Gomer
Sticky point
Intro
Background
Outline
Scandalous Affair (Vv. 2–3)
The reason is that everyone in Israel was being affected by idolatry in one way or another. In other words, any woman Hosea marries and any children he has will be or will have the potential to be tainted by the ubiquitous idolatry that already taints everyone in northern Israel. It is not sexual immorality but spiritual unfaithfulness that is in view here, and its widespread nature (cf. Judg 8:27: “all Israel prostituted themselves”) is symbolized by what God commands Hosea to do.
Children of Judgement (vv. 3–9)
God commanded that all three children receive abnormal (negative) names—unusual in any culture—so that all who met them would likely ask about the reason for their unusual names and would learn from those names about God’s plans for Israel via this enactment prophecy—an effective way of spreading the message throughout Hosea’s homeland.
Yet we shouldn’t misunderstand the way names in the Bible work. Many people are given odd names that don’t look like the names people would use every day and would thus make the children the object of laughter at school. Maybe they were just used in some way at the child’s naming ceremony.
I will bring the bloodshed of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu.” This implies that a violent situation at the beginning of Jehu’s reign will parallel a violent situation that will end the dynasty of Jehu.
but above all it was the name of a town where the house of Jehu formerly massacred so many people. It would be like naming a child Chernobyl or Hiroshima
rather, it refers to the fact that at least some of Gomer’s children (and the Israelites) were outside the covenant relationship. T. McComiskey thinks Hosea adopted the illegitimate children Gomer had before her marriage to Hosea, but most interpreters prefer to explain “children of prostitution” by pointing to the fact that the text never connects Hosea to the conception of the second and third child (1:6, 8). Thus, perhaps the last two children were born because of Gomer’s unfaithfulness to her marriage vows.
That is not said of the next two: likely Hosea was not the father.
While Yahweh responds to Ephraim’s breaking of its marriage commitment by speaking in terms of divorce (“you’re not my people and I—I shall not be God to you”), he cannot maintain that stance and withhold compassion forever.
God’s Redemption (vv. 10–11)
As a result of God’s powerful intervention, he will say (2:1) “Ammi—my people” instead of “not my people,” and “Ruhamah—my loved one” instead of “not loved” (cf. 1:6, 9). This reflects God’s complete acceptance of his people, his recognition of their new relationship, and a total reversal of the earlier status of the nation. These names reveal a tender connection between the parties because of God’s compassion.