Commentary - Hosea 2:14-23

Bird's-eye view

After laying out the covenant lawsuit against Israel, detailing her spiritual harlotry with meticulous and painful accuracy, the Lord does not conclude with the verdict of condemnation. He concludes with a verdict of grace. This is the stunning pivot of the gospel. The passage before us, Hosea 2:14-23, is one of the most potent expressions of God's tenacious, pursuing, and covenant-keeping love in all of Scripture. Having stripped His unfaithful bride of all the gifts she credited to her lovers, having hedged up her way with thorns, God now begins the work of winning her back. This is not a negotiation; it is a sovereign rescue mission. He takes her back to the wilderness, the place where their relationship began, in order to start over. This new beginning will be established on an entirely new footing, one of grace from start to finish. The outcome will be a restored relationship, a renewed creation, and a redeemed people who know their God intimately.

The entire movement is from judgment to hope, from alienation to betrothal, from curse to blessing. The very names that signified Israel's rejection are systematically dismantled and reversed. Jezreel, Lo-Ruhamah, and Lo-Ammi become glorious promises of God's faithfulness. This is not just about the restoration of ethnic Israel; the apostle Paul picks up these themes in Romans 9 to show how God, in His mercy, has grafted the Gentiles into His one covenant family through Christ. This passage is a picture of what God does for every sinner He saves: He allures, He brings us into a desolate place to get our attention, He speaks to our hearts, and He betroths us to Himself forever in Christ.

Outline

Commentary

14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her And bring her into the wilderness And speak to her heart.

The word "Therefore" is a bucket of cold water in the face. Given all the spiritual prostitution detailed in the previous verses, we would expect it to be followed by "I will cast her off forever." But God's logic is not our logic. His therefore is a therefore of grace. Because she is such a hopeless adulteress, because she cannot find her way back, therefore God Himself will take the initiative. The word "allure" is a word of wooing, of tender persuasion. God is not dragging her back kicking and screaming; He is winning her heart. He brings her into the wilderness, which is a place of foundational memories for Israel. It was in the wilderness that God first betrothed her to Himself at Sinai. It was a place of dependence, a place stripped of all the idols and distractions of Canaan. God gets His people alone in order to speak to them. And He speaks not to the ear, but "to her heart." This is the language of the new covenant, where God promises to write His law on the heart (Jer. 31:33). This is regeneration. God is going to do a heart-work, changing her desires from the inside out.

15 Then I will give her her vineyards from there And the valley of Achor as a door of hope. And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

God's restoration is not just spiritual, but total. He gives back the vineyards she had forfeited, the very things she thought her Baals had provided (v. 12). He demonstrates that He is the source of every good gift. And then comes a breathtaking promise. The valley of Achor, which means "valley of trouble," was the place where Achan and his family were stoned for their sin right after Israel entered the Promised Land (Josh. 7:26). It was a place of national shame, judgment, and a disastrous beginning. God says He will take that very place of trouble and transform it into a "door of hope." This is the gospel in a nutshell. God takes our place of greatest shame and judgment, the cross of Christ, and makes it the one and only door of our hope. He redeems our failures and makes them the foundation of His grace. The result is renewed joy. She will sing again, not a dirge, but a song of youthful love, like the song of Miriam after the Red Sea deliverance. This is the joy of first love, the joy of a fresh start given by grace.

16 And it will be in that day,” declares Yahweh, “That you will call Me Ishi And will no longer call Me Baali.

This is a revolution in her relationship with God. "Baali" means "my master" or "my lord." While it can be used in a marital context, it was also the name of the Canaanite storm god she had been whoring after. The name was polluted. It carried the connotation of a harsh master, a pimp, not a loving husband. God is purging her vocabulary and her heart. She will now call him "Ishi," which means "my husband." This is a name of intimacy, of partnership, of loving affection. The relationship is being elevated from one of fearful servitude to one of loving communion. God does not just want obedience; He wants our hearts. He does not want to be just another lord in our lives; He wants to be our husband.

17 So I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth So that they will be remembered by their names no more.

This is the work of sanctification. God is so thorough in His cleansing that even the memory of the old idols will be erased. He will remove the names from her mouth. True repentance involves a change in our speech. The things we used to celebrate, the names we used to invoke, are now distasteful to us. God is promising a deep work of forgetting, a cleansing of the imagination. The old lovers will not just be rejected; they will be forgotten. This is the freedom of a heart captivated by Christ. The old temptations lose their power because the old loves have been displaced by a greater love.

18 And in that day I will cut a covenant for them With the beasts of the field, The birds of the sky, And the creeping things of the ground. And I will break the bow, the sword, and war from the land, And I will make them lie down in security.

The renewal is not just personal; it is cosmic. Man's sin in the garden brought a curse upon the entire created order. Hostility entered not just between God and man, but between man and the beasts. Here, God promises to reverse that curse. He will make a covenant of peace, a shalom, that extends to the animal kingdom. This is a picture of the peaceable kingdom prophesied in Isaiah 11, where the wolf lies down with the lamb. This is fulfilled in Christ, who is the head of a new creation. Furthermore, God promises to remove the instruments of human conflict. The bow and the sword will be broken. This is the promise of the gospel's triumph in history. As the kingdom of Christ advances, it brings peace. The ultimate fulfillment is in the new heavens and the new earth, but the promise is for a real, historical peace that God's people will enjoy in security. God will make them lie down, like a shepherd with his sheep, in perfect safety.

19 And I will betroth you to Me forever; Indeed, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, In lovingkindness and in compassion,

Here we have the heart of the new covenant, described in the language of a marriage vow. God says "I will." The initiative is all His. This betrothal is not temporary or conditional like the first one; it is "forever." It is an eternal covenant. Then God lists the bride price, the dowry He Himself provides. It is not paid by her, but to her and for her. He betroths her "in righteousness and in justice." These are the foundations of God's own character. The covenant is established on a firm, unshakeable legal basis. Then He adds "in lovingkindness and in compassion." Lovingkindness is hesed, that great Old Testament word for covenant loyalty, steadfast love. Compassion speaks of God's tender mercy toward His broken people. God is providing everything necessary for this relationship to succeed. He provides the legal standing and the relational tenderness.

20 And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know Yahweh.

The final element of the dowry is "faithfulness." God binds Himself to His people with His own unbreakable faithfulness. Our problem is faithlessness; His solution is His own faithfulness. This is the security of the believer. Our standing does not depend on our wavering grip on Him, but on His unshakeable grip on us. And the result of this divine betrothal is true knowledge of God. "Then you will know Yahweh." This is not abstract, theological knowledge. The Hebrew word for "know" (yada) implies deep, personal, intimate experience, the same word used for the union of a husband and wife. To know God is to be in a covenant relationship with Him, secured by His grace from beginning to end.

21 “And it will be in that day, that I will answer,” declares Yahweh. “I will answer the heavens, and they will answer the earth,

The restored relationship results in restored blessing. Under the curse of the covenant, the heavens became like brass, withholding rain (Deut. 28:23). Now, God says "I will answer." A beautiful chain of blessing is set in motion. God speaks, and all of creation responds in harmony. God answers the heavens, presumably their silent plea for permission to give rain. The heavens then answer the earth, providing the water it needs.

22 And the earth will answer the grain, the new wine, and the oil, And they will answer Jezreel.

The chain continues. The watered earth answers the grain, wine, and oil, causing them to grow and be fruitful. And these staples of life, in turn, answer "Jezreel." The name that once meant "God scatters" in judgment now means "God sows" in blessing. The people, once scattered for their sin, are now planted by God to receive the fruitfulness of the land. The whole world is now ordered for the good of God's redeemed people.

23 And I will sow her for Myself in the land. I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion, And I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they will say, ‘You are my God!’ ”

This is the grand finale, the great reversal. God explicitly reinterprets the names of Hosea's children. "Jezreel" is now about God sowing His people for a harvest of righteousness. "Lo-Ruhamah" ("no compassion") is now the recipient of God's compassion. And "Lo-Ammi" ("not my people") is brought into the covenant family. God declares, "You are My people!" This is the sovereign, effectual call of the gospel. And the response of the redeemed heart is simple, profound faith: "And they will say, 'You are my God!'" This is the essence of the covenant: I will be your God, and you will be my people. As Paul makes clear in Romans 9, this promise finds its ultimate fulfillment in the church, where God has taken both Jews and Gentiles who were "not His people" and, through the wooing, atoning, and life-giving work of Jesus Christ, has made them His own forever.