Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

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Hosea 2

The Lord’s Love for His Unfaithful People

Hosea 2:¹ Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’ (Heb. Ammi, Hos. 1:9, 10)
And to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’ (Heb. Ruhamah, Hos. 1:6)

God’s Unfaithful People

Hosea 2:² “Bring charges against (Or Contend with) your mother, bring charges (Or contend);
For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!
Let her put away her harlotries from her sight,
And her adulteries from between her breasts;

Hosea 2:³ Lest I strip her naked
And expose her, as in the day she was born,
And make her like a wilderness,
And set her like a dry land,
And slay her with thirst.

Hosea 2:⁴ “I will not have mercy on her children,
For they are the children of harlotry.

Hosea 2:⁵ For their mother has played the harlot;
She who conceived them has behaved shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
Who give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my linen,
My oil and my drink.’

Hosea 2:⁶ “Therefore, behold,
I will hedge up your way with thorns,
And wall her in (Lit. wall up her wall),
So that she cannot find her paths.

• To hedge up her way with thorns is to keep her from pursuing her lovers.
• Symbolically, thorns represent curses.
• A hedge in scripture is used to both keep evil from the righteous and also to keep righteous things from being bestowed on the evil.
• Satan argued before God that the only reason Job was righteous is because God protected him from the evil of Satan. It is the same Hebrew words as used for Hosea 2:6. Job was protected from Satan with a hedge of thorns.

• In Hebrew, a connection exists between a hedge and a wreath in that both are woven and intertwined – Satan is involved with both. Satan is the sea monster (Leviathan) in the sea of people. One of the meanings of Leviathan is a “wreath” (to coil). Likewise the crown of thorns on Jesus’ head.
• śûḵ H7753 (from H5518 sîr)
  
  Note: PILPEL: To intertwine, to weave.
  

Hosea 2:⁷ She will chase (Or pursue) her lovers,
But not overtake them;
Yes, she will seek them, but not find them.
Then she will say,
‘I will go and return to my first husband,
For then it was better for me than now.’

Hosea 2:⁸ For she did not know
That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil,
And multiplied her silver and gold—
Which they prepared for Baal.

Hosea 2:⁹ “Therefore I will return and take away
My grain in its time
And My new wine in its season,
And will take back My wool and My linen,
Given to cover her nakedness.

• Her nakedness is her vulnerability.

Hosea 2:¹⁰ Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers,
And no one shall deliver her from My hand.

Hosea 2:¹¹ I will also cause all her mirth to cease,
Her feast days,
Her New Moons,
Her Sabbaths—
All her appointed feasts.

Hosea 2:¹² “And I will destroy her vines (fruitfulness) and her fig trees (nationality),
Of which she has said,
‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’
So I will make them a forest,
And the beasts (kingdoms) of the field (world) shall eat (devour) them.

Hosea 2:¹³ I will punish her
For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense.
She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry,
And went after her lovers;
But Me she forgot,” says the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ).

God’s Mercy on His People

Hosea 2:¹⁴ “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Will bring her into the wilderness,
And speak comfort to her (Lit. to her heart).

Hosea 2:¹⁵ I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;
She shall sing there,
As in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

• History:
  Achan, from the tribe of Judah, “the troubler of Israel,” brought trouble on the whole nation.
  The Valley of Achor, situated northwest of Jericho on the northern border of the tribe of Judah, is the place where the Israelites executed Achan and his household. Achor means “trouble,” “affliction,” or “taboo” and implies a severe kind of trouble. To understand how the “Valley of Trouble” received its name, see Joshua 7:10-23.
  It was also the location when they came out of Egypt (sym. the world, worldliness) after forty years in the wilderness that their hope to enter the promised land was near. A rich agricultural locality so far recovered from desolation as to be good grounds for cattle and sheep

• Ref verse: Isaiah 65:10 Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down in, for my people who have sought me.

Hosea 2:¹⁶ “And it shall be, in that day,”
Says the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ),
“That you will call Me ‘My Husband, (Heb. Ishi)’
And no longer call Me ‘My Master, (Heb. Baali)’

Hosea 2:¹⁷ For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,
And they shall be remembered by their name no more.

Hosea 2:¹⁸ In that day I will make a covenant (oath) for them
With the beasts of the field,
With the birds of the air,
And with the creeping things of the ground.
Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth,
To make them lie down safely.

• Note: Bow is symbolic of an oath. It is also connected to a Rainbow, as the oath given to Noah that never again will the earth be flooded. A sword is symbolic and used in scripture as the Word of God. In Hosea 2:18 both are used to bring peace to the earth and to set up Jesus’ earthly kingdom with the Jews serving as the priests in Jerusalem.

Hosea 2:¹⁹ “I will betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me
In righteousness and justice,
In lovingkindness and mercy;

Hosea 2:²⁰ I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,
And you shall know the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ).

Hosea 2:²¹ “It shall come to pass in that day
That I will answer,” says the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ);
“I will answer the heavens,
And they shall answer the earth.

Hosea 2:²² The earth shall answer
With grain,
With new wine,
And with oil;
They shall answer Jezreel (Lit. God Will Sow).

• God is sowing His blessings instead of His wrath.

Hosea 2:²³ Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth,
And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy (Heb. lo-ruhamah);
Then I will say to those who were not My people (Heb. lo-ammi),
‘You are My people! (Heb. Ammi)’
And they shall say, ‘You are my God (ĕlōhîm)!’ ”

• Hosea 5:15
  I will return again to My place Till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”