---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Hosea 1"
description: "CHAPTER 1   :-. INSCRIPTION. Spiritual whoredom of Israel set
forth by symbolical acts; Gomer taken to wife at God"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/hosea/1"
---

CHAPTER 1

. INSCRIPTION.
Spiritual whoredom of Israel set
forth by symbolical acts; Gomer taken to wife at God's command:
Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah, and Lo-Ammi, the children. Yet a promise of
Judah and Israel's restoration.

**1. The word of the Lord that came
unto Hosea**—See 
**Jeroboam**—the second;
who died in the fifteenth year of Uzziah's forty-one years' reign.
From his time forth *all* Israel's kings worshipped false gods:
Zachariah ([2 Kings 15:9](../../../kjv/2-kings/15/9)), Menahem
([2 Kings 15:18](../../../kjv/2-kings/15/18)), Pekahiah ([2 Kings 15:18](../../../kjv/2-kings/15/18)), Pekah ([2 Kings 15:28](../../../kjv/2-kings/15/28)),
Hoshea ([2 Kings 17:2](../../../kjv/2-kings/17/2)). As Israel
was most flourishing externally under Jeroboam II, who recovered the
possessions seized on by Syria, Hosea's prophecy of its downfall at
that time was the more striking as it could not have been foreseen by
mere human sagacity. Jonah the prophet had promised success to
Jeroboam II from God, not for the king's merit, but from God's mercy
to Israel; so the coast of Israel was restored by Jeroboam II from
the entering of Hamath to the sea of the plain ([2 Kings 17:2](../../../kjv/2-kings/17/2)).

**2. beginning**—not of the
prophet's predictions generally, but of those spoken by *Hosea.*
**take . . . wife of
whoredoms**—not externally acted, but internally and in vision,
as a pictorial illustration of Israel's unfaithfulness
[HENGSTENBERG]. Compare
[Ezekiel 16:8](../../../kjv/ezekiel/16/8); [Ezekiel 16:15](../../../kjv/ezekiel/16/15),
c. Besides the loathsomeness of such a marriage, if an external act,
it would require years for the birth of three children, which would
weaken the symbol (compare [Ezekiel 4:4](../../../kjv/ezekiel/4/4)).
HENDERSON objects that
there is no hint of the transaction being fictitious: Gomer fell into
lewdness *after* her union with Hosea, not before for thus only
she was a fit symbol of Israel, who lapsed into spiritual whoredom
*after* the marriage contract with God on Sinai, and made even
before at the call of the patriarchs of Israel. Gomer is called "a
wife of whoredoms," anticipatively.
**children of whoredoms**—The
kingdom collectively is viewed as a *mother;* the individual
subjects of it are spoken of as her *children.* "Take"
being applied to both implies that they refer to the same thing
viewed under different aspects. The "children" were not the
prophet's own, but born of adultery, and presented to him as his
[KITTO, *Biblical
Cyclopædia*]. Rather, "children of whoredoms" means
that the children, like their mother, fell into spiritual
fornication. Compare "bare *him* a son" (see [Hosea 2:4](../../../kjv/hosea/2/4);
[Hosea 2:5](../../../kjv/hosea/2/5)). Being children of a
spiritual whore, they naturally fell into her whorish ways.

**3. Gomer . . . daughter of
Diblaim**—symbolical names; literally, "completion, daughter
of grape cakes"; the dual expressing the double layers in which
these dainties were baked. So, *one completely given up to
sensuality.* MAURER
explains "Gomer" as literally, "a burning coal."
Compare [Proverbs 6:27](../../../kjv/proverbs/6/27); [Proverbs 6:29](../../../kjv/proverbs/6/29),
as to an adulteress; [Job 31:9](../../../kjv/job/31/9);
[Job 31:12](../../../kjv/job/31/12).

**4. Jezreel**—that is, "God
will scatter" (compare ). It was the royal city of Ahab and his successors, in the
tribe of Issachar. Here Jehu exercised his greatest cruelties
([2 Kings 9:16](../../../kjv/2-kings/9/16); [2 Kings 9:25](../../../kjv/2-kings/9/25);
[2 Kings 9:33](../../../kjv/2-kings/9/33); [2 Kings 10:11](../../../kjv/2-kings/10/11);
[2 Kings 10:14](../../../kjv/2-kings/10/14); [2 Kings 10:17](../../../kjv/2-kings/10/17)).
There is in the name an allusion to "Israel" by a play of
letters and sounds.

**5. bow**—the prowess (; compare [Genesis 49:24](../../../kjv/genesis/49/24)).
**valley of Jezreel**—afterwards
called Esdraelon, extending ten miles in breadth, and in length from
Jordan to the Mediterranean near Mount Carmel, the great battlefield
of Palestine ([Judges 6:33](../../../kjv/judges/6/33); [1 Samuel 29:1](../../../kjv/1-samuel/29/1)).

**6. Lo-ruhamah**—that is, "not
an object of mercy or gracious favor."
**take . . . away**—Israel,
as a kingdom, was never restored from Assyria, as Judah was from
Babylon after seventy years. MAURER
translates according to the primary meaning, "No more will I
have mercy on the house of Israel, so as to *pardon* them."

**7.** *Judah* is only
incidentally mentioned to form a contrast to *Israel.*
**by the Lord their God**—more
emphatic than "by Myself"; by that Jehovah (Me) whom they
worship as *their God,* whereas ye despise Him.
**not . . . by bow**—on
which ye Israelites rely ([Hosea 1:5](../../../kjv/hosea/1/5),
"the bow of Israel"); Jeroboam II was famous as a warrior
([2 Kings 14:25](../../../kjv/2-kings/14/25)). Yet it was not by
their warlike power Jehovah would save Judah ([1 Samuel 17:47](../../../kjv/1-samuel/17/47);
[Psalms 20:7](../../../kjv/psalms/20/7)). The deliverance of
Jerusalem from Sennacherib ([Psalms 20:7](../../../kjv/psalms/20/7)), and the restoration from Babylon, are herein predicted.

**8. weaned**—said to complete the
symbolical picture, not having any special signification as to Israel
[HENDERSON]. Israel was
bereft of all the privileges which were as needful to them as milk is
to infants (compare [Psalms 131:2](../../../kjv/psalms/131/2);
[1 Peter 2:2](../../../kjv/1-peter/2/2)) [VATABLUS].
Israel was *not suddenly,* but *gradually* cast off; God
bore with them with long-suffering, until they were incurable
[CALVIN]. But as it is not
God, but *Gomer* who weans Lo-ruhamah, the weaning may imply the
lust of Gomer, who was hardly weaned when she is again pregnant
[MANGER].

**9. Lo-Ammi**—once "My
people," but henceforth *not* so (). The intervals between the marriage and the successive
births of the three children, imply that three successive generations
are intended. Jezreel, the first child, represents the dynasty of
Jeroboam I and his successors, ending with Jehu's shedding the blood
of Jeroboam's line in Jezreel; it was there that Jezebel was slain,
in vengeance for Naboth's blood shed in the same Jezreel ([1 Kings 16:1](../../../kjv/1-kings/16/1);
[2 Kings 9:21](../../../kjv/2-kings/9/21); [2 Kings 9:30](../../../kjv/2-kings/9/30)).
The scenes of Jezreel were to be enacted over again on Jehu's
degenerate race. At Jezreel Assyria routed Israel [JEROME].
The child's name associates past sins, intermediate punishments, and
final overthrow. Lo-ruhamah ("not pitied"), the second
child, is a *daughter,* representing the effeminate period which
followed the overthrow of the first dynasty, when Israel was at once
abject and impious. Lo-Ammi ("not my people"), the third
child, a *son,* represents the vigorous dynasty ([2 Kings 9:30](../../../kjv/2-kings/9/30)) of Jeroboam II; but, as prosperity did not bring with it
revived piety, they were still *not God's people.*

**10.** Literally fulfilled *in
part* at the return from Babylon, in which many Israelites joined
with Judah. Spiritually, the believing seed of Jacob or Israel,
Gentiles as well as Jews, numerous "as the sand" (); the Gentiles, once not God's people, becoming His "sons"
([John 1:12](../../../kjv/john/1/12); [Romans 9:25](../../../kjv/romans/9/25);
[Romans 9:26](../../../kjv/romans/9/26); [1 Peter 2:10](../../../kjv/1-peter/2/10);
[1 John 3:1](../../../kjv/1-john/3/1)). To be fulfilled in its
literal *fulness* hereafter in Israel's restoration ([1 John 3:1](../../../kjv/1-john/3/1)).
**the living God**—opposed
to their *dead* idols.

**11. Judah . . . Israel . . .
together**— ([Isaiah 11:12](../../../kjv/isaiah/11/12);
[Isaiah 11:13](../../../kjv/isaiah/11/13); [Jeremiah 3:18](../../../kjv/jeremiah/3/18);
[Ezekiel 34:23](../../../kjv/ezekiel/34/23); [Ezekiel 37:16-24](../../../kjv/ezekiel/37/16-24)).
**one head**—Zerubbabel
typically; Christ antitypically, under whom alone Israel and Judah
are joined, the "Head" of the Church ([Ephesians 1:22](../../../kjv/ephesians/1/22);
[Ephesians 5:23](../../../kjv/ephesians/5/23)), and of the hereafter
united kingdom of Judah and Israel ([Jeremiah 34:5](../../../kjv/jeremiah/34/5);
[Jeremiah 34:6](../../../kjv/jeremiah/34/6); [Ezekiel 34:23](../../../kjv/ezekiel/34/23)).
Though "appointed" by the Father ([Ezekiel 34:23](../../../kjv/ezekiel/34/23)), Christ is in another sense "appointed" as their
Head by His people, when they accept and embrace Him as such.
**out of the land**—of the
Gentiles among whom they sojourn.
**the day of Jezreel**—"The
day of one" is the time of God's special visitation of him,
either in wrath or in mercy. Here "Jezreel" is in a
different sense from that in [Hosea 1:4](../../../kjv/hosea/1/4),
"God will sow," not "God will scatter"; they
shall be *the seed of God,* planted by God again in their own
land ([Jeremiah 24:6](../../../kjv/jeremiah/24/6); [Jeremiah 31:28](../../../kjv/jeremiah/31/28);
[Jeremiah 32:41](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/41); [Amos 9:15](../../../kjv/amos/9/15)).

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