Tanak Foundations-Concepts in Hosea-Chapter 2

Hosea 2.1-23 explains Hosea 1 by being more expressive and giving more detail, confirming the redemption of Israel in the future. This section must be dealt with in light of Jewish law as seen in Deut 24.1-4. We will have two basic stages of marriage, betrothal and kedushin. A betrothal has a document called the Shitre Erusin with stipulations and means you are married, consecrated and set apart and belonging to someone. The only way you can get out of it is with a divorce which must be delivered into her hand. The kedushin is the full marriage with a document called a ketubah. In Deut 24.1 he “takes” her and then “marries” her (Hebrew “baal” or masters her). Has Yehovah ever entered into a full marriage with Israel? No. Could you marry someone else while betrothed? Yes, with a bill of divorce. If that person put you out, could you go back to the first husband? Yes. However, if you have reached a full marriage and got a divorce from the first person, and got married again, and the second person divorced you, can they go back to the first person? No. So, can Yehovah divorce Israel (the north-Jer 3.8) and marry her (with a new or renewed testament), even if she married and divorced in the meantime? Yes, because they were never in a full marriage yet. If it was a full marriage and they divorced, but neither remarried, can they remarry? Yes. God has never entered into a full marriage with Israel so he can remarry her, and that is what the new (renewed) testament is. It is the same covenant and a “renewal of vows.”

v 1…”Say to your brothers, “Ammi” (my people) and to your sisters, “Ruhamah” (pitied showing God’s love for his people).

v 2…Contend (strive, plead) with your mother (Israel), contend; for she is not my wife (ancient formula for one divorced-Jer 31.32-if God did not divorce them there would have been no need for a “renewed or “new” covenant), and I am not your husband (because of their spiritual adultery); and let her put away her harlotry from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts (in his mercy he says if they do this they can be restored),

v 3…lest I strip her naked (of the goods of this world, outward riches, etc. This was done in the case of adultery in Num 5.11-31 called the “Sotah.” This potion is read between Sukkot and Chanukah before 70 AD and we see that the woman taken in adultery happened at Sukkot in John 8) and expose her as on the day when she was born (helpless, uncared for as they were in Egypt-Ezek 16.4) and make her like a wilderness, make her like a desert (parallelism meaning desolate), and slay her with thirst (drought is a judgment of God physically and spiritually).

v 4…Also, I will have no compassion on her children (everyone is included in judgment), because they are children of harlotry (shamelessly going after idols).

v 5…For their mother has played the harlot (the whole nation, as evidenced by the words of the prophets-Isa 1.5). For she said, “I will go after my lovers (other nations they were commercially allied with) who gave me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink (motivated by the wealth of the nations, maintaining their friendship led them into participating in their idolatrous practices, instead of relying on God).

v 6…Therefore, behold (take note, see), I will hedge up her way with thorns (multiply her miseries) and I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths (back to the Torah; the exile got in her way, and even though Israel and Judah lived among the heathen, they lost their desire for idols eventually).

v 7…She will pursue her lovers (other nations they were commercially involved with), but she will not overtake them (being walled in); she will seek them (with her wishes and desires) and not find them (her hope in idols was vain and empty). She will say (having understood through her distress that Yehovah is the only true God), “I will go back to my first husband, for it was better for me then (when she followed Yehovah and the Torah alone) than now!”

v 8…For she does not know (spiritually ignorant of) that it was I (not her false gods) who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil (satisfaction), and lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal (in worship).

v 9…Therefore, I will take back my grain at harvest time and my new wine in its season. I will also take away my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness (Yehovah will withhold the things she thought Baal was giving her).

v 10…And then I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers (her sin will be known by her allies and everyone she desired other than Yehovah), and no one will rescue her out of my hand (the nations looked on with joy as Israel was turned over to judgment).

v 11…I will also put an end to all her gaiety, her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her festal assemblies (God gave these but they corrupted them; they were going into exile, no Temple, no joy; they couldn’t keep these outside of the land, or have ceremonial observances-Jer 7.34; Lam 1.4).

v 12…And I will destroy her vines and her trees (destroy her satisfaction and agricultural wealth), of which she said, “These are my wages which my lovers (her idols) have given me (for being a spiritual harlot). And I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field will devour them (deprived of cultivation, the animals will eat them).

v 13…And I will punish her for the days of the Baals (the festive days of Yehovah were turned into pagan festive days; they changed Yehovah into Baal) when she used to offer sacrifices to them (the various idols of Canaan) and adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry (the Baalim came under various names like Baal-peor, Baal-berith, Baal-zebub, etc), and follow her lovers (the idols and nations, etc) so that she forgot me (to impress the nations they were allied with, they began to worship their gods).

v 14…Therefore, behold (see), I will allure her (how God’s grace will entice her), bring her into the wilderness (of exile, but this also alludes to how Yehovah will allure Israel in the birth-pains-Zech 12.10; Jer 31.2; Isa 42.10-12; Ezek 20.32-44; Isa 16.1-6; Rev 12.13-17) and speak kindly to her (heart to heart).

v 15…Then I will give her her vineyards from there (the wilderness will have blessings; a source of teaching), and the valley of Achor (troubling) as a door of hope (Israel will be led back by affliction; the valley was used after the sin of Achan-Josh 7.24; they learned to be in reverence of Yehovah), and she will sing there as in the days of her youth (at the Red Sea), as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt (in the first redemption).

v 16…And it will come about in that day (when this comes to pass, also alluding to the second redemption in the Day of the Lord when Messiah comes-Isa 11.11-16; Jer 16.14-15; Jer 33.1-26; Mic 7.7-20),” declares the Lord, “that you will call me Ishi (my husband) and no longer call me Baali (my master and a word that alludes to Baal worship; they mixed paganism with the true worship of God in the Torah).

v 17…For I will remove the names of the Baals (they went by different names as we have referenced in v 13) from her mouth, so that they will be mentioned by their names no more (repeated to confirm this as fact).

v 18…In that day (alludes to the Day of the Lord when Messiah comes) I will make a covenant for them with the beast of the field, the birds of the sky, and the creeping things of the ground (to be at peace with them, and alludes to spiritual enemies as well-no persecution). And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land (no more instruments of war), and I will make them lie down in safety (under the protection of the good shepherd Messiah Yeshua).

v 19…And I will betroth you to me forever (he is renewing his marriage relationship and that is why there is a “new” or “renewed” covenant-Jer 31.31-34; Rev 19.9); yes, I will betroth you to me with righteousness (with which he purchased his bride) and in justice (Yeshua proved Yehovah right, and judgment against those who do evil-John 16.8-11), in lovingkindness (love) and in compassion (undeserved mercy).

v 20…And I will betroth (used a third time; there is a custom among some Jews at a wedding that a bride circles her husband three times, building a wall around him-Jer 31.22) you to me in faithfulness, then you will know (yada’at-an intimate knowledge in a redemptive way) the Lord (Jer 9.23; Isa 33.6).

v 21…And it will come about in that day that I will respond (hear, answer), “declares the Lord. “I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth (giving needed rain, dew, and moisture).

v 22…And the earth will respond (answer) to the grain, to the new wine and to the oil (the earth will open up, letting in the moisture and bringing increase and fruitfulness), and they will respond (answer) to Jezreel (Israel).

v 23…And I will sow her (what Jezreel means) for myself in the land. I will have compassion on her (Isa 54.1-8) who had not obtained compassion (“lo-ruhamah”-when Messiah comes ultimately-Rom 11.26), and I will say to those who were not my people (“lo-ammi”), you are my people (“ammi”)! And they will say, “My God (now read Ezek 16.1-63; Ezek 37.15-23; Zech 13.9)!”

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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