Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 2:23
And 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.
23. And I will sow her unto me in the earth ] Rather, in the land. Jehovah declares that Jezreel shall verify her name ( her name, for Jezreel means restored Israel) by being sown anew in the promised land. (Similarly Jeremiah, see Jer 31:27-28). Thus one of the symbolic names of chap. 1 is not indeed changed, but transformed by interpretation. The other names are absolutely reversed. ‘Unto me’, because while they were outside ‘Jehovah’s land’, the relations of Jehovah to Israel seemed interrupted.
I will have mercy upon.] Rather, I will compassionate Uncompassionated [Lo-ruhamah], and to Not-my-people [Lo-ammi] I will say, Thou art My-people [Ammi]; and he (viz. Not-my-people) shall say, My God! St Paul’s quotation in Rom 9:25 (in a form which differs both from the Hebrew and from the Septuagint) has been already referred to in illustration of a critical hypothesis (see on Hos 1:10-11). A post-exile prophecy also contains an unmistakable allusion to this passage (Zec 13:9, end). Applications like these shew how great was the posthumous influence of the prophets.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And I will sow her unto Me in the earth – She whom God sows, is the Church, of whom God speaks as her, because she is the Mother of the faithful. After the example of her Lord, and by virtue of His Death, every suffering is to increase her. The blood of Christians was their harvest-seed . The Church was not diminished by persecutions, but increased and the field of the Lord was even clothed with the richer harvest, in that the seeds, which fell singly, arose multiplied .
In the earth – o He does not say in their own land, i. e., Judea, but the earth. The whole earth was to be the seed-plot of the Church, where God would sow her to Himself, plant, establish, cause her to increase, and multiply her mightily. As he said, Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the pagan for Thine inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for Thy possession Psa 2:8. Of this sowing, Jews were the instruments. Of them according to the flesh, Christ came; of them were the Apostles and Evangelists and all writers of Holy Scripture; of them was the Church first formed, into which the Gentiles were received, being, with them; knit into one in Christ.
I will … have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy – This which was true of Israel in its dispersion, was much more true of the Gentiles. These too, the descendants of righteous Noah, God had cast off for the time, that they should be no more His people, when he chose Israel out of them, to make known to them His Being, and His will, and His laws, and, (although in shadow and in mystery,) Christ who was to come. So Gods mercies again overflow His threatenings. He had threatened to Israel, that he should be unpitied, and no more His people; in reversing His sentence, He embraces in the arms of His mercy all who were not His people, and says of them all, that they should be My people and beloved. At one and the same time, was Israel to be thus multiplied, and pity was to be shown to those not pitied, and those who were not Gods people, were to become His people. At one and the same time were those promises fulfilled in Christ; the one through the other; Israel was not multiplied by itself; but through the bringing in of the Gentiles. Nor was Israel alone, or chiefly, brought into a new relation with God. The same words promised the same mercy to both, Jew and Gentile, that all should be one in Christ, all one Jezreel, one Spouse to Himself, one Israel of God, one Beloved; and that all, with one voice of jubilee. should cry unto Him, my Lord and my God.
And they shall say, Thou art my God, – (or rather, shall say, my God) There seems to be more affectionateness in the brief answer, which sums up the whole relation of the creature to the Creator in that one word, Elohai, my God. The prophet declares, as before, that, when God thus anew called them His people, they by His grace would obey His call, and surrender themselves wholly to Him. For to say, my God, is to own an exelusive relation to God alone. It is to say, my beginning and my end, my hope and my salvation, my whole and only good, in whom Alone I will hope, whom alone I will fear, love, worship, trust in, obey and serve, with all my heart, mind, soul and strength; my God and my all.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hos 2:23
And I will sow her unto Me in the earth.
Gods sowing
I. These words refute pantheism. God is not nature, nor is nature God. Pantheism teaches that there is no real and practical distinction between God and the universe. This form of infidelity ignores evil as evil, and all moral responsibility, for it declares that the soul is only a mode of the thought of God.
II. These words declare the Divine personality. Only on belief in a personal God can any sound superstructure of religion be raised.
III. These words show the abiding connection between God and His works. The Bible invariably attributes the operations of nature to the energy of God.
IV. These words show that the universe is the friend of the praying soul, One part of the universe is here represented as related to and acting upon another on behalf of Jezreel. All the forces of nature are arrayed against the disturber of the harmony of Gods kingdom.
V. These words teach that God will really answer prayer. The answers are, I will sow her unto Me. I will have mercy upon her. Thou art My people. The infinite God gives Himself to the soul, and becomes its present and eternal portion. (Christian Age.)
Gods people as seeds
1. Gods people are the seed of the earth.
2. Every godly man should so live as, either in life or in death, to be as a seed from whence many should spring.
3. The saints are sown unto Christ, they are seed for Christ, therefore all their fruit must be consecrated to Christ. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
Hope for the forsaken
All the brighter side of the prophetic message is summed up in the most wonderful way in this verse, and there are few verses even in the Bible itself, so crowded with significance. Hosea sums up all that he himself had said, all that he had been teaching for some seven years. It is God whom he represents as speaking these weighty and matterful words:–And I will sow (an allusion, of course, to the meaning of Jezreel–Gods sowing) her (the impersonated people of Israel) unto Me (sow, and no longer scatter); and I will have pity upon, not pitied; and I will say unto Not My people, Thou art My people; and she shall say to Me, My God. Obviously, as soon as we can read the verse aright, we find in it the names of all Hoseas children, and the whole significance of this prophetic message. On the one hand, we are reminded of the time in which Israel was scattered for their guilt among the heathen, the time in which God refused to pity them, or to acknowledge them as His own; and on the other hand, we are reminded of the better time in which, instead of being God-scattered, unpitied, and not My people, they were called God-sown, pitied, and sons of the living God; when the heavens smiled upon them, and the earth gave them her increase, and all the forces of nature, once so hostile, were at peace with them. (S. Cox, D. D.)
I will say to them who were not My people, Thou art My people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.
Sinners owning a covenant God
Read in the light of the context, these words seem to refer to the nation of Israel only. But in the ninth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, Paul quotes them as having a more comprehensive reference. He there applies them to the vessels of mercy, who are called in the Gospel day, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. These words foretell the formation of a gracious relation between God and sinners, and the mutual acknowledgment of that relation. On His side He shall own the outcasts as His people. On their side they shall own Him as their God. What is implied in sinners saying to Jehovah, Thou art my God?
I. The gracious relation thus acknowledged.
1. And first of all, it is a new covenant relation. Naturally, as is here intimated, we are not the people of God. When the covenant which He made with us in Adam, our representative, was broken, we ceased to be His people and He ceased to be our God. We, by wilful apostasy, have cast Him off; and He, in holy and righteous displeasure, has cast us off. Our carnal minds are enmity against Him, and His law has only condemnation and death for us. We are miserable outcasts from our Maker. We are without God in the world. But He has made a covenant with His Chosen: and in that new and better covenant He has made provision that the gracious relation so fearfully ruptured shall be more than restored. He has covenanted with His only begotten Son, as the Head of an innumerable multitude of our outcast race, that on condition of His assuming their nature and doing all His will in their redemption He will, in a very special and gracious sense, be a God to Him, and in the same special and gracious sense be a God to them.
2. In this new covenant relation, as willing to be our God in Christ, God offers Himself to us unconditionally and individually in the Gospel. It was such an offer of Himself He made to the Israelites when, from the summit of the flaming mount, He proclaimed–I am the Lord thy God, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. It was God in the person of Christ, as we learn from Stephen (Act 7:38), who there announced His willingness to be the God of Abrahams seed. And to these sinners, deeply infected as they were soon to show, with the idolatry and moral corruption or Egypt, that was a most free offer; and it is expressed in absolute and unconditional terms, clogged with no condition of any sort whatever. It was also an individual offer, made to every Israelite in the camp without exception, so that, every soul in all that host, the vilest and most abject was warranted as much as Moses and Aaron, to close with it, and on the ground of it to take Jehovah as his own personal God. Now we are most earnest you should realise this day that God is making to each one of you, through Christ, the same absolutely free and gracious offer to be your God. Only with this great difference, that He is making it not from the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire, and from blackness and darkness and tempest–not from among that dark obscurity of type, and rigor of ordinance and law tending to bondage and fear, which beset the revelation of covenant mercy and love under the old economy, but in the clear sweet light of the risen Sun of Righteousness, and through the lips of ambassadors whom He has sent to beseech you in Christs stead to be reconciled to Him. Incline your ear, and come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David (Isa 4:3).
3. For, be it remarked further, that while God offers Himself in this relation to all, He actually gives Himself in this relation to those who are made willing by His Spirit to close with the offer by faith. This highest and holiest of covenant unions, like every other covenant union, is formed by mutual consent. Thus the sons of the stranger are said to join themselves to the Lord, in the way of taking hold of His covenant: in doing which they first take hold of Christ the Surety of the Covenant with the grasp of a living and entire faith when brought near them in the Gospel; and then, in and through Christ, they take hold of the God of the covenant, and enter into all the fulness of His covenanted love and grace (Rom 3:29-30). And mark how faith avails to bring the guiltiest and vilest into all the good and blessedness of this endearing relation to Jehovah. Faith, laying hold of Christ, unites us to Him. It makes us so vitally one with Him that we participate in all the boundless merit of His righteousness. And, having Christs righteousness as our own, there is no more any legal obstacle to keep us outcasts from God.
4. For observe yet again, that in this relation God gives Himself to believing sinners in all He is and all He has. He is not ashamed to be called their God (Heb 11:16). And why not ashamed to be called their God? It is because He acts toward them with a Divine munificence worthy of Himself, glorifying the exceeding riches of His grace in giving them not this or that kind and measure of good, but in giving them Himself, the Fountain and Centre of all good. Think of the ineffable dignity and privilege of being able to say of Him whom angels count it their supreme happiness to adore, He is my God; mine in all His essential perfections: His wisdom mine, to enlighten and guide me; His power mine, to uphold and protect me; His holiness mine, to raise me to walk in the light as He is in the light; His justice mine, to guard me as one of Christs ransomed ones, and to guarantee to me all the inheritance He has purchased with His blood; His truth mine, to fulfil to me every word He has spoken and every expectation and longing His Spirit has wakened within me; His love mine, to delight in me and rejoice over me to do me good; His infinitude mine, to be the measure of the good and the blessedness which I have in Him; and His eternity mine, to be the duration through which it shall all be enjoyed. All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours, and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods (1Co 3:22-23). Can you contemplate this, the inheritance of the saints in light, without exclaiming, Happy is the people whose God is the Lord?
II. What is implied in the acknowledgment of this relation which our text foretells? It is, as we have hinted, a divinely wrought acknowledgment. Neither reason, nor conscience, nor moral suasion, though that were put forth with the tongue of an angel, will persuade the soul in its natural hatred and fear and distrust of God to make it. It is the response of the newborn nature to the call of the Spirit of God within.
I. It implies, first of all, the believing personal acceptance of the offer which God makes of Himself to sinners indefinitely and individually in the Gospel. Proud unbelief, putting on the deceitful guise of humility, may tell you that it is presumption for such as you to claim Jehovah as your God. You virtually say by that refusal that all His professed love and goodwill toward you is insincere, that His word is not faithful and worthy of all acceptation.
2. This acknowledgment implies, further, the taking of God as our only and all-sufficing portion. Naturally, our carnal hearts will not have God for their portion. They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. But these earthly things can no more satisfy the nature and cravings of the spiritual essence within us than the husks that the swine did eat could satisfy the prodigal. Deeply and unfeignedly that sinner grieves that, in following lying vanities, he should so long have forsaken his own mercies. But in proportion to the shame and sorrow of his penitence is his satisfaction that in Christ, and God in Him, he has found at last the good, the rest, the home of his heart.
3. Again, this acknowledgment implies the surrender of ourselves to God as our Lawgiver and King and the great End of our being. If we naturally dislike God as our portion, we still more dislike the thought of entire subjection to Him as our King. Many, indeed, would wish to enjoy His favour and His benefits, provided that, free from His holy authority and control, they could get following their carnal inclinations and living aa they list. But this will not do. It is an eternal moral impossibility. God must change His nature and reverse all the laws of His moral government ere He can make you happy while you are unwilling to be holy, and ere you can enjoy Him as your portion while you will not know, obey, and submit to His will, in all things, as your Lawgiver and King. And most certainly on these terms you can never enter the bond of His covenant (Heb 8:10). The true-hearted covenanter is well pleased with Gods covenant in all respects. He delights in the law of the Lord after the inward man (Psa 119:140). He feels that God has infinite claims upon the love and loyalty of his heart and the perfect obedience of his life. As He who made him, and made him a rational and immortal being responsible to Himself; as He who has made goodness and mercy to follow him through all his sinful (lays when he would have been honoured in shutting him up in hell; as He who has redeemed his life from destruction with the blood of His Own Son, and hid his life with Christ in Himself forever–he feels that He has claims upon him which the love and never-ceasing service of eternity shall fail to discharge, but which shall rather ever grow in a still accumulating debt.
4. In a word, this acknowledgment implies the explicit and formal devotement of ourselves to God. They shall say, Thou art my God. Not merely think it or feel it, but say it. Say it explicitly, formally, solemnly. With the heart he believeth, unto righteousness, and with the mouth he makes confession unto salvation. Such an avowed devotement of ourselves to God is really made in all spiritual worship. In all true prayer there is an owning of God s sovereignty and of our dependence which says, Thou art my God. In all true praise there is an owning of Gods goodness and of our obligations which says, Thou art my God. But the honour of God, the promptings of the new nature, and the necessity of binding our wayward hearts by the firmest and closest of bonds, demand that this avouching of the Lord to be our God should be made in the most explicit and public manner possible to man (Isa 44:3-6). (Original Secession Magazine.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 23. I will sow her] Alluding to the import of the name Jezreel, the seed of God. Then shall it appear that God has shown mercy to them that had not obtained mercy. Then the covenant of God will be renewed; for he will call them his people who were not his people; and they shall call Jehovah their God, who before had him not for the object of their worship. It does not appear that these promises have had their fulfilment among the Jews. They must either be understood of the blessings experienced by the Gentiles on their conversion to God by the preaching of the Gospel, or are yet to be fulfilled to the Jews on their embracing the Gospel, and being brought back to their own land.
The sentences in the latter part of this verse are very abrupt, but exceedingly expressive; leaving out those words supplied by the translators, and which unnerve the passage, it stands thus: I will say to NOT MY PEOPLE, THOU MY PEOPLE; and they shall say, MY GOD.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Their sins, the enemies sword, and Gods just displeasure, had wasted and lessened their numbers; but now the Lord will bless them with wonderful increase of people, expressed with allusion to a seed sown in the earth, which multiplieth exceedingly: so the Jews multiplied after the Babylonish captivity, but much more are the numbers increased since the preaching of the gospel, and the gathering in the dispersed elect of God.
The earth; either the land of Canaan, if you refer this to the Jews after the captivity; or the whole earth, all places and nations, if you do, as you should, refer it to gospel days; and so we have seen this promise fulfilled.
I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy: see Hos 1:6,10.
I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; so great is the change grace hath made, that a rejected people are once more taken to be a peculiar people; a remnant among them is saved. Not in word only, but with hearty consent, joy, affection. and thankfulness they shall be my people, as well as call themselves so.
They shall say, Thou art my God: this people of whom the prophet here speaketh shall openly confess the Lord is their God, Sovereign to command and rule, and Saviour to deliver and save them. Their God to give them law and life, to direct their obedience, and to be their exceeding great reward for it; their God to sanctify, justify, and glorify.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
23. I will sow herreferringto the meaning of Jezreel (Ho2:22).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And I will sow her unto me in the earth,…. That is, Jezreel, or the people of God, the church betrothed; this is another blessing following upon the marriage relation between Christ and his people, both Jews and Gentiles, in the latter day, a multiplication of a spiritual seed and offspring. So Kimchi and Aben Ezra observe, that the words signify that the people of Israel shall increase and be fruitful as the seed of the earth. These now are good seed which the Lord sows; such as are born not of corruptible but incorruptible seed; are quickened by the Spirit of God; have a good work of grace begun in them; and though they may lie for some time under the clods in darkness and obscurity, yet shall rise up in the green blade of a lively profession, and bring forth the fruits of righteousness. Seed for sowing is the choicest and most precious, and of greatest esteem and value, and is separated from the rest for that use, though but little and small in quantity in comparison of it; all which is applicable to the people of God. This is said to be sown “in the earth or land”; either in their own land, the land of Israel, into which they shall now be brought, Eze 21:22 or in the field of the world, the nations and people of the earth, according to Zec 10:9 or rather in the churches of Christ on earth, the churches in the Gentile world, into which the Jews, when converted, shall be brought, and increase and multiply; and this will be all the Lord’s doing.
I will sow her: he will quicken and convert them, and place and plant them in Gospel churches, though ministers may be instruments in his hands; and all their fruitfulness and increase will be “unto him”, for his service, the promotion of his interest, and for his honour and glory. The Targum is,
“I will establish you before me in the land of my Shechinah or majesty.”
And I will have mercy on her that had not obtained mercy; upon Loruhamah, or the people of Israel, signified by her, Ho 1:6 and also the Gentiles, for to both Jews and Gentiles the apostle applies the words in Ro 9:24 and they were fulfilled in part in his time, by the conversion of some of the Jews, and by the calling of the Gentiles; but will have a larger accomplishment in the latter day, when all Israel shall obtain mercy, and be saved; see Ro 11:26 and are applicable to the people of God at all times, when called by grace; for though before conversion there is mercy for them in the heart of God, which is from everlasting; and in his purpose and resolution to bestow; and which is displayed in his choice of them, considered in the decree of the means as fallen creatures, and so vessels of mercy; and which is laid up in covenant for them, which is full of the sure mercies of David; and appears in the mission of Christ, and their redemption by him; and in sparing and saving them before calling; as well as in their regeneration, which is the fruit of abundant mercy; yet is not manifested to them till converted, when they openly obtain it: the Lord has mercy on them, and brings them out of the horrible pit of the state of nature; plucks them as brands out of the burning; opens the prison doors, knocks off their fetters, and sets them free; feeds their hungry and clothes their naked souls; heals their diseases, and pardons their iniquities, and saves them with an everlasting salvation.
And I will say to them which were not my people, thou art my people; or to “Loammi”, the people of Israel, signified by the prophet’s child of that name, Ho 1:9, who should no more be called so, but “Ammi”, my people, Ho 2:1, which, as before observed, was in part fulfilled in the first times of the Gospel; but will be more fully accomplished at the conversion of the Jews, and the bringing in the fulness of the Gentiles; who though chosen to be the people of God, and are so federally, and were given in covenant to Christ as such, and so redeemed and saved by him from their sins; yet are not till conversion laid hold on by the Lord, and formed as his people for himself, and are without knowledge of him, and communion with him: nor are they called his people by themselves or others; but, when converted, they have the characters, and enjoy the privileges, of God’s people; they have the witness of the relation to themselves by the Spirit of God, and are known and acknowledged by others; the Lord says this unto them, and avouches them for his people:
and they shall say, thou art my God; in the strength of faith, under the testimony of the Spirit of God, they shall claim their interest in God, as their covenant God in Christ; which is made known in effectual calling by the work of grace on their hearts; by the blessings of grace bestowed on them; and by the Lord’s dwelling among them, and his protection of them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Prophet here takes the occasion to speak of the increase of the people. He had promised a fruitful and large increase of corn, and wine, and oil; but for what end would this be, except the land had numerous inhabitants? It was hence needful to make this addition. Besides, the Prophet had said before, ‘Though ye be immense in number, yet a remnant only shall be preserved.’ He now sets God’s new favor in opposition to his vengeance, and says, that God will again sow the people.
From this sentence we learn that the allusion in the word, Jezreel, has not been improperly noticed by some, that is, that they, who had been before a degenerate people and not true Israelites shall then be the seed of God: yet the words admit of two senses; for זרע saro, applies to the earth as well as to seed. The Hebrews say, ‘The earth is sown,’ and also, ‘The wheat is sown,’ or any other grain. If then the Prophet compares the people to the earth, the sense will be, I will sow the people as I do the earth; that is, I will make them fruitful as the earth when it is productive. It must then be thus rendered, I will sow her for me as the earth, that is, as though she were my earth. Or it may be rendered thus, I will sow her for myself in the earth, and for this end, that the earth, which was for a time waste and desolate, might have many inhabitants, as we know was the case. But the relative pronoun in the feminine gender ought not to embarrass us, for the Prophet ever speaks as of a woman: the people, we know, have been as yet described to us under the person of a woman.
And he afterwards adds, לא-רוחמה, La-ruchamae. He speaks here either of La-ruchamae, an adulterous daughter, or an adulterous woman, whom a husband takes to himself. As to the matter itself, it is easy to learn what the Prophet means, which is, that God would diffuse an offspring far and wide, when the people had been brought not only to a small number, but almost to nothing: for how little short of entire ruin was the desolation of the people when scattered into banishment? They were then, as it has been stated, like a body torn asunder: the land in the meantime enjoyed its Sabbaths; God had disburdened it of its inhabitants.
We then understand the meaning of the Prophet to be, that God would multiply the people, that the small remnant would increase to a great and almost innumerable offspring. I will then sow her in the earth, that is, throughout the whole land; and I will have mercy on La-ruchamae, that is, I will in mercy embrace her, who had not obtained mercy; and I will say to the no-people, Ye are now my people We see that the Prophet insists on this, — That the people would not only seek the outward advantages of the present life, but would make a beginning at the very fountain, by regaining the favor of God, and knowing him as their propitious Father: for this is the meaning of the Prophet, of which something more will be said to-morrow.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(23) St. Paul considers this great prediction to be truly fulfilled when, by the acceptance of the Divine hope of Israel, both Jews and Gentiles shall be called the children of the living God (Rom. 9:25-26).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
“And I will sow her to me in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy, and I will say to those who were not my people, ‘You are my people,’ and they will say, ‘You are my God’.”
And just as grain has been sown in the earth, so God will sow Israel in the earth. They will be sowed ‘to Him’ and not to any other. They will be wholly His. They will be His people, betrothed to Him, and will be the objects of His full compassion and love. And as a result they will receive compassion and will again become His people.
Note how once again we have a recall of all three children, ‘Jezreel’ because it is God Who will sow blessing; ‘not pitied’ (Lo-ruhama) because the position will be reversed and she will now receive compassion;, and ‘not my people’ (Lo-ammi) similarly because they will now become His people. The children here clearly represent Israel.
Again this found fulfilment in part in the inter-Testamental days when Israel returned to YHWH and responded to Him, receiving His blessing, experiencing His compassion, and becoming again His people. It found even greater fulfilment through our Lord Jesus Christ as the remnant of an Israel whose religion had become formal responded to Him and became in a new way His people, and in the fact that as the prophets had forecast, the Gentiles were brought into the new Israel and became His people (Rom 9:25-26; 1Pe 2:9-10; 2Co 6:16-18). It will find its final fulfilment when the true Israel of all ages, both Old and New Testament ‘churches’ (the totality of true believers), will experience the fullness of His blessing at His second coming, when they will fully experience His compassion, and will finally be His people for ever.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Hos 2:23. And I will sow her unto me in the earth The myriads of the natural Israel, converted by the preaching of the apostles, were the first seed of the Christian church. And there is reason to believe, that the restoration of the converted Jews will be the occasion and means of a prodigious influx of new converts from the Gentiles in the latter ages. Rom 11:12; Rom 11:15. Bishop Horsley.
REFLECTIONS.1st, The first words of this chapter may be either taken in connection with the latter part of the preceding, as speaking comfort to the people of God, those faithful ones, who, having chosen Christ for their head, are restored to God’s favour, acknowledged by him, as Ammi, my people, and Ruhamah, having obtained mercy; or they have respect to those Jewish converts, who in the times of the gospel being turned to Christ Jesus, and become the children of God by faith in him, are exhorted to rebuke, and expostulate, with their mother, the Jewish church, for her rejection of the true Messiah.
1. God threatens utterly to separate himself from her. She is not my wife; has behaved unworthy of that relation: she hath played the harlot; has broken the marriage-covenant, casting off all obedience, and committing spiritual adultery against the Lord. She that conceived them hath done shame fully; serving dumb idols, and committing idolatry with stocks and stones: or, she hath made ashamed; has been a scandal to her husband and her family; and therefore he will no more own her: neither am I her husband, to protect, cherish, or provide for her: he thrusts her out, gives her a divorce, and separates her from all the honour and comfort of the relation in which she stood. Note; (1.) They who treacherously depart from God will provoke him to depart from them: and woe to the soul that is in such a case! (2.) Sin is not the only abominable thing that God hates, but the shameful thing which will sooner or later cover the sinner with everlasting confusion and contempt.
2. He invites her to repent and return. Though offended, he was not inexorable; let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts: as these were the occasion of the fatal separation between God and them, when the cause was removed, the effect would cease. Note; (1.) God delighteth not in the death of a sinner, but rather that he should return and live. (2.) They who would truly return to God must not only put away the grosser acts of sin, but seek to root out of their bosoms the love of it, that they may be pure within.
3. The consequences of her impenitence, if persisted in, would be fatal. God waits upon sinners long; but if they will not turn, he whets his sword as he here threatens; lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born; alluding to the wretched state of a new-born infant. So destitute and miserable were they when first God took them for his people in Egypt, Eze 16:4 and to a like state of wretchedness should they be reduced: and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst; he will bring them into circumstances as deplorable as those of their fathers in the wilderness, or utterly destroy and ruin their nation, as the carcases of those who fell in that barren land. And I will not have mercy upon her children, but the curse shall fatally rest upon them, as it does to this day for the rejection of the Messiah; for they be the children of whoredoms, imitating the ill example of their parents, and therefore sharing their punishment.
4. He upbraids her ingratitude and folly. She played the harlot; committing idolatry, that shameful thing; for she said, I will go after my lovers, her idols, on which she doated, and to whom she ascribed all the good things that she enjoyed, that give me my bread, &c.; robbing God of the glory of his gifts, and giving this honour unto stocks and stones, or the hosts of heaven, Jer 44:17-18. Note; (1.) The folly, as well as baseness of sin, is prodigious. (2.) They who make their belly their God, and the delights of sense their happiness, are in the broad way of ruin. (3.) Worldly prosperity and abundance have been the fatal snare by which many an immortal soul has been ruined.
2nd, They who go on obstinately in their evil ways, may assuredly expect that vengeance, though slow, will surely overtake them. Thus God threatens the Israelites:
1. He will compass them with troubles, out of which they shall see no way to escape; I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths; as when they were besieged, however much they desired it, they could neither go to seek help from their allies, nor visit their idols at Dan and Bethel. Or else this implies, that all their endeavours to extricate themselves from their troubles would but the more involve and torment them, and their pretended friends prove to them no better than a broken reed. Note; (1.) They who depart from God will find the curse pursue them as close as their shadow; and the longer they persist in these froward ways, the more misery they shall find in them. (2.) When God arrests the sinner by the afflictions of his providence, it is to convince him of the evil of his pursuits, and to turn him back from ruin.
2. These troubles will have a blessed effect, on many of them at least; then shall she say, when every other hope proves desperate, I will go and return to my first husband, the Lord God of Israel, for then was it better with me than now. Note; (1.) It is well if despair of creature-comforts and confidences drives the sinner to God; and even then he will not cast him out. (2.) Whoever has once tasted the blessedness of God’s service, and has unfaithfully departed from it, will find by the longest experience, that none of the pleasures of sin are to be compared with a sense of God’s love, and the testimony of a good conscience. (3.) Returning backsliders, who do their first works, shall be restored again to their first love.
3. Because they had abused the plenty that God had given them, unless they repented thus and returned to him, he threatens them with famine, poverty, and nakedness. More stupid than the ox that knows his owner, they did not acknowledge God the author of the mercies so liberally bestowed on them, but dishonoured him by lavishing their riches on their hated idols. Most justly, therefore, he threatens to resume the gifts which they thus abused, and make them know, by the miseries that he will inflict, the wickedness and ingratitude of their conduct. Note; They who profusely spend their substance in pride, luxury, gaming, and the service of divers lusts and pleasures, are as criminal as if they prepared it for Baal.
[1.] God will take from them their corn and wine, and make them know want and hunger. Their harvest shall become a heap of chaff, and their vintage disappoint their expectations. And those vines and fig-trees shall be destroyed by their invaders, or by inclement seasons, which they regarded as the gifts of their idols. He calls them my corn, my wine, for we are but stewards, the property is still in him; by whatever title we hold our creature-com-forts, to him we must be accountable for them. To abuse them is the sure way to provoke God to deprive us of them in time; or worse, to punish us for our unfaithfulness in eternity.
[2.] He will strip them naked to their shame. Now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, when scattered among the nations, who shall treat them with insult and contempt, as an infamous strumpet; and none shall deliver her out of mine hand; neither the idols, nor the allies in whom they trusted. Note; None can save that soul which God has at last determined to destroy.
[3.] God will turn her mirth into mourning. Though they had forsaken the temple at Jerusalem, they still kept up the days of feasting, not in honour of God, but of their calves, and turned these sacred seasons into times of carnal merriment and riot, utterly perverting the holy design of their institution. But now, when famine had cut off all their provisions, or their victorious enemies had ravaged their country, and led them captive into a strange land, these solemnities must cease of course, and they be sunk in misery and mourning. Note; (1.) Holy days and seasons, by unholy men perverted, are often turned into an occasion of more than ordinary drunkenness, lewdness, and riot. (2.) When we abuse God’s institutions, it is just with him to rob those of the form, who have lost the power of godliness.
4. All this misery coming upon them, was owing to their idolatry and apostacy from God. I will visit upon her the days of Baalim; punishing them for their long course of idolatry from the days of the Judges, ever since which they had burnt incense to one deity or another, and decked themselves in their best attire on their holy days, to do honour to these dunghill gods; and forgat me, saith the Lord; which is the origin and aggravation of all their other sins. Note; Forgetfulness of God is at the bottom of all our sins, and the chief of them.
3rdly, The threatenings in the foregoing verses were not more tremendous, than the promises which follow them are reviving. When we might have expected, from the conclusion of the last verse, to have heard the most fearful curses reiterated, as the just vengeance of their idolatry and forgetfulness of God.Instead of this, Therefore, says God, I will allure her; which intimates his almost boundless patience, determined to try every method before he abandoned them to ruin.
1. God will revive and comfort them, that is to say, every returning penitent among them. The allusion is to the bringing them out of Egypt, through the wilderness, into the land flowing with milk and honey, which they entered through the valley of Achor. And with like mercy will he again visit them; either by his Gospel inviting them into the church of the Redeemer at the first; or finally by recovering them from their present dispersion, and converting every returning sinner among them to the faith of Christ in the last day. I will allure her with the kindest words of tender affection, by the great and gracious promises of his word, and the sweetly drawing influences of his Spirit; and bring her into the wilderness; either by the afflictive dispensations of his providences humbling their souls, or convincing them of their misery and guilt, in order to lead them more earnestly to seek the riches of his grace; and speak comfortably unto her, encouraging the dejected hearts of his poor penitent people, burdened with guilt and heavy-laden with trouble, and shewing them in Christ Jesus, the peace, pardon, and plenteous redemption, which miserable sinners so exceedingly need, and which are to them tidings of great joy: and I will give her her vineyards from thence; either the abundance of temporal blessings which they had lost, or rather the graces and consolations of his Spirit, which are more refreshing than wine to the weary; and the valley of Achor, where Achan was stoned, for a door of hope, this being their first entrance into the promised land, and the pledge of their possessing the rest. Thus, when God converts the souls of returning penitents to himself, the accursed thing sin is put away, a door of hope is opened to them after their darkness and distress, and, in the present grace that they receive, they have the pledge of that eternal glory which is prepared for all the faithful: and she shall sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up out of Egypt, when they beheld the Egyptians dead on the sea-shore; so shall the people of God rejoice in the complete victory of their Redeemer, and triumph in the God of their salvation; happy in the present possession of his love, and the animating prospect of eternal blessedness. Note; (1.) Nothing has so powerful an effect upon the sinner’s conscience as the alluring promises of Gospel grace. (2.) A sinner brought into the wilderness of conviction is ready to fear that destruction is before him; but the gate of life lies in this valley of the shadow of death.
2. God will cleanse them thus returning from all their idols. They shall not only no more worship Baal, but not even take his name in their lips. And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, when the Jews shall be thus turned to him, thou shalt call me Ishi, my husband, by faith embracing the Lord Jesus as the blessed Bridegroom of their souls; and shalt call me no more Baali, which signifies my husband also, or my Lord; but was a name which had been so much abused in worshipping their idols, that the very mention of it should be abhorred, and the memory of it stamped with oblivion; for I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name, idolatry of every kind being utterly abolished; as will be fully accomplished in the latter day, when every idol, papal as well as pagan, shall fall for ever. Note; (1.) The endearing relation which God is pleased to assume, as the husband of his believing people, should engage our warmest affection and most unshaken fidelity. (2.) It is a sore symptom that we possess the favour of God, when we are separated through grace from all our beloved idols and lusts. (3.) When a thing, innocent in itself, is abused to the purposes of superstition and idolatry, it should thenceforth be avoided.
3. God will be their protector from every foe, whether the savages of the forest, or the more dangerous savages, wicked men, or fiends of darkness. The beasts of the earth, as bound by a covenant, shall no more hurt or destroy God’s believing people; and all their brutal persecutors, with the old lion their ruler, shall be for ever disabled from injuring them. Then wars shall cease in all the earth, and, quiet from fear of evil, they shall lie down safely, under the guardian care of their almighty Lord and Saviour. Note; (1.) When God is our friend, who can harm us? (2.) Whether we lie down on beds of sleep, or in the dust of death, we may, if faithful, alike serene, quietly repose on Jesus, and be assured that under his wings we must be safe.
4. God will anew take them into a covenant of marriage, notwithstanding their former divorce. I will betroth thee unto me for ever; which may refer to the Jews in particular, who at last shall be brought again into the visible church of Christ; or may be applied to every particular believer, whether Jew or Gentile, who believes in Christ, and perseveringly cleaves to him. Yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, dealing with them in the most assured sincerity; and in judgment, in such a way as is most perfectly consistent with his justice, though they deserve his wrath instead of his love; and in loving-kindness, to share his warmest regard; and in mercies, bestowing on them every blessing that a sinful soul can need; and this purely flowing not from any merit in them, but from his undeserved favour; and in faithfulness, engaging to fulfil every promise of the covenant to them on his part; and thou shalt know the Lord, his excellence, glory, and love. Blessed and happy is the soul that is in such a case!
5. God will enrich them with the blessings of the basket and the store; or rather the better spiritual blessings of grace are represented by the corn and wine. They had before been threatened with the destruction of their worldly comforts; but now, being restored to God’s favour, they shall regain the creature-good that they had forfeited; and this is represented by a beautiful figure, wherein the prayers of the whole creation, which groans under the curse of sin, are represented as ascending into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. I will hear the heavens, or answer their cry, desiring permission to drop down the dew, without which they are as brass over the sinner’s head; and the heavens shall hear the earth, gasping for want of rain; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, withering for drought; and they shall hear Jezreel, furnishing an abundant supply for the famished people. Thus does the dew of heavenly influences descend on the thirsty soul; and under the dispensation of the word and ordinances of Christ, such quickening, comforting, and strengthening grace is dispensed, that God’s believing people grow up, and bring forth the abundant fruits of righteousness and true holiness.
6. God will greatly increase the number of his Israel. I will sow her unto me in the earth; either the dispersed Israelites, who had been scattered in all lands, and in their days of captivity seemed buried as seed beneath the clods of the valley, but shall at last spring up more numerous than ever; or, by the preaching of the word of Gospel grace, that divine feed should be sown, whence a glorious harvest should be gathered of Israelites indeed, of true believers, the seed of God as the word Jezreel signifies.
7. God will reverse the sentence pronounced upon them, and change their ominous names. They shall no more be called Lo-ammi and Lo-ruhamah; for I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy, both Jews and Gentiles, to whom the apostle expressly applies this promise, Rom 9:25 and I will say to them which were not my people, the Gentiles before the Gospel came unto them, and the Jews who for a while are cut off from their relation to God till the fulness of the Gentiles is come in, Thou art my people, restored and recovered, through Jesus Christ, to his love and protection; and they shall say, Thou art my God, enabled by faith to embrace the promises, and to approve their fidelity to him. Note; (1.) The salvation of the sinner is an act of God’s infinite mercy, and not of any merit of ours. (2.) None are so bad as to be beyond the reach of this mercy while on this side eternity, and therefore never to be despaired of. (3.) The greater of all mercies is, to have God for our own God; every possible blessing is comprehended in that relation.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
This is that which in fact lies at the bottom of all our mercies, Jehovah’s rich covenant in his threefold person of character, of redemption. The Lord’s condescending to take Israel into covenant-relation with himself, in Christ, is the foundation, and the sum, and substance of the whole scheme of grace. Observe, it is God which saith, I will sow her into me in the earth. And it is God which first acknowledgeth Israel for his people, before that Israel acknowledgeth the Lord for his God. It all begins in God, and ends in God. Jesus is both the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and Finisher of our salvation. And it is most blessed, indeed, when the soul is brought to see, and as cheerfully to delight and acknowledge, that the whole of redemption from beginning to end is of Jehovah, rich, free, and sovereign grace. Then the redeemed can and do in heart and soul join the hymn of heaven, when addressing God and the Lamb, thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood. Rev 5:9 .
REFLECTIONS
READER! ponder well the very many precious things contained in this blessed Chapter. It is all over gospel from one end to the other; and contains within its sacred bosom, that which always was, and always must be, the very , essence of gospel grace; namely, Jehovah’s love to poor lost sinners, in the person, work, and righteousness of his dear Son, and their sure acceptance in him, through the infinite merits of his blood, and the covenant-faithfulness, of Jehovah.
Behold again and again, how all the mercies of salvation flows in and through this one most gracious channel, by our Lord Jesus Christ. Jehovah first calls, and calls most lovingly. Say ye to your brethren, Ammi, my people; and to your sisters, Ruhamah, beloved. Both sons and daughters are called upon: for Jehovah had promised in redemption-work, to call Christ’s sons from far, and his daughters from the ends of the earth; therefore, here the Lord sends to call them, agreeably to his most sure promise. And observe yet further; though the Lord was about to plead with them, and to tell them of their transgression, and the house of Jacob of their sins; yet the original covenant of redemption, founded in Christ before the world began; and consequently, before their fallen state, was not destroyed. Jehovah’s love to his Church in Christ Jesus, Was founded in the ancient settlements of eternity; so that her after-fall in Adam did not prevent God’s original purpose and grace, given in Christ Jesus before the world began. Observe further, the gracious methods of divine love, in bringing his Israel unto him. The Lord hedges up the way with thorns, brings the soul into the wilderness; makes crosses spring out of our supposed comforts, and thus by the convictions of his Holy Spirit, compels the soul to return to her first Husband, because all else is vanity and vexation of Spirit. And when the Lord hath his infinite mercy accomplished the purposes of his grace; then the name of Jesus, husband, brother, friend, become sweet to the soul; and all the fulfillment of God’s covenant engagements follow; the Lord acknowledges them for his people; and they acknowledge the Lord for their God.
Reader! doth your personal knowledge of these things make this scripture blessed to your own heart? Hath God so dealt by you? Hath he indeed taken away the names of Baalim out of your mouth? and is Jesus altogether precious to your soul in his person, work, and righteousness? Oh! how truly lovely is it, when God’s Word corresponds to our experience; and while we read the sacred testimony; we are enabled to set to our seal that God is true!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Hos 2:23 And 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.
Ver. 23. And I will sow her unto me in the earth ] Not in the air, as once, when they were scattered into the four winds of heaven; but in the earth which the heavens should hear, Hos 2:21 , the inhabitants whereof should be multiplied, and become as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered, Hos 1:10 , See Trapp on “ Hos 1:10 “ and Jer 31:27 Eze 36:37 . The preaching of the gospel is a kind of sowing of seed, 1Pe 1:23 , and this seeding is in the earth, that they may be gathered into heaven, where the mower shall fill his hand, and he that bindeth sheaves his bosom, Psa 129:7 . And although God’s elect lie here for a time under the clods, yet at length they shall fructify, and many spring from them by whom the name of Christ shall be so propagated. “He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand,” Isa 53:10 .
And I will have mercy upon her
And I will say to them
And they shall say
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I will sow her: i. e. the new Israel.
will have mercy, &c. = have pity; i. e. will [call her] Ruhamah.
her that had not obtained mercy = Lo-Ruhamah (Not pitied).
not My People = Lo-ammi.
Thou art My People = Ammi [art] thou.
they shall say = and he, he shall say, &c: i. e. the whole nation as one man. Compare Hos 1:11. Zec 13:9. Rom 9:26. 1Pe 2:10.
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I will sow: Psa 72:16, Jer 31:27, Zec 10:9, Act 8:1-4, Jam 1:1, 1Pe 1:1, 1Pe 1:2
and I will have: Hos 1:6, Rom 11:30-32, 1Pe 2:9, 1Pe 2:10
and I will say: Hos 1:10, Zec 2:11, Zec 13:9, Rom 9:25, Rom 9:26
Thou art my God: Hos 8:2, Deu 26:17-19, Psa 22:27, Psa 68:31, Psa 118:28, Son 2:16, Isa 44:5, Jer 16:19, Jer 32:38, Zec 8:22, Zec 8:23, Zec 14:9, Zec 14:16, Mal 1:11, Rom 3:29, Rom 15:9-11, 1Th 1:9, 1Th 1:10, Rev 21:3, Rev 21:4
Reciprocal: 2Sa 22:44 – a people Isa 4:2 – the fruit Isa 19:25 – Blessed Isa 27:6 – General Jer 30:22 – General Jer 33:26 – and have Eze 11:20 – and they Eze 37:27 – I will Hos 1:11 – for Hos 2:1 – Ruhamah Zec 8:20 – there Zec 10:6 – for I have Mat 5:7 – for Mat 13:38 – the good Luk 24:47 – among Act 11:1 – the Gentiles Act 15:17 – the residue Rom 10:19 – First 2Co 6:16 – I will be Col 3:11 – there 1Ti 1:13 – but Heb 8:10 – I will be Rev 11:15 – The kingdoms
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hos 2:23. This is again a prediction of the call of the Gentiles, for they had never been called a people of the Lord before the Gospel period. They had the provision of the Patriarchal Dispensation for their spiritual salvation, but that was a family religion and did not constitute them a “people in the Bense of that term in the Bible.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Hos 2:23. And I will sow Or plant, her unto me in the earth, &c. The original word, rendered sow, or plant, alludes to and explains the word Jezreel, or seed of God, as used Hos 1:4; Hos 1:11, and here in the foregoing verse. The prophet foretels a plentiful increase of true believers, like to that of corn sown in the earth; and represents the converted Jews as being the seed from which an abundant harvest of Gentile converts should arise. The myriads of the natural Israel, says Bishop Horsley, converted by the preaching of the apostles, were the first seed of the universal church. And there is reason to believe, that the restoration of the converted Jews will be the occasion and means of a prodigious influx of new converts from the Gentiles in the latter ages, Rom 11:12; Rom 11:15. Thus the Jezreel of the natural Israel, from the first have been, and to the last will prove, a seed sown of God for himself in the earth. I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy I will have mercy both on the Jews and Gentiles, who shall obey the gospel call, and become true converts to the Christian faith. This was in part fulfilled at the first preaching of the gospel, whether in Judea or in other countries: see Rom 9:24-26. But it shall receive a more perfect completion at the restoration of the Jews, and the coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles: compare Hos 1:10-11.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Lord would also plant Israel in the Promised Land; He would plant her there securely where she would grow under His care and blessing. He would show compassion to the people whom He formerly said were "not loved," and He would reclaim as His own the people whom He formerly called "not my people" (cf. Hos 1:6; Hos 1:9). They would then acknowledge Yahweh as their God, not Baal. The names of all three of Hosea’s children come together again in Hos 2:22-23.
"Hos 2:23, along with Hos 1:10, is quoted in Rom 9:25-26 and 1Pe 2:10. Paul quoted those Hosea passages to say that both Jews and Gentiles will be converted during the Church Age (cf. Rom 9:24). This does not mean, however, that he equated the Gentiles with Israel and regarded the conversion of Gentiles as a direct fulfillment of Hosea’s prophecy. Paul clearly taught that national Israel would be saved as well (Romans 11). Rather, Paul extracted from Hosea’s prophecy a principle concerning God’s gracious activity . . ." [Note: Chisholm, "Hosea," p. 1387.]
3. The restoration of Hosea’s and Yahweh’s wives ch. 3
Like the first section in this series of messages that develop the figure of marital unfaithfulness (Hos 2:2-8), this last section also blends the prophet’s personal experience with that of Yahweh. This is the strongest affirmation of Gomer’s and Israel’s restorations. Chapter 3 is probably a separate cycle of judgment and restoration speeches from Hos 2:2-23. [Note: Charles H. Silva, "The Literary Structure of Hosea 1-3," Bibliotheca Sacra 164:654 (April-June 2007):181-97.]