Hosea 2, The Nakedness of the Prostitute

Hosea has married a woman who is committed to adultery.

Hosea 2:1, "My people"

"Say of your brothers, `My people,' and of your sisters, `My loved one.'  

A positive promise is embedded in the various warnings.

Hosea 2:2-3, Nakedness

"Rebuke your mother, 

rebuke her, for she is not my wife, 

and I am not her husband. 

Let her remove the adulterous look from her face 

and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts. 

Otherwise I will strip her naked 

and make her as bare as on the day she was born; 

I will make her like a desert, 

turn her into a parched land, 

and slay her with thirst.  

The metaphor of an ashamed and naked prostitute stands, in reality, for the people of Israel. God claims that He is divorcing Judah and Israel as Hosea divorces his wife.

Hosea 2:4-5, Children of adultery

I will not show my love to her children, 

because they are the children of adultery.  

Their mother has been unfaithful 

and has conceived them in disgrace. 

She said, `I will go after my lovers, 

who give me my food and my water, 

my wool and my linen, 

my oil and my drink.'  

Typically a husband of an unfaithful wife would divorce the woman and abandon the children she had by another man. She might be told to go back to her lovers. This is the image YHWH gives to Israel.

Hosea 2:6-8, Walled in

Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; 

I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.

She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; 

she will look for them but not find them. 

Then she will say, `I will go back to my husband as at first,

 for then I was better off than now.'  

She has not acknowledged that I was the one 

who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, 

who lavished on her the silver and gold--

which they used for Baal.  

The woman's attempts to return to her other lovers will fail and she will wonder if she should have been faithful to her husband.  

Job 3:23 and Job 19:8 express frustration at God's ability to block one's path. Here God will block the nations Judah and Israel from pursuing other gods. The metaphor mixes with reality, as the woman's riches blend into the nation's grain, wine, oil, precious metals.

Hosea 2:9-13, Lewdness exposed

"Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, 

and my new wine when it is ready. 

I will take back my wool and my linen,

 intended to cover her nakedness. 

So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; 

no one will take her out of my hands. 

 I will stop all her celebrations: 

her yearly festivals,

 her New Moons, 

her Sabbath days--

all her appointed feasts.

 I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, 

which she said were her pay from her lovers; 

I will make them a thicket, 

and wild animals will devour them.  

I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals;

 she decked herself with rings and jewelry, 

and went after her lovers, 

but me she forgot," declares the LORD.  

The prostitute (and Israel) will be exposed as naked before everyone's eyes. As before, it is not clear what is metaphor and what is statement about the two kingdoms. It is the kingdoms that celebrate feasts, grow vines and fig trees and offer incense to the Baals.

Hosea 2:14-15, Allure her back

"Therefore I am now going to allure her; 

I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.

There I will give her back her vineyards, 

and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. 

There she will sing as in the days of her youth, 

as in the day she came up out of Egypt.  

And yet, suddenly, after the public humiliation, the prostitute is to be lured back. Hosea is to speak kind words to her, speaking tenderly to her, giving her gifts and reminding her of her beautiful youth.

Achor means "trouble"; the Valley of Anchor was so named because it was where the family of Achan were executed (Joshua 7:24-26) for their disobedience and theft after the battle of Jericho.

Hosea 2:16-18, Allure her back

"In that day," declares the LORD, 

"you will call me `my husband'; 

you will no longer call me `my master.'  

I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; 

no longer will their names be invoked.  

In that day I will make a covenant for them 

with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air 

and the creatures that move along the ground. 

Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, 

so that all may lie down in safety.  

As Hosea woos his wife back, in th same way, YHWH will woo back Israel. God says, "You (Israel) will call Me 'husband,' not 'master', a term of affection and commitment. The worship of gods will fall away. (The word "Baal" means "master". The phrase "my master" in Hebrew is bali, so there is additional meaning to Israel moving from Baal/master to the more intimate label of ishi, "husband", offered by YHWH.)

Hosea 2:19-23, Betrothed forever

I will betroth you to me forever; 

I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,

 in love and compassion.

 I will betroth you in faithfulness, 

and you will acknowledge the LORD.  

"In that day I will respond," declares the LORD-- 

"I will respond to the skies,

 and they will respond to the earth; 

and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and oil, 

and they will respond to Jezreel.  

I will plant her for myself in the land; 

I will show my love to the one I called `Not my loved one.' 

I will say to those called `Not my people, ' `You are my people'; 

and they will say, `You are my God.'" 

  

Jezreel ("God plants") will become a valley of good news, where God plants abundant crops: grain, vineyards, olive trees. The one called "Not my loved one" will be loved; the one called "Not my people" will be adopted as God's family.

This is a beautiful image of forgiveness and rekindled love.

First published June 7, 2025; updated June 7, 2025