Annotations for Hosea

1:1 Superscription: Hosea’s Ministry Timed to the Reigns of Several Kings. The superscription is fairly extensive for a prophetic book (for a shorter example, see Mal 1:1; for a longer example, see Jer 1:1–3). By coordination to the reigns of four kings of Judah and one king of Israel, it dates Hosea’s prophetic ministry to the mid- and late eighth century BC, the time of events described in 2 Kgs 15–20 and 2 Chr 26–32.

1:2—3:5 Marriage Themes: Israel as God’s Wayward Wife. The first three chapters of the book each contain symbolic marriage stories that illustrate God’s covenant with Israel and are part of the widely attested biblical analogy of the people of God as his “bride” (cf. Rev 21:2). In all cultures, people have understood that marriage, properly practiced, is the most intimate and long-lasting human contractual arrangement (covenant). Thus, marriage serves as an analogy for Israel’s covenant relationship with God. Both the OT and NT liken God’s people to his bride: beloved to him, special in his plans, and by reason of his gracious love, called into his eternal compassion and care. Indeed, God’s people are worthy of his Son’s death on a cruel cross for the redemption of their sins. In chs. 1–3 that sort of covenant love is foreshadowed in three detailed stories that tell of God’s love, his people’s rejecting him, his efforts to win them back, and his great favor toward them after they return. In each of the three symbolic stories, he punishes his people for their infidelity to his covenant, so he is not a “soft” or standardless God; but he also restores and forgives them completely when they return to him.

1:2—2:1 Hosea’s Wife and Children. God instructs Hosea to perform a symbolic action (also called enactment prophecy or dramatized prophecy). Its purpose is to illustrate that all Israelites, without exception, were tainted by Israel’s moral corruption via idolatry and associated evils. Symbolic action reports combine vivid illustrative actions with divine pronouncements so as to impress God’s word on a prophet’s audience. Similar examples include Isaiah’s going stripped and barefoot to symbolize how the Cushites would go into Assyrian exile (Isa 20:1–4), Ezekiel’s building a model of the siege of Jerusalem and acting out related prophecies of the coming Babylonian siege and eventual capture of Jerusalem (Ezek 4:1—5:17), and Jeremiah’s buying a field to symbolize the eventual restoration of normal life in Judah after its exile (Jer 32:1–15). Hos 3:1–5 is also such a symbolic action report, using a marriage relationship in which there was no intimacy to illustrate God’s coming confinement of Israel via exile.

1:2–3 Wife, Children, and Land Symbolize Pervasive Idolatry. The NIV uses three different English terms (“promiscuous,” “adulterous,” “guilty of unfaithfulness”) to render a single Hebrew term that describes Hosea’s wife (see note on v. 2).

1:2 promiscuous woman. Other prophets use the term translated here “promiscuous” figuratively, in parallel to its usage in Hosea (e.g., Jer 3:1–3; Ezek 16; 23; Mic 1:7). In a marriage covenant, the practice of adultery by a spouse is an extreme form of unfaithfulness. In Israel’s covenant with God, idolatry is an extreme form of unfaithfulness on the part of his “bride.” A marriage covenant requires fidelity, and likewise, the Mosaic covenant begins with the requirement to “have no other gods” and prohibits making “an image in the form of anything” (Exod 20:3–4). “Promiscuity,” “adultery,” “prostitution,” and similar terms connote idolatry and polytheism in both the OT (e.g., Judg 2:17) and the NT (e.g., Rev 17:1–18; 19:1–3). But why apply such language to Hosea’s wife, children, and indeed the whole land of Israel? The reason is that everyone in Israel was being affected by idolatry in one way or another. In other words, any woman Hosea marries and any children he has will be or will have the potential to be tainted by the ubiquitous idolatry that already taints everyone in northern Israel. It is not sexual immorality but spiritual unfaithfulness that is in view here, and its widespread nature (cf. Judg 8:27: “all Israel prostituted themselves”) is symbolized by what God commands Hosea to do.

1:4–9 Three Unpleasant Children’s Names Predict Judgment. God commanded that all three children receive abnormal (negative) names—unusual in any culture—so that all who met them would likely ask about the reason for their unusual names and would learn from those names about God’s plans for Israel via this enactment prophecy—an effective way of spreading the message throughout Hosea’s homeland.

1:4–5 The enactment prophecy continues with a symbolic naming of the first child. The name Jezreel (“God scatters”) recalls the location of a great slaughter in Israel’s past (2 Kgs 10:11) and predicts an even greater one in the future for Israel. The predicted slaughter will be fulfilled in the Assyrian conquest of northern Israel in 722 BC.

1:6–7 Their second child, a girl, also gets a symbolic negative name: Lo-Ruhamah. means “not loved.” The statement for I will no longer show love to Israel predicts God’s coming rejection of northern Israel for its idolatry and overall covenant unfaithfulness. That rejection will spare Judah, which survived by God’s grace for another century and a half until its demise in 586 BC (2 Kgs 25:1–26; 2 Chr 36:15–21).

1:8–9 The last child, another son, receives a name that also symbolizes rejection: Lo-Ammi. That name means “not my people.” The statement for you are not my people, and I am not your God parallels ancient divorce formulas and connotes divine rejection as predicted in the covenant curses of Lev 26 and Deut 28–32. Here the first symbolic action report ends.

1:10—2:1 Reversal of Names: Restoration in “the Day of Jezreel.” These verses are kept together in the Hebrew rather than divided between chapters as in the later tradition that produced the English chapter system. They constitute a restoration blessing based solely on the grace of God, by faith and not by works of the law (Gen 15:5–6; Rom 4:1–3; Gal 3:6). Instead of a “scattered,” “unloved,” people who are “not God’s,” they will “come together” as the “loved” “children of the living God.” Paul cites these verses in detail in Rom 9:25–26, confirming that Christ’s death and resurrection brought about this reversal.

1:10 like the sand on the seashore. This wording echoes predictions in the promises to Abraham that one day the Israelites would again be as numerous as “the sand on the seashore” (Gen 22:17; see Gen 32:12).

1:11 will come together . . . will come up out of the land. After the respective exiles of Israel and Judah, God’s people would be reunited and restored (cf. Ezek 37), reversing the curses described in Hos 1:2–9. This prediction that God’s people will return from exile and be reunited was not fully accomplished in OT times but is fulfilled in Christ. The unity of all God’s people—including the Gentiles who believe—is a major theme in NT teaching (e.g., John 17:23; Eph 4:13). one leader. The key person in this scenario is Jesus, who notably drew to himself both northerners (Samaritans) and southerners (Jews/Judahites).

2:1 your brothers . . . your sisters. The previously negative names are changed to positive names and applied to all Israel, confirming the reversal of the curses contained in 1:2–9.

2:2–23 Israel Punished and Restored. The literary form is a prophetic covenant lawsuit (in this case, a symbolic divorce trial). Hosea uses the covenant lawsuit device in other places as well, including ch. 4 (cf. also Isa 1–3; Jer 2; Amos 3–4; Mic 6). Such prophecies imagine God playing several roles in a court trial (plaintiff, prosecutor, judge, jailer) and summoning Israel (the defendant) into court. God presents the evidence of Israel’s crimes (ways they have broken God’s covenant law), finds Israel guilty, pronounces the judgment sentence (various forms of deprivation and discipline, most commonly exile), and announces Israel’s future as a convicted covenant-breaker. In the short term, that future will involve great hardship and confinement as Israel is conquered by a foreign power and exiled; in the long term, God’s people are eventually shown great mercy because God never forgets his promises.

2:2–13 Divorce Proceedings: An Allegory of God and Israel. The divorce trial is based on Israel’s infidelity to the divine covenant, symbolized by her “adulterous look” and “unfaithfulness” described in v. 2.

2:2 your mother. Throughout the allegory, the children and the mother are simply ways of referring to Israel (children = citizens; mother = corporate nation). God orders the children to testify in court against their mother, symbolizing the need for the people of Israel to bring about godly change in their nation, which God is currently in the process of “divorcing”—rejecting and exiling (“she is not my wife, and I am not her husband”).

2:3 strip her naked. A play on the Hebrew concept of exile, which is usually rendered by a word that literally means “strip” (away from one’s land). desert . . . parched land. Israel’s coming deprivation would be so severe it is compared to changing a fruitful country into a desert, a parched land.

2:4–7 God’s covenant punishments will produce deprivation designed to cause Israel to repent of idolatry. The “children of adultery” (“prostitution,” Hosea’s standard metaphor for idolatry) and their “mother” who “has been unfaithful” must have their freedom taken away so that Israel will have no choice but to “go back” to the Lord, her “husband as at first” (v. 7).

2:6 Therefore. This word introduces the first of three verdicts of the divine Judge, the Lord. The first two (vv. 6–8, 9–13) involve punishments, but the final “therefore” (v. 14) mercifully reverses Israel’s fortunes, yet only after the coming exile.

2:8 I was the one who gave her the grain, new wine and oil. It was the Lord who actually gave Israel any blessings they had. Worship of Baal had been promoted by the northern king Ahab (1 Kgs 16:29–33) and had been fought by the prophet Elijah (1 Kgs 18:16–40), but it had once again become popular in northern Israel in Hosea’s day. Baal. This Canaanite deity was thought to be a fertility god whose blessing brought wealth (“silver and gold”) to an agrarian society.

2:9-13 Therefore. This introduces the second verdict (see note on v. 6). grain . . . wine . . . wool . . . linen . . . celebrations . . . vines . . . fig trees. Things the Israelites held dear; they would be stopped and/or taken away.

2:12 which she said were her pay from her lovers. Again, Israelites attributed their blessings to false gods (“her lovers”).

2:13 the Baals. A way of referring to various gods, including multiple aspects of Baal.

2:14–23 Restoration of the Marriage: God’s Future Covenant With His People. “Therefore” (v. 14) introduces the final verdict (see note on v. 6) and looks far beyond the punishments of exile and deprivation. In contrast to what has preceded, this verdict announces hope and promise. God’s merciful plan for his people includes redemption and restoration on a scale not found in any OT era but available abundantly in Christ (1 Cor 2:7–10).

2:14-15 wilderness. The term may recall the early years (“as in the days of her youth”), after Israel “came up out of Egypt” when God directly led his people through the wilderness and they followed him closely (Exod 12:1—Deut 34:12). Valley of Achor. A notorious instance of disobedience from the past (Josh 7); now it will yield to future obedience (“she will respond”) and “hope.”

2:16-17 husband. One meaning of the name Baal was “husband,” so God predicts the day when his people won’t say “Baal” anymore, avoiding the way of saying “my husband” that uses the word “Baal” and saying “my husband” via other Hebrew wordings. They will give God undivided loyalty and will reject the falsehood and folly that worship of the Baals represented.

2:18 I will make a covenant for them with the beasts . . . the birds . . . the creatures. The new covenant will change everything, bringing peace and safety, and bringing back the original idyllic harmony with nature once enjoyed in Eden (Gen 1:28–30).

2:19–20 God will “betroth” his people in a covenant relationship so that they will finally “acknowledge the LORD,” as they should have been doing in Hosea’s time.

2:21–23 A glorious renewal in the new covenant age. God will undo and transform various facets of Israel’s prior corruption (vv. 2–14) into good things, so that even the names of Hosea’s children (1:4–8) will be endowed with new meaning (see note on 2:23).

2:23 The names Jezreel (1:4), Lo-Ruhamah (1:6), and Lo-Ammi (1:9) are changed to positive forms: I will plant her for myself. Jezreel, though a reminder of a massacre, means “God plants.” I will show my love. Lo-Ruhamah means “not loved.” You are my people. Lo-Ammi means “not my people.” In Rom 9:25–26 and 1 Pet 2:10, the expansive wording of this verse is shown not only to describe repentant Israelites but to predict the inclusion of converted Gentiles in the church.

3:1–5 Hosea’s Reconciliation With His Wife. This chapter contains a second symbolic action report, which, with the symbolic action report contained in 1:2—2:1, surrounds the marriage allegory of God and Israel found in 2:2–23. Thus, marriage themes dominate the first three chapters of the book, after which other themes are introduced.

3:1–3 Another Marriage, This Time Unconsummated. The NIV section heading, “Hosea’s Reconciliation With His Wife,” is carefully worded so as to refer potentially either to Gomer (1:3) or to another wife married either actually or symbolically after Gomer’s death. If it is the latter, then 3:4 would represent the reconciliation with that second wife. No evidence exists to fill in the details or to resolve the questions, but the message for God’s people of 3:1–5 is not in doubt. The passage describes a marriage without intimacy, in contrast to that of 1:2–9, as a prediction of Israel’s confinement via its coming exile, again using the human covenant of marriage to illustrate the covenant of God with his people.

3:1 Go, show your love to your wife again. Here again, God’s love for Israel—the key theme and promise of the book of Hosea—is vividly on display, foreshadowing the way God, in Christ, willingly forgives and accepts sinners (Rom 4:7–8; 5:6–11). “Go again, love a woman” is the literal translation of the original, thus not necessarily pointing to the wife named in 1:3. This symbolic action report describes a second marriage under different circumstances from Hosea’s first marriage. Now, the anonymous woman nevertheless has an immoral past (“adulteress”) whose personal history of infidelity thus parallels Israel’s (“as the LORD loves the Israelites”). raisin cakes. These were often eaten in pagan religious feasts; their mention suggests Israel’s willingness to sell out cheaply to other gods (via idolatry and polytheism).

3:2 A bride-price, paid in this case via silver and barley, signified a woman’s value to her family. It was a compensation paid in OT times to the family a woman left when she married and went to live with her husband. It did not mean that her husband owned her like property, but it did symbolize her great worth both to the family she left and to her husband. Israel is very precious to God; his love for her is not casual. In the NT, the “price” God pays to redeem his people is high indeed: the death of his own beloved Son (1 Cor 6:20; 7:23).

3:3 not . . . be intimate. Since this marriage seems to be primarily symbolic, in contrast to what would typically happen after a new marriage, it will not be consummated. Hosea tells his bride that they can have no intimate relations. For those who take this marriage to be a recommitment by Hosea to Gomer, the original marriage having been consummated, these words represent a prohibition of sexual relations going forward. In either case, the wording points to Israel’s confinement, like a shunned wife, in exile.

3:4–5 Israel’s Exile as Punishment for Covenant Infidelity. The wording now makes clear that the previous enactment symbolized the coming exile.

3:4 without king or prince. Israel will be under foreign domination in exile, without its own government. sacred stones . . . ephod . . . household gods. These are items Israel revered in a pagan fashion in Hosea’s day. They will be forced to live and worship in a foreign religious setting, without these familiar possessions (Deut 4:28; 28:36, 64).

3:5 return . . . in the last days. After the punishments, including Israel’s exile, have ended, the return to the Lord in the last days (the new covenant era) will include reunification of all of God’s people in Christ’s kingdom. David. Jesus is the new David of prophecy (cf. 2 Sam 7:11b–16; Isa 9:7; 55:3; Jer 23:5; Ezek 34:23–24; Matt 22:42; Rev 22:16). Israel will have learned her lesson and will be restored to God in Christ in a way not yet experienced in the old covenant (Deut 30:5–6). Israel and Judah were politically and religiously divided from one another in Hosea’s day and had been so for two centuries, since the death of Solomon (1 Kgs 12). David their king. The idea of reunification with David as their king may have seemed out of the question to Hosea’s contemporaries, but just as Israel and Judah had been united under the first David (2 Sam 5:1–5), they would again be united under David’s greater Son (Matt 22:41–45) in fulfillment of God’s covenant promise to David himself (2 Sam 7:16).

4:1—9:8 Judgment Warnings Involving Israel’s Present and Future. This central section of the book contains a variety of prophecies in various styles warning that the nation will continue to deteriorate in the short term, and it will not be spared but will be conquered and exiled. Only eventually, after much trial and deprivation, will Israel be restored to God by his grace.

4:1–19 The Charge Against Israel. As in 2:2–23, this imagines Israel on trial. This is more a general criminal trial than a divorce proceeding, but it is for the same sorts of crimes: idolatry, polytheism, and related covenant violations.

4:1–14 Another Covenant Lawsuit Against Israel. This section is structured in such a way that the evidence for Israel’s covenant-breaking is interspersed with judgment sentences (verdicts) that are pronounced on the basis of that evidence.

4:1-2 no love, no acknowledgment of God. A way of indicating general disobedience to the covenant. murder, stealing and adultery. Specific violations of the Ten Commandments.

4:3 dries up . . . waste away . . . swept away. These predictions recall the covenant curses of Deut 28–32, including drought, famine, and decimation (cf. Jer 14).

4:4–9 No citizen can rightfully “bring a charge” (v. 4) against “mother” Israel (v. 5; cf. 2:2) because they are all guilty: the prophets, the priests, the people.

4:5 prophets. In this case, false prophets, who led the people away from the Lord.

4:6 reject you as my priests. Israel was to be a nation of priests to the world (Exod 19:6), but their sins disqualify them.

4:7 they exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful. A description of idolatry. Both the temple priests and the people collaborated in ignoring and/or breaking God’s law, especially by condoning and practicing idolatry, so God will punish both people and priests (v. 9).

4:10–14 Once again Hosea’s favorite metaphor for idolatry, “prostitution,” conveys the idea of infidelity to God’s covenant law, including the often alcohol-fueled (v. 11) pagan practices of idolatry and divination (v. 12), showing that they are “unfaithful” (v. 12).

4:13 on the hills. Pagan idolatry typically took place at hilltop shrines (cf. Jer 3:6).

4:14 I will not punish your daughters. This does not mean that the women who chose to “turn to prostitution” bore no guilt, but indicates that God would not punish only the women without also punishing the whole “people without understanding.” sacrifice with shrine prostitutes. Idolatry sometimes included actual ritual prostitution with cult prostitutes who may have represented fertility goddesses. In this context Hosea uses the term “prostitution” literally to describe such debauchery practiced in the name of religion (cf. Lev 19:29; 2 Kgs 23:7; Amos 2:7–8).

4:15–19 Israel’s Guilt a Warning to Judah. Even though Hosea preached in the north, his message showed concern from time to time for Judah as well. He warns that Judah must stay away from the places and practices that corrupted and doomed (northern) Israel.

4:15 Israel . . . Judah. The “adultery” (idolatry) of northern Israel did not yet infect Judah as mortally as it did Israel. But in another century and a half, when Judah’s own sins would bring them into exile, Judah would “become guilty” as well. Gilgal. See note on 9:15. Beth Aven. See note on 10:5.

4:17 Ephraim. Northern Israel. This is the first of 37 times in the book that Israel is called Ephraim, partly because Ephraim was the northern tribe most associated with leadership from Genesis to Judges and also because Ephraim was the central and most populous tribal territory that managed to survive the Syro-Ephraimite war, ca. 734–732 BC (see 5:5–8 and note on 5:8–15). But Ephraim fell to the Assyrians in 722 BC. The last of the people and even their “rulers” (v. 18) would be swept away by the Assyrian conquest because of their idolatrous sacrifices and the syndrome of disobedience to God that such sacrifices represented (v. 19).

5:1–15 Judgment Against Israel. Not only are the leaders of the nation and the population in general guilty of disobedience so great that “their deeds do not permit them to return to their God” (v. 4), but Israel and Judah find themselves fighting against each other in a war (vv. 8–15) that represented God’s “wrath on them like a flood of water” (v. 10).

5:1–7 Indictment of People and Leaders for “Prostitution” (Idolatry) and Evil Deeds. When a nation’s religious leaders (“priests,” v. 1) and government leaders (“royal house,” v. 1) are corrupt, they help turn the population in general (“Israelites,” v. 1) toward corrupt ways.

5:1 Mizpah . . . Tabor. These cities serve as examples of cult centers where pagan worship took place, and memorably so, because in Hebrew the word for “snare” sounds similar to the last syllable of Mizpah, and part of the words for “net spread” sound similar to “Tabor.”

5:4 deeds . . . spirit of prostitution. This pattern keeps Israel away from the only one who can forgive them and restore them: the Lord.

5:6 flocks and herds. Sacrificial animals. Since both northern Israel and Judah were practicing idolatry and false worship, it was unacceptable to bring sacrificial animals to try to mollify God by going through the motions of worshiping him while also worshiping other gods.

5:7 unfaithful . . . illegitimate children. In the manner of unfaithful women, the Israelites produce illegitimate children (yet more citizens devoted to pagan idolatry) whose practices will, in effect, allow others to take over their country (“devour their fields”) when God exiles them from their homeland.

5:8–15 War Between Israel and Judah and Its Aftermath. In ca. 734 BC northern Israel and Syria (Aram) went to war (“raise the battle cry,” v. 8) against Judah because Judah refused to join them in a war against their common enemy Assyria (2 Kgs 16:5–9). Judah’s king Ahaz appealed to Assyria for help, in effect saying, “Israel and Syria are attacking us because we won’t attack you.” Assyria quickly intervened, invaded Syria and northern Israel, and annexed their territory except for the part of Israel that belonged to the tribe of Ephraim. Thereafter, northern Israel was often called just Ephraim. Too late, Ephraim “turned to Assyria” (Hos 5:13) and tried to patch things up by paying tribute (2 Kgs 17:3), but Assyria soon conquered and annexed Ephraim anyway (2 Kgs 17:5–6).

5:10 move boundary stones. In effect stealing land; it was a serious crime (Deut 19:14; 27:17; Job 24:2). Some archaeological evidence indicates that Judah took advantage of the Assyrian attack on her neighbors by invading northern Israel and temporarily annexing the territory of Benjamin and the city of Bethel in Ephraim, thus acting like land thieves.

5:13-14 turned to Assyria. Israel was reduced to Ephraim but was not conquered totally only because it paid Assyria’s “great king,” Tiglath-Pileser III, tribute money. not able to heal. Paying tribute to Assyria could not really heal Israel’s sores because God would exile them (“I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them,” v. 14) for their continuing sins (“guilt,” v. 15), including the foolish notion that they could stop paying tribute once Tiglath-Pileser was dead and his son Shalmaneser reigned in his stead (2 Kgs 17:3–4).

5:15 earnestly seek me. Israel’s only future hope, as is ultimately the case with any person or nation, is to seek God’s forgiveness when in exile from him and his favor.

6:1—7:16 Israel Unrepentant. With a variety of descriptions of Israel’s stubborn disobedience, God shows how the nation is inexorably headed for destruction because it rebelled against him.

6:1–3 A Glimpse of What Could Be: God’s Healing of a Future Repentant People. It might seem that the opening line of this chapter promises a quick resolution of Israel’s problems and an almost immediate nullification of the consequences of their sins, but the book makes very clear that such a possibility is long past (e.g., 5:4, 6, 14; 6:11—7:2, 13–16; 9:3, 9, 11–12).

6:1 Come, let us return to the LORD. These words, like all restoration promises in the book, are about future redemption after Israel’s exile. They remind Hosea’s hearers and readers that there is hope beyond the dire predictions of the immediate future. Like all the OT prophets, Hosea looks beyond the coming time of deprivation (3:4) to the great era of the Spirit, the time of the new covenant, when God will “heal” what he has “torn” and “revive” and “restore” his people (vv. 1–2) that he once had “injured” (v. 1).

6:2 on the third day. This wording does not suggest that Hosea was trying specifically to describe Christ’s resurrection after three days; it is an idiomatic expression for God’s readiness and eagerness to show mercy to those who ask for it. Nevertheless, NT statements that Jesus was resurrected “on the third day” (Luke 24:46; 1 Cor 15:4) may have this wording in mind, since a close connection exists between Jesus the Messiah and his people (his “body”). So a three-day process for Israel’s “resurrection”—from being “torn . . . to pieces” (Hos 6:1) to being able to “live in [God’s] presence” (v. 2)—is a fitting model for the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus himself made the connection of his resurrection on the third day to the story of Jonah (Matt 12:40).

6:3 he will appear; he will come. Amid predictions of disaster and judgment, this reminds us that God comes to any who “acknowledge the LORD.”

6:4–11a God’s Frustration With His People. Both the north (Ephraim) and south (Judah) have shown a long history of “prostitution” (idolatry, polytheism), ignoring the warnings of God’s prophets and breaking his covenant.

6:5 Therefore I cut . . . I killed. God’s word has real consequences, even to the extent of death for those who ignore or disobey it.

6:6 not sacrifice. Sacrifices, even the special sacrifices given to cover sins (“burnt offerings”), are essentially hypocritical if the worship is not matched by behavior (cf. Amos 5:21–24; Jas 2:18).

6:7 As at Adam . . . unfaithful to me there. Adam was a city located along the Jordan River, which Israel crossed to enter Canaan (Josh 3:16). Referring to Adam in this way would remind listeners and readers that Israel had begun to violate God’s covenant from the moment they entered the promised land. An alternative translation is “like Adam” (see NIV text note), in which case it is the serious disobedience of the first human (Gen 3:17–19) that Israel’s disobedience is compared to. In either case, a long history of unfaithfulness to God is described. they have broken the covenant. Hosea refers to the Mosaic covenant, as found in Exodus through Deuteronomy (Hos 2:18; 8:1). Hosea regularly alludes to the blessings and curses of that covenant (see especially Lev 26; Deut 28–32) and makes it clear that Israel’s failure to live up to the covenant—which gave the nation its standards, laws, and, above all, its relationship to God—meant that it would lose its divine protection and be rejected by God, the people becoming “wanderers among the nations” (Hos 9:17).

6:8-9 Gilead . . . Shechem. Popular worship centers that were illegal under the covenant. Priests at these shrines were in effect guilty of “murder” (v. 9) for leading the people away from God. Jerusalem was the only proper place for worship (Deut 12:5–7; 1 Kgs 11:36; 14:21; Zech 14:17).

6:10 prostitution . . . defiled. Israelites and Judahites worshiped the Lord as their national God but practiced idolatry with other gods at the same time and so defiled themselves.

6:11a Judah, though perhaps less corrupt than Ephraim, was still more than minimally guilty of breaking the covenant and would therefore eventually reap its own “harvest” of judgment.

6:11b—7:16 Israel’s Foolish Sinfulness in National and International Affairs. God loved his people Israel (here with the focus on Ephraim, the remnant of northern Israel after 734 BC), but they were more concerned with finding success and power via internal political intrigues and international diplomatic maneuvers than with trusting him to protect and benefit them. Thus, the nation spiraled downward during its last years of monarchy (753–722), when no fewer than six kings reigned, most coming to power by assassination of a predecessor (see 8:1–6 and note). Kings ruled for life, so an average of only five years per king is evidence of civil unrest and instability.

6:11b—7:2 Lawlessness prevailed in the north under weak and immoral kings. In the chaos of such times, people can forget that God is never distracted but remembers “all their evil deeds” (7:2).

7:1 Samaria. Placed here in poetic parallelism with “Ephraim,” it was yet another way to refer to the northern kingdom, since Samaria was the capital city of the north during most of its history. “Samaria” became a shorthand way to refer to (northern) Israel in general (see also 8:5–6; 10:5, 7; 13:16).

7:3–7 The northern Israelite political maneuvering at the end of its history as a nation, including intrigues, assassinations, and forced abdications of kings (see 2 Kgs 15:8–30), was far from God’s will and resulted from a failure to seek his favor and aid (“none of them calls on me,” v. 7).

7:5–6 inflamed with wine . . . flaming fire. In the ancient world, plotters of coups and planners of war often emboldened themselves with alcohol, thinking that it helped them plan more decisively (cf. Esth 1:10).

7:8-16 mixes with the nations . . . do not turn to the Most High. Desperate attempts to avoid defeat at the hands of the menacing Assyrian Empire reveal Israel’s assumption that their God would not save them but that they could save themselves by diplomacy and alliances.

7:11 Egypt . . . Assyria. The superpowers of Hosea’s day. The Israelites tried to play them against one another. It was a desperate strategy, one doomed to fail (cf. Isa 30:2–7; 31:1–6; Jer 2:17–19; Lam 5:6).

7:12–16 God would not allow his people to escape their well-deserved punishment for ignoring him and disobeying his covenant, both over the centuries and during their last decades. Nevertheless, he always longs to “redeem” (rescue, reclaim, repossess) those who have turned away from him (Rom 10:21). But for northern Israel in Hosea’s day, it was too late.

7:16 They do not turn to the Most High. Their stubbornness meant exile. Egypt. The land of Israel’s original captivity, so in the OT it sometimes symbolizes any enslavement (e.g., 8:13; 11:5; Deut 28:68). Israel was not literally exiled to Egypt at this time, but was exiled to Mesopotamia (2 Kgs 17:23).

8:1–14 Israel to Reap the Whirlwind. This section of the prophecy predicts punishments that God would mete out to Israel for various covenant violations, including ignoring and/or rejecting God, political intrigue that relied on human maneuvering and not on God’s protection, idolatry, dependence on alliances with foreign powers rather than the Lord, improper worship, and trusting in material and military assets rather than God.

8:1–6 Punishments for Political Intrigue and Idolatry. In the political sphere, Israel had sought national stability by changing kings via assassination (e.g., 2 Kgs 15:10, 14, 25, 30). In the religious sphere, manufacture and worship of idols was being counted on to save the nation—something it could never do.

8:1 trumpet. An instrument used to announce danger or war (as in 5:8). eagle. A bird of prey; it was not differentiated in Hebrew from the vulture, and either one can be in view here as a metaphor of danger “over the house of the LORD,” a way of saying that Israel’s relationship to God was in trouble.

8:3 enemy. Assyria.

8:4a They set up kings without my consent. God alone expected to choose Israel’s kings, who were to be obedient to his covenant (Deut 17:14–20). The last several kings of (northern) Israel, however, had been chosen by political intrigue of one sort or another without concern for such requirements. This was sometimes true of earlier kings as well, but not so consistently as in the case of the final six kings of Israel (2 Kgs 15:8—17:4).

8:4b Idols. Including the calf-idols that Jeroboam I introduced to northern Israel (1 Kgs 12:28–30). destruction. The result of idolatry.

8:5 Samaria. Northern Israel, here designated by the name of its most prominent city. incapable of purity. This describes idolaters; their idolatry polluted their worship (cf. Ps 135:15–18).

8:7–10 Israel Under Foreign Control. Relying on foreigners, who cared nothing for them, was fatal for Israel and led to their complete conquest by Assyria in 722 BC.

8:8–10 Although it temporarily bought off Assyria in 732 BC to save part of its territory from annexation (see 5:13–14 and note), northern Israel eventually ran out of tribute money (2 Kgs 17:4) and was more useful to Assyria as part of its empire than as an independent nation, so by 722 BC it was “swallowed up . . . among the nations” (Hos 8:8). Thereafter, each successive mighty king of Assyria, beginning with Shalmaneser (2 Kgs 17:3–6), ruled Israel.

8:11–14 False Worship and Misplaced Trust Bring Disaster. The offering altar at the Jerusalem temple was legitimate, but pagan altars were forbidden by God. Sacrifices made to God on these altars displeased God (v. 13). The result: Israel would go into exile.

8:11 altars for sinning. Pagan altars.

8:13 return to Egypt. A metaphor for going into foreign exile (see 7:16 and note).

8:14 palaces . . . fortresses. People often trust in political, material, and military power rather than in God (cf. Pss 20:7; 49:6–7; 1 Tim 6:7; Rev 18:19). The results are temporary; they bring false security instead of true refuge. When the time came, the Assyrians broke down and burned the palaces and the fortresses that both Israel and Judah had erected at great effort and expense (cf. Mic 1:8–16).

9:1–8 Punishment for Israel. The culture of northern Israel had become sufficiently pagan by Hosea’s day that the country was generally characterized by sin, not decency (1:2; 4:1–2). Since the Mosaic covenant predicted exile for just such a situation (e.g., Lev 26:33–44; Deut 4:27; 28:36–37, 63–68), various images of exile and its sad consequences appear here.

9:1–4 Multiple Sins. As in 2:5, 8, 12, Israel attributed its successful harvests (a main source of wealth in any agrarian society) to its idolatry and thus was “unfaithful to . . . God” (9:1). God’s blessing by abundant harvests in northern Israel will soon be a thing of the past, when their threshing floors and winepresses will lie empty and the people will be exiled to Assyria.

9:1 wages of a prostitute. Tainted money in ancient Israel (Deut 23:18), so the phrase is sometimes used to refer to improperly earned wealth (cf. Mic 1:7), but in this context the image contributes to the theme of unfaithfulness to God that runs throughout the prophecy.

9:3 Egypt . . . Assyria. Israel will be exiled figuratively to Egypt (see note on 7:16) and literally to Assyria. unclean food. Food prohibited by the dietary laws of the covenant (cf. Lev 11; Deut 14).

9:4 not come into the temple of the LORD. In Assyria the people would have no place to offer sacrifices to the Lord.

9:5–8 Multiple Deprivations. Little was left of true religious practice once the Assyrians fully conquered Israel.

9:5 festivals. The three great annual festivals (Passover, Pentecost/Weeks, and Tabernacles), as well as other “feast days” beloved to the Israelites (see Lev 23), could no longer be celebrated during the exile.

9:7 days of punishment. The time in exile.

9:8 The prophet . . . is the watchman. In the late eighth century BC, the Israelites were so paganized that they ignored the watchman-like warnings of any true prophet (not merely Hosea) and instead showed him only hostility. hostility in the house of his God. Probably the Jerusalem temple, since it is unlikely that the temple at Bethel would have been described by Hosea as a legitimate house of God. This was where, of all places, prophets should have been honored.

9:9—13:16 Judgment Warnings With a Retrospective Tone. From 9:9 onward, the book continues to remind Israel of their covenant-violating sin and their impending doom via exile, but it does so with a special focus on the past. What might have been (obeying God) is often compared to what actually happened (repeatedly rejecting God). The long history of Israel’s rebellion against her divine savior is sampled, showing that God was always faithful even though Israel rarely was.

9:9–17 Ephraim Rejected, Exiled, and Unloved. Gibeah (cf. 10:9), Baal Peor, and Gilgal exemplify places where false worship by Israelites flourished in past times. Israel’s history reveals that they have long been a nation that ignored their potential to love and serve the true God; instead they were typically rebellious and sinful.

9:9 Gibeah. A city in Benjamin and the site of the horrendous gang rape and murder of the wife of a Levite who expected safety there in the days of the judges (Judg 19). When the tribe of Benjamin actually defended Gibeah’s sin, the rest of Israel was at first unable to bring them to justice, but then imposed judgment so severe it brought the tribe of Benjamin to the edge of extinction (Judg 20–21). This demonstrated the general corruption of the chosen people.

9:10 Baal Peor. The site of an idolatrous orgy during the days of the wandering in the wilderness (Num 25); there Israelite men had ritual sex with Moabite women, obviously violating God’s law. Again a past sin shows that Israelite rebellion against God in Hosea’s day is nothing new.

9:11 no birth, no pregnancy, no conception. Infertility was one of the predicted punishments for failure to keep the Mosaic covenant (e.g., Deut 28:18). That it would be widespread in Israel signaled God’s judgment in the old covenant.

9:12 I will bereave them of every one. Losing children in this instance is the result of national sin and fulfills a common Mosaic covenant prediction (Deut 28:32, 41; 32:25). Conquest often resulted in infant deaths (Hos 10:14; 13:16; 2 Kgs 8:12; Isa 13:16), and exile typically separated children from their parents.

9:15 Gilgal. The first place west of the Jordan where the Israelites set their feet in their conquest of the promised land (Josh 4:19–24). They eventually turned it into an illegitimate worship center that still functioned in Hosea’s day (Hos 4:15; 12:11; cf. Amos 4:4).

9:17 wanderers among the nations. The land of Israel, including Judah, was the only true home of God’s chosen people in OT times. For the (northern) Israelites to be exiled from it meant being homeless (“wanderers”), forcibly relocated to a foreign place.

10:1–8 No More Cult, Kingship, or Capital. This section of Hosea’s prophecies concentrates on how God would destroy central factors in the life of northern Israel—its religion, its government, and even its capital city Samaria—in consequence of a long history of national sin.

10:1 As his fruit increased, he built more altars. Instead of using their agricultural success in Canaan to glorify God as the land prospered, the Israelites attributed it to polytheistic idolatry and built forbidden altars for the worship of pagan gods in violation of Deut 12:1–14 (cf. 2 Kgs 21:3–4).

10:2 sacred stones. Objects of worship, including idols made of stone.

10:3 no king . . . what could he do for us? In exile the Israelites will not have a king of their own but will suffer under foreign domination so complete that even if they had a king, he would be powerless.

10:4 false oaths . . . lawsuits. Because so many in Israel had ignored the honesty and fair dealings required by the Mosaic covenant, the people’s moral and legal problems multiplied.

10:5 Beth Aven. The name means “house of wickedness” and mockingly refers to Bethel (see NIV text note), where the people worshiped a golden calf-idol (1 Kgs 12:28–30).

10:6 tribute. Conquerors routinely required gold and other payments from their victims, so the calf-idol will be “taken from them” (v. 5) to Assyria.

10:7 Samaria’s king. Israel’s last king, Hoshea (2 Kgs 17:1–6), will be “swept away.”

10:8 high places. Pagan worship centers were usually located on hills (as most habitations in ancient Israel were, for safety) and constituted “places of wickedness” for Israelites. Ironically, God’s coming judgment would cause people to wish for instant death by burial under “mountains” or “hills,” as will also be the case when Christ returns in judgment (Luke 23:30).

10:9–15 Inevitable War Against Israel for Its History of Wickedness. Although northern Israel’s destruction was certain, Hosea still urges righteous individuals to repent and seek the Lord since a future larger and longer than merely earthly life is regularly in view in the Bible. The temporal judgment of a nation is not the same as the eternal judgment of each of its individuals (cf. Ezek 33:1–20; Acts 2:40).

10:9 war . . . evildoers in Gibeah. War followed the past sins of the people of Gibeah (Judg 19–21), and that historical model serves to illustrate the coming conquest by Assyria.

10:10 nations will be gathered against them. Assyria had people from many nations in its army. double sin. Very great sin.

10:11 yoke . . . plow. Both Ephraim and later Judah will be made to toil in exile like animals bound by a yoke and forced to plow.

10:12 Sow righteousness . . . seek the LORD. Individuals and groups could still repent in faith and keep God’s covenant while awaiting return from exile.

10:14-15 Beth Arbel. The story of Beth Arbel’s destruction by someone named Shalman, whose identity is not known today but who was obviously well-known to Hosea’s audience, was a fitting reminder of the sort of thing God was about to do to northern Israel’s chief worship center, Bethel (1 Kgs 12:32–33; Amos 3:14; 7:13), as well as all its “fortresses,” when “the king of Israel will be completely destroyed” and the nation subjugated by its enemies.

11:1–11 God’s Love for Israel. The nation’s long history with Egypt provides a backdrop for past and future blessings, apostasy, and coming punishment. “Egypt” thus appears at the beginning (v. 1), middle (v. 5) and end (v. 11) of this section of prophecy.

11:1–7 Out of Captivity in the Past and Back Again in the Future. At many places in the OT, God’s deliverance of his people from Egypt is remembered as a signature indication of his mercy and of Israel’s indebtedness to him, as it is here. But the OT also tells the story of how the Israelites eventually squandered that mercy, rebelled against their deliverer, and so were handed over to foreign oppressors, as Hosea predicts here.

11:1 out of Egypt I called my son. Although the immediate focus of this passage is Israel’s exodus from Egypt (Israel is God’s “son”; cf. Exod 4:22–23), Matt 2:15 shows us that it also has a future, typological focus: Jesus’ return from Egypt as a child identified him with his people and their deliverance through him.

11:3-4 I . . . taught . . . healed . . . led. Israel’s rebellion could not be blamed on God. He had done nothing but good for them as a faithful and loving father, even while they “went away” from him (v. 2) to believe in and worship other gods.

11:5 return to Egypt. The coming exile, again expressed symbolically as if the destination were Egypt, took Israelites mainly to Assyria (see 7:16; 9:3 and notes). But some Judahites did flee voluntarily to Egypt (Jer 41:16–18).

11:6 sword. A symbol of war (cf. Rev 6:8). It would all start with war.

11:7 God Most High. The Israelites hypocritically flattered their national God with perfectly good terms but also trusted in the overly positive words of “false prophets” (v. 6) and turned from the Lord to idolatry and polytheism.

11:8–11 Rescue by Grace From Captivity. Hosea reminds Israel of future blessing even in the broader context of predicting dire judgments. Restoration promises like these reveal how great God’s love is, since he is willing, according to his grace and not any deeds that the Israelites could perform, to redeem to himself people who had once rebelled against him in all sorts of ways. God’s holiness shines brightly here as well: Lest his audience think that the only thing in store for God’s people in the future is destruction and rejection, Hosea conveys God’s plan for restoration after the coming exile—not because his people will have made themselves holy, but because he will credit them with the holiness of his beloved Son. Promises of return and reunification are encouraging prophetic assurances about the latter days, i.e., the time of the new covenant.

11:8 Admah . . . Zeboyim. Cities near Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 10:19), destroyed for their outrageous sins during the time of Lot and Abraham (Gen 19:1–29; Deut 29:23).

11:10 They will follow the LORD. Although these verses are primarily about the restoration of Israel/Ephraim, the hope expressed in these verses does not end there. Restoration is something available now as well, only by following Christ as taught in the NT. from the west . . . from Egypt . . . from Assyria. God’s people are no longer merely ethnic Israel but are “from the west” (including distant lands across the sea) and “from Egypt” (the south) and “from Assyria” (the east), all idiomatic ways of describing a worldwide people not limited by location or nationality.

11:12—12:14 Israel’s Sin. Using a variety of images for Israel’s rebellion against God and his covenant, Hosea continues to show how deeply the nation remained mired in their disobedience to “the faithful Holy One” (11:12).

11:12—12:10 Israel’s Deceit in Contrast to the Lord’s Faithfulness. Three extended examples of Israel’s deceit against the Lord are combined with three extended examples of the Lord’s faithfulness to them in a covenant “lawsuit” (see 2:2–23; 4:1–19 and notes) that results in judgment for the wayward people of God.

11:12—12:1 lies . . . deceit . . . unruly . . . multiplies lies. Israel/Ephraim (cf. 4:16–17; 5:3; 11:8) and Judah repeatedly promised to keep God’s covenant, so when they broke it by idolatry, polytheism, and forbidden foreign alliances and business dealings (Exod 34:12, 15; Deut 17:16) with Assyria and Egypt, they opened themselves to the covenant lawsuit charges that follow in 12:2–14.

12:2 Judah . . . Jacob. Denotes all Israel.

12:3–5 These verses describe how Jacob, Israel’s famous ancestor, returned to God, and all Israel must do the same. The “charge” (v. 2) begins with a reminder that God specially chose his people in the days of the patriarch Jacob. They should have returned to God in righteous obedience and been willing to trust (“wait for,” v. 6) him always.

12:7-8 dishonest scales . . . defraud. Financial and economic corruption taints any society, and yet those who are corrupt and exploit others often hope to get away with it; (thus the words of Ephraim, “They will not find in me any iniquity”). But God is not fooled.

12:9 I will make you live in tents again. This recalls 2:14–15 (see note there) and predicts a time, after the exile, when God will again be as close to a repentant Israel as he had been during the wilderness years following the exodus from Egypt.

12:11–14 Present Sins Against the Backdrop of Jacob and Moses. This concludes the covenant lawsuit. Hosea contrasts Israel’s sin and the resulting destruction with what Israel might have been, as shown in the former days of Jacob’s blessed and protected life in “Aram” (Syria) and Moses’ faithful leading of Israel “up from Egypt” (vv. 12–13).

12:11 Their altars. Where false worship took place. Israel worshiped at illegal shrines like the one at Gilgal (see 4:15; 9:15 and note), with the result that God will destroy them and their altars.

12:14 bloodshed. This term often denotes crime in general (cf. 1:4 [there translated “massacre”]; 4:2; 5:2; 6:8). It can refer to violence against people, including human sacrifice (13:2). Israel’s crimes showed her contempt for God and had to be punished. This is in line with such passages as Lev 20:11–27, where the phrase “their blood will be on their own heads” describes guilt.

13:1–16 The Lord’s Anger Against Israel. This section links Israel’s tragic fall from earlier faithfulness to God to the practice of idolatry especially and to a variety of related sins that violate the Mosaic covenant.

13:1–9 Israel’s Tragic Fall via Idolatry and Coming Punishment. Great potential may yield little without faithfulness to God’s purposes since God controls the destinies of people and nations (cf. Exod 19:5–6; 1 Chr 16:14; Prov 16:9; Dan 4:35).

13:1 When Ephraim spoke, people trembled. Ephraim, both as a tribe and as a territory, was dominant (“exalted”) in Israel. But Ephraim’s Baal worship constituted open unfaithfulness to a faithful God and resulted in conquest, decimation, annexation, and exile so that Israel “died” as a nation. Fortunately, they would be reborn in the future via the new covenant (v. 14; 14:1–9; cf. Jer 31:31–34).

13:2 kiss calf-idols. When people in (northern) Israel sacrificed to the calf-idols at Bethel and Dan (1 Kgs 12:28–30), they would kiss them as their pagan way of displaying homage to the gods that those idols represented (cf. 1 Kgs 19:18). The NIV text note, “Men who sacrifice/kiss [calf-idols],” is a good alternative rendering of the original since the focus here seems to be not on human sacrifice but on the folly of doing something so ridiculous as “kissing cows” in order to receive a blessing.

13:3 morning mist . . . dew that disappears . . . chaff . . . smoke. This language describes God’s judgment on Israel and is not a general statement about all humans but relates to the larger biblical teaching that human life on earth is fleeting (cf. Ps 90:3–10) compared to the eternal life God offers.

13:4–6 God’s history of loving care for Israel contrasts sharply with their history of abandoning him.

13:7–9 God is the righteous Judge of all the earth (Gen 18:25; Ps 7:11; 2 Tim 4:8), who saves forever those who place their trust in him but who removes from his presence those who defy him. Various metaphoric comparisons to devouring animals (“lion,” “leopard” “bear”) graphically make that point.

13:10–16 Divine Judgment on a People Who Have No Sense. Likening Israel to a “child without wisdom” who doesn’t even have the “sense to come out of the womb” (v. 13), Hosea portrays the nation (as one might say it today) as “missing the boat” of God’s goodness, and instead incurring his wrath by reason of willful disobedience.

13:10–12 God’s wrath against sin is not a trifling matter. Israel’s civil leaders were unable to prevent the last unconquered parts of northern Israel—those around Samaria—from being seized and annexed by the Assyrians in 722 BC. Where is your king . . . your rulers . . . ? The last king of (northern) Israel, Hoshea (732/31–723/22 BC), was already in an Assyrian prison (2 Kgs 17:4–6) when the nation succumbed; its “princes” (i.e., officials) were deposed as well.

13:14 I will deliver . . . I will redeem. The Hebrew original allows for either assertions or questions (Shall I deliver? . . . Shall I redeem?), and the context may seem to offer little hope (“I will have no compassion”). Where, O death . . . Where, O grave. In the new covenant, these words can be understood very differently because Christ’s death on the cross has conquered death for us, and thus the wording of 1 Cor 15:55 centers on the positive sense of this verse. There, Paul helps us see that death no longer has its “plagues” and “destruction” (eternal judgment) but gives way to a blessed resurrection to eternal life.

13:15-16 east wind . . . sword. These symbolize the Assyrian armies and the war of conquest and plunder that will strike Samaria. Once again, God makes abundantly clear that all this could have been avoided, but it came about because Israel “rebelled against their God.”

13:16 little ones will be dashed . . . pregnant women ripped open. The horrors of war, including brutality against women and children, would mark the end of the nation.

14:1–9 Repentance to Bring Blessing. The final section of Hosea’s prophecies promises abundant blessing to the remnant of Israel that will one day return to God. Israel’s future words of true worship (vv. 2–3) are followed by God’s promise of forgiveness and great blessing (vv. 4–8).

14:1–8 Promise to the Remnant That Will Return. Hosea’s prophecies are replete with predictions of doom for Israel in the immediate future, but by no means does this imply that the ultimate future must also be bleak. On the contrary, it will be glorious for all who repent, turn to God in faith, and place their trust in him.

14:1 Return. The Hebrew word also conveys the concept of repentance and conversion, as the NT teaches and encourages.

14:2 Forgive all our sins. Notes the comprehensiveness of the promise that all our sins can be forgiven in the wonderful era this depicts (cf. Matt 12:31). Forgiveness comes no longer by required offerings of animals, since Christ’s sacrifice makes all others unnecessary. Forgiveness by faith means that worship sacrifice can include “the fruit of our lips,” i.e., offerings of praise and glory to God, who alone can save us.

14:3 Assyria . . . warhorses . . . what our own hands have made. The repentant Israelites of the future, i.e., all who are in Christ (cf. Rom 9:6–8; Gal 3:29), will acknowledge that neither human power (e.g., “Assyria”) nor military might (“warhorses”) nor idols (“what our own hands have made”) nor any power except the one true God can save from sin and its severe consequences. fatherless. Hosea metaphorically depicts God’s salvation as lovingly accepting people like needy children (“fatherless”), thus showing them his eternal “compassion.”

14:4 heal their waywardness and love them freely. Once God’s “anger has turned away from them,” repentant Israel will see his favor in great measure.

14:5–8 blossom . . . cedar . . . roots . . . shoots . . . olive tree . . . grain . . . vine . . . wine . . . juniper . . . fruitfulness. Like other OT prophets, Hosea expresses God’s future spiritual blessings for his people in terms of agricultural abundance. Such imagery connotes divine blessing in a vivid, tangible, memorable way (cf. Joel 3:18; Amos 9:13–15; Mic 7:14). The dry east wind from the desert (13:15) will disappear, and fruitfulness will prevail. In other words, the new covenant age will be far better than the days of the old covenant, with its failures of faith and practice (e.g., “idols,” v. 8) and resulting punishments.

14:5, 6, 7 Lebanon. A symbol of agricultural abundance used three times in this passage because its highlands were verdant year round, even in times of drought elsewhere (Deut 3:25; 2 Kgs 19:23; Pss 72:16; 104:16), as a result of the relatively high rainfall there brought by moist westerly air from the Mediterranean.

14:8 Ephraim. The northern kingdom of Israel (see note on 4:17). This is the final time (of 37 times, the first being in 4:17) that Hosea calls northern Israel by the name of the tribe that was expected to lead Israel (note its leadership blessing in Gen 48:19–20). It was also the last tribal territory to be annexed to the Assyrian Empire. Israel had assumed that its material prosperity in Hosea’s day had come from its idolatry (see Hos 2:5, 8, 12), but in the end the people would learn that all good things come from the one true God alone. Paul makes the same point in different words: “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

14:9 A Challenge to the Wise Reader. The final verse of Hosea employs vocabulary often found in Proverbs and other wisdom sections of the OT (“wise,” “discerning,” “righteous,” “rebellious”) to remind readers that God’s revelation through his prophet has very practical purposes: it guides people in “the ways of the LORD” so that they can live for him rather than against him (cf. 2 Tim 3:16–17). Most ancient Israelites who heard Hosea preach did not take him seriously and ran afoul of this very warning, to their sorrow. God’s people must be sure that they never ignore God’s Word but that it is always at work in them (1 Thess 2:13).