Hosea 1:3

3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and ¹bore him a son.

Hosea 1:3 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 1:3

So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim
In the course of prophesying he made mention of this person, who was a notorious common strumpet; and suggested hereby that they were just like her; or these were fictitious names he used to represent their case by Gomer signifies both "consummation" and "consumption" ^F12; and this harlot is so called, because of her consummate beauty, and her being completely mistress of all the tricks of one; or, being consummately wicked, a perfect whore, common to all; and because her ruin and destruction, persisting in such practices, were inevitable, and so a fit emblem of the present and future condition of Israel. Diblaim may be considered either as the name of a man, a word of the same form with Ephraim; or of a woman, the mother of Gomer; or else of a place, the wilderness of Diblath, ( Ezekiel 6:14 ) and signifies "a cake of dried figs" ^F13; which, in that country, was reckoned delicious eating; and so denotes, either that both the sin and ruin of this people were owing to their luxury, or indulging themselves in carnal pleasures, through the great affluence they were possessed of; or that their original was from a wilderness, and for their sins should be reduced to a desolate state again:

which conceived and bare him a son;
whose name, and what he was an emblem of, are declared in the following verse. The Targum is,

``and he went and prophesied over them, that if they returned, it should be forgiven them: but, if not, as fig tree leaves drop off, so should they; but they added, and did evil works.''

FOOTNOTES:

F12 A rad. (rmg) "perfecit, desiit", Gussetius.
F13 Vox (Mylbd) "significat massas ficuum compressarum et siccatarum", Rivetus, Tarnovius.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Hosea 1:3 In-Context

1 The word of the LORD which came to Hosea the son of Beeri, during the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

2 When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, "Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the LORD ."

3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

4 And the LORD said to him, "Name him Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will punish the house of Jehu for the bloodshed of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

5 "On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel."