Hosea 2

Say to your brothers, "Ammi." Say to your sisters, "Ruhamah."

1Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

NoteAmmi and Ruhamah are Hebrew words left untranslated: Ammi means "my people," Ruhamah means "she has been shown mercy" (or "she is loved"). In chapter 1 Hosea's children were named Lo-Ammi, "not my people," and Lo-Ruhamah, "not shown mercy." Here the negative prefix is dropped from each name.

2Bring a charge against your mother, bring a charge against her. She is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Tell her to put the unfaithfulness away from her face, and the adultery from between her breasts.

2Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

Note"Bring a charge" is courtroom language, what one party does against another in a legal dispute. "She is not my wife, and I am not her husband" echoes the formula a man spoke to divorce his wife. In the picture that runs through the chapter, the mother is the nation as a whole and the children are the individual people being addressed. What is on her face and between her breasts is probably jewelry or ornaments marking her out as available to her lovers.

3If she does not, I will strip her naked and leave her bare, the way she was on the day she was born. I will make her like a desert, turn her into dry ground, and let her die of thirst.

3Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.

NoteStripping a wife bare was a recognized penalty for adultery in the ancient Near East: the husband took back the clothing he had provided and sent her out with nothing, as she came into the world.

4I will show no mercy to her children, because they are the children of her unfaithfulness.

4And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.

5Their mother has been unfaithful. The woman who carried them acted shamefully. She said, "I will chase after my lovers. They are the ones who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink."

5For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for 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.

NoteFood, water, clothing and oil were what a husband was legally obliged to provide for his wife; the wife here credits them to her lovers instead. Flax is the plant that linen is made from. The "lovers" are the Baals of verse 13, local gods thought to supply rain, crops and fertility.

6So I am going to block her road with thorn bushes. I will build a wall around her, so she cannot find her way.

6Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.

7She will chase her lovers, but she will not catch them. She will look for them, but she will not find them. Then she will say, "I will go back to my first husband. I was better off then than I am now."

7And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.

8She did not realize that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil. I was the one who gave her more and more silver and gold, which they used for Baal.

8For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.

NoteBaal was the Canaanite storm god, believed to send the rain that made crops grow; his name means "lord," "master," or "husband." The silver and gold were worked into images of him or fittings for his shrines. "New wine" is the fresh juice of the season's grape harvest; grain, new wine and olive oil were the three staple products of the land, the standard shorthand for a good year.

9So I will come back and take away my grain when it is time to harvest it, and my new wine in its season. I will take back my wool and my linen, which were given to cover her bare body.

9Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.

10Now I will uncover her shame in full view of her lovers, and no one will rescue her from my hand.

10And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.

11I will put a stop to all her celebrating: her festivals, her New Moon feasts, her Sabbath days, and every one of her appointed feasts.

11I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.

NoteThese are Israel's own religious festivals, not Baal's. New Moon feasts marked the start of each month, since the calendar ran by the moon; the Sabbath was the weekly day of rest; the "appointed feasts" were the fixed annual festivals. Losing them means losing the whole festival calendar.

12I will destroy her grapevines and her fig trees, the ones she said were her pay from her lovers. I will turn them into a wild thicket, and wild animals will eat them.

12And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.

NoteThe word translated "pay" is the fee paid to a prostitute. Vines and fig trees took years to establish and were the mark of settled prosperity; letting them revert to scrub was ruin, not merely a bad harvest.

13I will punish her for the days she gave to the Baals, when she burned incense to them, put on her rings and her jewelry, and went after her lovers. But she forgot me, says the LORD.

13And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.

Note"The Baals" is plural because each town and shrine had its own local Baal. "The days she gave to them" are the festival days kept in their honor. Burning incense was a standard act of worship at a shrine. The rings and jewelry are the ornaments of verse 2.

14So I am going to win her back. I will lead her out into the desert and speak gently to her.

14Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.

NoteThe desert is where Israel traveled after leaving Egypt, before settling in the land, remembered as the time of first courtship, before there were any Baal shrines. "Speak gently" renders a Hebrew idiom, "speak to her heart," used of a man wooing a woman.

15There I will give her back her vineyards, and I will make the Valley of Achor a doorway of hope. There she will sing, as she did when she was young, as she did on the day she came up out of Egypt.

15And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: 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.

NoteThe Valley of Achor ran up from the Jordan near Jericho and was the route into the land from the east. Its name means "trouble" or "disaster": it was where Achan was executed after Israel's defeat at Ai (Joshua 7). The name is turned inside out here, the place named Trouble becomes the way in.

16On that day, says the LORD, you will call me "my husband," and you will no longer call me "my master."

16And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.

NoteA pun English cannot carry. The Hebrew word baal means "husband," but also "master" or "owner", and it is the name of the god Baal. Ishi means "my husband"; Baali means "my master," or equally "my Baal." Even the ordinary Hebrew word for husband is to be dropped, because it is the god's name.

17I will take the names of the Baals off her lips, and their names will never be spoken again.

17For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.

18On that day I will make an agreement for them with the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the creatures that crawl on the ground. I will break the bow and the sword and put an end to war in the land, so they can lie down in safety.

18And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.

NoteThe "agreement" is a covenant, a formal, binding treaty of the kind made between kings or nations. It is made on the people's behalf with the animals, binding the creatures to keep the peace toward them.

19I will take you to be my wife forever. I will take you in what is right and just, in faithful love and mercy.

19And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.

Note"I will take you to be my wife" translates the word for betrothal, a legally binding contract far stronger than a modern engagement (once betrothed, the woman counted as the man's wife. A betrothal required a bride-price paid by the man to the woman's family; here the qualities listed) what is right, justice, faithful love, mercy, stand in the place of that payment.

20I will take you to be my wife in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.

20I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.

Note"Know" in Hebrew covers recognition, acknowledgment and personal intimacy, including the intimacy of husband and wife. It is the same word used in verse 8 for what she "did not realize."

21On that day I will answer, says the LORD. I will answer the heavens, and they will answer the earth.

21And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;

NoteThe verb means both "answer" and "respond to a request." A chain of responses runs downward: God answers the sky, the sky answers the earth with rain, the earth answers the crops, reversing the idea that Baal was the one who supplied the rain.

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

22And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.

NoteJezreel was both a fertile valley in northern Israel and the name of Hosea's first son (chapter 1). The name means "God sows" or "God plants," which is why the next verse speaks of sowing.

23I will plant her for myself in the land. I will show mercy to the one who was shown no mercy. I will say to those who were called "not my people," "You are my people," and they will say, "You are my God."

23And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.

NoteThe two names from chapter 1 come back and are reversed: Lo-Ruhamah, "not shown mercy," and Lo-Ammi, "not my people." "I will plant her" picks up the meaning of Jezreel in the previous verse, "God sows."