A covenant lawsuit against an unfaithful wife, who is Israel. She chased her lovers for bread and wool and flax, 'and she knew not that I gave her the grain and the new wine and the oil': the silver and gold she spent on Baal. So Jehovah hedges her way with thorns and strips her feast days away. Then the turn no lawsuit predicts: 'I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her,' giving the valley of Achor for a door of hope. She will call him Ishi, my husband, not Baali. 'I will betroth thee unto me for ever' (2:19).

Drawn from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary, John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and John Calvin, Commentaries.

Context

Prophecy · Hosea — Hosea overview

A. 1–5 Plead with your mother, for she is not my wife
B. 6–13 Hedged with thorns; she never knew who gave the grain
C. 14–17 Allured into the wilderness and spoken to tenderly
D. 18–23 Betrothed forever, and Jezreel sown in the land

Top cross-references8 chapters ▾

Hosea 23 verses
- Hosea 2:3Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst.
- Hosea 2:7She will pursue her lovers but not catch them; she will seek them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will return to my first husband, for then I was better off than now.’
- Hosea 2:23And I will sow her as My own in the land, and I will have compassion on ‘No Compassion.’ I will say to those called ‘Not My People,’ ‘You are My people,’ and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”
- Read Hosea 2 →
Isaiah 13 verses
- Isaiah 1:3The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.”
- Isaiah 1:13Bring your worthless offerings no more; your incense is detestable to Me— your New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations. I cannot endure iniquity in a solemn assembly.
- Isaiah 1:21See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness resided within her, but now only murderers!
- Read Isaiah 1 →
1 Peter 22 verses
- 1 Peter 2:9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
- 1 Peter 2:10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
- Read 1 Peter 2 →
Ezekiel 162 verses
- Ezekiel 16:22And in all your abominations and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your own blood.
- Ezekiel 16:25At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty. With increasing promiscuity, you spread your legs to all who passed by.
- Read Ezekiel 16 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

Ezekiel 232 verses
- Ezekiel 23:29They will treat you with hatred, take all for which you have worked, and leave you naked and bare, so that the shame of your prostitution will be exposed. Your indecency and promiscuity
- Ezekiel 23:45But righteous men will sentence them to the punishment of those who commit adultery and bloodshed, because they are adulteresses with blood on their hands.
- Read Ezekiel 23 →
Hosea 12 verses
- Hosea 1:2When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the LORD.”
- Hosea 1:11Then the people of Judah and of Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint for themselves one leader, and will go up out of the land. For great will be the day of Jezreel.
- Read Hosea 1 →
Hosea 112 verses
- Hosea 11:1When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.
- Hosea 11:2But the more I called Israel, the farther they departed from Me. They sacrificed to the Baals and burned incense to carved images.
- Read Hosea 11 →
Isaiah 542 verses
- Isaiah 54:5For your husband is your Maker—the LORD of Hosts is His name—the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; He is called the God of all the earth.
- Isaiah 54:8In a surge of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD your Redeemer.
- Read Isaiah 54 →

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.