Marriage and Children (Hosea 1:2-2:1)
The book opens with a narrative, especially chapters one and three, which provides an account of the prophet Hosea’s marriage and children. The point, of course, is not a Wikipedia article that covers all the details. Rather, that narrative supplies the framework in which the oracles of Hosea are heard. Hosea’s message is one of divine judgment upon Israel’s sin and future hope for her future. His marriage to Gomer and the naming of his children are analogous to God’s relationship with Israel. The point is not to spell out all the complexities of Hosea’s marriage or the stories of his children but to provide a powerful comparison. The point is not biographical but theological. In this way Hosea’s audience might hear both Israel’s coming judgment but also find comfort in the hope promised.
It is important to remember that both Gomer and her children represent Israel. The names of the children are not insults but theological commentary on the path Israel has chosen. The name of each child testifies to God’s relationship with Israel; it is not about the children themselves (whether parabolic or literal). This is more theological proclamation than historical biography. It is the story of a nation more than it is a story of a couple and their children.
Divine Judgment on Israel (1:2-9)
Gomer (“Completion”). We don’t know anything about Gomer except what what we are told in Hosea 1-3. We are not certain of Gomer’s actions–was she a prostitute, a promiscuous women in a general sense, was this before or after the marriage, was it sexual or a metaphor for idolatry? Whatever Gomer’s infidelity and promiscuity (its nature and timing), it is Israel’s harlotry or “whoredom” that is the fundamental concern. “The land” or the nation, Hosea says, “commits great whoredom by forsaking” Yahweh. Hosea’s relationship with Gomer, and her’s with him, is an enacted parable of God’s relationship to Israel. Perhaps it is a metaphor like a parable, though it seems the text presumes it’s an actual history. Whatever the case, its function is to portray the living embodiment of God’s love for Israel despite Israel’s betrayal of God and anticipate God’s renewed relationship with Israel.
What are we to say about God’s command for Hosea to marry Gomer who God knows will be unfaithful to him? This sounds cruel for both Hosea and Gomer; it is the beginning of a traumatic series of events, which will involve children. Whatever we might respond to that concern, the theological point is poignant. This is Yahweh. God chose a people whom God knew would be unfaithful. Yahweh entered into a marriage with Israel knowing their future unfaithfulness. Nevertheless, moved by compassion and unfailing love, Yahweh consummated the marriage and lived in the pain the relationship caused. Hosea himself is not the point, though if historical it is a story of heartbreak and reconciliation. The point is God’s faithful love was vibrant from the beginning even though God knew they would be unfaithful. Israel’s harlotry or “whoredom” is the fundamental analogy—this is the bigger story. Hosea and Gomer illuminate the struggles, sins, pains, and hopes of Israel through the lens of their stories.
Jezreel (“God Sows”). Jezreel is a fertile valley in northern Israel that stretches from near the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee in the east to near the Mediterranean sea at the foot of Mount Carmel in the west. It was the site of many famous battles, but the violent moment remembered here is God’s judgment against the house of Ahab by the hand of Jehu, who was the great-grandfather of Jeroboam II. In 842 BCE Jehu executed Israel’s King Joram and his sons, the Queen Mother Jezebel, and King Ahaziah of Judah (Joram’s nephew). Jehu ended the dynasty of Omri (Ahab’s father) and began a new one, which end with Jeroboam II and his son Zechariah. The name Jezreel in this context evokes regime change, violence, and the consequences of idolatry in the nation. This is what is about to happen to Israel, the northern kingdom.
Lo-ruhamah (לֹ֣א רֻחָ֑מָה; “Not Pitied” or “No Mercy”). This is a shocking name because Yahweh’s own identity is mercy (רַח֖וּם; rahumah) or compassion; the God who forgives (נֹשֵׂ֥א; nose‘) in Exodus 34:6-7 but does not forgive (נָשֹׂ֥א; nasa‘) Israel. Yahweh is slow to anger, but here the daughter’s name expresses God’s rejection of Israel. God will not forgive Israel or overlook their adulteries, though Judah receives God’s compassion and mercy. God will save Judah but not Israel. Yahweh will save Judah by God’s power rather than with Judah’s own military might. The destinies of Israel and Judah are in God’s hands, not in their own national strength. Ultimately, however, God will show mercy to Israel (cf. Hosea 2:1, 23). For a moment, however, Israel is rejected and receives no mercy. They will suffer the consequences of their adulteries. The daughter’s name embodies Hosea’s prophetic message.
Lo-ammi (לֹ֣א עַמִּ֑י; “Not My People”). This is covenantal language. That God will be their God, and they will be God’s people is part of the Abrahamic promise (Genesis 17:8; cf. Exodus 6:7). Indeed, the name of God is invoked in Hosea 1:9 in the verb “to be” (like Exodus 3:14) with the meaning “I am not your God.” Literally, “not I AM to you” (לֹֽא־אֶהְיֶ֥ה לָכֶֽם). Yahweh is no longer Yahweh to Israel. The covenant has been broken, and Israel is no longer part of the people of God, at least for this moment. Yet, Israel will again be called “my people” (cf. Hosea 2:1). The son’s name embodies Hosea’s prophetic message.
Israel’s Future Hope (1:10-2:1)
Abrahamic Promise Remembered. God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that their descendants would multiply and exceed expectations. They would be numbered like the “sand of the sea” (Genesis 32:12; cf. Genesis 41:49; 1 Kings 4:20; Isaiah 10:22; Jeremiah 33:22). Hosea’s language remembers the covenant and renews its promise. The story of Israel is not over, though the nation is scattered by Assyrian conquest and deportations.
Israel Renamed (“Ammi,” my people and “Ruhamah,” pitied). The despair of Lo-Ammi now becomes Ammi. And the tragedy of Lo-Ruhamah becomes Ruhamah. The negatives prefixes are removed–it is no longer “not” but a positive affirmation. God’s commitment to Israel means that God will show mercy upon them and renew covenant with them so that they are once again the people of God. Renaming the children indicates a renewal of God’s relationship with Israel and God’s desire to name them as “children [בְּנֵ֥י; literally, sons] of the living God.” Israel, we might say, will be grafted back into Abraham’s tree to inherit the promises made to the father of faith.
The Day of Jezreel. Hope is announced to the renamed children of Hosea: Ammi and Ruhamah. The previous day of Jezreel was a time of judgment and destruction, but the coming day of Jezreel will be a day of victory and deliverance. God will sow shalom instead of judgment. This coming day has three components: (1) the reunion of Judah and Israel; (2) their life under one head or leader (LXX, ἀρχὴν); and (3) the inhabitation of the land.
The first point reverses an almost two hundred year story of national division between Israel and Judah. They divided in the reign of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, but there will come a day when they will be one people again. The second anticipates the messianic ruler from the house of David (cf. Hosea 3:5). The third promises a restoration to the land where the people will live as God’s people under God’s mercy. There will time when the one God will show mercy on the one people under one ruler in the land gifted to them by God.
New Testament Appropriation
Romans 9:25-27 quotes Hosea 1:10 & 2:23.
As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they shall be called children of the living God.”
And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved.”
These lines from Romans, quoting Hosea and Isaiah, are quite significant. Paul understands the mission of the Messianic movement of Jesus of Nazareth to bring to fullness the promise made to Israel through Abraham and affirmed by Hosea. Though Paul names Isaiah as the source of his second quotation, yet the language exactly comports (in part) with Hosea’s words as well (1:10).
Paul’s argument is intricate. I think this is the bottom line, and I suggest reading Jason Staples, The Resurrection of Israel, for a full picture. Jews are Judahites; they are the inhabitants of the southern kingdom of Judah who returned from Babylonian exile. Israel, the northern kingdom, was scattered among the nations and never returned from exile, though some remained in the land (many are later known as Samaritans) and some even participated in the temple services at Jerusalem (e.g., the Passover of Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 30).
Second Temple Judaism, like the prophet Hosea, expected a restored kingdom where Israel (the north) and Judah (the south) would be reunited under a messianic figure, a new king David. This is Paul’s point. Israel is saved through the Messiah, and when the remnant of Israel is gathered along with the remnant of Judah, this is the restoration of the kingdom. This is full renewal of Israel as one people. With the ingathering of the Gentiles, the people of Israel scattered among them will also come with the Gentiles. Together, Israel, Judah, and Gentiles will participate in the one people of God. This is the olive tree (Judah as the continuation of the people of God) into which new branches are grafted (the Gentiles) and into which the branches that had been broken off are restored (Israel).
By quoting Hosea, Paul says, what Hosea promised is fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah who gathers the people of God into one body—a renewed or restored Israel. This includes those who were named “Lo-ammi” (not my people), both exiled Israel as well as Gentiles.
1 Peter 2:9-10 quotes or alludes to Hosea 1:10 & 2:1, 23.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.
The use of “people” and “mercy” refer to the names of Hosea’s second and third children. Peter also uses the language of Exodus 19:5-6 to describe God’s new people, a renewal of Israel through the Messiah. The disciples of Jesus the Messiah are elect, priestly, royal, and holy—they are God’s people to shine the light of God into the darkness of the world, to be a light among the nations.
For Peter, the people of God who receive mercy are those who are part of the renewed life of Israel, and they embrace the mission of Israel with the status of Israel as God’s chosen ones who are royal priests in a holy nation. The continue the mission of Israel, now composed of both ethnic descendants of Abraham and others who have not descended from him, to be a light to the nations.