Hosea 2:2
Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adultery from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
Rebuke your mother, rebuke her
The Hebrew word for "rebuke" is "רִיב" (riv), which means to contend or strive. This is a legal term often used in the context of a lawsuit or formal dispute. In this passage, God is calling the children of Israel to bring a charge against their mother, symbolizing the nation of Israel. The repetition emphasizes the urgency and seriousness of the call to confront the nation's unfaithfulness. Historically, this reflects the covenant relationship between God and Israel, where Israel is depicted as the unfaithful wife.

for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband
This phrase uses the metaphor of marriage to describe the covenant relationship between God and Israel. The Hebrew culture viewed marriage as a sacred covenant, and unfaithfulness was a grave violation. Here, God declares a separation due to Israel's spiritual adultery, worshiping other gods. This reflects the seriousness of idolatry and the breaking of the covenant, which was central to Israel's identity and relationship with God.

Let her remove the adulterous look from her face
The "adulterous look" refers to the outward signs of infidelity. In ancient Near Eastern cultures, physical appearance often symbolized inner spiritual states. The call to remove this look signifies a call to repentance and a return to faithfulness. It is a plea for Israel to abandon idolatry and return to the worship of Yahweh alone. This reflects the prophetic tradition of calling God's people back to holiness and purity.

and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts
This phrase uses intimate imagery to describe the depth of Israel's unfaithfulness. The "unfaithfulness" (Hebrew "נַאֲפוּפִים" - na'ăpûpîm) suggests a deep-seated betrayal, not just a superficial act. The location "between her breasts" indicates the closeness and personal nature of the betrayal, as the heart is often associated with one's deepest affections and commitments. This highlights the personal nature of Israel's covenant with God and the pain of their betrayal.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Hosea
A prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, called by God to deliver messages of judgment and redemption.

2. Gomer
Hosea's wife, symbolizing Israel's unfaithfulness to God through her adulterous actions.

3. Israel
The Northern Kingdom, often depicted as an unfaithful wife in the prophetic literature, representing the people of God who have turned to idolatry.

4. God
The divine husband, expressing His covenant relationship with Israel and His desire for their faithfulness.

5. Adultery
Used metaphorically to describe Israel's idolatry and unfaithfulness to God.
Teaching Points
Covenant Faithfulness
God desires a faithful relationship with His people, akin to a marriage covenant. Just as a marriage requires fidelity, so does our relationship with God.

Call to Repentance
The call to "rebuke" and remove unfaithfulness is a call to repentance. Believers are encouraged to examine their lives for areas of spiritual adultery and turn back to God.

Consequences of Unfaithfulness
Spiritual adultery leads to separation from God. Understanding the gravity of sin should lead us to seek reconciliation with Him.

God's Relentless Love
Despite Israel's unfaithfulness, God's love remains steadfast. This encourages believers to trust in God's mercy and grace.

Community Accountability
The communal call to "rebuke" suggests the importance of accountability within the body of Christ. Believers are called to lovingly correct and guide one another.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the metaphor of marriage in Hosea 2:2 help us understand our relationship with God?

2. In what ways can we identify "adulterous looks" or "unfaithfulness" in our own spiritual lives today?

3. How do the themes of Hosea 2:2 relate to the warnings given to the church in Revelation 2:4?

4. What role does community play in helping us remain faithful to God, as suggested by the call to "rebuke"?

5. How can we apply the message of Hosea 2:2 to ensure we are living in covenant faithfulness with God?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Jeremiah 3
This chapter also uses the metaphor of marriage to describe Israel's unfaithfulness and God's call for repentance.

Ezekiel 16
Provides a vivid depiction of Israel's unfaithfulness and God's enduring love, similar to the themes in Hosea.

Revelation 2:4
The church in Ephesus is admonished for losing its first love, paralleling Israel's spiritual adultery.

James 4:4
Warns against friendship with the world, equating it to spiritual adultery, echoing the themes in Hosea.
Spiritual AdulteryJ. Orr Hosea 2:2-5
Jehovah's Condemnation of Faithless IsraelC. Jerdan Hosea 2:2-7
People
Hosea, Ishi, Jezreel, Zephaniah
Places
Egypt, Jezreel, Valley of Achor
Topics
Adulteries, Adulterous, Adultery, Breasts, Cause, Contend, Face, Harlotries, Harlotry, Husband, Loose, Plead, Prostitution, Prostitutions, Rebuke, Remove, Sight, Turneth, Unfaithfulness, Whoredoms, Wife
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Hosea 2:2

     5140   breasts
     5662   certificate of divorce
     5676   divorce, in OT
     5712   marriage, God and his people
     5736   singleness
     5744   wife
     6242   adultery
     8401   challenges
     8841   unfaithfulness, to people

Hosea 2:1-10

     6189   immorality, examples

Hosea 2:2-3

     6243   adultery, spiritual

Hosea 2:2-13

     5721   mothers, a symbol
     7312   Baal
     8764   forgetting God
     8831   syncretism

Library
The Valley of Achor
'I will give her ... the valley of Achor for a door of hope.'--HOSEA II. 15. The Prophet Hosea is remarkable for the frequent use which he makes of events in the former history of his people. Their past seems to him a mirror in which they may read their future. He believes that 'which is to be hath already been,' the great principles of the divine government living on through all the ages, and issuing in similar acts when the circumstances are similar. So he foretells that there will yet be once
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Unknown Giver and the Misused Gifts
"For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Therefore 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."--Hosea 2:8-9. In reading any of the records concerning the people of Israel and the people of Judah, one stands amazed at two things, and scarcely knows which to wonder at most. The first thing which causes astonishment is the great
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 38: 1892

27TH DAY. Everlasting Espousals.
"He is Faithful that Promised." "And I will betroth thee unto Me for ever."--HOSEA ii. 19. Everlasting Espousals. How wondrous and varied are the figures which Jesus employs to express the tenderness of His covenant love! My soul! thy Saviour-God hath "married thee!" Wouldst thou know the hour of thy betrothment? Go back into the depths of a by-past eternity, before the world was; then and there, thine espousals were contracted: "I have loved thee with an everlasting love." Soon shall the bridal-hour
John Ross Macduff—The Faithful Promiser

"I Know, O Lord, that Thy Judgments are Right, and that Thou in Faithfulness Hast Afflicted Me. " -- Psalm 119:75.
"I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing there." -- Hosea 2:14,15. "I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments are right, and that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me." -- Psalm 119:75. I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength -- Thee shall my rescued heart embrace; Thy love, in all its breadth and length, Shall be my peaceful dwelling place. Whom have
Miss A. L. Waring—Hymns and Meditations

The Secret of his Pavilion
Gerhard Ter Steegen Hos. ii. 14 Allured into the desert, with God alone, apart, There spirit meeteth spirit, there speaketh heart to heart. Far, far on that untrodden shore, God's secret place I find, Alone I pass the golden door, the dearest left behind. There God and I--none other; oh far from men to be! Nay, midst the crowd and tumult, still, Lord, alone with Thee. Still folded close upon Thy breast, in field, and mart, and street, Untroubled in that perfect rest, that isolation sweet. O God,
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen, Suso, and Others

And After. (xxx, xxxi, xxxix-Xliv. )
There are two separated accounts of what befel Jeremiah when the city was taken. Ch. XXXIX. 3, 14 tells us that he was fetched from the guard-court by Babylonian officers,(609) and given to Gedaliah, the son of his old befriender Ahikam, to be taken home.(610) At last!--but for only a brief interval in the life of this homeless and harried man. When a few months later Nebusaradan arrived on his mission to burn the city and deport the inhabitants Jeremiah is said by Ch. XL to have been carried off
George Adam Smith—Jeremiah

And that this Race was to Become an Holy People was Declared in the Twelve...
And that this race was to become an holy people was declared in the Twelve Prophets [283] by Hosea, thus: I will call that which was not (my) people, my people; and her that was not beloved, beloved. It shall come to pass that in the place where it was called not my people, there shall they be called sons of the Living God. (Hos. ii. 23, i. 10) This also is that which was said by John the Baptist: That God is able of these stones to raise up sons to Abraham. For our hearts being withdrawn and taken
Irenæus—The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching

Entire Sanctification in Prophecy.
The Major Prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. The twelve prophetic books in the Old Testament following the book of Daniel are called the Minor Prophets. In the writings of both classes we find many allusions and predictions as to the entire sanctification of believers in the gospel dispensation and under the reign of Messiah or Christ. The sixth chapter of Isaiah is usually regarded as his call to the prophetic office. Whether this be so or not, it records a very wonderful experience
Dougan Clark—The Theology of Holiness

The Prophecy of Obadiah.
We need not enter into details regarding the question as to the time when the prophet wrote. By a thorough argumentation, Caspari has proved, that he occupies his right position in the Canon, and hence belongs to the earliest age of written prophecy, i.e., to the time of Jeroboam II. and Uzziah. As bearing conclusively against those who would assign to him a far later date, viz., the time of the exile, there is not only the indirect testimony borne by the place which this prophecy occupies in
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

The Controversy Concerning Fasting
"And John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting: and they come and say unto Him, Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Thy disciples fast not?" MARK 2:18 (R.V.) THE Pharisees had just complained to the disciples that Jesus ate and drank in questionable company. Now they join with the followers of the ascetic Baptist in complaining to Jesus that His disciples eat and drink at improper seasons, when others fast. And as Jesus had then replied, that being a Physician,
G. A. Chadwick—The Gospel of St. Mark

'Fruit which is Death'
'Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images. 2. Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: He shall break down their altars, He shall spoil their images. 3. For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the Lord; what then should a king do to us? 4. They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Wilderness State
"Ye now have sorrow: But I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." John 16:22. 1. After God had wrought a great deliverance for Israel, by bringing them out of the house of bondage, they did not immediately enter into the land which he had promised to their fathers; but "wandered out of the way in the wilderness," and were variously tempted and distressed. In like manner, after God has delivered them that fear him from the bondage of sin and Satan;
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

How the Rude in Sacred Learning, and those who are Learned but not Humble, are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 25.) Differently to be admonished are those who do not understand aright the words of the sacred Law, and those who understand them indeed aright, but speak them not humbly. For those who understand not aright the words of sacred Law are to be admonished to consider that they turn for themselves a most wholesome drought of wine into a cup of poison, and with a medicinal knife inflict on themselves a mortal wound, when they destroy in themselves what was sound by that whereby they ought,
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Of Inward Silence
Of Inward Silence "The Lord is in His Holy Temple, let all the earth keep silence before him" (Hab. ii. 20). Inward silence is absolutely indispensable, because the Word is essential and eternal, and necessarily requires dispositions in the soul in some degree correspondent to His nature, as a capacity for the reception of Himself. Hearing is a sense formed to receive sounds, and is rather passive than active, admitting, but not communicating sensation; and if we would hear, we must lend the ear
Madame Guyon—A Short and Easy Method of Prayer

"Thou Shalt Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother. "
From this Commandment we learn that after the excellent works of the first three Commandments there are no better works than to obey and serve all those who are set over us as superiors. For this reason also disobedience is a greater sin than murder, unchastity, theft and dishonesty, and all that these may include. For we can in no better way learn how to distinguish between greater and lesser sins than by noting the order of the Commandments of God, although there are distinctions also within the
Dr. Martin Luther—A Treatise on Good Works

Nature of Covenanting.
A covenant is a mutual voluntary compact between two parties on given terms or conditions. It may be made between superiors and inferiors, or between equals. The sentiment that a covenant can be made only between parties respectively independent of one another is inconsistent with the testimony of Scripture. Parties to covenants in a great variety of relative circumstances, are there introduced. There, covenant relations among men are represented as obtaining not merely between nation and nation,
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Of Rest in the Presence of God --Its Fruits --Inward Silence --God Commands it --Outward Silence.
The soul, being brought to this place, needs no other preparation than that of repose: for the presence of God during the day, which is the great result of prayer, or rather prayer itself, begins to be intuitive and almost continual. The soul is conscious of a deep inward happiness, and feels that God is in it more truly than it is in itself. It has only one thing to do in order to find God, which is to retire within itself. As soon as the eyes are closed, it finds itself in prayer. It is astonished
Jeanne Marie Bouvières—A Short Method Of Prayer And Spiritual Torrents

The Beginning of Justification. In what Sense Progressive.
1. Men either idolatrous, profane, hypocritical, or regenerate. 1. Idolaters void of righteousness, full of unrighteousness, and hence in the sight of God altogether wretched and undone. 2. Still a great difference in the characters of men. This difference manifested. 1. In the gifts of God. 2. In the distinction between honorable and base. 3. In the blessings of he present life. 3. All human virtue, how praiseworthy soever it may appear, is corrupted. 1. By impurity of heart. 2. By the absence of
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Covenanting According to the Purposes of God.
Since every revealed purpose of God, implying that obedience to his law will be given, is a demand of that obedience, the announcement of his Covenant, as in his sovereignty decreed, claims, not less effectively than an explicit law, the fulfilment of its duties. A representation of a system of things pre-determined in order that the obligations of the Covenant might be discharged; various exhibitions of the Covenant as ordained; and a description of the children of the Covenant as predestinated
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Gospel Feast
"When Jesus then lifted up His eyes, and saw a great company come unto Him, He saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?"--John vi. 5. After these words the Evangelist adds, "And this He said to prove him, for He Himself knew what He would do." Thus, you see, our Lord had secret meanings when He spoke, and did not bring forth openly all His divine sense at once. He knew what He was about to do from the first, but He wished to lead forward His disciples, and to arrest and
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

The Worst Things Work for Good to the Godly
DO not mistake me, I do not say that of their own nature the worst things are good, for they are a fruit of the curse; but though they are naturally evil, yet the wise overruling hand of God disposing and sanctifying them, they are morally good. As the elements, though of contrary qualities, yet God has so tempered them, that they all work in a harmonious manner for the good of the universe. Or as in a watch, the wheels seem to move contrary one to another, but all carry on the motions of the watch:
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial

The Prophet Hosea.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS. That the kingdom of Israel was the object of the prophet's ministry is so evident, that upon this point all are, and cannot but be, agreed. But there is a difference of opinion as to whether the prophet was a fellow-countryman of those to whom he preached, or was called by God out of the kingdom of Judah. The latter has been asserted with great confidence by Maurer, among others, in his Observ. in Hos., in the Commentat. Theol. ii. i. p. 293. But the arguments
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

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