---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Hosea 2"
description: "CHAPTER 2   :-. APPLICATION OF THE
SYMBOLS IN THE FIRST
CHAPTER. Israel"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/hosea/2"
---

CHAPTER 2

. APPLICATION OF THE
SYMBOLS IN THE FIRST
CHAPTER.
Israel's spiritual fornication,
and her threatened punishment: yet a promise of God's restored favor,
when chastisements have produced their designed effect.

**1. Say . . . unto . . . brethren,
Ammi,** &c.—that is, When the prediction () shall be accomplished, then ye will call one another, as
*brothers* and *sisters* in the family of God, Ammi and
Ruhamah.

**2. Plead**—expostulate.
**mother**—that is, the
nation *collectively.* The address is to "her children,"
that is, to the *individual* citizens of the state (compare ).
**for she is not my wife**—She
has deprived herself of her high privilege by spiritual adultery.
**out of her sight**—rather,
"from her face." Her very countenance unblushingly betrayed
her lust, as did also her exposed "breasts."

**3. set her as in the day . . . born**—
([Ezekiel 16:4](../../../kjv/ezekiel/16/4); [Ezekiel 23:25](../../../kjv/ezekiel/23/25);
[Ezekiel 23:26](../../../kjv/ezekiel/23/26); [Ezekiel 23:28](../../../kjv/ezekiel/23/28);
[Ezekiel 23:29](../../../kjv/ezekiel/23/29)). The day of her
political "birth" was when God delivered her from the
bondage of Egypt, and set up the theocracy.
**make her as a wilderness**—
([Jeremiah 6:8](../../../kjv/jeremiah/6/8); [Zephaniah 2:13](../../../kjv/zephaniah/2/13)).
Translate, "make her as the wilderness," namely, that in
which she passed forty years on her way to her goodly possession of
Canaan. With this agrees the mention of "thirst" (compare
[Jeremiah 2:6](../../../kjv/jeremiah/2/6)).

**4. her children**—Not even her
*individual* members shall escape the doom of the nation
collectively, for they are individually guilty.

**5. I will go after**—The *Hebrew*
expresses a *settled determination.*
**lovers**—the idols which
Israel fancied to be the givers of all their goods, whereas God gave
all these goods ([Hosea 2:8-13](../../../kjv/hosea/2/8-13);
compare [Jeremiah 44:17-19](../../../kjv/jeremiah/44/17-19)).
**bread and . . . water**—the
*necessaries* of life in food.
**wool . . . flax**—clothing.
**oil . . . drink**—perfumed
unguents and palatable drinks: the *luxuries* of Hebrew life.

**6, 7. thorns . . . wall**—
([Job 19:8](../../../kjv/job/19/8); [Lamentations 3:7](../../../kjv/lamentations/3/7);
[Lamentations 3:9](../../../kjv/lamentations/3/9)). The hindrances which
the captivity interposed between Israel and her idols. As she
attributes all her temporal blessings to idols, I will reduce her to
straits in which, when she in vain has sought help from false gods,
she will at last seek Me as her only God and Husband, as at the first
([Isaiah 54:5](../../../kjv/isaiah/54/5); [Jeremiah 3:14](../../../kjv/jeremiah/3/14);
[Ezekiel 16:8](../../../kjv/ezekiel/16/8)).
**then**—before Israel's
apostasy, under Jeroboam. The way of duty is hedged *about* with
thorns; it is the way of sin that is hedged *up* with thorns.
Crosses in an evil course are God's hedges to turn us from it.
Restraining grace and restraining providences (even sicknesses and
trials) are great blessings when they stop us in a course of sin.
Compare [Luke 15:14-18](../../../kjv/luke/15/14-18),
"I will arise, and go to my father." So here, "I will
go, and return," c. crosses in the both cases being sanctified
to produce this effect.

**8. she did not know that I**—not
the idols, as she thought: the "lovers" alluded to in .
**which they prepared for
Baal**—that is, of which they made images of Baal, or at least
the plate covering of them ([Hosea 8:4](../../../kjv/hosea/8/4)).
Baal was the Phoelignician sun-god: answering to the female Astarte,
the moon-goddess. The name of the idol is found in the Phoelignician
Hannibal, Hasdrubal. Israel borrowed it from the Tyrians.

**9. my corn . . . my wool . . . my
flax**—in contrast to "*my* bread . . . *my* wool
. . . *my* flax," (). Compare also , on God as the great First Cause giving these through
secondary instruments in nature. "Return, and take away,"
is equivalent to, "I will take back again," namely, by
sending storms, locusts, Assyrian enemies, &c. "Therefore,"
that is, because she did not acknowledge Me as the Giver.
**in the time thereof**—in
the harvest-time.

**10. lewdness**—rather, "the
shame of her nakedness"; laying aside the figure, "I will
expose her in *her state, bereft of every necessary,* before her
lovers," that is, the idols (personified, as if they could see),
who, nevertheless, can give her no help. "Discover" is
appropriate to stripping off the self-flatteries of her hypocrisy.

**11. her feast days**—of
Jeroboam's appointment, distinct from the Mosaic (). However, most of the Mosaic feasts, "new-moons"
and "sabbaths" to Jehovah, remained, but to degenerate
Israel worship was a weariness; they cared only for the carnal
indulgence on them ([Amos 8:5](../../../kjv/amos/8/5)).

**12. my rewards**—my hire as a
harlot ([Isaiah 23:17](../../../kjv/isaiah/23/17); [Isaiah 23:18](../../../kjv/isaiah/23/18)).
**lovers**—idols.
**destroy . . . vines . . .
make . . . forest**— ([Isaiah 5:6](../../../kjv/isaiah/5/6);
[Isaiah 7:23](../../../kjv/isaiah/7/23); [Isaiah 7:24](../../../kjv/isaiah/7/24)).
Fulfilled in the overthrow of Israel by Assyria ([Hosea 9:4](../../../kjv/hosea/9/4);
[Hosea 9:5](../../../kjv/hosea/9/5)).

**13. days of Baalim**—the days
consecrated to the Baals, or various images of Baal in different
cities, whence the names *Baal-gad, Baal-hermon,* c.
**decked herself with . . .
earrings**—rather, "nose-rings" ([Isaiah 3:21](../../../kjv/isaiah/3/21)
[Ezekiel 16:12](../../../kjv/ezekiel/16/12), *Margin*), with
which harlots decked themselves to attract admirers: answering to the
ornaments in which the Israelites decked themselves on the idols'
feasts.
**forgat me**—worse than
the nations which had never known God. Israel *wilfully apostatized*
from Jehovah, whom she had known.

**14. Therefore**—rather,
"Nevertheless" [HENDERSON].
*English Version* gives a more lovely idea of God. That which
would provoke all others to unappeasable wrath, Israel's perversity
and consequent punishment, is made a reason why God should at last
have mercy on her. As the "therefore" () expresses Israel's punishment as the *consequence* of
Israel's guilt, so "therefore" here, as in , expresses, that when that punishment has effected its
designed end, the hedging up her way with thorns so that she returns
to God, her first love, the *consequence* in God's wondrous
grace is, He "speaks comfortably" (literally, "speaks
to her heart"; compare [Judges 19:8](../../../kjv/judges/19/8);
[Ruth 2:13](../../../kjv/ruth/2/13)). So obstinate is she
that God has to "allure her," that is, so to temper
judgment with unlooked-for grace as to *win* her to His ways.
For this purpose it was necessary to "bring her into the
wilderness" (that is, into temporal want and trials) first, to
make her sin hateful to her by its bitter fruits, and God's
subsequent grace the more precious to her by the contrast of the
"wilderness." JEROME
makes the "bringing into the wilderness" to be rather a
*deliverance from her enemies,* just as ancient Israel was
brought into the wilderness from the bondage of Egypt; to this the
phrase here alludes (compare [Ruth 2:13](../../../kjv/ruth/2/13)). The wilderness sojourn, however, is not literal, but
moral: while still in the land of their enemies *locally,* by
the discipline of the trial rendering the word of God sweet to them,
they are to be brought *morally* into the wilderness state, that
is, into a state of preparedness for returning to their temporal and
spiritual privileges in their own land; just as the literal
wilderness prepared their fathers for Canaan: thus the bringing of
them into the *wilderness state* is *virtually* a
deliverance from their enemies.

**15. from thence**—returning from
the wilderness. God gives Israel a fresh grant of Canaan, which she
had forfeited; so of her vineyards, c. ([Hosea 2:9](../../../kjv/hosea/2/9)
[Hosea 2:12](../../../kjv/hosea/2/12)).
**Achor**—that is,
"trouble." As formerly Israel, after their tedious journey
through the wilderness, met with the *trouble* resulting from
Achan's crime in this valley, on the very threshold of Canaan, and
yet that *trouble* was presently turned into *joy* at the
great victory at Ai, which threw all Canaan into their hands ([Hosea 2:12](../../../kjv/hosea/2/12)); so the very trouble of Israel's wilderness state will
be the "door of hope" opening to better days. The valley of
Achor, near Jericho, was specially fruitful ([Hosea 2:12](../../../kjv/hosea/2/12)); so "trouble" and "hope" are rightly
blended in connection with it.
**sing . . . as . . . when she
came . . . out of . . . Egypt**—It shall be a second exodus song,
such as Israel sang after the deliverance at the Red Sea ([Hosea 2:12](../../../kjv/hosea/2/12); compare [Isaiah 11:15](../../../kjv/isaiah/11/15);
[Isaiah 11:16](../../../kjv/isaiah/11/16)); and "the song of
Moses" ([Revelation 15:2](../../../kjv/revelation/15/2); [Revelation 15:3](../../../kjv/revelation/15/3))
sung by those who through the Lamb overcome the beast, and so stand
on the sea of glass mingled with fire, emblems of fiery trial, such
as that of Israel at the Red Sea.

**16. Ishi . . . no more Baali**—"my
*Husband* . . . no more my *Lord.*" *Affection*
is the prominent idea in "Husband"; *rule,* in "Lord."
The chief reason for the substitution of *Husband* for *Lord*
appears in [Hosea 2:17](../../../kjv/hosea/2/17); namely,
*Baali,* the *Hebrew* for *my Lord,* had been
perverted to express the images of Baal, whose name ought not to be
taken on their lips ([Exodus 23:13](../../../kjv/exodus/23/13);
[Zechariah 13:2](../../../kjv/zechariah/13/2)).

**17. Baalim**—*plural,*
expressing the various images of Baal, which, according to the places
of their erection, received various names, Baal-gad, Baal-ammon, &c.

**18. for them**—for their
benefit.
**covenant . . . with the
beasts**—not to hurt them (). They shall fulfil the original law of their creation by
becoming subject to man, when man fulfils the law of his being by
being subject to God. To be realized fully in millennial times ().
**break the bow . . . out of
the earth**—rather, "out of the *land*"; that is,
I will break *and remove* war out of the earth (); and "out of the *land*" *of Israel*
first ([Isaiah 2:4](../../../kjv/isaiah/2/4); [Ezekiel 39:9](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/9);
[Ezekiel 39:10](../../../kjv/ezekiel/39/10); [Zechariah 9:9](../../../kjv/zechariah/9/9);
[Zechariah 9:10](../../../kjv/zechariah/9/10)).
**lie down**—A reclining
posture is the usual one with Orientals when not in action.
**safely**— ([Zechariah 9:10](../../../kjv/zechariah/9/10)).

**19, 20.** "Betroth" is
*thrice* repeated, implying the intense love of God to His
people; and perhaps, also, *the three Persons* of the *Triune
God,* severally engaging to make good the betrothal. The marriage
covenant will be as it were renewed from the beginning, on a
different footing; not for a time only, as before, through the
apostasy of the people, but "forever" through the grace of
God writing the law on their hearts by the Spirit of Messiah ().
**righteousness . . .
judgment**—in rectitude and truth.
**loving-kindness,**
c.—Hereby God assures Israel, who might doubt the possibility of
their restoration to His favor low, sunk, and unworthy as thou art. I
will restore thee from a regard to My own "loving-kindness,"
not thy merits.

**20. faithfulness**—to My new
covenant of grace with thee ([1 Thessalonians 5:24](../../../kjv/1-thessalonians/5/24);
[Hebrews 10:23](../../../kjv/hebrews/10/23)).

**21. in that day**—of grace to
Israel.
**heavens . . . hear the
earth**—personification. However many be the intermediate
instruments, God is the Great First Cause of all nature's phenomena.
God had threatened ([Hosea 2:9](../../../kjv/hosea/2/9)) He
would *take back His corn, His wine,* c. Here, on the contrary,
God promises to *hearken to the skies,* as it were, supplicating
Him to fill them with rain to pour on the earth and that the skies
again would hearken to the earth begging for a supply of the rain it
requires; and again, that the earth would hearken to the corn, wine,
and oil, begging it to bring them forth; and these again would hear
Jezreel, that is, would fulfil Israel's prayers for a supply of them.
Israel is now no longer "Jezreel" in the sense, "*God
will* SCATTER" ([Hosea 2:9](../../../kjv/hosea/2/9)), but in the sense, "*God will* PLANT"
([Hosea 1:11](../../../kjv/hosea/1/11)).

**23. I will sow her**—referring
to the meaning of *Jezreel* ().

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