Hosea 2:2–5

2:2–5 The first major section begins with the adjuration to “Plead.” This is meant in a legal sense, as in pleading a case in court. The command is naturally understood as being directed to the Israelites—or, at the least, to any faithful Israelites who remain. The one they are to bring charges against is their “mother,” which many commentators agree is also a reference to Israel.¹ Thus “Plead with your mother, plead” is a call for the faithful in the land (if there are any) to plead with the rest of the people. In this regard, it may be read as a call for all faithful believers, in whatever age, to join with the prophet in condemning all who hypocritically or ignorantly perpetrate ungodly and unethical behaviors in the name of God.

God repudiates Israel; no longer can she claim to be his “wife.” Once more she (Samaria and therefore all Israel) is called to “put away” or “turn aside” from her deviant sexual behavior: fornication and “adultery” from “between her breasts” (v. 2), a quite explicit sexual image. This imagery continues into verse 3, where the threat is that she will be stripped naked and exposed as on the day she was born.

The next image has nothing to do with the female body. She will be abandoned like a desert, parched and barren. Note that Yahweh intends to kill her, horribly and painfully. This is a death sentence—assuming the people will not turn back to him. Death by neglect, death by drought, death by exposure, death by slow dehydration in the desert.

Repeating the message of 1:8, God declares that he will not show compassion on the children of spiritual adultery (2:4). Samaria and all Israel shamefully and profligately pursue lovers other than their God (v. 5). Yahweh’s first accusation was that Israel did not pursue him, they whored “from after” him (1:2 AT). Now, this language is employed to designate whom she did “go after”: many other lovers. What truly outrages Yahweh is that Israel credits these lovers—who are unnamed here but who later we learn include Baal (2:8)—with all of the good things that he has given her. This simply cannot stand. God’s honor demands the ultimate sanction. By the time God is finished, no one will be able to claim that Baal has ever benefited Israel.