Hosea 2:2-13

Israel Punished and Restored

2 “Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.

3 Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst.

4 I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery.

5 Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’

6 Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.

7 She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’

8 She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold— which they used for Baal.

9 “Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her naked body.

10 So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of my hands.

11 I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals.

12 I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them.

13 I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot,” declares the LORD.

Hosea 2:2-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO HOSEA 2

This chapter is an explanation of the former, proceeding upon the same argument in more express words. The godly Israelites are here called upon to lay before the body of the people their idolatry, ingratitude, obstinacy, and ignorance of the God of their mercies; and to exhort them to repentance, lest they should be stripped of all their good things, and be brought into great distress and difficulties; all their joy and comfort cease, and be exposed to shame and contempt, Ho 2:1-13, yet, notwithstanding, many gracious promises are made unto them, of their having the alluring and comfortable word of the Gospel; of a door of hope; of salvation being opened to them; of faith in the Lord, and affection to him as their husband; of the removal of all idolatry from them; of safety from all enemies; of their open espousal to Christ; of his hearing of their prayers, and giving them plenty of all good things; and of their multiplication, conversion, and covenant relation to God, Ho 2:14-23.

Cross References

• 1. ver 5; S Isaiah 50:1; S Hosea 1:2; Hosea 4:5
• 2. S Isaiah 1:21; S Ezekiel 23:45
• 3. S Ezekiel 16:37
• 4. Ezekiel 16:4,22
• 5. Isaiah 32:13-14
• 6. S Ezekiel 8:18; Hosea 1:6
• 7. Hosea 5:7
• 8. S Jeremiah 3:6; S Hosea 1:2
• 9. Jeremiah 44:17-18
• 10. S Job 3:23; S Job 19:8; S Lamentations 3:9
• 11. Hosea 5:13
• 12. S Isaiah 54:5
• 13. Jeremiah 2:2; S Jeremiah 3:1
• 14. S Ezekiel 16:8
• 15. S Isaiah 1:3
• 16. S Numbers 18:12
• 17. S Deuteronomy 8:18
• 18. ver 13; Ezekiel 16:15-19; Hosea 8:4
• 19. Hosea 8:7
• 20. Hosea 9:2
• 21. Ezekiel 23:10
• 22. Jeremiah 13:26
• 23. S Ezekiel 16:37
• 24. Jeremiah 7:34
• 25. S Isaiah 24:8
• 26. S Isaiah 1:14; Jeremiah 16:9; Hosea 3:4; Hosea 9:5; Amos 5:21; Amos 8:10
• 27. S Isaiah 7:23; S Jeremiah 8:13
• 28. S Jeremiah 5:17
• 29. S Jeremiah 3:1
• 30. S Isaiah 5:6
• 31. Hosea 5:7; Hosea 13:8
• 32. Isaiah 65:7
• 33. ver 8; S Jeremiah 7:9; Hosea 11:2
• 34. S Ezekiel 16:17; S Ezekiel 23:40
• 35. Hosea 4:13
• 36. Hosea 4:6; Hosea 8:14; Hosea 13:6
• 37. S Jeremiah 44:17; Hosea 13:1