1 Say unto your brethren Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. v.1 “Ammi” – my people, and “Ruhamah” – having obtained mercy. This is an appeal to the faithful among the nation, who like Hosea could feel, speak, and act according to the Spirit of Christ.

vv.1-2 “Brethren” and “sisters” looks at the Jews individually, while “Your mother” looks at them corporately as a body.

 

2a Plead with your mother, plead; for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: v.2a “she is not my wife, etc.” – she had run away and broken the marriage bond. 

2b and let her put away her whoredoms from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts; v.2b a very dark thing… the lord threatening to put Israel to shame, and to have no mercy upon her children.

 

3 lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her as a dry land, and slay her with thirst. v.3 surely, he has done this to his earthly people. the shulamite can say in repentence, in song. 1; “I am black”, and “the sun hath looked upon me.”

 

 

6 Therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns; and I will fence her in with a wall, that she shall not find her paths. 7 And she shall pursue after her lovers, and shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, and shall not find them: and she shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now. v.7 israel never devloped a lasting relationship with any of her idols. It was a constant roller coaster, her want the idols, but then needing Jehovah’s protection and provision. There was pang of conscience occasionally, a little revival from time to time; but the people never really repented or abandoned their course of sin. the little revivals were a proof of God’s grace and goodness, but they never affected a thorough repentance of Israel.

 

8 And she did not know that I had given her the corn and the new wine and the oil, and had multiplied to her the silver and gold, which they employed for Baal. 9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my new wine in its season, and will withdraw my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness. 10 And now will I discover her impiety in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand. 11 And I will cause all her mirth to cease: her feasts, her new moons, and her sabbaths! and all her solemnities. 12 And I will make desolate her vine and her fig-tree, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards which my lovers have given me; and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. v.12 Even her natural blessings which the Lord gave her she attributed to her idolatrous connections, willing to justify her course. As a result, those things must be cut off.

 

13 And I will visit upon her the days of the Baals, wherein she burned incense to them, and decked herself with her rings and jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith Jehovah. v.13 All her luxurious and idolatrous sins would come up in remembrance for judgment. perhaps the saddest thing of all, “she forgot me, saith Jehovah.” as if he never had existed, Jehovah slips from her mind altogether. What a sad violation of His commandment: “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” – and their vow – “All thou hast said, we will do.” it is at this point, the lowest of the low POINTS THAT the prophetic word makes a profound reversal in tone.

 

14 Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart. v.14 on the heels of their utter failure and rejection of Jehovah, He remembers mercy, and looks forward to the day when He will bless them in tenderness. It will be in “the wilderness” where the lord will reveal himself to the Jewish remnant, “and speak to her heart”.

 

15a And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; v.15a “her vineyards” – the natural joys that she gave up years ago when she forsook the Lord we be restored to a battered and feeble remnant. “the valley of Achor” was the place where Israel had to exercise self-judgment (Joshua 7:26). Israel will repent nationally, and this will be to them “a door of hope.”

 

15b and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. v.15b the freshness of relationship will be restored, and it will never fade away.

 

16 And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah, that thou shalt call me, My husband, and shalt call me no more, Baali; v.16 That is, she will know the Lord as “husband“, a relationship of love, rather than “lord,” which is far more distant, even in the best sense of dominion and possession.

 

17 for I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. v.17 “no more remembered” c.p. v.13, she had forgotten him… but in that day she will forget the names of her idols! Note: she will aknowlege in that day that they were “Baalim” – masters, not “lovers” as she had claimed (v.13).

 

18 And I will make a covenant for them in that day with the beasts of the field, and with the fowl of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will break bow and sword and battle out of the land; and I will make them to lie down safely. v.18 God will make the whole creation to feel to its own joy the restoration of His long-estranged people israel. No more need for weapons, for war, or even for hunting! One thousand years for man to forget how to build weapons of mass destruction! coincident with the return of Israel to Jehovah, and this flowing out of His grace towards them, there shall follow universal blessedness.

 

19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; and I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies; v.19 while the release of the creature from the bondage of corruption is great and wonderful, nothing can compare to the worth of this nearest association with Jehovah Himself. Note: “Judgment” here is in the sense of equity.

 

20 and I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know Jehovah. v.20 This last one, “in faithfulness” is separated off on purpose. The thought that this adulteress – being once the essence of unfaithfulness – will have her vows renewed “in faithfulness”, is enough to overwhelm the mind.

 

21 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith Jehovah, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; vv.21-22 What an uninterrupted line of blessing from the heavens down to the earth! Every creature of God will then reap in full enjoyment the fruits of the consummated union of Jehovah with His ancient people.

 

22 and the earth shall hear the corn, and the new wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jizreel. v.22 Corn, wine, and oil are mentioned often in the Minor Prophets. They speak of natural plenty and blessing.

 

23 And I will sow her unto me in the land; and I will have mercy upon Lo-ruhamah; and I will say to Lo-ammi, Thou art my people; and they shall say, My God. v.23 1 Peter 2:10 is a quotation from this verse. See note above on “sons of the living god.”