;” or ascribed them to the lovers they followed. Men care for the things of time and sense, lands, houses, and life, and forget the claims, the prior right of God. These things are only lent us, must not be held upon wrong tenure and made our gods. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.”
2. An aggravated sin. Amid Divine chastisement Israel encouraged herself in idolatry. She called the objects of her choice “lovers,” and drew others to follow her in pursuit. She waits not for invitation and allurement, but eager and unbidden, contrary to natural feeling and covenant pledge, she cries, “I will go,” She was obstinate in pursuit, and avowed her determination. Abuse is added to ingratitude; God is forsaken for the pleasures of life, and men attribute present happiness and prosperity to sin, rather than to his goodness and forbearance. Take heed lest ye be fattened and fitted for slaughter. Aggravated sin ripens for judgment. He that despises God’s reproof “shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”
3. A delusive sin. Idols do not give the necessities and enjoyments of life. God alone can fill men’s “hearts with food and gladness” (Act_14:17). The heathens had a goddess of corn and gods of wine from whom they expected these gifts; so men now make their gods, and fancy that these gods will help them. They delude themselves by error and folly; make things outside of God their lovers; and deify their talents or the laws of nature. We belong to God, and all things are at his disposal. If we do not trust in him, we “observe lying vanities.” Man must have a god, and if he will not love and serve the true and living God, he makes a fool of himself, and pays homage to a lie and a delusion. “As they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hos_2:1 may be taken as (in last chapter),
1. A declaration of joy. Wrath passed away and mercy remembered.
2. A declaration of Christian experience. (a) To encourage others. (b) To glorify God. God’s grace is magnified; God’s word is proved to be faithful; God’s name made known, and others are induced to repent and trust in him. “Say ye to your brethren, Ammi.”
3. An exhortation to the converted to plead with the unconverted. The few faithful in faithless Israel must plead with others. Those who know God must expostulate with those who do not know him; children with parents; relatives with relatives. (a) This a natural order. We naturally feel for friends and relatives. We may not forget others, but we begin at home. Andrew was acquainted with Jesus and related to Peter. “He first findeth his own brother Simon.” Paul could wish himself accursed for his kindred in the flesh (Rom_9:3). (b) This a Divine order. “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee” (Mar_5:19). “Let them (children) learn first to show piety at home” (1Ti_5:4). (c) This the most successful order. We have greater sympathy for friends, more love to our own, than others. They are more likely to be influenced and persuaded by us than others. “Plead with your mother, plead” earnestly, faithfully, and continually.
Hos_2:3. The folly of sin.
1. It strips men of blessings.
2. Exposes them to shame and danger.
3. Leaves them helpless and distressed. The sinner is naked; bereft of grace, love, and protection; and exposed to famine and peril. A Christian Church which throws off the ornaments of Divine grace and Divine ordinances will be stripped of outward privileges—spiritual gifts despised will lead to withdrawal of temporal gifts.[1]
[1] “Sin is a wasting plague to souls, countries, and enjoyments, for so is imported in the words, and ‘make her as a wilderness,’ ” &c. [Hutcheson].
Hos_2:4. Mercy withheld from children, churches, or nations, is a sad addition to their trouble. There is nothing to moderate, prevent, or remove their sorrow.
Hos_2:5. “I will go.” The infatuation of the sinner, who hardens, emboldens himself in sin, and rushes, heedless of warnings and judgments, to shame and destruction. Steps in apostasy from God.
1. Renouncing obedience.
2. Loving idols.
3. Ascribing God’s gifts to idols.
4. Justifying this course from benefits received. “We too have our idols, which our natural hearts madly run after, turning away from God. Whatever we make our chief good, outside of God, is an idol. How apt, moreover, we are to take God’s gifts, our food, clothing, comforts, and luxuries, as if they were our own by some peculiar right; calling them ‘my bread, my water, my wool, my flax,’ and to attribute our possession of them to our gold, our industry, and our talents, making these our gods” [Fausset’ s Com.]. God is the real giver of all temporal and spiritual blessings. If, therefore, thou hast any want, seek its supply from God [Lange].[2]
[2] “As it is a great sin to depart from God and his true worship, so especially is it a shameful way of departing from him when men’s ends are so low and base that they will follow any way of religion for interest and advantage, and account the thriving way best. Israel thought she throve best in and because of her idolatry. ‘they give me my bread,’ &c. [Hutcheson].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Hos_2:1-5. Mothers and children. When a mother once asked a clergyman when she should begin the education of her child, then four years old, he replied, “Madam, if you have not begun already, you have lost those four years. From the first smile that gleams upon an infant’s cheek your opportunity begins.” The mother lives again in her children. They unconsciously mould themselves after her manner, her speech, her conduct, and her method of life. Her habits become theirs, and her character is visibly repeated in them” [Smiles]. Children may be strangled, but deeds never: they have an indestructible life, both in and out of our consciousness [George Eliot].
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain God’s presence in loneliness—a sermon for Lent.
Hos 2:14
God’s presence in loneliness—a sermon for Lent.
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I. From the first dawning of conversion to the hour of death, it is in solitude mostly that God speaks to the soul. God’s will, as Himself, is everywhere; within and without He speaks to our souls, if we would hear. Only the din of the world, or the tumult of our own hearts, deafens our inward ear to it. Stillness is as His very presence, for like the prayer for the prophet’s servant, it opens our senses to perceive what was there to behold, only our eyes were holden. All God’s works, because He made them, bear traces of His hand, and speak of Him to the soul which is alone with Him. All works of man directed or. overruled by His providence—everything, good or bad, speaks of His presence or His absence. But chiefly, in the inmost soul He speaks, because there He dwells.
II. Once, we must be alone; and lonely, indeed, is that journey if He be not by us who first trod it for us, that in it we might fear no evil. Learn to be alone with God now. There shall He renew thy soul, hear thy prayer and answer it, shed hope around thee, kindle thy half-choked love, give thee some taste of His own boundless love; give thee the longing to pass out of all besides, out of thy decayed self; gathered upward unto Him, who came down hither to our misery to bear us up unto Himself, and make us one spirit with Him.
III. One thing only deafens us to the voice of God, untunes all, sets us out of harmony with all, that we should not, in all things, feel the thrill of His love, and behold there the earnest of heaven,—sin. Labour, by His grace, to cleanse away this; pray Him to cleanse it with His precious blood; commend thyself morning by morning to Him, do thy daily work unto Him, and He will be with thee, as with Adam in the garden; and thy daily labour shall again be a dressing and keeping of the Paradise of God, where He shall walk with thee.
E. B. Pusey, Sermons for the Church’s Seasons, p. 196.
References: Hos 2:14—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 306; W. Robertson, Sunday Magazine, 1881, p. 47; J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 134.
Hos 2:14-15
Our text belongs, we may suppose in a special sense to the Jew. It may in part have been accomplished in his past history, but its thorough fulfilment is to be looked for in the future. But there is every reason why the passage should admit of a secondary application—an application to ourselves as the subjects of the chastisements which God appoints or permits.
I. Notice, first, the expression "allure." There is no apparent keeping between the process and the result; the process—that of allurement; the result—that of a wilderness. Yet if we think for a moment we shall see, that we are often actually allured into the wilderness. For what are all those brilliant and fascinating hopes, which God suffers for a time to float before our vision, but so many allurements? And when these hopes vanish, as they frequently do, where are we left but in a wilderness—a wilderness into which the hopes had led us?
II. God speaks comfortably in the wilderness. If we force Him to make a wilderness in order that He may be heard, He does not make it that He may speak terror and despair to our souls. The object is, with the wicked, to draw off their attention from earth and its vanities; with the righteous to discipline them for an "exceeding and eternal weight of glory; and what, in both cases, is this but comfortable speaking?
III. The text is more than an assertion as to God’s comforting His people under affliction; it declares that their afflictions may be made an occasion of advantage, or be converted into instruments of spiritual good. "I will give her her vineyards from thence: "Christians gather their best grapes from the thorn. "And the valley of Achor for a door of hope:" Sorrows which are especially the chastisements of misdoing may issue in a firmer hope of everlasting salvation. God never breaks a man’s heart except that He may be able to pour in, like the good Samaritan, the oil and the wine. He brings the sinner into the valley, the terrors of the law urge him forward and prevent all retreat. But just then it is—when the sinner feels himself utterly lost and at the same time confesses God’s justice in destroying him—that the Almighty shows him, as it were, a cleft in the rock, into which he may run. The valley of Achor terminates in a door of hope; gladness comes back into the soul, the sense of pardon, the sense of reconciliation; he sings in the valley "as in the days of his youth, and as in the day when he came up out of the land of Egypt."
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1843.
I. The text expresses the constancy and tenderness of the Divine love. (1) The relation between Jehovah and His people is spoken of in terms of the relation between husband and wife: "I will betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness." Blended with the Divine wrath against idolatry—yea, lying at the very root of that wrath—is the eternal love. God does not spurn Israel away, and bid her begone again to the lot which she has chosen; but, in the exercise of that affection which has survived all her shame, He says, "Behold, I will allure her... and speak comfortably unto her." (2) These words not only reveal constancy, they also breathe tenderness. To speak comfortably is, literally, to speak to the heart. Such speaking is not addressed to the ear only; nor does it merely inform the understanding; it reaches the affections; it thrills the soul; it awakens responsive echoes there. God has His unobtrusive yet mighty forces. Goodness, as well as evil, woos the soul.
II. The text points to the beneficent purpose of the Divine discipline and chastisement. (1) The wilderness is typical of the discipline to which God subjects His people. Through all trial there runs the same beneficent purpose. God designs to bring us into a true and safe prosperity; and so He seeks, by strengthening our character, to prepare us for entering into the land of "vineyards." (2) "The valley of Achor" may be taken as typical, more especially, of the Divine chastisements. The afflictions with which we are visited often assume to our consciences the aspect of correction. This is because our calamities—bringing us more directly into the light of God—bring us also face to face with the sins which that light condemns. Only accept your trouble as the chastisement of One who loves you and there, in the valley of your humiliation, where the blackness of your sin is revealed to you, rise up against the traitor, lust, and stone it to death. Then "the valley of Achor" shall be made unto you also a "door of hope;" and with confident expectation, because with purified heart you will march on to fuller conquest and final victory.
T. Campbell Finlayson, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xi., p. 251.
Hos 2:15
This promise, like all God’s promises, has its well-defined conditions. Achan has to be killed and put safe out of the way first, or no shining hope will stand out against the black walls of the defile. The tastes which knit us to the perishable world, the yearnings for Babylonish garments and wedges of gold, must be coerced and subdued. There is no natural tendency in the mere fact of sorrow and pain to make God’s love more discernible, or to make our hope any firmer. All depends on how we use the trial; or, as I say: First stone Achan and then hope!
I. So the trouble which detaches us from earth gives us new hope. Vain regret, absorbed brooding over what is gone, a sorrow kept gaping long after it should have been healed, like a grave-mound off which desperate love has pulled turf and flowers in the vain attempt to clasp the cold hand below—in a word, the trouble that does not withdraw us from the present will never be a door of hope, but rather a grim gate for despair to come in at.
II. The trouble which knits us to God gives us new hope. That bright form which comes down the narrow valley is His messenger and herald—sent before His face. All the light of hope is the reflection on our hearts of the light of God. If our hope is to grow out of our sorrow, it must be because our sorrow drives us to God.
III. The trouble which we bear rightly with God’s help gives new hope. If we have made our sorrow an occasion for learning by living experience somewhat more of His exquisitely varied and ever-ready power to aid and bless, then it will teach us firmer confidence in these inexhaustible resources which we have thus once more proved. We build upon two things—God’s unchangeableness, and His help already received; and upon these strong foundations we may wisely and safely rear a palace of hope, which shall never prove a castle in the air.
A. Maclaren, Weekday Evening Addresses, p. 159.
References: Hos 2:15.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. x., p. 199; Bishop Lightfoot, Old Testament Outlines, p. 266. Hos 2:19-20.—B. Baker, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 139. Hos 2:23.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 309. Hos 3:1.—Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 35. Hos 3:4, Hos 3:5.—S. Leathes, Good Words, 1874, p. 226. Hos 3:5.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv., No. 888. Hos 4:6.—C. J. Vaughan, Memorials of Harrow Sundays, p. 56.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain Appeal and Punishment for Unfaithfulness The Resumed Relationship
CHAPTER 2
Appeal and Punishment for Unfaithfulness The Resumed Relationship
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1. The appeal and complaint (Hos 2:1-5)
2. The punishment for Unfaithfulness (Hos 2:6-13)
3. The resumed relationship and its great blessing (Hos 2:14-23)
Hos 2:1-5. Who is addressed in the first verse of this chapter? Some think the children of the prophet are meant. The godly in Israel, those who obtained mercy, are addressed, for the Lord acknowledges such still as “Ammi”-my people. The godly are to plead with the rest of Israel their mother, but who is disowned by Jehovah as the wife, on account of her adulterous conduct. Then the Lord threatens her with severe punishment because of her unfaithfulness. She is to be stripped naked and be as in the day she was born (see Eze 16:4). Nor would there be mercy for her children because the mother, Israel, continued to go after her lovers.
Hos 2:6-13. Her way is to be hedged up with thorns; a wall of separation is to be raised and to keep her from her lovers. And if she follow after them and make a sinful alliance with them (symbolical of the idol worship of heathens which Israel practiced) she would not find them. Thus she might return to her first husband, to Jehovah. Israel had received from the Lord corn, wine, oil, silver and gold. Then they attributed it all to Baal and used it in idol worship. In Hos 2:9-13 the punishment is fully made known. She is to be left alone; the gifts and blessings will be withdrawn; her lewdness is to be uncovered, all mirth will cease and the days of Baalim, spent in licentious worship, would be visited upon her in judgment.
Hos 2:14-23. Immediately after the announcement of her punishment follows the assurance or future mercy. Israel’s conversion is promised (Hos 2:14-17) and the great mercies of Jehovah’s covenant are to be renewed (Hos 2:18-23). The Lord of love will not forever abandon His people and though Israel has played the harlot so long, with no willingness to return unto Him, He Himself in infinite love is going to woo her back. He will allure her, as He brings her into the wilderness, and there speak “to her heart” (the Hebrew meaning). That will be in the coming day when the Lord will remember the remnant of His people during the time of Jacob’s trouble and save them in that day. Then she will get her vineyards, her place of blessing, promised to Israel as His earthly people. The valley of Achor shall be the door of hope. In that valley Achan died, on account of whom all Israel had fallen under the ban Jos 7:1-26. There judgment had been enacted and after that blessing was restored to Israel and the ban was removed. Achor means “troubling.” When Israel is in that great trouble, the great tribulation, the valley of trouble will become the door of hope, for then the Lord will forgive them their sins, cover them with His grace and redeem them by His power. Then the singing times begin again for Israel. “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.” Songs of praise on account of accomplished redemption by Jehovah’s power will then burst forth Exo 15:1-27; Isa 12:1-6. She will be fully restored to her former relationship, typified by marriage. “It shall be in that day, saith the Lord, that Thou shalt call Me Ishi (my husband), and shalt call Me no more Baali (my master).” She will be re-married to the Lord, symbolically speaking, and become the earthly wife of Jehovah, while the church, the espoused virgin, becomes in glory the Lamb’s wife Rev 19:6-21).
But greater blessing will be connected with that coming day of blessing, when Israel is received back Rom 11:15. Verse 18 tells us that creation will then be blest; the time of its deliverance has come. Here the same is indicated as in Isa 11:6-7 and Rom 8:21. The end of wars comes then and universal peace blesses the whole earth. This is always the order in the divine forecasts. First, Israel has to be brought back, and after that the blessings for the earth and the nations, including that peace, which the blinded world-church tries to secure without the Lord Jesus Christ. All these promises as to the future of Israel, her restoration and spiritual blessings, are unrealized. “It is infatuation to think that all this was fully accomplished in the return of a remnant from the captivity. The result is that even Christians, misled by this miserable error, are drawn away into the rationalistic impiety of counting God’s Word here mere hyperbole to heighten the effect, as if the Holy Spirit deigned to be a verbal trickster, or a prophet were as vain as a litterateur. No; it is a brighter day, when the power of God will make a complete clearance from the world of disorder, misrule, man’s violence and corruption, as well as reduce to harmless and happy resubjection the entire animal kingdom.”
In that day all the great covenant blessings will return to redeemed Israel. Betrothed again to Jehovah in righteousness, in judgment, in faithfulness and mercies, Israel will know Jehovah. There will be an uninterrupted line of blessing from the heavens down to every earthly blessing. Heavens and earth will be gloriously united, and in answer to the call of His people the heavens will hear and cover all with blessing, for Satan’s power is now gone. Israel is no more Lo-ammi, but they will be “His people” and He will be “their God,” while the redeemed nation itself will be a blessing in the earth.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain v. 1. Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi ("My…
v. 1. Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi ("My people"); and to your sisters, Ruhamah ("having obtained mercy"). The original names of the children were thus changed to indicate their changed relationship toward God and their Savior. No matter how far a person has fallen away from the truth of God’s Word, there is always mercy for Him through the redemption of Christ, if he but returns in true sorrow over his sins and accepts the offered deliverance.
A Threat of Punishment
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v. 2. Plead with your mother, the members of Israel, as the children of an adulterous wife, being addressed, plead; for she is not My wife, she was no longer Jehovah’s bride, neither am I her Husband, for He had been obliged to reject her on account of her adultery; let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, namely, the shameless idolatry which was practiced throughout Israel at the time, and her adulteries from between her breasts, for Israel, in her shamelessness, was like a public harlot, who displays her profession in her bared breasts,
v. 3. lest I strip her naked, as a punishment for her shameless exposure of herself in the practice of her spiritual wantonness, and set her as in the day that she was born, Cf Exo 16:4, when she was without covering, and make her as a wilderness and set her like a dry land, altogether desert in every way, and slay her with thirst, thus depriving her of all the wonderful blessings which He had given her in the past, for the Lord had had mercy on His people in Egypt, He had led them out of the house of bondage, and He had made a covenant with them. The desert is a picture of the various tribulations and sufferings of the exile.
v. 4. And I will not have mercy upon her children, all the members of the nation being included in His punishment; for they be the children of whoredoms, all of them being guilty of the same shameless idolatry.
v. 5. For their mother hath played the harlot, the whole nation, as the various prophets show, being guilty of the same idolatrous behavior; she that conceived them hath done shamefully, openly committing her shameless acts, making no attempt to hide her bold practices; 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, food, clothing, and the enjoyments of life; for Israel’s commercial enterprise was stimulated by the riches and power of the nations round about, and it was with the idea of getting and holding their friendship that the Israelites began to practice idolatry.
v. 6. Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, setting insurmountable obstacles to keep Israel away from the heathen nations with their allurements and temptations, and make a wall that she shall not find her paths, namely, to the temples and altars of the idols. The Lord undoubtedly refers to the oppression and affliction of the exile, which opened the eyes of the children of Israel to the vanity and helplessness of the idols.
v. 7. And she shall follow after her lovers, determined, at first, to cling to the false gods whom she had accepted, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them, for she would be reduced to such straits as would show her how vain was her hope in these idols and their assistance. Then shall she say, I will go and return to my first Husband, having learned, by bitter experience, that He is the only true God, for then, at the time when Israel followed Him alone, was it better with me than now.
v. 8. For she did not know, she did not realize at that time, that I gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold, giving her all these temporal blessings in rich measure, which they prepared for Baal, using it for his cult and worship, in open idolatry. Many a person serves a false god, not knowing that the very gifts which he brings are the blessings of God’s goodness upon him.
v. 9. Therefore will I return and take away My corn in the time thereof, namely, at the very time of the harvest, when men would expect a full supply, and My wine in the season thereof and will recover My wool and My flax, all these being gifts of His bounty, and therefore rightly belonging to Him, given to cover her nakedness. If God takes the gifts suddenly and at the very time of the harvest, the punishment would be more severe than if He had taken them after the outlook already was poor.
v. 10. And now will I discover her lewdness, uncover her nakedness and shame to her disgrace, in the sight of her lovers, Cf Eze 16:37, and none shall deliver her out of Mine hand. Cf Jer 13:26; Nah 3:5. While the nations round about were looking on, partly in helpless idleness and partly in malicious joy, Israel was delivered to her punishment.
v. 11. I will also cause all her mirth to cease, the hypocritical evidence of a joy which was no longer real among the people, her feast-days, especially the three highest festivals, Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts, whatever days were observed in the course of the year.
v. 12. And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, representative of the wealth of the country in farm products. whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me, thus blasphemously taking the honor from the Lord; and I will make them, the fine orchards and vineyards, a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. Cf Isa 7:23 ff. ; Mic 3:12.
v. 13. And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, punishing her for devoting the great festival days of the Jewish church-year to the service of heathen idols, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, decorating herself for the purpose of making an impression upon those whom she had permitted to seduce her, and she went after her lovers and forgat Me, saith the Lord. That is the outstanding, reprehensible feature of unbelief and idolatry: the rejection of the true God, for He wants no other gods beside Himself.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Yahweh is speaking to Hosea.
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My people!
This exclamation may be presented as a statement. AT: "You are my people!" (See: Exclamations)
You have been shown compassion
This can be stated in active form. AT: "Yahweh has shown you compassion" (See: Active or Passive)
compassion
"kindness" or "mercy"
translationWords
brother
people group
sister
compassion
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 2:1 Ammi—‘My people’: God will also restore the name…
2:1 Ammi—‘My people’: God will also restore the name of the third child to its covenantal meaning. • Ruhamah—‘The ones I love’: Israel will once again be the object of God’s love and compassion.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.