Hosea 3 Footnotes

3:1 The usual interpretation of this passage is that Hosea was told to take Gomer back as his wife after her unfaithfulness; yet he was told in the beginning to take “a woman of promiscuity” (1:2). Some interpreters believe this is not a second act on the prophet’s part but another version of his initial marriage to a prostitute. The Hebrew text of Hosea contains many difficulties, which may reflect the unstable conditions leading to the demise of the northern kingdom of Israel. In this uncertain time, accurate transmission of Hosea’s words (especially in an oral state before they were committed to writing) may have been difficult. The later compilers of his book may have included both versions of the marriage in their care not to exclude any of the inspired text.

Assuming that Hosea took back the unfaithful Gomer, his action was consistent with that of other OT prophets who acted out their messages with dramatic signs (Ezk 24:16-19; see note on Is 20:2-4). In doing something unusual, they hoped to gain the people’s attention. Normally such signs concerned future events, not the present condition of the nation. Hosea’s “sign”—if it was that—was not a dramatization of Israel’s unfaithfulness but of the Lord’s mercy. No sign of Israel’s sin was needed; that was evident enough in the people’s own behavior.