The Book of Hosea, Chapter by Chapter

We want to take you through the book of Hosea chapter by chapter. We finished the 5 big prophets with our Daniel study. Now we come to the 12 shorter prophets. They are called the minor prophets. Not because they are less important. Because they are shorter. The Jews kept all 12 together on one scroll and called it The Twelve.¹ Hosea is the first. We will tell you what each chapter is about and how it fits into the message of the book. And how it points us to the one God that is revealed in Jesus Christ.

Hosea is a love story. A broken one. God told Hosea to marry a woman who would be unfaithful to him. She left him for other men. And God told him to go get her back. Hosea lived out in his own home what God was living with Israel. Israel was God’s wife. She ran after Baal and the calves and Assyria and Egypt. And God still loved her. “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?” (11:8).

There are three things we want you to take away from this study. Hosea is about the sin of spiritual adultery. “The land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD” (1:2). Hosea is about the faithful love of the one God. “I will betroth thee unto me for ever” (2:19). “Thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me” (13:4). And Hosea points to Jesus Christ. The one who bought back his bride. The Son called out of Egypt (11:1). The one who would ransom us from the grave (13:14). We will explain these points as we go through the book. But we want you to keep them in mind as we begin.

“The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel” (1:1). Hosea preached around 755 to 715 BC. The same time as Isaiah and Micah. But Isaiah preached in Judah. Hosea preached to the northern kingdom of Israel. Most believe he is the only writing prophet who was from the north and whose book is a message to the north.² He calls the northern kingdom Ephraim. That was its biggest tribe. He uses that name over 30 times.

When Hosea started Israel was rich. Jeroboam II had made the kingdom big again. But it was rotten inside. After Jeroboam died it fell apart. 6 kings in about 25 years. 4 of them were murdered. We saw that in our 2 Kings study. Then in 722 BC Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away. Hosea watched the whole thing happen. His name means salvation. It is the same name as Hoshea the last king of Israel. And Joshua’s name was Oshea before Moses changed it (Numbers 13:16).

The book has two parts. Chapters 1–3 are about Hosea’s marriage. Chapters 4–14 are his preaching. The sermons are hard to put in order. They jump from judgment to love and back again. Just like a broken heart. We will break it down like this. Hosea’s wife and children (1). I will betroth thee unto me for ever (2). Buy her back (3). No knowledge of God (4–7). Sow the wind (8–10). Out of Egypt have I called my son (11). The LORD is his memorial (12–13). And return unto the LORD (14). Then we will put together what Hosea teaches about the one God. Just like in our other studies we will be using the KJV for our scripture quotations. And we will let you know where you can find the work of the scholars we reference.

This is a hard verse. Some believe Gomer was already a harlot when Hosea married her. Others believe she was pure when they married and became unfaithful later. And God called her by what she would become.³ We believe the second fits better with how God tells the story of Israel. Israel was pure when God married her at Sinai. “I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth” (Jeremiah 2:2). We saw that in our Jeremiah study. Then she went after other gods. Either way the point is the same. Hosea would know in his own heart what God felt.

“So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim” (v.3). They had 3 children. And God named each one as a message to Israel.

The first was a son. God said “Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu” (v.4). We saw in our 2 Kings study that Jehu killed the house of Ahab at Jezreel. God told him to. But Jehu went too far and did it for himself. And he kept the golden calves. Jezreel means God scatters or God sows. God would scatter Israel.

The second was a daughter. “Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel” (v.6). Loruhamah means not pitied. No mercy. Notice the text does not say the second and third were Hosea’s children. The first says she “bare him a son” (v.3). The next two just say she bare (vv.6, 8). Many believe they were not his.⁴ Then God said “But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword” (v.7). That happened when the angel of the LORD killed 185,000 Assyrians around Jerusalem. We covered that in our 2 Kings and Isaiah studies.

Trinitarians will say verse 7 shows one person saving by another person. The LORD saving by the LORD their God.⁵ But notice. This is how Hebrew talks. A speaker will often talk about himself by name. Genesis 19:24 is another example. God is saying I will save them myself. Not by armies. By me. The LORD their God.

The third was a son. “Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God” (v.9). Loammi means not my people. The Hebrew of the last part is very short. It says “I will not be I AM to you.”⁶ It is the same name God gave Moses at the burning bush. I AM THAT I AM. We covered that in our Exodus study. God was taking his name back from them.

But then right away there is hope. “Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea … and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God” (v.10). Paul quotes this about the Gentiles coming into the church (Romans 9:26). “Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head” (v.11). One head. Christ is the head of the church (Ephesians 5:23).

She Did Not Know That I Gave Her Corn

Now God speaks like a husband taking his wife to court. “Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband” (v.2). She said “I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink” (v.5). She thought Baal gave her the rain and the crops. Baal was the Canaanite god of rain and storms. So God said “I will hedge up thy way with thorns” (v.6). She would chase her lovers and not catch them. Then she would say “I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now” (v.7).

She took what God gave her and gave it to Baal. That is what idolatry does. It gives the credit for God’s gifts to something else. So God would take it all back. The corn. The wine. The wool. The feasts (vv.9–11). Sometimes God takes away the gifts so we will remember the giver.

A Door of Hope

Notice the word therefore. After all her sin you would expect therefore I will destroy her. But God says therefore I will allure her. I will speak tenderly to her. The wilderness was where God first loved Israel. He would take her back to the beginning. And the valley of Achor would be a door of hope. Achor means trouble. That is where Achan was stoned in our Joshua study. The place of trouble would become a door of hope.

Then she will call him Ishi. Which means my husband. Not Baali. Which means my master or my lord.⁷ It was also the name of the idol. God did not want a slave who feared him. He wanted a wife who loved him. “For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth” (v.17).

Betroth is what a man did when he promised to marry. He paid a bride price. Here God pays it himself. Righteousness. Judgment. Lovingkindness. Mercies. Faithfulness. And this time it is forever. Paul says “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2). The church is the bride of Christ. The husband of Israel is the bridegroom of the church. One husband.

The chapter ends by turning all 3 names around. Jezreel will mean God sows instead of God scatters (vv.22–23). “I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy.” That is Loruhamah. “And I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God” (v.23). That is Loammi. Peter quotes it about the church. “Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy” (1 Peter 2:10).

Gomer had left. And it seems she ended up being sold. Maybe as a slave. God told Hosea go yet. Go again. Love her. “According to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel.” So Hosea went to the market and bought his own wife. 15 pieces of silver and some barley. Some believe the silver and barley together were worth about 30 pieces of silver.⁸ The price of a slave (Exodus 21:32). Many believe Hosea did not have enough money so he paid part in grain. He paid what he had.

That is the gospel. We gave ourselves to sin. We were sold under sin (Romans 7:14). And God came to the market and bought us back. “For ye are bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20). “Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold … But with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18–19). Hosea paid with silver and barley. Jesus paid with his own blood. Notice also that Jesus was sold for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:15). The price of a slave. The one who bought us back was sold himself.

Hosea told her “Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot” (v.3). There would be a time of waiting. Then God said the same of Israel.

Many days without a king or sacrifice. That has been true of Israel for a very long time. But afterward they will seek the LORD their God and David their king. David was already dead about 250 years. This is the son of David. The Messiah. Notice the LORD their God and David their king are named together. We saw the same thing in Ezekiel 34 and Jeremiah 30. The LORD would be their God. And the son of David would be their king. In Jesus they are one. God came as the son of David.

Hosea 4: Destroyed for Lack of Knowledge

Now the sermons begin. “Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land” (v.1). A controversy is a court case. Then he lists the charges. “By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery” (v.2). That is half of the 10 commandments.

Notice who God blames. The priests. They were supposed to teach the people the law. They did not. So the people did not know God. The word knowledge in Hosea is not just knowing facts.⁹ It is the word used for a husband knowing his wife. It means knowing God close and personal. They knew about God. They did not know God. “And there shall be, like people, like priest” (v.9). The people become like their preachers.

“Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart” (v.11). “For the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err” (v.12). Sin is not just something you do. It becomes a spirit that drives you. “Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer” (v.16). A cow that will not be led. “Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone” (v.17). The scariest thing God can say. Let him alone.

Hosea 5–6: After Two Days Will He Revive Us

When Ephraim saw his sickness he went to Assyria for help (5:13). But Assyria could not heal him. God said “I will be unto Ephraim as a lion” (5:14). Then “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early” (5:15). God would pull back and wait. Then the people answer.

The one who tore is the one who heals. Then “in the third day he will raise us up.” Paul says Christ “rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:4). Many believe this verse is one of the scriptures he meant.¹⁰ Israel would be raised up the third day. And Jesus who stood in for Israel was raised the third day. “He shall come unto us as the rain.” The latter rain. We will see that again in Joel.

But God knew their words were shallow. “O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? … for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away” (6:4). Gone by noon. Then this.

Jesus quoted this twice to the Pharisees. “But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:13; 12:7). God gave the sacrifices. But he never wanted sacrifices without a heart. The word mercy is chesed. Loyal love. God wanted their love. Not just their rituals. “But they like men have transgressed the covenant” (6:7). Some translate it like Adam.¹¹ Just like Adam broke God’s command in the garden.

Hosea 7: A Cake Not Turned

“Ephraim is a cake not turned” (7:8). Burned on one side and raw on the other. Half done. “Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not” (7:9). Israel was getting old and weak and did not notice. That is how backsliding works. It is slow. You do not see it. “Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria” (7:11). Flying back and forth. Trusting everyone but God. “And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds” (7:14). They cried. But not to God.

Hosea 8: They Shall Reap the Whirlwind

“Set the trumpet to thy mouth” (8:1). An eagle was coming against the house of the LORD. That was Assyria. “They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not” (8:4). They chose their own leaders and did not ask God. “Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off … the workman made it; therefore it is not God” (8:5–6). We saw in our 1 Kings study that Jeroboam set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan. If a man made it then it is not God.

You reap what you sow. But you reap more than you sow. Plant a little wind. Get a tornado. Paul says “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). “I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing” (8:12). God’s word was strange to them. “For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples” (8:14). Religious buildings everywhere. And they forgot God.

Hosea 9: Wanderers Among the Nations

“Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God” (9:1). Their parties would end. They would go back to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria (9:3). “The days of visitation are come … the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad” (9:7). That is what they said about Hosea. He is crazy. Then God remembers. “I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness … but they went to Baalpeor” (9:10). We saw that in our Numbers study. God found them like a man finding grapes in the desert. Sweet. A surprise. And they ran to Baal. “My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations” (9:17). And they have been.

Hosea 10: It Is Time to Seek the LORD

“Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself” (10:1). The more God blessed them the more altars they built to idols. “Their heart is divided” (10:2). They would be so afraid when Assyria came that “they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us” (10:8). Jesus said the same words to the women of Jerusalem on the way to the cross (Luke 23:30). And Revelation says the same about the day of his wrath (Revelation 6:16). Then a call.

Fallow ground is ground that has not been plowed. It is hard. Nothing grows. Break it up. Get your heart ready. It is time to seek the LORD. Till he come and rain righteousness. Jeremiah said the same words. “Break up your fallow ground” (Jeremiah 4:3). “Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies” (10:13).

This is the tender heart of the book. In chapters 1 to 3 God is a husband. Here he is a father. Israel was his son. God brought him out of Egypt at the exodus. Matthew says this verse was fulfilled when Joseph took Jesus to Egypt and brought him back after Herod died. “Out of Egypt have I called my son” (Matthew 2:15).¹² Some will say Matthew took the verse out of context. Because Hosea was looking back at the exodus. But notice what Matthew is doing. Israel was God’s son who failed. Jesus is the Son who did not fail. He went through what Israel went through. Down to Egypt. Out of Egypt. Through the water at his baptism. 40 days in the wilderness. But where Israel sinned Jesus obeyed. He is the true Israel.

“As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim” (v.2). The more God called the more they ran. “I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them” (v.3). Like a father teaching a baby to walk. Holding his arms. “I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love” (v.4). Human cords. Gentle. Not chains. Love.

Admah and Zeboim were destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah (Deuteronomy 29:23). Israel deserved the same. But God’s heart turned over inside him. This is God himself in pain over his people. He would judge them. But he would not wipe them out. The reason is given. “For I am God, and not man.” A man would get even. A man would give up. God does not.

Some will say “I am God, and not man” proves Jesus cannot be God because Jesus was a man.¹³ But notice what the verse is saying. It is about God’s nature. God is not like a man who loses his temper or breaks his word. We saw the same thing in our Numbers study. “God is not a man, that he should lie” (Numbers 23:19). That does not mean God cannot take on humanity. It means he does not act like sinful men. And when God did come in the flesh he did not act like sinful men either. He forgave the ones who crucified him. That is the Holy One in the midst of us. “They shall walk after the LORD: he shall roar like a lion” (v.10). And his children will come trembling home from Egypt and Assyria (v.11).

Hosea 12: He Had Power Over the Angel

“Ephraim feedeth on wind” (12:1). Then God reminds them of their father Jacob.

We saw in our Genesis study that Jacob wrestled a man all night. Here Hosea tells us more. Jacob had power with God. He had power over the angel. He wept and begged him for a blessing. Then Hosea tells us who the angel was. “Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial.” The man Jacob wrestled. The angel. Was the LORD God of hosts himself.

Trinitarians will say the angel was the Son as a second person before he came in the flesh.¹⁴ But notice. Hosea does not say the angel was a second person beside the LORD. He says the angel was the LORD God of hosts. One God showing himself in a form Jacob could wrestle. And notice the last words. “The LORD is his memorial.” That is the word God used at the burning bush. “This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations” (Exodus 3:15). We covered that in our Exodus study. His memorial is his name. One name. The God Jacob wrestled is the same LORD who gave his name to Moses. And the same LORD who later came in the flesh as a man. Jacob wrestled God in the form of a man and lived. Thomas touched God in the flesh of a man and said “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).

Then Hosea tells Israel what to do. “Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually” (12:6). Then God says the opposite of Jacob’s prayer. Ephraim is a merchant with lying scales (12:7). He says I am rich. No one will find sin in me (12:8). “And I that am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles” (12:9). “I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes” (12:10). God kept speaking. They kept not hearing.

Hosea 13: There Is No Saviour Beside Me

“And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images … they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves” (13:2). Men kissing a golden cow. So they would be like the morning cloud. Like chaff. Like smoke out of a chimney (13:3). Gone. Then God says this.

No god but me. No saviour beside me. This is the same thing God says in Isaiah 43:11. “Beside me there is no saviour.” We covered that in our Isaiah study. Now listen to the New Testament. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). Paul calls him “God our Saviour” and “the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:10, 13). If there is no saviour beside the LORD and Jesus is the Saviour then Jesus is the LORD. Not a second saviour beside him. The same one.

“I did know thee in the wilderness” (13:5). “According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me” (13:6). When they had plenty they forgot. That is the danger of blessing. “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help” (13:9). “I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee” (13:10). “I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath” (13:11). We saw that with Saul in our 1 Samuel study. Then right in the middle of judgment this.

I will ransom them. I will redeem them. I. God himself. Paul quotes this in his chapter on the resurrection. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? … But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55, 57). God said I will redeem them from death. And Jesus did it. Because Jesus is the God who said it. He came and died and rose again. “That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). The chapter ends with Samaria falling (13:16). It did in 722 BC.

The book ends with an invitation. Return. God even gives them the words to pray. Take with you words. Not calves of gold. Calves of your lips. Praise and confession. Hebrews says “let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name” (Hebrews 13:15). Then they say “Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy” (v.3). No more Assyria. No more Egypt. No more idols. Just you.

And God answers. “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him” (v.4). Freely. Not because they earned it. “I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon” (v.5). Israel’s goodness was like the dew that goes away (6:4). Now God is the dew. And he does not go away. “Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? … From me is thy fruit found” (v.8). Every good thing comes from God. Jesus said “without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).

The last verse is for anyone who reads the book. “Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein” (v.9). Two ways. Walk or fall.

Hosea is a book about one husband. Israel had many lovers. God wanted to be her only one. Before we finish we want to put it all together. There are three things we want to point out.

First there is one God and no other. “Thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me” (13:4). The calves were made by a workman. So they were not God (8:6). Baal did not give the corn and wine. God did (2:8). Assyria could not heal. Egypt could not save. “I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee” (13:10). One God. One Saviour. One husband.

Second the one God showed himself and saved by himself. He said he would save Judah by the LORD their God. Not by bow or sword (1:7). Himself. The angel Jacob wrestled was “the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial” (12:5). Not a second person. The one LORD showing himself. And he said I will ransom them from the grave. I will redeem them from death (13:14). He did not send someone else to do it. Jesus did it. And Paul gives thanks to God for the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Third Hosea points to Jesus Christ. The one who bought back his bride at the price of a slave. The Son called out of Egypt (11:1). The one who was raised the third day (6:2). The one who said I will have mercy and not sacrifice (6:6). The husband who betroths his people forever. The Saviour beside whom there is no other. One God. Revealed in Jesus Christ. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

We have gone through Hosea chapter by chapter. Here is what we can conclude. First Hosea is about the sin of spiritual adultery. Israel took the corn and wine God gave her and gave it to Baal. She kissed calves. She ran to Assyria and Egypt. She forgot her Maker. She sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind. And in 722 BC Samaria fell just like Hosea said.

Second Hosea is about the faithful love of the one God. He would not give her up. His heart turned within him. He allured her into the wilderness and spoke tenderly to her. He turned the valley of trouble into a door of hope. He turned Not my people into My people. And No mercy into Mercy. He said I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely.

Third Hosea points to Jesus Christ. Hosea went to the market and bought back his unfaithful wife. That is what Jesus did for us. He found us sold under sin. And he paid for us with his own blood. He is the Son who came out of Egypt. The one who rose the third day. And the one who conquered death and the grave. If you have wandered from God he is still saying what he said through Hosea. Return unto the LORD. Take with you words. He will receive you graciously.

Hosea ends with God promising to be like the dew. The next prophet saw a land stripped bare by locusts. And he saw a day when God would pour out his Spirit upon all flesh. That is where Joel begins.