Hosea: Return Unto the Lord and Be Forgiven

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Hebrew Meanings:

Hosea = Deliverer

Beeri = My Wells also the name of a Hittite

Uzziah = “Jehovah is my Strength” Name of a king of Judah (c 800 BC)

Jotham = “Jehovah is Perfect,” Name of a king of Judah (c740 BC)

Ahaz = “Possessor,” Name of a king of Judah (c734 BC)

Hezekiah = Strengthened of Jehovah, Name of a king of Judah (c 726 BC)

Diblaim = “Two fig cakes mixed up” = married outside of the covenant

Jeroboam II =  “the People will Contend,” Name of a king of Israel (c 790 BC)

Joash (Jehoash) = “Fire from Jehovah” Name of a king of Israel (c 837 BC)

Gomer = “Completing an unhappy ending”

Jezreel = “Sower of the Almighty”

Jehu = “Jehovah Is” Name of a king of Israel (c 843 BC)

Lo-Ruhamah = “Not having obtained Mercy, also “Not Loved” NIV

Lo-Ammi = “Not My People”

Baal = Literally means “Master or Husband” but was the name of a Canaanite God

Achor = Trouble

Flagons of Wine = Raisin cakes used in pagan fertility rites.

                God ordered Hosea to marry a harlot for a wife, Gomer, and the three children, who were not fathered by Hosea, were given symbolic names representing the tragedy of infidelity. Ch. 2 Alternates between Hosea’s relation to Gomer and its symbolic representation of God’s relationship with Israel. The prophet was ordered to continue loving her, and he took her back and kept her in isolation for a while. Even as we are unfaithful and even seriously unfaithful at times, the Lord is willing to forgive us and love us back into the covenant. (ch. 3). The story of Gomer represents the Lord’s relationship to the Israelites (cf. 2:4, 9, 18), who had been disloyal to him by worshiping Canaanite deities as the source of their abundance. Israel was to go through a period of exile (cf. 7:16; 9:3, 6, 17; 11:5). But the Lord still loved his covenant people and longed to take them back, just as Hosea took back Gomer.[1]

Superscription (1:1)

  1. The Unfaithful Wife and the Faithful Husband (1:2; 3:5)
  2. The Children as Signs (1:2; 2:1)
  3. The Unfaithful Wife (2:2-23)
  4. The Lord’s judgment of Israel (2:2-13)
  5. The Lord’s restoration of Israel (2:14-23)
  6. The Faithful Husband (ch. 3)
  7. The Unfaithful Nation and the Faithful God (chs. 4-14)
  8. Israel’s Unfaithfulness (4:1; 6:3)
  9. The general charge (4:1-3)
  10. The cause declared and the results described (4:4-19)
  11. A special message to the people and leaders (ch. 5)

The people’s sorrowful plea (6:1-3)

  1. Israel’s Punishment (6:4; 10:15)
  2. The case stated (6:4; 7:16)

The judgment pronounced (chs. 8-9)

Summary and appeal (ch. 10)

  1. The Lord’s Faithful Love (chs. 11-14)

1.The Lord’s fatherly love (11:1-11)

  1. Israel’s punishment for unfaithfulness (11:12; 13:16)
  2. Israel’s restoration after repentance (ch. 14)

[1] Quoted, paraphrased, and added to from the New International Version of the Bible (NIV) p. 1312

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